When true centers ruled the NBA
In a way, the 1990’s still feel like a recent memory, not far removed. Yet we’re now 15 years removed from the end of the decade and nearly a quarter-century removed from the beginning of it. A lot has changed about our world, our technology and our day-to-day lives since the sun set on the 90’s, and basketball is no different.
Consider that Wesley Person led the NBA in three-point attempts with 447 in the 1997-98 season - the last full 82-game season of the 90’s, since the 98-99 season was lockout-shortened. That would have placed him 14th in 2013-14, 168 attempts behind Stephen Curry’s league leading 615.
In 97-98, 88 players who played at least 40 games also attempted two or more three-pointers per game. By this past season, that number had nearly doubled, climbing to 167.
The style of today’s game, with its reliance on three-point shooting and perimeter play in general, makes consistent 20 and 10 guys few and far between. By comparison, Brad Daugherty, whose career was cut short by back issues, virtually averaged 20 and 10 (19.9 and 10.3) over a five-year span from 1989-90 through 1993-94, and yet you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone outside of Cleveland who even thinks of him when discussing the best centers and big men of the 90’s. That’s how deep the position was and how reliant on bigs teams were.
It was a different time. The game was played with more of an inside-out mentality around behemoths in the middle who had their backs to the basket.
There were some skilled big men who could shoot, handle the ball, pass and run the floor - think Hakeem Olajuwon, Vlade Divac, Chris Webber and Arvydas Sabonis towards the end of the decade - but big men, and particularly centers, were predominantly traditional in the sense that they did virtually all of their work within a few feet of the basket on one end and anchored defenses on the other end.
The 1990’s in the NBA were defined by Michael Jordan (who we’ll get to later this week), but it was also the last decade of dominant, old-school, “true” centers.
Today we salivate over the prospects of a matchup between two explosive point guards or wing scorers. 20 years ago, Olajuwon vs. Ewing, Robinson vs. O’Neal, and virtually any combination that included those names sent shivers of excitement down your spine.
Karl Malone, Charles Barkley (power forwards, I know), Hakeem Olajuwon and David Robinson combined to win five of the 10 MVP awards handed out between 1990 and 1999. The only big man to win an MVP award over the last 10 seasons is Dirk Nowitzki, and he’s about the furthest thing from traditional.
Robinson and Shaquille O’Neal won consecutive scoring titles in 1993-94 - Robinson famously scored 71 points in the 1994 season finale to edge O’Neal by tenths of a point - and 1994-95. Next season, we’ll be 15 years removed from the last time a big man (Shaq) led the league in scoring and 10 years removed from the last time a big (Jermaine O’Neal) scored 50 points.
These days it’s tough to find more than one or two big men among the top-10 in usage rate, which measures the percentage of team possessions used by a specific player when he’s on the court. Throughout the 90’s, in addition to Jordan (and fours like Malone and Barkley), the usage rate leaderboard was dominated by centers like Ewing, Olajuwon, O’Neal and Robinson, and even names like Mourning and Smits.
You fed those guys in the post and lived off of them, and if you didn’t have a dominant big man (or Jordan), you probably weren’t going very far.
Many modern fans think of these old-school, hulking centers as lumbering bodies who lacked the offensive skill and finesse of today’s big men. It’s true that many of the game’s star fives in that era may not have had the all-around versatility that contemporary bigs possess, but mistaking that as a lack of skill or finesse is a disservice to those legends of the 90’s.
The footwork, creativity and precision by which they executed in the offensive post is mostly a lost art, and there’s a reason young bigs today spend summers trying to learn that art from guys like Olajuwon and Ewing.
On the defensive end, players like Dikembe Mutombo and Alonzo Mourning were just a couple of the many centers who protected the rim like few modern bigs can.
Mutombo, Olajuwon and Robinson combined for six four-plus block-per-game seasons in the 90’s alone. Nowadays, the Association hasn’t seen a player average four blocks per game in a season in 18 years, and four of the last six blocks-per-game leaders have averaged less than three per game after no player had ever led the league with less than three prior to 2009.
This isn’t a criticism of today’s game or of the uber-talented big men that play in it. The game, and the positions within it, evolve over time like everything else. And the same way many of today’s All-Star centers wouldn’t have been able to guard the fives of the 90’s in the paint, most of yesterday’s centers wouldn’t have had a prayer’s chance of closing out on some of the sharp shooting fives of today, and likely would have been run into the ground by their faster pace.
But as we look back at the 1990’s in basketball, it’s hard not to recall and romanticize the legendary true centers of the decade, who played the game and fulfilled their positional duties in throwback fashion.