The Top 5 Centers Of All-Time According To A Group NBA Legends

By No Guts, No Glory • September 17, 2009

During the Hall of Fame induction festivities last weekend, Kenny Smith of TNT decided to “stir the pot”, as he called it and ask some NBA legends who they thought were the top 5 centers of all time.

Before you ask, no I don’t know who the legends were that he asked. No, I don’t know how many legends he asked. And yes, Kenny Smith could’ve been making this all up. But he isn’t because he tweeted about it, so it’s gotta be true. Everything on twitter is true. You didn’t know?

Now that we have that out of the way, here’s the criteria (by order of importance) that these legends went about to make there decisions:

1. Defense
2. Rebounds
3. Post Scoring
4. End of Game Dominance
5. Passing (Making others better)

Here’s what the legends came up with. (No particular order):

1. Kareem Abdul Jabbar
2. Wilt Chamberlain
3. Bill Russell
4. Hakeem Olajuwon
5. Moses Malone

And in a close 6th, Shaquille O’Neal. Simmer on that for a moment while I get to another nugget Smith dropped.

While I’m sure one name sticks out like a sour thumb ([cough] Moses Malone [cough]), Kenny Smith makes sure the world knows that the legends were very adamant about including Malone in this list.

Predictably, a flood of responses come in with names such as David Robinson, George Mikan, Tim Duncan (not sure he made his living as a center), Shaq, Patrick Ewing, Willis Reed, Robert Parrish, and Bill Walton.

So who you got in your top 5?

For the record, my top 5 (no particular order):

1. Chamberlain
2. Russell
3. Shaq
4. Olajuwon
5. Kareem

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