But since the occasion has caused NBA journalists to raise the big question — “Does Zo belong in the Hall of Fame?” — I’m chipping in my two cents: No.
Think of other bigs who played during the Zo era:
Hakeem: 21-11-3 (career avgs), 2 titles, 12-time All Star
Shaq: 26-12-2 (career avgs), 3 titles,* 14-time All Star
Robinson: 21-11-3 (career avgs), 2 titles, 10-time All Star
Ewing: 21-10-2 (career avgs), 0 titles,** 11-time All Star
Compared to...
Zo: 17-9-3 (career avgs), 0 titles,* 7-time All Star
Just a notch below, isn’t he? A very, very good player. A hard worker and a humanitarian. But not Hall of Fame.***
-G
*The one D-Wade won for him doesn’t count.
**No, Ewing never won a ring. But those Knicks teams always went deep in the playoffs. By contrast, with Zo at the helm, those Heat teams never did shit.
***If you see Zo as an on-the-fence HOF candidate, isn’t this where the annoying, barking, chest-pounding way he carried himself on the court should come into play? Tip him to the “no” side, please.
2 comments:
I was not a Zo fan either during his heyday. Like you, I couldn't stand all his woofing and flexing. However, after he battled back from his life-threatening illness, he mellowed and I gained a ton of respect for him. We're talking about a guy who was a franchise player (although "a cut below" some the best of all time who happen to be in his era). He was struck down in the prime of his career by a life threatening illness, battled to make it back into the NBA, had several more quality seasons, assumed a complimentary role on team where he was once "the Man", became a local Dikembe Mutumbo on the humanitarian front, was the heart and soul of the Heat 2006 championship team despite coming off the bench behind his longtime rival, who's basically carried himself the right way for the past 10 years. I'm not saying this makes him HOF. But I do say, he's a man who's walked a helluva path, and he's got my respect. He has more than paid his kharmic debt for those early years. And, I would bet he'd admit his mistakes if you asked him candidly about his career.
Also, I guarantee you that he will be inducted first ballot for all the reasons I just mentioned.
More interesting to me was seeing Ewing and Dikembe at his jersey retirement ceremony. I think the day of quality big men in the league is dead. Shaq's made the point in his own "look at me, I'm the best" way for a long time. I know I'm in danger of sounding like an old fart, but more than the other players, seven footers need training in the fundamentals and time to mature in their bodies before they hit the NBA. With a one year requirement for college, it's only the freaks of nature who will achieve quality big man status in the NBA. In oday's NBA there's a couple of great big men. The rest are mostly incompetent. Dikembe, Ewing, Olajuwon, Mourning were not only talented, but they did all four years. For someone like D-Ho it might not alter his ultimate trajectory. Even though I would argue he would have be a better offensive player and man-to-man defender if he had learned some fundamentals before perfecting his lob dunks. Take a guy like Thabeet. Take Oden. I'm not saying a couple more years of college makes them great players, but they've got a better chance at Dikembe-type careers. During his prime (from 35-45) he was guy who could be a significant contributing factor on a contender. They could both end up doing that, but the odds aren't nearly as good. They don't have any real specialization. They're not as emotionally mature as they will be a couple of years from now, but the pressure of expectation will never be higher then the first two years they come out.
In the current NBA everybody's "this raw kid with ton's of upside" coming out. The reality is that more guys make it into the league every year because of expansion and that the NBA churns through them at a faster rate. They get in, but most of them don't "finish" - just like college.
I'll provide two counterarguments just for fun:
1. Re: Zo as guy who earned your respect: That's because you're not a Nets fan. Let's remember that after he battled back from his kidney failure, he inked a four-year $20M deal with NJ and refused to take a physical. (And no, I'm not excusing the Nets' front office for making this stupid move, I'm just saying.) And if memory serves, he played about 4 games in total...and collected every dollar. So that's $5M per game. And I ask: Why do you refuse a physical exam if you're promising your would-be new team that you're 100% healthy? Because you're lying, that's why. So let's stop praying at the alter of Saint Zo.
2. D-Ho made a good point the other day when asked how he felt about the 19+ rule for kids declaring for the NBA Draft (he's against it, btw). He said that the rule probably helps guards and forwards, but big men lose out going the college route. There aren't many big-men coaches in the NCAA, nor are there many big men. So you neither benefit from the tutelage of seasoned experts, nor from the experience of playing against peers who raise you to a higher level. Both of those things, he argued, he received when he entered the L.
Hmm. I mean, in a way you have to take his point. Quality big men are rare; superstar big men are super rare (and that's not a fact of this era; that has almost always been the case; the '90s were an exceptional time for bigs). In a way, college not only puts a big man's progress on hold, it can send him down a bad course. For example, most people I knew thought Orlando was crazy for taking h.s. D-Ho over college-proven Emeka. And Greg Oden looked like a near stud coming out of college. Sure, 'cause both those guys played against NOBODY.
I've been excited to see Thabeet in the L. But having just typed those last couple of paragraphs, now I'm beginning to measure my expectations.
-G
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