Gobert's rise to the Greatest Jazz Center of All Time!

[framer]

The Center position for the Utah Jazz has been a collection of some of the greatest scum, villainy, and heartbreakers known to the NBA. I have 58 players (59 if you count Biedrins, which I refuse to) as suiting up for the Jazz during both the New Orleans and Utah eras and I am going to document Gobert's rise to the top as he leaves these past paragons of mediocrity in his wake!
For statistical purposes I am only going to count what these people did as a Jazzman. If they left after one season and became an All Star somewhere else, then you only get the one year counted, because if you did your best work for another team, then screw you. Also this counts for Hall of Famers who played just one game for the Jazz at the butt end of their career (I'm looking at you Walt Bellamy, may you rest in peace.)

So here are Gobert's current Stats:
Points 38
Rebounds 74
Blocks 13
Steals 4
Assists 3

This ranks him at #45 ahead of:
#46 John Block
Points 27
Rebounds 18
Blocks 1
Steals 4
Assists 7

Is there a more perfect name for a center than John Block? "Block defends his man on the low block, then rises up and blocks the shot cleanly!" Not to mention that Block was pretty damn good, just two years removed from an all-star campaign. Unfortunately for the 74-75 New Orleans Jazz, they seemed to still be under the stipulation that no center worth anything at all could play more than 4 games for the Jazz. Block got all of those numbers in 4 games. He finished his career in Chicago with 2 games in 1976. Dude even looks like a stud:

#47 Dan O'Sullivan
Points 21
Rebounds 17
Blocks 1
Steals 1
Assists 4

As an undrafted rookie from Fordam, the 6'10" O'Sullivan played in 21 games for the 90-91 Utah Jazz. He would go on to play 2 more years on 4 different teams capping his career with a 33 point scoring explosion (for the entire season) at Toronto, where he will hang his legacy. The really sad thing is that his Jazz Jersey was on sale on ebay. Nobody owned a Dan O'Sullivan Jazz jersey but Dan. I couldn't find any pics of him, so we are going with the ebay jersey shot:

#48 Aleksandar Radojevic
Points 19
Rebounds 28
Blocks 2
Steals 0
Assists 6
The great thing about Radojevic is that he had to play at Barton County Community College after he got Kantered because of his European League experience, then he got Ohio State Buckeye coach Jim O' Brian fired after O'Brian fronted Radojevic $6,700 in cash ostensibly to pay for his father's funeral. After that, he was disqualified by the NCAA and had to enter the draft. He was drafted by the Toronto Raptors in the lottery at 12 in 1999. Injuries derailed his careere and he was traded twice, once for Keon Clark (who hasn't been traded for Keon Clark?) After that unpleasantness he went back to Europe, returning to play 12 games for the Jazz in 2004. He currently plays pro ball in the National Basketball League of Canada (who knew Canada had their own league?)

#49 Luther Wright
Points 19
Rebounds 10
Blocks 2
Steals 1
Assists 1
What more is to be said about Luther Wright that hasn't been said? Drafted as a promising player out of Seton Hall University with the 18th pick (crazy that so much was expected out of an 18 pick) it turned out that Luther was pretty much insane. Also insane? the fact that Luther started 2 games out of his 15 game career. An article was written about Wright back in 2007 that I still remember to this day. Definitely worth the read if you have the time. Here is the link.

#50 Pat Cummings
Points 15
Rebounds 5
Blocks 0
Steals 0
Assists 0
Pat Cummings was yet another serviceable to good center to find his way to Utah at the end of his career in 1990 in order to play 4 games. The University of Cincinnati product had an 11 year career averaging about 10 and 5. He was a bit undersized to play Center and was 35 so he sure wasn't backing up the Mailman.

#51 William Cunningham
Points 8
Rebounds 8
Blocks 0
Steals 2
Assists 1
Mr. Cunningham, a legit 6'11'' 250 undrafted out of Temple played 6 games for the Jazz, actually starting 2 in 1996. Jazz were pretty good in this timeframe, so the starts are kind of mystifying. He has the distinction of playing for 4 teams in his two year career, which is something, I guess. It appears that Mr. Cunningham now works for the NSA as any pictorial evidence of his basketball career has completely disappeared.


#52 Darryl Dawkins
Points 6
Rebounds 5
Blocks 1
Steals 0
Assists 1
Yes he played only 4 games for the Jazz in 1987, and yes he only shot freakin' 14%, but he was Chocolate Thunder so I didn't have the heart to rank him any lower. For the next handful of years he would go on to play a handful of games for a handful of teams, but he never would drop below that 14% he efforted for the Jazz. Here is the highlight video. He did none of this for the Jazz. . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V7z1UY1WbE


#53 Jeff Cook
Points 7
Rebounds 5
Blocks 0
Steals 0
Assists 0
The pride of Idaho State University, Cook had a 7 year career in the NBA with his stint with the Utah Jazz being the worst. He logged 17 minutes in 2 games with the 85-86 Utah Jazz during the regular season, but added 21 minutes in 4 games in the playoffs. He still has more points than Rudy, but those rebounds and blocks that Gobert is raking up give him the edge, although I considered ranking Cook higher based on just his mustache.

#54 Walt Ballamy
Points 6
Rebounds 5
Blocks 0
Steals 0
Assists 0
Bellamy just passed away two days ago. He played a glorious 1 game for a grand total of 14 minutes for the New Orleans Jazz at the end of his career in 1974. He was a Hall of Famer, averaging 20 points and almost 14 rebounds for his career. The good news is that had the Jazz obtained a prime Bellamy, they may not have been bad enough to have been moved to Utah. Prayers to Bellamy and his family.

#55 Chad Gallagher
Points 6
Rebounds 0
Blocks 0
Steals 0
Assists 0
Creighton product Chad Gallagher was drafted in the second round of the NBA draft by the Phoenix Suns. He didn't make the squad. He was later picked up by the Jazz and played a total of three minutes spread over two games during a ten day contract in February 1993. The two notable things about Mr. Gallagher is that he retired from the NBA with a perfect shooting percentage of 3-3 at 100% and was the 1991 Missouri Valley Conference player of the year during his NCAA days.

#56 Aaron Williams
Points 4
Rebounds 3
Blocks 0
Steals 0
Assists 1
Aaron had a pretty good career all in all, just not as a center for the Utah Jazz. He played in 715 NBA games, but just 6 with the Jazz his rookie season. Most will remember him as a serviceable backup big on the New Jersey Nets playoff squads from 2001-2004.

#57 Carl Kilpatrick
Points 3
Rebounds 4
Blocks 0
Steals 0
Assists 0
Back in 1979, Carl (we will refer to him as Carl the Lesser) snuck into two games for a total of 6 minutes. From the University of Louisiana at Monroe, he was drafted in the 8th round and lived, for those six minutes a dream that most of us never will.

#58 Darren Morningstar
Points 1
Rebounds 1
Blocks 0
Steals 0
Assists 0
Started 15 games for Dallas in 1993 before being cut. He was then plucked from the CBA by Utah where he played in exactly 1 game for 4 minutes to round out the rest of his NBA career. Started College at Navy, then transferred to Pitt (not exactly sure how that worked.) He was drafted in the second round by the Boston Celtics 2 years earlier who couldn't find a use for him. But seriously, how could you not give this guy a chance:

 

[Former Member]

This has the potential of being a great thread...

So are we considering kanter and favors both PFs?

 

[framer]

They have both logged minutes as center, so they are counted on the list as centers. People like Antoine Carr are on the center list. If you logged any time at all at Center for the Utah Jazz, you should be on the list. There is the complication of Biedrins. He hasn't taken the floor so I haven't counted him yet. Theoretically he could pass Gobert, but only theoretically.

 

[SojoDave]

This thread should read "Grobert's rise to the Greatest Center Of All Time!". Don't sell him short.

 

[framer]

In our house we refer to him as "GOATbert!"

 

[colton]

Nice thread, but the typo in the title is more-or-less the equivalent of referring to him as the "Strifle Tower". Kind of loses something.

 

[The Midnight]

I support this thread.

 

[addictionary]

Nice thread, but the typo in the title is more-or-less the equivalent of referring to him as the "Strifle Tower". Kind of loses something.

It's actually a reference to many examples of a fail of pronunciation when commenting on Gobert playing ball.

 

[bordelais7]

Potential nickname: "Grob-stopper"

 

[framer]

Wow, doing more deep research and there is even more suck than I expected. I will need to do some revisions. It is pretty sad when there are quite a few people ranked behind Luther Wright. Update coming soon!

 

[Joe Bagadonuts]

I was thinking of starting a separate thread that tracked the rise of your thread as it became the greatest JazzFanz thread of all time, but then I looked at the list of threads in the Jazz forum alone and realized there are already over 10,000 of them. In addition to that, I didn't want to take the risk of my threads success getting in the way of your thread's greatness.

Suffice it to say that your thread is already in the top 50% simply by virtue of immediately passing all of Beantown's threads in that moment when you clicked Submit New Thread.

 

[LogGrad98]

This has the potential of being a great thread...

So are we considering kanter and favors both PFs?

They have both logged minutes as center, so they are counted on the list as centers. People like Antoine Carr are on the center list. If you logged any time at all at Center for the Utah Jazz, you should be on the list. There is the complication of Biedrins. He hasn't taken the floor so I haven't counted him yet. Theoretically he could pass Gobert, but only theoretically.

Imo you should separate out the "PF/C" from the true centers. You would get very different lists, but if a player logs significant minutes at the PF spot they are not really a center per se, imo. Most of the time a PF is the centerpiece of the Jazz offense, and so if I player could sub out either Malone or Tag, then that player would get significantly different options in the offense and defense. Gobert is likely to be playing only the center spot with maybe the occasional stint defending the opposing team's PF, but he is unlikely to get the same level of offensive attention the PF will get in our offensive schemes.

I think his company would have to be more guys like Eaton, Tag, Paultz, Ortiz, Spencer, Austin, Collins, Fess, etc. and less the Carrs, Fosters, Clarks, Jeffersons, and Browns.

You could even argue that Malone was a PF/C considering he was often defended by the opposing team's center as the better big-man defender and he was often called on to guard the opposing team's best big-man which was more than occasionally a center. He is obviously more a PF than C, unlike Duncan who was predominantly a Center first and PF second, but the case could still be made.

 

[framer]

Imo you should separate out the "PF/C" from the true centers. You would get very different lists, but if a player logs significant minutes at the PF spot they are not really a center per se, imo. Most of the time a PF is the centerpiece of the Jazz offense, and so if I player could sub out either Malone or Tag, then that player would get significantly different options in the offense and defense. Gobert is likely to be playing only the center spot with maybe the occasional stint defending the opposing team's PF, but he is unlikely to get the same level of offensive attention the PF will get in our offensive schemes.

I think his company would have to be more guys like Eaton, Tag, Paultz, Ortiz, Spencer, Austin, Collins, Fess, etc. and less the Carrs, Fosters, Clarks, Jeffersons, and Browns.

You could even argue that Malone was a PF/C considering he was often defended by the opposing team's center as the better big-man defender and he was often called on to guard the opposing team's best big-man which was more than occasionally a center. He is obviously more a PF than C, unlike Duncan who was predominantly a Center first and PF second, but the case could still be made.

Remember that I am going back into the New Orleans Jazz times, so I am not going to sort out how much time Jeff Wilkins played at forward. Also, even if you include c/f it is still not that difficult to climb the ladder. It is looking like Mike Brown may be in the top 10, so the barrier for entry isn't really that high. What I am seeing is that the Utah Jazz have really struggled at the position, and we probably have two, possibly 3 of the top 7 centers (even part time) to ever play for us on the roster right now when all is said and done.

 

[mellow]

Shouldn't Biedrens be #1 on the list? 0 games 0 rebounds.

Was Keon Clark a C or PF?

Daryl Dawkins next?

 

[framer]

OK, Revision #1,
I now have 57 players that played center well enough to be at least listed as a part time center when they played for the Jazz. It was brought up that someone like Antoine Carr shouldn't really count because they primarily played forward. This is sound reasoning. This would, however, suck a lot of the fun out of this project as the milestones that Gobert is going to pass would be spaced further apart. We need all 57 (again, I refuse to count Biedrins unless he passes Gobert) in order to keep this interesting. There are others which Gobert has already passed that I will add shortly. And seriously, how pitiful is that?

 

[Stifle Tower]

Who's Grobert? Sounds like a Sesame Street character.

 

[framer]

OK Post updated and accurate. Next up, Chocolate Thunder and Chad Gallagher. If Gobert gets any burn at all he should pass these two after the next game.

 

[green]

What would be awesome is if when you update it, put a new post with the updated info and update the original post.

That way, dopes like me won't have to remember what I have read before.

Thanks a ton.

 

[mellow]

Yikes what a task. I found 29 players listed as C for Jazz, but 59 that are a F/C. The clear cut Center such as Eaton and Tag are the exceptions. Guys who played both are more common: Mike Brown, Eric Leckner, Jose Ortiz, Carr, Foster, Chambers.....

This thread has room for endless speculation and argument, so a fantastic idea for a thread.

 

[Joe Bagadonuts]

Who's Grobert? Sounds like a Sesame Street character.

Yes, the name makes it sound like he was the love child of these two:

but that was only done to throw the NBA scouts (other than the Jazz) off the trail of the greatest young prospect in a generation. These two are actually his parents:

His name was originally actually Big Monster (though Cookie Bird had been a consideration).