This article is also posted at hoops4life.com, an NBA fan site.
Center in the NBA can be one of the most dominant positions. If you get a big guy inside who can bang around and grab boards, you have a great piece to start a team with. But if that big guy can bang around, grab boards, block shots AND score, you picked yourself a good one.
The NBA has seen many great centers in it's time like Hakeem Olajuwan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O'Neal, Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell. Now that's a good list of players. That however is the past. I mean, O'Neal still plays but is nothing like he used to be. Today's NBA has many good centers as well. Most of the time now, players can play either center or power forward.
Great centers include Tim Duncan, Yao Ming, Dwight Howard, Tyson Chandler, Shaquille O'Neal, Jermaine O'Neal, Andrew Bogut, Greg Oden, Lamarcus Aldridge and many, many others. Here is a list that I think will round up the top 5 centers in the NBA this coming ...
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They Love Him in China!
gilbertology.net 8/11/2008 — (via the Wizznutzz ) If nothing else, the fan interaction that Gilbert would’ve had with the Chinese people should’ve been enough to get him a roster spot on the Olympic team. His shoes a big hit over there and there are plenty of fans that like to wear his jersey as well. Darren Rovell reports that Gilbert has the sixth best selling jersey in China, putting him ahead of ...
Chris Paul could raise a small family inside Yao Ming's pants
sports.yahoo.com 8/11/2008 — Charlotte Observer sports columnist Scott Fowler, who is in Beijing covering the Olympics, couldn't find room to fit in this little Chris Paul-Yao Ming anecdote in his Sunday newspaper column about the U.S. men's basketball team, so he threw it up on his ol' blogspot.com site. "I really got to know Yao and interact with him for the first time at this year's NBA all-star game," Paul ...
Thoughts following Yao v. the United States
thedreamshake.com 8/11/2008 — I actually woke up at 8am yesterday to watch Yao take on the United States... aka "the Redeem Team" (which just may be the dumbest moniker ever). Not that I expected China to compete with the U.S. team - I just wanted to see how Yao looked in his first real, true game action since February. How'd he look? Pretty good for a guy playing at 60%!! Yao even buried a 3 to start the game! (link is ...
Daddy Gaddy
blazersedge.com 8/12/2008 — A hug and a kiss on draft night. That's all the air time that proud mothers and fathers of America's top young basketball players usually see. (Barring tragedy or their own fame, of course. We heard about James Jordan and Arthur Agee, Sr.; ...
Battle of the Titans Electrifies China —
NBA.com: News 8/11/2008
Matthew Sekeres of THE GLOBE & MAIL writes, "For Mother China, Yao Ming is a torch runner, a flag-bearer, a hero, a philanthropist and a symbol of the country's economic modernization. The government called him a "model worker" even before his ...
The NBA's Top Five Centers —
Bleacher Report - NBA 8/13/2008
The primary role of an NBA center, in short, is to dominate the paint. Be it with interior defense, low post offense, or shot blocking prowess, a center has to be able to enforce his will down on the block. Centers are bruisers down low, and are ...
