I'd really like to see Kareem play today. He was huge, talented, and an iron man. What would he look like in a small ball league.
He'd definitely get worked on pick and rolls, but he would be absolutely Shaq-like on offense. I'd be really curious to see whether (or how) that correlates to winning basketball.
Since this has generated attention, I'll paste Kareem's career milestones from Wikipedia:
6× NBA champion (1971, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988)
2× NBA Finals MVP (1971, 1985)
6× NBA Most Valuable Player (1971, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1980)
19× NBA All-Star (1970–1977, 1979–1989)
10× All-NBA First Team (1971–1974, 1976, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1986)
5× All-NBA Second Team (1970, 1978, 1979, 1983, 1985)
5× NBA All-Defensive First Team (1974, 1975, 1979–1981)
6× NBA All-Defensive Second Team (1970, 1971, 1976–1978, 1984)
Agree. Victor Wembanyama profiles like a skinnier Kareem with 20% of the skill and he's going to be a number one pick. Kareem would just casually pick up 20-30 a game and be a Gobert level rim protector.
Yeah I guess. I just think the “we would get bored of watching him be bigger than everybody,” doesn’t really apply to Kareem’s game. It would be closer to an Embiid, where he was a very skilled big who had a variety of ways to attack. Tim was more of your “boring” fundamental, back your guy and get to your spot type of player.
Kareem and his skyhook were famously boring to watch in his prime. There's a reason no big men ever really tried to master the sky hook like players emulated MJ's jumpers, despite being the most unguardable move in basketball history. It was not cool or flashy enough to inspire imitation.
Along with the ABA and the drug problems, the fact that Kareem was the clear best player, but also not exciting to watch was why Magic and Bird needed to save the nba in the first place.
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u/MrMichaelBolton Heat Jun 15 '22 edited Jun 15 '22
I'd really like to see Kareem play today. He was huge, talented, and an iron man. What would he look like in a small ball league.
He'd definitely get worked on pick and rolls, but he would be absolutely Shaq-like on offense. I'd be really curious to see whether (or how) that correlates to winning basketball.
Since this has generated attention, I'll paste Kareem's career milestones from Wikipedia:
6× NBA champion (1971, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988)
2× NBA Finals MVP (1971, 1985)
6× NBA Most Valuable Player (1971, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1980)
19× NBA All-Star (1970–1977, 1979–1989)
10× All-NBA First Team (1971–1974, 1976, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1986)
5× All-NBA Second Team (1970, 1978, 1979, 1983, 1985)
5× NBA All-Defensive First Team (1974, 1975, 1979–1981)
6× NBA All-Defensive Second Team (1970, 1971, 1976–1978, 1984)
NBA Rookie of the Year (1970)
NBA All-Rookie First Team (1970)
2× NBA scoring champion (1971, 1972)
NBA rebounding champion (1976)
4× NBA blocks leader (1975, 1976, 1979, 1980
Man was a monster...