Happy Birthday, Big Aristotle

It just doesn't make any sense to say, "Michael Jordan was the best basketball player ever,” or “LeBron James is the best basketball player today.” Basketball is (played at a high enough level.. ) perhaps the archetypal team sport. Equally important, it is a position sport.

To this extent, I’m a little surprised to be lauding the play of Big Diesel (turning 33 this Sunday) since his return from injury. Sure.. there’s a bit of a natural selection advantage having a guy who is 7’ 1” and 325, but I promise you the Sonics are not succeeding because of the play of the gigantic Jerome James, and the Syracuse Orange are not where they are this season due to the contributions of the towering Craig Forth.



Don't laugh: 5' 5" Earl from Eastern Michigan dropped 32 points against the T-Wolves AND the Pistons this season.


Not long ago, I hated Shaq and his three-time World Champion LA Lakers (thank you, Detroit, for derailing that train…). Shaq’s contribution was essentially on the offensive end, with 6 out of 10 scores of the ‘I’m going to lower my shoulder and send you to the floor, then turn and hit a lay-up or dunk’ variety. And its not hard to succeed when playing under a great coach, with one of the league’s top guard/forwards, a steady supporting cast, and for a big-market team that got all the calls. His contribution in Heat wins, lately, has been more defense and playmaking oriented. He’s been working the inside-out about as well as Hakeem did back in the mid-90s, making ‘put a fork in me’ players such as Eddie Jones look pretty good. Sure, Dwayne Wade is a phenom, and I can’t say enough good things about him (I’ll say one: one of the league’s best in rebounding his own miss: second chance points are key in this game), but Shaq is raising the level of play of an otherwise lackluster cast, led by a coach who essentially trys to keep everyone happy and runs the team on autopilot (exactly what Pat Riley is looking for at this point). Bill Russell type stuff. Lastly, his scoring appears to be much less of the bowl-em-over technique, much more of the finesse footwork, fade away or hook shot, I'm making an honest living in the paint type stuff. For the first time this year, I’m thinking the Heat could make some noise in the finals. But I’m still giving the edge to San Antonio at this point.

I guess what MJ had going for him is that, at the height of his dominance, there really wasn’t any weakness in his game. The same can’t be said of other marquis players in the league. Give Jason Kidd Mike Bibby’s jumpshot, and you can’t ask for a better guard. Give LeBron the boundless energy of a younger Michael Finley, and you can’t ask for a much better guard/forward. Give the 2004-2005 Shaq the foul shooting ability of Earl Boykins and look out league. A Shaq that shot 93% from the line could take the Syracuse Intramural B-League Public Administrators (recently buoyed in confidence by their convincing 35-21 win over rival Maxwell Mafia) deep into the playoffs…