Bill Russell and the great centers in NBA history
Andover native Stephen Stapinski has since moved to Boston, a town where he utterly adores all the professional sports teams. One of the things that fascinates him most about Boston sports is how deep and colorful the histories are of these teams.
On that note, Stephen Stapinski takes readers down memory lane as he sheds light on the immortal Bill Russell and some of the greatest centers in NBA history.
Sure, there were great big men before Bill Russell came along, but no one as dominant as the Celtic great. Bill Russell is the winningest center in NBA history, winning 11 championships with the Celtics. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest leaders the league has ever known. With Russell at his peak, another big man emerged who was as dominant as anyone has ever been in the league — Wilt Chamberlain. A true freak of nature, Wilt was physically bigger and stronger than everyone who played the game at the time and made good use of it. These two players ushered in the era of the dominant big man in the NBA.
When a player by the name of Lew Alcindor came along, the NBA was taken by surprise. He was lanky and a bit awkward, but he was fast, and every bit as unstoppable as Wilt Chamberlain. He would go on to change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and be a phenomenal figure in the league.
When the ’90s came along, Stephen Stapinski mentions that there were two centers worth of note — Hakeem Olajuwon, the most versatile center to ever play in the NBA, and Shaquille O’Neal, another monster in the mold of Wilt Chamberlain, who was just unstoppable inside the paint. These two led the big man charge in the modern era of the NBA.
