TERRY MOSHER
TOM STITH
They were debating the merits of LeBron James as one of the games’ best player of all-time, exclusive of Michael Jordan, who was claimed to be the best of all time. The debate raged for some time, which is the key to sports talk radio: get listeners interested so they will call in and give their two cents.
As phony as the debate was, it brings up a point that I have expressed in writing before: you can’t compare teams, players or boxers from different eras. It just doesn’t work.
I think in pro basketball you have to put players (and teams) into 15-year brackets. So Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and MJ belong together in one bracket and how they would compare to today’s athletes and to today’s games can’t be truly done. Who knows how MJ would play against today’s players? If you think he would be the best, that is all and good for radio guys because it cuts down the time they have to make things up. But to be fair, we really don’t know how MJ would do today. I will be honest and say he would likely be among the best, but do we really know?
How would Elgin Baylor and Jerry West do in today’s game?
How about Big O, Oscar Robertson?
George Mikan?
Wilt “The Stilt” Chamberlain?
Bob Pettit?
Bob Cousey?
Bill Russell?
Dr. J?
There is no way to tell. I can tell you this; I saw the Big O play and he was incredible. He would back down a defender and even though the defender knew what Big O was going to do and when he was going to do it, that didn’t stop Big O.
Wilt wanted to set the NBA scoring record. He set it. He wanted to set the rebounding record. He set it. He wanted to set the assist record. He set it. What Wilt wanted, Wilt got (and please no women jokes allowed).
How would Russell fare in rebounding and defensive skills in today’s game? I really don’t know, and I don’t think you do either.
Pettit was one of the best jump shooters of his era. Could he get away with that in today’s game? No way to really know.
Same with boxers. Great ones come and go. Jack Dempsey, how would he do in today’s boxing ring? Some experts believe he was and is the best heavyweight of all time. Yet Dempsey weighed less than 190 pounds spread over his six-foot-one frame. He was really a light heavyweight by today’s standards. So how would he do against the current champion, Wladimir Klitschko, who is six-foot-six and weighs just under 250 pounds?
I don’t know. Dempsey was a prodder. He was brutal. He could punch out a cow. But we really don’t know how he would do in today’s world. We can’t mingle boxers in different eras and reach a definite conclusion.
The problem with today’s word is that everybody has long-term memory loss. We see an athlete like James, who is build like a brick layer, is fast as a speeding bullet and can almost leap over tall buildings and don’t remember the greats that played the game before him.
But I can’t tell you how James would fare against Big O, Magic, Bird or Russell?
Just can’t. And I can’t tell you how Big O, Magic, Bird or Russell would do against James.
I’ve even left out one of the greatest players I ever saw. That would be Tom Stith of St. Bonaventure. Stith was six-foot-five and practically unstoppable. He averaged 31.5 points his junior year (second to Big O in the nation). His pro career with the Knicks was cut short when he developed tuberculosis in his first year after being the second pick in the first round of the 1961 NBA draft.
How would Stith do in today’s game? Don’t know, and will never know. Stith died in 2010 at the age of 71.
Be well pal
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.