| Size Matters Authored by Scott Essman - June 24, 2005 - 8:42 pm
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Is it any wonder that the San Antonio Spurs won another championship, their second in three years and their third in seven? Even with Tim Duncan, the MVP of the final series, playing sporadically well, the Spurs still triumphed. Duncan's overall numbers were consistently good, enough to win him the MVP and his team the title, though his play was often lacking at crucial series moments and might have cost them a ring.
But a big man is a big man.
In the last quarter-century, the team with the dominant big man has won more than half of the NBA championships. Yes, he played with Magic Johnson, but Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won five titles with the L.A.
Lakers in the 1980s. Yes, he had great role players, but Hakeem Olajuwon won two titles with the 1990s Houston Rockets. And, yes, he had Kobe Bryant, but Shaquille O'Neal won three straight titles with the Lakers. When you deduct the out-of-this world phenomena of Larry Bird (three titles) and Michael Jordan (six titles), that leaves only four of the 25 past champions who won without a dominant big man.
Certainly, the Spurs were greatly aided in their final two victories by the intangibles and pyrotechnics of Robert Horry - a case could be made that Horry was the MVP of these finals. Yet without Duncan, there are no Spurs. Similar to the decline of the Rockets after Olajuwon's decline and the disaster that befell the Lakers after Shaq left for Miami, big man-centered teams often go as their big man goes. Though Patrick Ewing never won a title, and was arguably one of the premier centers of his era, his N.Y Knicks often went as he went, and only Olajuwon stood in the way of a Ewing title in 1994.
Could the future NBA supermen dictate who wins the next round of championships? With Yao Ming failing to ignite the Rockets and most other nascent big men some years away from dominance, it may be too early to tell. Upcoming stars such as Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, and Tracy McGrady have all led their teams forward if not always deep into the playoffs. Their lack of size hardly seems an issue, but it may be a factor in their individual abilities to dominant the league. As such, the jury seems out on a new NBA trend. However, if the past is the roadmap of the future, the league itself is likely to stay big if it's going to win.
Scott Essman can be reached at scottessman2005@yahoo.com. |
