With Phil Jackson’s book tour well underway, there’s been a lot of debate about who’s the best player between Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. However, Jackson stirred the pot even more when he went on record saying he would take Bill Russell over Jordan if he was starting a dream team.
The NBA has seen a shift in dominant center’s with the retirement of David Robinson and Shaquille O’Neal and is now more about perimeter players like LeBron James, Paul George and Kevin Durant.
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We asked Lakers Nation, if they were starting a team, would you rather start with a big man or a perimeter scorer? Here are the results:
Surprisingly, 69 percent would pick a big man as opposed to a perimeter scorer. Today in the NBA, big men are relied upon to be athletic and anchor the defense, while the back to the basket big man is becoming extinct.
Players like Roy Hibbert and Marc Gasol are prototypical big men, but I would never want to start a dream team with a big man over a pure scorer.
When talking about Russell over Jordan, Jackson said that Russell’s 11 rings were the main reason why he would want to start his team with the 11-time champion.
It seems like the game is becoming more and more athletic, and eventually the center position might not exist with teams deciding to go with smaller lineups most of the time.
Regardless, it’s hard to argue that someone would take Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Wilt Chamberlain to start a franchise over perimeter scorers that can seemingly be interchanged.
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