Dennis Johnson is one of my all-time favorite NBA players. Although he’s primarily remembered by most fans in the basketball community for winning championships with Seattle and Boston, I’ve always felt that he reached his peak as an individual player during his 3 year stint with the Phoenix Suns.

In particular, I think DJ’s first season with the Suns in 1980-81 was his absolute peak as an NBA player. That year he finished 8th in the voting for league MVP while also earning the one and only First Team All-NBA selection of his career. That season also included the highest scoring single game of DJ’s career when he accumulated a total of 39 points in a February 1981 matchup against the Knicks. Phoenix’s defense also transformed into the NBA’s #1 rated unit upon DJ’s arrival, and individually, he received the most votes for the NBA All-Defensive Team that year, making it a very likely and realistic possibility that he would have been the Defensive Player of the Year if the award existed at the time. The 1981 season also featured the best All-Star Game performance of DJ’s career when he was the West Team’s co-leading scorer with 19 points on 62.5% shooting while also being their leader in steals by notching a total of 3.

For the entirety of that 1980-81 regular season, the Suns posted an overall record of 57-25 and were the champions of the Western Pacific Division. And although they were eliminated in 7 games in their first Playoff matchup against Kansas City, DJ played a tremendous series but was brutally let down by his teammates. Across that entire series, DJ was Phoenix’s scoring leader with an average of 19.6 Points Per Game which included a 31 point performance in Game 2, in which he was the only Suns player to achieve double digit scoring numbers. He also had a very strong Game 7 by tallying 28 points on an impressive 58.8% shooting. And finally, DJ also led the Suns in steals and blocks throughout that series with an average of 1.3 for both stats. On the other hand, fellow Phoenix All-Star’s Truck Robinson and Walter Davis grossly underperformed in that series. For the 1981 regular season, Robinson averaged 18.8 points on 50.5% shooting, but in the 7 games against Kansas City, his averages took a steep drop down to 10.6 points on just 35.1% shooting. And Davis posted regular season averages of 18.0 points on 53.9% shooting, but managed only 16.0 points on 48.1% shooting in the series against the Kings. Phoenix’s starting Center Alvan Adams also had a very poor series, managing to produce just 10.6 points on 45.0% shooting, which was well below his regular season averages of 14.9 points on 52.6% shooting. DJ was still playing at a championship level that year, but his teammates failed to uphold their end of the bargain.

And the following season in 1981-82, DJ earned his 4th consecutive All-Star selection while also posting his career high numbers for Points Per Game in both the regular season and Playoffs with averages of 19.5 and 22.3 respectively as well as being named to his 4th consecutive All-Defensive First Team. In terms of all-around two-way impact, DJ was the most complete Guard in the league at that point in time in the early 1980’s.

Are there any particular memories or insights that you have about Dennis Johnson’s time in a Phoenix uniform? I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

When thinking about all of the championship winning teams throughout NBA history, I think the one that tends to get the most overlooked and forgotten about is the 1979 Seattle SuperSonics. At least in my opinion, they were very ahead of their time in multiple aspects.

Collectively, that Sonics team was basically an earlier version of the 2004 Detroit Pistons in the sense that they didn’t really have a true bona fide superstar but came together and won a title with cohesive teamwork and suffocating defense. During the 1979 season, the Sonics were at the top of the league in numerous defensive statistics. For starters, they were first in the NBA in opponent Points Per Game by only giving up 103.9 with the overall league average being 110.3. They were also at the top of the standings in opponent Field Goal Percentage by allowing 46.3% with the collective league average sitting at 48.5%. And finally, the Sonics had the NBA’s best Defensive Rating with a 100.1 with the league average being 103.8.

And individually, that Sonics team had Jack Sikma, who is generally considered to be the original NBA Stretch 5. They also had John Johnson, who was a very early iteration of the Point Forward archetype. Downtown Freddie Brown was one of the original long range shooting specialists and he led the league in 3 Point Percentage during the first season that the line was introduced. And finally, they had Gus Williams and Dennis Johnson, who would be an elite backcourt duo in any era of NBA basketball. Gus was a terrific scorer at the Point Guard position and would probably be even better with today’s spacing and freedom of movement rules. And DJ (who won the 1979 Finals MVP) was one of the absolute greatest perimeter defenders in NBA history while also averaging 20.9 Points Per Game during the 1979 playoffs.

Even with all that said, it seems like the 1979 SuperSonics have been largely forgotten and lost in the shuffle of basketball history. Who are some other teams that come to your mind when thinking about past NBA champions that have become overlooked and underappreciated by modern audiences? I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

"Why is it that Hank Gathers is no longer talked about?"

The short answer to that is the passage of time.

I believe it's been 36 years now since Hank Gathers passed away from a cardiac condition. Hard to believe it's been that long. He suffered from cardiomyopathy and, if I remember correctly, had been diagnosed with it the year before. He was taking medication to control it, but I believe he felt the dosage was affecting his performance, so he had it lowered. Unfortunately, that also affected the effectiveness of the medication. They rolled the dice, and, unfortunately, in March of 1990, Hank Gathers, who played for Loyola Marymount, passed away. I believe their mascot was the Lions, but correct me if I'm wrong. I know he played for Loyola Marymount.

That's another thing I've always thought about when it comes to the era of basketball we grew up watching, man. Aside from the fact that there were so many talented players whom guys today pretend weren't good in the '80s, '90s, and early 2000s, there were also players who never reached their true potential because of injuries, like Grant Hill, Penny Hardaway, Greg Oden, and Brandon Roy. Then you had people who were never able to reach their true potential because of death: Reggie Lewis and Dražen Petrović. And then you had a couple of guys who didn't even get to make it to the pros. You had Len Bias, who passed away the year he was drafted. As far as what kind of player Hank Gathers would have been, I guess he might have been like a smaller version of Shawn Kemp. They were both around 6'7", and they had similarities: rim-running, a power game, and not necessarily being perimeter-oriented, especially coming into the NBA.

I would think Gathers would have had to adjust his game because he was smaller. He was 6'7", 215 pounds, which is a little small to play power forward. But aside from the heart condition, if he had been healthy, I would assume he probably would have put on some weight as he got older, as we all do. At 215 pounds in college, he might have bulked up to around 235 at 6'7". Keep in mind, I think Larry Johnson was 6'7", 235 pounds when he was drafted. And Larry Johnson played both power forward and small forward. Hank Gathers was a great rebounder in college and a great scorer. I don't know how he would have translated to the NBA or how well he would have performed. I don't think he would have been as great as Len Bias, but I do think that, if everything had gone right, he could have been an All-Star-level player in the NBA. I think he probably would have played small forward. Depending on which team he ended up with, they might have experimented with a small-ball lineup and played him at power forward at times.

But if I had to take a guess, I could see him averaging around 20 points, eight rebounds, and three assists a game. Maybe eight and a half or nine rebounds and three assists. That's just my guess. As he got older, I think he probably would have expanded his game out toward the three-point line, especially considering the era he would have played in. Maybe he could have developed into someone who consistently knocked down open threes.

But that's all open to speculation.

It was such a tragedy when he died. Such a tragedy, man. And Bo Kimble never really got over that loss. Hank Gathers was his best friend, and Bo never got over losing him. I think Bo Kimble, if I'm not mistaken, and someone correct me if I'm wrong - was drafted by Miami. I don't think he was in the league for more than two or three years. I think he was out of the league pretty quickly. But yeah, man, it's sad that Hank Gathers isn't remembered as much anymore. Some of that has to do with the fact that he came before the digital age, before the internet really became a thing. And, of course, he doesn't have an NBA career to look back on. That hurts, too. The people in the media who watched Hank Gathers play or remembered him for years afterward aren't in the media anymore. Those people have retired or passed away. I'm talking about the writers and reporters. They're gone now. Skip Bayless is a relic of that era.

A lot of the people working in sports media today weren't even born when Hank Gathers was playing. So we've got to remember our greats, man. We've got to remember these guys and keep their memories alive.

Rest in peace, Hank Gathers. Tell me what you guys think.

Of course, the Sonics went 64-18, made it to the NBA Finals, but lost in six games to the 72-10 Chicago Bulls.

The 2000 Lakers went 67-15, which I believe was the best record of any of those Shaq-and-Kobe teams. I think it was the second-best record in Lakers history. They also won the NBA championship. Shaquille O'Neal was not only Finals MVP that year, but he was also the league MVP. It's the only time Shaq actually won that award.

I can pretty much do this one without really thinking much about it. The 2000 Lakers win, and I'd say in five games. I'll give the Sonics one game.

I think there might be one game when Shaq is a little bit off his game and Kemp is on his, putting up one of those 30-point, 10-rebound, two- or three-block performances. Payton might have a game where he drops 34 points and eight assists or something. His outside shot is connecting, and he's on fire on the defensive end.

They're running up and down the floor, with Kemp throwing down vicious tomahawk dunks from the top of the KeyArena. Sam Perkins is hitting threes, and they're going to have one of those games where they're firing on all cylinders.

Sam Perkins knocking down threes, Hersey Hawkins knocking down threes, Detlef Schrempf knocking down threes. They're going to have one of those games.

But I believe the combination of Phil Jackson's superior coaching over George Karl, the Lakers' depth, and the fact that the Lakers have an advantage in the majority of the matchups on the court, at center, small forward, and shooting guard, is enough.

Payton is going to get the best of Derek Fisher, obviously. And I think Payton will score more in this series than he did against the '96 Bulls. I'd say Payton might average around 22 points a game. I'll give him 22 points, three and a half rebounds, and seven and a half to eight assists a game.

I don't think he'll shoot over 50%. He might shoot around 46-47% from the field and 34-35% from outside. I think he'll have a good series.

I think Kemp is going to average maybe 26 points and 10 rebounds, something like that, with around two blocks a game. They're going to get off.

But this was Shaquille O'Neal at his apex. This was Shaquille O'Neal at the absolute peak of his basketball career. This was when he was the most unstoppable, when he was living up to the moniker of Superman.

I don't think Ervin Johnson is going to effectively stop Shaquille O'Neal. And if you try to double-team him with Kemp, that's going to leave somebody like Robert Horry open. It's going to leave other people open, too. If you keep sending somebody to double Shaq, the Lakers have too many weapons -- guys who can knock down shots themselves and savvy playoff veterans.

I'm trying to remember that team. I want to say Horace Grant was on that team. I know Glen Rice was on that team. And even though Glen Rice wasn't a natural fit for them, I think he's going to get off against the Sonics. Even though the Sonics were a historically great defensive team, I think Glen Rice, is going to get off.

I believe Rick Fox was on that team, too. And I think John Salley. Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, Glen Rice, Ron Harper. That's right. Their starting point guard was actually Ron Harper, not Fisher yet. That was the next year. So that's Harper against Payton. It's an older Harper, though.

Okay, well, you know what? Let me revise that downward for Payton. I'd say 20 points a game, maybe 19 or 20.

A.C. Green was the power forward. Derek Fisher and Robert Horry came off the bench.

Tyronn Lue, Rick Fox, Brian Shaw, John Celestand - I haven't heard that name in a long time. Rookie Devean George, John Salley, Travis Knight, Sam Jacobson. Yeah, the Lakers have too much depth, and they're just, like I said, too much Shaquille O'Neal.

Shaquille O'Neal is probably going to average around 38 points a game. I'm not exaggerating. Thirty-eight points, 14 to 17 rebounds a game, and about two and a half to three blocks a game.

I wouldn't even be surprised if, going up against the Sonics in this scenario rather than the Pacers, Shaq actually dropped 50. The Pacers were a little more equipped to deal with Shaq, and you saw what he did in that series.

I just don't think the Sonics are equipped to deal with him. I mean, let's look at this team, man. I'm talking about the Finals, when you're going all out, you know what I'm saying?

At least the Pacers had some size and depth at the center and power forward positions. You've got Ervin Johnson and Frank Brickowski. The rest of these guys are too little. Perkins isn't a great defender. Kemp's not going to stop Shaq. They don't have enough size.

I think in this scenario, Shaq is going to average closer to 40. Thirty-six to 38 points a game. And if he could actually make free throws, he would break Michael Jordan's record of 41 points a game in the Finals. If he could knock down free throws consistently, that is.

I think he's going to have a 50-point game, maybe even two. He might have two 50-point games in this series. I'm seriously considering putting him at 40 points per game. That's how much I think he'll dominate the Sonics in the Finals.

That version of Shaquille O'Neal? I think he's that determined. With Phil Jackson telling him, "You've got to really go out there and dominate these guys," yeah, I think that version of Shaq, the way he was playing against the Pacers, would average 40 against the Sonics. I'm going to put it around 38 to 40 points, 15 to 17 rebounds, and three blocks a game.

Kobe still wasn't quite Kobe yet, but he was getting to that point. He's probably going to average around 14 to 16 points a game in this series. But I wouldn't be surprised if he had a game with 25, 26, or 27 points. That could even be the closing game, with Shaq scoring only 30, 36, or maybe 29 points or something.

Glen Rice is going to average around 17 points. He's probably going to knock down about three three-pointers a game on average.

I think they're going to blow away the Sonics. You can make an argument that, during that year of the Shaq-and-Kobe era, they played more inside than outside.

I don't think this is that competitive a series. I'm not saying every game is going to be a blowout. I'm not saying that. I think there are going to be some games that are close and go into the fourth quarter tied or within a few points. But I think it's just going to be too much Shaquille O'Neal down the stretch. And let's face it: George Karl fumbles the ball when it comes to these types of games anyway.

Do you really think Pat Riley would have waited, or Phil Jackson would have waited - or, going old school, Red Holzman or Red Auerbach would have waited until Game 4 to put Gary Payton on Michael Jordan in the '96 Finals? That would have been their game plan from the get-go, or at least after Game 1.

But anyway, that's my prediction. Tell me what you guys think.

Keon Clark, of course, wasn't in the NBA that long, just six years, I think from 1998 to 2004. He definitely was a guy who made some highlight-reel dunks, and it was exciting. He had the potential, in my opinion, to be a very, very good player. When you consider the fact that he later admitted to having mental health issues and essentially being an alcoholic, it's a different story. He said he started drinking, I want to say, during high school, and he said he never played an NBA game sober. He was always drunk while playing.

So, if you're doing what he was doing while drunk, you definitely have ability. As a matter of fact, he said he usually spent halftime getting drunk and drinking. He drank a pint of gin every day while he was playing. At least a pint of gin.

And, of course, he had legal issues once he left the NBA. I think he served, I want to say, three or four years in prison. I forget what the charges were. It might have been gun charges or something illegal. I forgot what it was. It might have been gang-related. I don't remember.But anyway, he's free. He's been free for several years now. I think he served four of the eight years of his sentence because of good behavior, and I hope he's living his best life.

Now, if he were playing in today's NBA, first of all, we have to address something about today's NBA: social media. I don't know if he would get away with the drinking in today's culture. And when I say culture, I mean how everything is scrutinized when it comes to players. Everything is reported. Just about everything. I don't think he would get away with that type of activity, that type of behavior, in today's NBA. So, if you take away the drinking problem and the fact that he was essentially shitfaced while doing what he was doing, can you imagine what he could have done in that era when he was playing?

He was playing in what I consider the most talented era for power forwards in history, from the late '90s through 2010. And then you look at the fact that he was playing in an era where you still had talented centers, and the spacing wasn't what it is today. The pace wasn't what it is today, either. So, a guy who's 6'11", with the arms he had, the crazy reach he had, and the hops and athleticism he possessed, would have been valuable in today's NBA. Even though people say this is a league where you have to shoot and all that. A guy like Keon Clark would be valuable because, could you imagine how much of a weapon he would be on a team that has a great point guard?

You've got a guy like that whom you could essentially play at center. He's 6'11". I want to say Keon Clark might have been 235 or 240 pounds. I'm not certain. But a guy like that could probably get you, if he played sober for 30 minutes a night, consistently nine to 10 rebounds a night. He probably could consistently get you 14 or 15 points a night. And with his shot-blocking ability, if he played consistently and was clean, I mean clean as in sober, he could probably block two to three shots a night.

The guy was part of that game when the Raptors set the record for the most blocks in a game. I think they had 20 blocks that night. And, yeah, you put him in today's NBA. Now, there aren't as many shots contested at the rim because things are pushed out now. So, he might not average four or five blocks or anything like that, but I think he could still average around 2.5 or 2.7. I think he would be a perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate. Now, whether he would win it, I don't know about that, but I think he would be valued for his rebounding, athleticism, and shot-blocking in a league where that isn't very common anymore.

I mean, you've got Victor Wembanyama, but think about it: how many shot-blockers do we really have in today's league?

You've got some other guys who can block shots here and there, but we don't really have a lot of shot-blockers anymore. When I was growing up, they were a dime a dozen. You had Manute Bol, Mark Eaton, Alonzo Mourning, Patrick Ewing, Shaquille O'Neal, David Robinson, and Hakeem Olajuwon, if I haven't mentioned him already.

You had a plethora of shot-blockers in the NBA. Now, it's not as common. So, what I'm saying is, look at the New York Knicks. They had Mitchell Robinson, right? A great offensive rebounder. Keon Clark was much more athletic than him. Now, I don't know if he was the offensive rebounder Mitchell Robinson is, but, as a matter of fact, let me check something out here.

Let's see something. So, in 1999-2000, in 81 games and 22.8 minutes per game, he was averaging around two offensive rebounds per game. And in 2000-01, playing around 27 minutes, he was averaging around two offensive rebounds as well. His best year was 2001-02. He played 81 games and started 31. That's nothing. He wasn't even starting most of his games.If you have this guy starting and he's sober, he's going to get you... I think if he were a full-time starter, played 80 games, and you gave him 32 minutes a night, or 30 to 32 minutes a night, yeah, he's going to average about 15 points and 11 or 12 rebounds, and probably around three to four offensive rebounds a night. If Mitchell Robinson can get a big contract in today's game, I don't know why Keon Clark couldn't.

But that just goes to show you how much... I hate to say this, but maybe I don't hate to say it. Our era was just great, man. The era we grew up in had a lot of talent.

So anyway, salute to Keon Clark. Tell me what you guys think.

One discovery I had recently is that Drexler was a bit more of a mixed bag intangibles wise than I realized. He had troubles with his 80s coaches Jack Ramsey and Mike Schuler for not showing up to practice enough, and Don Nelson ripped him one although he did not coach him and may have been defending Schuler. At the same time Drexler was not like one of mega talented slackers. He was insane about conditioning and was doing martial arts and flexibility stuff. He was the most private star in the league and religious family driven guy.

If you were around back then what did you think about Drexler's personality? And I feel like there is another sports player around like this I just can't put my finger on it.

People always talk about Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, and Adrian Dantley as the least lucky players ever, but nobody ever mentions Steve Mix. (Probably because time has largely forgotten him)

Mix played 13 years in the NBA, primarily for the 76ers, from 1969 to 1983. He was never the best player on any team he played for, but he was far from the worst, having career averages of 11, 5, and 2 over 788 career games.

For the first few years of his career, he was almost entirely a benchwarming reserve, even falling out of the league for the 1972-73 season. Despite this, he came back up from the CBA for the 73-74 season, and was selected as an all-star in 1975 while averaging 16, 11, and 2, with over 2 stocks a night.

Outside of Steve, the Sixers were a rather poor team during this team. This obviously changed when they got Erving in 1976. Along with adding Erving, they also acquired Henry Bibby, Darryl Dawkins, and Caldwell Jones in that offseason. With these new additions, the Sixers won 50 games and made the NBA Finals, beating Boston 4-3 and Houston 4-2. They could not reach the promised land however, losing to Bill Walton and the young Trailblazers in 6. (They lost game 6 by only 2 points, 107 to 109, and game 3 by only 6, 104 to 110)

After an ECF loss in 77-78, and a 47 win season in 78-79, they made the finals again in 1980 following a 59 win season where they beat the Bullets 2-0, the Hawks 4-1, and the Celtics 4-1. Yet again, they failed to make it all the way, losing to the Lakers in 6 in the finals.

The next season, the Sixers won 62 games and tied with the Celtics for the most wins in the regular season. They made it back to the ECF, but this time lost in 7 to the eventual champion Celtics. They followed this up with a 58 win season, making the finals for a third time in Mix's career. Just like the previous 2 times, they lost in 6 to Magic Johnson and the Lakers.

Mix left Philidelphia after this season, signing with the Bucks as a free agent in mid September of the offseason. He was now 35, and was far from the individual heights he'd reached nearly a decade by now, being waived just before the end of the season. With the Bucks, he averaged 6, 2, and 1 on under 14mpg. The Lakers picked him up only a few days after the Bucks waived him, and he played just 1 game of the season in the purple and gold. The Lakers made the finals, but unlike last season, were defeated by the Sixers in a 4 game sweep. Mix retired after the season ended.

Over his career, Mix played in 4 finals, losing every single one of them. (6-16 total for finals games) He also missed an entire season of his career, and left the Sixers just before the won the 1983 ring, to join the Lakers, who were beaten by those Sixers in the finals. He may not have as bad of a finals record as Baylor or West, but it's pretty close, especially for a guy who nearly fell out of the league at only 25.

One thing I've found a bit of importance in through my time on VintageNBA is honoring the last few living players from the very first generation of the NBA's existence by talking about them and sharing a bit about their careers and lives when they hit age milestones or when they pass. You may or may not have noticed that, last month, I didn't post about the 100th birthday of the NBA's listed oldest player, and quite frankly, I didn't because I wasn't sure whether or not he had actually made it to his 100th birthday.

Sadly for the sentimentalists among us who were hoping for a third NBA centenarian, we have to wait at least a couple more months for that, because I now have confirmation that former New York Knicks guard Harry Donovan died January 20, 2025, aged 98. He had been the oldest living NBA player for seven months, and was one of the last two surviving players from the NBA's inaugural 1949-50 season.

The youngest of eight children to an Irish-American dad who worked as an exterminator and a German-immigrant mom, Harry first fell in love with basketball in his hometown of Union City, New Jersey.

He played for Muhlenberg (then a D-I school) in college, alongside his brother Ed, right as many of college basketball's best players who had been off at war returned, and he was immediately the star man, scoring a team-high 13.9 ppg on a 23-5 team as a true freshman, during the last season true freshman were allowed to play as a WWII exception. He decimated all of Muhlenberg's scoring records en route to becoming their first 1,000-point player... and also their first 1,500-point player. His career-high 43 is still just one point off their current record, he doubled their career FTM record, once spearheaded a 105-37 win over Bucknell, and led the Mules to a 80-24 record during his time there, the greatest four-year stretch in program history.

The New York Knicks drafted him in the third round of the 1949 BAA draft, 30th overall. This made him part of one of the most successful single days of draft acquisitions by any team, as that Knicks' draft class also included Dick McGuire, Vince Boryla, Ernie Vandeweghe, and kinda-sorta Harry Gallatin, who was already on the team most of the previous year but had to be re-drafted as a penalty for questionable eligibility.

He played one season in the NBA, averaging 5.6 points on then-respectable efficiency in approximately 14 minutes per game. He played with the sort of hustle and fearlessness getting to the basket in spite of being both a rookie and a role player that makes me think of someone like Todd Lichti (minus the poster dunks at the end of said drives, I suppose).

Two things stand out to me about his career:

1) He was stuck in one of the hardest, weirdest positional rotation situations you could be put in. First, out of the 12 guys on those Knicks, four of them were principally SGs: himself, Vandeweghe, Goebel Ritter, and Bill (Butch, if you know him from his coaching days) van Breda Kolff. VBK had been a starter for them the previous year when they were one game shy of the Finals, Ritter had been an excellent seventh-man as a rookie, and Vandeweghe was a college superstar who probably would've been a top-10 pick if not for the fact that he'd told everyone he wouldn't play in the pros and would instead go to med school. Vandeweghe ultimately decided to do both, was rarely able to travel with the team, and as a result, Donovan's playing time doubled and halved at random depending on Vandeweghe's availability, and the one time Vandeweghe was able to go on a lengthy road trip with the team, Donovan had to sit through 11 straight DNP-CDs right after the best five-game stretch he had in the NBA.

2) He prided himself in being someone who wasn't easy to score on, and, in the last game of the season when the Knicks were playing for nothing more than pride and their opponent Royals were playing for the potential top seed in the West, Red Holzman iso'd Donovan and scored on four straight possessions. Donovan took offense to that and challenged Holzman to a fistfight, in which they both landed a couple blows. As it was 1950 and no one cared that much about discouraging fighting, both were simply issued a foul and play continued. A fan showed up to the Royals' first playoff game and gifted Holzman a miniature set of boxing trunks and gloves at the start of the game.

Donovan played three more years in the minor-league EPBL before calling it a day (weirdly enough spending two of them as teammates with Whitey Von Nieda, who was the first NBA player to make it to 100). He then moved down to Washington D.C. and became an overseas sales agent for the U.S. government, before going a bit further south and spending the rest of his life in Virginia.

One last thing, because it would be unfair to him to tell his story without including this: he went through what no parent should have to go through with three of his four children. His son James died at 21, his daughter Kathy died at 48, and his son Harry died at 57. He's now resting at the same cemetery as all three of them.

I recalled one side-bar article from my old SLAM Magazine, about Matt Geiger's stats with hair vs when he went bald. The gist of the article was, Matt reinvented himself from a generic white back-up center into a enforcer type, high intensity bigman.

He basically just shaved his head and grew a fu-manchu mustache/goatee, but his stats improved from thereon.

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Hairy Matt ( 92-95) - 6.7ppg, 4.1rpg , 55.4% fg%
Bald Matt (95-2001) - 10.6ppg, 6.4rpg, 48.1% fg%
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Missing from the article was the fact that he shaved his head to support his twin brother during chemotherapy for Hodgkin's disease.

I'd always thought this story first came out in Kareem's 1990 autobiography and so had been somewhat sceptical – even the most honourable figures can be unreliable narrators on the subject of themselves.

But in putting together my previous post on historical FMVP voting tallies I discovered that the late Mr Livingston had put it in print two years earlier – straight from the horse's mouth.

Full text in comments.

Averaged over 21ppg first 4 seasons (22 per 36 min) then got injured in year 5 and declined. Was he a good stats / bad team guy? Seemed to be high Steals and low TO

David Robinson has always been one of my personal favorite NBA players. Although he was incredibly talented and impactful on both sides of the ball throughout his career, in particular, I think the defensive end of the court was where he truly shined the brightest.

In terms of being able to single handedly carry and anchor a team’s collective defensive unit, Robinson was one of the absolute greatest that the NBA has ever seen. During the first 7 seasons of Robinson’s career from 1989-90 to 1995-96, for the entire league, the Spurs ranked 3rd, 1st, 1st, 10th, 9th, 5th, and 3rd in defensive rating, and then in the 1996-97 season, Robinson only appeared in 6 regular season games due to injuries and the Spurs defensive rating fell to dead last at 29th. And upon Robinson’s return in the 1997-98 season, in which he played 73 regular season games, the Spurs defensive rating jumped back up to 2nd in the league. That just shows how immense his defensive impact was on those teams and how incredibly inept they were on that end of the court without him in the lineup.

Also throughout that first 7 year stretch of Robinson’s career before the injuries, he held overall averages of 3.6 blocks per game and 1.7 steals per game, which also included his 1991-92 season when he won the Defensive Player of the Year award and posted averages of 4.5 blocks per game and 2.3 steals per game, which is the highest combined blocks and steals average for a single season by any player since the NBA started officially tracking those stats in the 1973-74 season.

Robinson’s defense also had terrific longevity. Over the 11 season stretch of 1989-90 to 1999-00, Robinson led the league in defensive rating a total of 5 times in 1992, 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000. He also finished 5th in the voting for the Defensive Player of the Year award in 2000-01 when he was 35 years old and only 2 seasons away from retirement. When you take into account and consider how historically elite Robinson’s defensive peak was and how long he was able to sustain a level of defensive excellence throughout his entire career, I think that firmly places him in the conversation amongst all of the greatest defenders that the NBA has ever seen.

In your opinion, where does David Robinson rank in the hierarchy of all the greatest defensive players throughout NBA history? Top 10? Top 5? I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

He was famous and his per-36 for a 5yr peak was 20 & 8. Was it because his CAREER FOULS PER 36 MIN was 5.8 (no joke, two seasons about 8)

72% of his shot attempts came either at the rim or behind the arc his rookie season. Beyond that, he broke just 50% only twice more in 1998 and 2005.

I know that the 3PT line was still shortened for 96-97 but this still seems like a massive jump and doesn’t explain his high volume at the rim. Was his shift into a mid-range assassin from Larry Brown’s coaching or just losing a step and adapting to jumpers or what?

Who were some of the centers of the 60s, 70s and 80s you felt were under appriated.

How did his playstyle change throughout his career? He went crazy in the ABA early on, then slowed down and statistically started falling off, only to suddenly lead the NBA in fg% for 4 straight seasons. Did he just become far more of a play-finisher, or was there more to it?

One of those player's whose tough to find footage of today, its rare to hear him mentioned beyond "one of Wilt's supporting pieces on the Sixers". Then he jumps to a consistent 1st team player and an ABA MVP, before quickly falling off and retiring at 32.

As someone whose only seen a few highlights, I'd love to know how he played and what made him jump from not even an allstar to one of the best players in the league.

Later in the 80s despite great regular season teams, there is too many teams in front of them. They never got through the Celtics and Sixers in the East and then they'd have still to play the Lakers.

In 1981, I think they actually have a chance. They win 60 games and have the 2nd best point differential, being one of the three elite East teams with Sixers and Celtics. With 40-42 Rockets as the surprise finalist after upsetting Lakers, the East may have decided the champion. The Bucks lose in 7 games to the Sixers by 1 point and with all their wins being by double digits, and the Sixers lose by 1 in 7 games to the Celtics. With the Celtics as a younger version of Bird and McHale they seem more beatable than their future champions. The Bucks also went on to beat the Celtics in 83.

With Moncrief as a younger version, this was Marques Johnson's team who had a great playoffs, and they got Lanier the year before and had been great after the trade (20-6) until losing to defending champion Sonics and continued strong play in 81. Lanier was still elite per minute but played less. Quinn Buckner looks like an important player for them with 4 all D teams in his career, and they had the Kareem trade guys Junior Bridgeman (scoring SF) and Brian Winters (shooter) still on the team and playing big minutes.

Overall I think the Bucks making it past the Sixers, beating the Celtics like 83 and then being favorite over Rockets was their best window to get a title without Lakers in final like 80 or 82 or brutal East later in 80s.