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If Bill Walton stayed healthy...

The Fresh Prince

Well-Known Member
Would he have finished his career as the greatest center of all time? Better yet, would he have been one of the best NBA players to play the game? Never played 70 games in a season.. had a very bad injury history.
 
Seriously though, who cares
 
how so? there are other centers in history better than him, even when he was in his prime and healthy. increased longevity wouldn't have been enough for him to surpass them.

Never got a chance to be healthy.
Never got a chance to truly develop yet was still an ATG. Had he never been injured he'd of been indestructible.
 
Never got a chance to be healthy.
Never got a chance to truly develop yet was still an ATG. Had he never been injured he'd of been indestructible.
In your fantasy where he doesn't get injured, I suppose he would be indestructible...in that he doesn't get injured.

He was old generation when players were much closer to being a finished product after four years of college. I don't think he would have been better than Wilt, Hakeem, Jabar, or even Shaq had he had a chance to "develop". I doubt any reasonable person would.
 
And he was from "long ago". He was probably closer to 6'4" tall, could barely jump high enough for his shoe laces to clear the floor, and couldn't make any shots that weren't dunks or layups. He was from that era when everyone actually sucked and the less-sucky players made it to the NBA. Compared to him, Kanter is a God among children.

Best ever. As if.
 
This era doesn't get enough credit for sure, because there's not a lot of highlights and every game wasn't televised. Basketball in slow motion clips doesn't give credit to the quickness of the game even at that time. Alot fewer teams to make, unlike today. I grew up in Oregon in the 70's and early 80s so I was a hardcore fan of the Blazers during the Championship and bit after until the Jazz won me over. Had a life-size poster of the whole Blazer team photo made up of alot of individual posters that took up my whole wall as a kid. Waking up to those faces starin' at ya in life size made me jump at least a couple of times. So being a fan at the time before his injuries, he was as good as Jabbar (at the time) on a team that distributed the ball alot more than the Bucks/Lakers. Don't know if Walton could have ever made 10' foot sky hooks later in his career like Jabbar did. But then, I never thought Karl Malone would develop an outside shot.
 

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