Bob Petit was a stud....

[Diesel]

Is this guy the best player in Hawks Basketball History???

Year Team Lg G Min Pts PPG FGM FGA FGP FTM FTA FTP 3PM 3PA 3PP REB RPG AST APG STL BLK TO  

1954-55 MI1 NBA 72 2659 1466 20.4 520 1279 .407 426 567 .751 0 0 .000 994 13.8 229 3.2 0 0 0  N

1955-56 STL NBA 72 2794 1849 25.7 646 1507 .429 557 757 .736 0 0 .000 1164 16.2 189 2.6 0 0 0 M N

1956-57 STL NBA 71 2491 1755 24.7 613 1477 .415 529 684 .773 0 0 .000 1037 14.6 133 1.9 0 0 0  N

1957-58 STL NBA 70 2528 1719 24.6 581 1418 .410 557 744 .749 0 0 .000 1216 17.4 157 2.2 0 0 0  N

1958-59 STL NBA 72 2873 2105 29.2 719 1640 .438 667 879 .759 0 0 .000 1182 16.4 221 3.1 0 0 0 M N

1959-60 STL NBA 72 2896 1882 26.1 669 1526 .438 544 722 .753 0 0 .000 1221 17.0 257 3.6 0 0 0  N

1960-61 STL NBA 76 3027 2120 27.9 769 1720 .447 582 804 .724 0 0 .000 1540 20.3 262 3.4 0 0 0  N

1961-62 STL NBA 78 3282 2429 31.1 867 1928 .450 695 901 .771 0 0 .000 1459 18.7 289 3.7 0 0 0  N

1962-63 STL NBA 79 3090 2241 28.4 778 1746 .446 685 885 .774 0 0 .000 1191 15.1 245 3.1 0 0 0  N

1963-64 STL NBA 80 3296 2190 27.4 791 1708 .463 608 771 .789 0 0 .000 1224 15.3 259 3.2 0 0 0  N

1964-65 STL NBA 50 1754 1124 22.5 396 923 .429 332 405 .820 0 0 .000 621 12.4 128 2.6 0 0 0  

11 Season Totals   792 30690 20880 26.4 7349 16872 .436 6182 8119 .761 0 0 .000 12849 16.2 2369 3.0 0 0 0  

Well,

As I cycle through the dieselputer, I think it's hard to determine.

There are 2 things that you must bring into agreement and find a way to correlate and quantify them:

1. The development of the league.

2. The development of players.

There are a lot who would argue that the leagues have become watered down now.

What that means is that if you have 8 teams, those 8 teams have the best players that can be found in that genre. What that means is that you can have a team with Kidd, Finley, Carter, KG, and Mourning. and you can have a team with Payton, Kobe, Tmac, Malone, and Shaq on it. Teams were balanced. That means on a nightly basis, a player had to play hard because every night he was playing against top competition. There were no Cavs and Clippers back then. As the league expanded, that balance of good players seperated.

The 2nd thing is probably more important. The development of the players.... Basketball is not a game where from the beginning every player has been as good as every other player. What I mean is that the best in the 1960s would not be great in 2003? Imagine George Mikan in the league today. Would he be the best C in the league. I know for sure that SHAQ would rip him a new one. BUT....that's not to say that we live in the best time for basketball. I think Basketball has peaked. I think the best time for basketball was somewhere around 1980-1992.... That was the best time. That's the time you had:

Kareem, Magic, Jordan, Bird, Erving, Thomas, Ewing, Robinson, Malone, Stockton, etc.

Basketball was probably at it's strongest.

Since that time, Basketball has started to go downhill from the pinnacle. The reason is because now, players are physically well kept, but they are not as smart as they used to be and they don't have the fundamentals as good as they used to.

In the beginning all they had were fundamentals. I don't think that they were physical close to what we have now.

Up, had to reboot the dieselputer... got off track.

But I don't think Players were as Physically gifted as they are now. So that NBA's best wouldn't be nearly as good in this NBA.

So the thought is where would this Stud Petit be in today's game.

would he be better than Reef?

Would he be better than Karl Malone?

would he be better than Tim Duncan??

I can't say for sure.

Mule might know.

[cyman3]

i think SHAQ said it best... he said somethin like this:

"people always ask me how I'd play against the great centers of the past, like Wilt Chamberlain or Bill Russell. Am I better than Wilt or Bill? If they played in my generation, how would they do?"

"well... i like to answer that question using this analogy. Its like comparing cars. U cant compare a 1960 Mercedes with a 2000 Mercedes."

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- in other words, Shaq was sayin that durin the 1960s Mercedes was one of the best cars out in the market. It was a lot better than the cars at that time. A 2000 Mercedes is still one of the best cars in this generation. But u cant compare a 2000 mercedes with a 1960 mercedes cuz Time has changed and the makin of Automobiles has changed as well"

I think thats the best way to go... NOT COMPARING PLAYERS.

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but if i had to answer ur questions, i think the best way to compare past and the present is like this...

1)Past had more skills. More all-around game. These days, if ur 6'8" and can dunk with style... who cares if u cant shoot? ur our starting SG/SF!

I would love to see some statistics in FREE THROW percentages. Average FT % for nba players back in the day and the average FT % now.

2)Players in this era are more physically gifted.

[Diesel]

If all the eras were mixed and styles and what not...

I think the best players of all time would go like this:

1. Kareem Abdur Jabber.

2. Jordan

3. Wilt

4. Russell

5. Shaq

6. Malone

7. Pistol Pete

8. Magic

9. Duncan

10. Petit

and so on.

Why Kareem #1. Kareem was definitely skilled and balanced. However, Kareem also perfected the sky hook. In his day, the sky Hook was unstoppable. Kareem never scored 100 point like Wilt and I don't think he scored 63 points like Jordan. But he scored when they needed points.

Why Jordan #2. Jordan is probably the most competitive person (well maybe next to Russell) that has ever played. Because of that, you see 3 different offerings of Jordan. #1. Dunker. #2. Post UP SG. #3. fall away SG. Each offering of Jordan was equally as brilliant. But the fact of the matter is that he dominated basketball for 6-7 years.

Why Wilt #3. Well, many people say there's no difference between Wilt and Shq? I think there is. Wilt didn't get to dunk much. The dunk was Outlawed for much of Wilt and Kareem's years.. However, Wilt perfected the finger roll. He had a hook shot . He could do it all.

Why Russel #4. With 11 Rings, he should be #1. He was probably the most dominant defensive player ever. I think had he played today, he'd be the most dominating PF. PlUS he was TOUGH and Mean. If he had unstoppable offensive moves he'd be #1.

If you'd notice, I broke up Stockton and Malone and Magic and Bird. Reason being these players are not tied together as many would suggest but Malone is a serious PF. Almost the most complete PF in the history of Basketball. Magic is about the most complete Player in basketball history. Bird needed Space and wasn't going to be a defensive stopper. Stockton was a great PG but couldn't carry a team.

[Diesel]

If all the eras were mixed and styles and what not...

I think the best players of all time would go like this:

1. Kareem Abdur Jabber.

2. Jordan

3. Wilt

4. Russell

5. Shaq

6. Malone

7. Pistol Pete

8. Magic

9. Duncan

10. Petit

and so on.

Why Kareem #1. Kareem was definitely skilled and balanced. However, Kareem also perfected the sky hook. In his day, the sky Hook was unstoppable. Kareem never scored 100 point like Wilt and I don't think he scored 63 points like Jordan. But he scored when they needed points.

Why Jordan #2. Jordan is probably the most competitive person (well maybe next to Russell) that has ever played. Because of that, you see 3 different offerings of Jordan. #1. Dunker. #2. Post UP SG. #3. fall away SG. Each offering of Jordan was equally as brilliant. But the fact of the matter is that he dominated basketball for 6-7 years.

Why Wilt #3. Well, many people say there's no difference between Wilt and Shq? I think there is. Wilt didn't get to dunk much. The dunk was Outlawed for much of Wilt and Kareem's years.. However, Wilt perfected the finger roll. He had a hook shot . He could do it all.

Why Russel #4. With 11 Rings, he should be #1. He was probably the most dominant defensive player ever. I think had he played today, he'd be the most dominating PF. PlUS he was TOUGH and Mean. If he had unstoppable offensive moves he'd be #1.

If you'd notice, I broke up Stockton and Malone and Magic and Bird. Reason being these players are not tied together as many would suggest but Malone is a serious PF. Almost the most complete PF in the history of Basketball. Magic is about the most complete Player in basketball history. Bird needed Space and wasn't going to be a defensive stopper. Stockton was a great PG but couldn't carry a team.

[Guest]

Today's players are more of track stars than skilled

players or smart players. Today's players can be

easy outsmartered.

JT is the biggest example.... Would you call him a

smart player? Can somebody that looks so clueless

at everything other than scoring be smart at BB? I

mean, he looks bad on defense because he looks

like he doesn't understand how to play defense in

the NBA.

It's really sad how clueless the players seem to be.