NBA '08 Playoff Thread

Ewing was a far better defensive player, and he did not spend time of 11 different teams in his career. If Malone was so great, why did he keep getting traded?

They are probably close overall, but it is a preference thing.

Malone was a dominating rebounder, but like Rodman, many times he was cleaning up his own misses. He still was an amazing inside player.

Ewing was a far better defender, and as his career went on, Ewing became a very good outside shooter. His teams also made the playoffs 13-straight years.

Malone had the better individual seasons. That is pretty obvious with his MVPs, but Ewing played at better level when he was in his mid 30s.

At 34 Ewing was 21, 10, 2.5 blocks and lost in seven to the Heat but did win a playoff series.

Malone at 34 was 18, 10, 1 block for a .500 Atlanta team.

Depends what you like in a center, and I like defense.

 

OK, so we're only gonna look at the season they had at 34 and ignore the ones they had from ages 21-33? That seems like a fair analysis.

All I know without checking bballreference.com is that Malone won 3 MVPs--Ewing ZERO; Malone was THE best Center in the game throughout the late 70s and early 80s--Ewing never was; Malone won many rebounding titles--Ewing zero; Malone carried the Sixers to a championship in 83, Ewing choked whenever he got near a ring (and in 99 the Knicks reached the finals because Ewing got injured in the playoffs and his team played much better without him).

 

Malone was the best center in the game in the late 1970's and early 1980's?

Um, I'm thinking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar -- winner of SIX MVP awards and SIX NBA titles -- would have a thing or two to say about that junk......

 

Well, I'll disagree--but I'll give you that it's close.


Malone and Kareem were the two best centers during that period, and Kareem was the best of those two over the course of their entire careers, but not during the period from around 78-84.

During that period, Malone won MVPs in 79, 82, and 83, Kareem won one in 80 (which was his last one). And during that period, Malone outrebounded Kareem every year by a WIDE margin and slightly outscored him most years too. He was also a more aggressive and better defender.

 

Here's something I've been thinking about since the Celtics won Game 6 and I thought some of the older folks could help me out.

How good was Reggie Lewis? I remember watching him and thinking he was awesome, but I also was like 11, so what the hell did I know? I remember when he died, I was in the back of a minivan driving to Indianapolis and we were in Montana and they announced it on the radio and my mom cried.

But I've always wondered if his death made him into a better basketball player than he really was.

So, what say you? Would he have kept the Celtics from those dogshit years or not?

 

I vaguely remember watching Reggie. He had particularly strong seasons his last two in the league -and look at some of those gaudy playoff stats.

I think the Celtics story is fascinating - from the dominating '86 squad to the Bias tragedy to McHale/Bird's injury-plagued endings to the death of Lewis to the Pitino/Antoine Walker years to the championship this year.

 

He also had two titles to Malone's one in that period and a third in 2005.

I always believe Kareem -- because late in his career he looked, well, old and that was really when the league entered the televised era -- will always be one of those underappreciated guys.

People don't realize how great he was.

 

This argument about number of shots taken is silly and shows a fundamental lack of understanding about scorers in basketball.

Allen Iverson is a scorer and the teams he played on needed him to do two things (a) shoot a lot and that would enable him to (b) score a lot and that would enable his team to win a lot more than they lose.

Yeah, he'd have the 7 for 29 nights -- but he'd have far more 30 to 40 point nights and that's what scorers -- different from being shooters -- do.

They score and sometimes it means they take a lot of shots. That isn't a negative in the case of a scorer, in fact, it is a positive -- particularly if your scorer is a guard.

 

Zag, if you are shooting 7-for-29 in a game, you need to stop shooting. I don't care who your teammates are. We will disagree on that.

You are right about Kareem. The man was devastating, and the sky hook was the most lethal shot ever in professional basketball. You wanted two points and the end of a game, drop it into Kareem.

I am going to strongly disagree that Moses was a better defender than Kareem. Kareem is 7-4 and had seven different seasons where he averaged more than three blocks per game, twice averaged four per game. Malone averaged more than two only three times and never sniffed at three per game.

Kareem played for two teams. Moses 11. To me, that speaks volumes.

 

Shooter and scorers alike will tell you -- they are capable of getting hot and turning out the other team's lights with their next shot.

Coaches understand this which is why some guys get a green light and others don't.

 

My God, the minute I think you can't look any less knowledgable you come up with this one.

 

Malone was a fat, lazy, fuck who was let go 10 fucking times. Lazy fucker barely made it across half court the last 10 years of his career.

Name one all-time great athlete who was let go 10 times.

Jesus, fuck.

If you have a writer who has gone from the NY Post, to the Washington Post, to the NY Times, to the Chicago Tribune, to the Detroit Free Press, to the Dallas Morning News, to the Arizona Republic, what are you going to think about the writer? Shit, I should add four more papers.

I don't know this fucking game.

Fuck you.

I have played high school basketball.
Worked in a college athletic department as an assistant SID, so I have been to a lot of fucking practices and have talked far more fucking in depth with coaches about this game then I am guessing you have.
I have coached at the high school level.
I have run summer camps where one of the guys on this fucking list was under my supervision.
I have a referee certification, and have reffed high school games.

Oh yeah, I have also written a gamer or two.

We can have different fucking opinions, but until you have been on every fucking section of the basketball court, don't think or tell me I don't know what the fuck I am talking about.

Am I an NBA ref, player or coach? No. But fuck, don't sit there and tell I do not understand the game.