NBA at 50: Nate Thurmond (biography)

A biography of Golden State Warrior great Nate Thurmond.
Taken from NBA at 50 CD-Rom.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• nba
• basketball
• nate
• thurmond
• warriors
• bulls
• shot
• blocker

[garioldwin]

This guy is probably the greatest defensive center ever .

[americanaccents]

@garioldwin

There was also this guy........won 11 championships.......wore a green jersey. Just throwing it out there.

[garioldwin]

@americanaccents Bill Russel was a great defensvie center but championship is a team success and it has little to do with individual brilliance , simple logic . Also Bill Russell could not stop Wilt Chamberlain from scoring while Nate guarded him much much better , actually i have never heard for a Wilt's high scoring game against Thurmond .

[AxonMoses]

@garioldwin

Olajuwon, Robinson and Russell might disagree

[yoe91]

@shutterbugblues hehe oooooooooooooooh !!...

[shutterbugblues]

@yoe91 David Robinson?? He was a good player, but why bring him into this? Despite his 7-ft height and so-called running and leaping ability, much shorter players in NBA history such as Bill Russell, Dennis Rodman, and Ben Wallace have had more impressive rebounding performances.

[shutterbugblues]

@yoe91 What center would average 70 a game today? The answer is NONE. Because the centers today are nothing even compared to what Wilt was. Those who actually watched him play will tell you that also. That was easy to answer, got anything harder?

[yoe91]

@shutterbugblues MJ could average 50, easily so even, even in his days. He just didn't do it because he was trying to win not just play ball like he's alone on his team - yes, I'm directly thinking of AI...I call him the "Wrong Answer".

But what does that have to do with anything. If you think you can compare MJ's era, to Wilt's versus our era today, then you got a long way to go.

Wilt wouldn't score 50ppg in MJ's era.

[yoe91]

@shutterbugblues David Robinson ran much faster and jumped higher actually, but it's true he's very, very rare in that. What Wilt had was tremendous skill + physical ability but above all, ENDURANCE.

But what kind of a center, I ask you without cracking the least smile, averages 70ppg in today's league my friend ?

[shutterbugblues]

@yoe91 And why do you sound so surprised about that fact? Walt Frazier stated that himself. In today's era of spreading the floor and no hand-checking, Wilt would have his way with anyone today. No 7-footer can move, run, or jump like him. And despite his domination, he's admitted he tried to avoid dunking most of the time, even if it was easy, because he was very self-conscious and didn't want to hurt anyone. As Bill Russell said, he was too nice.

[shutterbugblues]

@yoe91 So you'd avoid the words of all the people who actually played out there on the court against the best? Phil Jackson has even said that Michael Jordan in his prime would average 50 ppg in today's NBA. Are you gonna say that's bullshit too?