NBA Playoffs 2012 Running thread

Yeah, I think those who saw Walton hobbling up and down the court in the 80s, and never saw him in his prime, don't realize how good he was when he was healthy.

For about 2 1/2 seasons, from about 1975 through the middle of the 77-78 season, he was far and away the best player in the league, a 6-11 aircraft carrier (to use Al McGuire's famous term) with quicks and amazing leaping ability. When he came back after breaking his foot in 78, he was a fraction of the player he'd been before.

 

And Bernard King looked like an all-time great once too. Just saying.

 

All of that may be true, but history is littered with guys whose careers were killed by injuries. I've never understood why Walton gets so much love for a career that might have been.

If asked to compile an all-time baseball team, I doubt you'd see anyone put "a healthy Kerry Wood" in their five-man rotation. Hell, I'm not sure people would put "a healthy" Johan Santana in it.

And, yes, I fully admit to having never watched a healthy Bill Walton. I'm sure that's why I don't get it, but it still strikes me as odd to hear his name often brought into these types of discussions.

 

Bill Walton won a title, an MVP, a Finals MVP and then reinvented himself as a Sixth Man, won that top honor and another title.

Yao Ming isn't even in his zip code.

 

This times 10,000...

 

"Reinvented himself as a sixth man" sounds suspiciously like "wasn't good enough to start anymore."

 

Where does a young, healthy Ardivas Sabonis go on these lists?

And Kareem is one of the three best centers of all time with Wilt and Russell.

 

We all get old.

Google UCLA and Walton and Blazers and Walton. The guy was amazing when healthy.

 

FWIW, Walton's 6'11" listing is bullshit. He was more like 7'1" (and some say taller), but kept the 6'11" listing apparently because of same hangup about being a 7-footer. The rest of what you say about him is dead on, though, for a couple year stretch he was as good as any center ever--until the feet started breaking.

 

For that Celtics team? Over Parish, Bird and McHale? Probably not. He would have started for a bunch of other teams, though.

I never saw him in his prime, but I still can recognize greatness. And Walton had it.

 

Yao Ming, Bernard King and Jeff George didn't win any league MVPs or carry their teams to any championships. A whole lot of false equivalence going on here.

 

In a conversation about an imaginary undertaking, you can't specify imaginary parameters?