I grew up in the 80s watching the Lakers, Celtics, Nets and the Pistons play. Pre-Jordan I was a big fan of Julius Erving. Lakers were arguably the more enjoyable team to watch and a great deal of the NBA in the 1980s was headlined by their success. Magic and Kareem are arguably the best 1-2 punch in NBA history, but who would you say is the best of the two?
I'm going to roll with Kareem. Kareem in my opinion is the last of the long great centers as the NBA by his retirement was no longer about Centers dominating the game and became more guard heavy. Many will argue Magic, but how many players do you know that played 20 years of basketball at the level he did? Even the best of them seen a large decline in their play as recently as Kobe Bryant. Fellow centers such as Shaq, Ewing and Olajuwon had drastically fell off before their careers ended.
I'm going to roll with Kareem. Kareem in my opinion is the last of the long great centers as the NBA by his retirement was no longer about Centers dominating the game and became more guard heavy. Many will argue Magic, but how many players do you know that played 20 years of basketball at the level he did? Even the best of them seen a large decline in their play as recently as Kobe Bryant. Fellow centers such as Shaq, Ewing and Olajuwon had drastically fell off before their careers ended.