Kidd to Mavs

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

Rebounds are not a defensive stat. Ewing was the best post defender in the NBA during his 1st 7 or 8 years. There has always been a bias against this guy for whatever reason, including the writers who vote on those awards. He was a tremendous player who was easily as good defensively as any of those other guys. Olajuwan was more athletic but took lots of plays off. Mutombo was just long. He could never get further than 8 feet away from the basket without being a liability. Robinson was a great player and a nice guy but if you watched the NBA during the late 80's and early 90's and thought that he was a better all around defender than Ewing, you just didnt watch enough. There is more to defense at the center position than simple shots blocked.

Yep.
People did not watch enough Robinson.
He was not on TV consistently.
Ewing was always on TV in college
and then everyone followed in the pros.
Robinson was unknown in college until his
senior season. Got very little press.

He is remembered mostly for being torched
by Hakeem in the playoffs. Robinson was a good
on the ball and off the ball defender. Tons better
than Ewing.

Ewing played for the Knicks. The Knicks are in NY.
A very good player but overrated.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by pgardn

Yep.
People did not watch enough Robinson.
He was not on TV consistently.
Ewing was always on TV in college
and then everyone followed in the pros.
Robinson was unknown in college until his
senior season. Got very little press.

He is remembered mostly for being torched
by Hakeem in the playoffs. Robinson was a good
on the ball and off the ball defender. Tons better
than Ewing.

Ewing played for the Knicks. The Knicks are in NY.
A very good player but overrated.

Ewing was and is actually underrated, not overrated. He could never do enough to satisfy fans and writers as is obvious by your comments. As I said before you may believe that one or two of those other centers are better than him which is very much a possibility. But to say that he is not even in the same class as them is laughable. There were 3 dominant centers during this time frame and Ewing stacks up very nicely against both guys. The expectation level for him was higher than any player during that era. He HAD to be dominant because everybody expected that from him from the time he was a college freshman. Hakeem was considered 2nd fiddle on his own team coming into the NBA and Robinson was kind of a freakshow playing for the Navy. Ewing's teams never won a championship in the NBA but using championships to compare players is folly because of the differences in teammates and coaches. He was not only the offensive cornerstone of the Knicks but was THE key on defense which was the strong suit of the Knicks during that time period. If you watched at all you would know the only reason that they were able to compete at the highest level was because of defense (and thuggery) and Ewing.

[SniperSB23]

Originally Posted by Cardus

Defining players in team sports by their "rings" has reached an epedemic level. It's simple-minded.

Basketball is the only sport where it is even remotely possible since one player can have a huge impact. It is amazing though that it is worst in the NFL where players only play on one side of the ball and even on that side of the ball are one of 11 players who must execute for a play to work.