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Who are the top centers in NBA history? Here is our top 10 countdown:
10. Dave Cowens: though injuries led to his premature retirement, Cowens was dominant on both ends of the floor when healthy – in addition to winning Rookie of the Year in 1971 and MVP in 1973, he was an 8x All-Star, 2x NBA champion, 3x All-NBA, and 3x All-Defensive in his decade-long career with the Boston Celtics.
9. George Mikan: the league’s first great big man, Mikan only played seven seasons, but was a 3x scoring champion who averaged 23.1 points and 13.4 rebounds per game for his career, and led the Minneapolis Lakers to five titles in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
8. Patrick Ewing: the top overall pick in 1985, Ewing was a 20-10 machine during his career and an imposing force on both ends of the court, though was never quite the best center in the league and could never get the New York Knicks over the hump to a title.
7. Moses Malone: one of the original preps-to-pros players in the 1970s, Malone was a 3x NBA MVP and 6x rebounding champion (including a then-record five straight times in the early 1980s) who averaged 20-and-10 for his career, and retired as the all-time leading offensive rebounder.
6. David Robinson: in his prime, Robinson was one of the most athletic, versatile, and consistent big men in the game – in addition to winning both an MVP and Defensive Player of the Year honors, he also recorded the most recent quadruple-double in NBA history in 1994.
5. Hakeem Olajuwon: an MVP and 2x Defensive Player of the Year, among countless other accolades, Olajuwon was arguably the best player in the NBA during Michael Jordan’s retirement in the mid-1990s and is the only player in NBA history to win regular season MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, an NBA title, and Finals MVP in the same season (1994).
4. Shaquille O’Neal: perhaps the most physically imposing center of all-time and well-known for his thundering dunks, O’Neal was not only a league MVP and a 2x scoring champion, but also won four NBA titles (including three-in-a-row at the turn of the century playing with Kobe Bryant on the Los Angeles Lakers) and was named Finals MVP 3x.
3. Bill Russell: the lynchpin of the championship Boston Celtics teams of the 1950s and 1960s, Russell was a 5x MVP who won more NBA titles (11) than any other player in history and averaged an astounding 22.5 rebounds per game for his career.
2. Wilt Chamberlain: famous for his record 100-point game and his rivalry with Russell, Chamberlain was a man among boys during his time, averaging an incredible 30.1 points (7x scoring champion) and 22.9 rebounds (11x rebounding champion; also the highest all-time marks in both per-game and total rebounding) during his career en route to four MVP awards.
1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: so dominant in college that they banned dunking because of him, Abdul-Jabbar was a 6x NBA champion and record 6x league MVP who remains the all-time leading scorer in NBA history.
Agree/Disagree? As always, debate/discuss, and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Note: All statistics as of time of publication.
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