Watching Shaquille O' Neal dismiss Dwight Howard as a "Euro" Bigman, a Pick and Pop lightweight made me cringe, not because i felt old but because in ways Shaq wasn't wrong. But hey, just because your right don't mean your right from an evolutionary standpoint because quite Frankly back to the basket Centers are a dying breed. Nowadays turning your back to the basket is a not so subtle way of saying you don't have the skill to effectively cope in the current NBA jungle. We saw it happen slowly, when Patrick Ewing hit that first 18 footer, he was praised for it but for me it seemed like that was about the time that everyone started dunking on him. Kevin Garnett played Wilt Chamberlain in the HBO movie on the life of Earl the Goat Manigault but gave the Timberwolves PR Department the death glare when they listed his real height of 7 foot 1. The "Big Ticket" towers over some of the greatest Centers of All Time and yet he didn't want to be confined to a box on the low block. Dirk Nowitzki watched the Dream Team as a kid in 1992, specifically Larry Bird- a small forward, though he grew closer to the size of Robinson and Ewing, i guess the post was not in his blood. "Stretch 4" is now a legitimate NBA Position and we haven't seen a dominant "bigman" win a title since a declining Shaq in 2006. Tim Duncan was more traditional in his approach but he'll only be considered the greatest Power Forward of All Time. Progress often means the loss of some things that were really good, like the depth of Centers in the mid 90's, or the Shaq vs. Yao battles that signaled the end of a certain kind of battle. The idea of two large men banging on one another beneath the basket is no longer compelling and gone the way of the classic Running back battle. Shaq may lament the extinction of the "Old School Big" but post play is still as important as the Running Game in Football. Kobe, like MJ is aging well due to his post game, KG went to Boston (2008) and took the ball deeper in the paint for his first ring and the same goes for Dirk. "Touches" in the post will always equal more effecient play, no matter how uncool it becomes to kids in the future. Lebron James is learning that nobody can stop him from winning a ring when he imposes himself in the post; that the "bully" may not be the Center anymore-he can be the guy bringing the ball up the court. Correctly the NBA followed suit with the changing game by adjusting All Star Voting rules from 2 forwards and a Center to 3 "frontcourt"players.That way, Andrew Bynum and Shaq's beloved Brooke Lopez wont be forced on us if they happen to be playing mediocre basketball this season. They'll be forced to compete with all frontcourt players, not the dwindling field of Centers out there.
Did you notice i didn't even mention Dwight Howard in the same sentence with those two?. That's because after he comes off of the "soft" pick and roll he dunks on your head, like a Bigman. Shaq may disagree with how he goes about his business but i don't see anybody in the league that can stop Howard from matching up statistically with some of the greatest Centers to ever do it.
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