Let’s Play a Game Part 1
Let’s play a game. The game is this. It is the year 1975 and a spaceship from a foreign planet has landed on earth and the human like alien creatures tell the powers of the earth that they want to own the planet. They have all of the means and the firepower to conquer the Earth. Things look dire. Then it is found out that these space aliens like basketball. They have their own team that are the champions of the galaxy. They are just like humans, but super good basketball playing humans. Some really good, quick guards that can dribble, shoot and create. A couple of big, 7-footers that can shoot, rebound and block shots. Some athletic, great shooting forwards. They are, indeed, a GREAT all star team.
They give the earth an option. If the earth can throw a team together and beat them in a best of seven series, they will spare the planet. They give the earth’s management team a couple of rules (to make it fair). One is that the players have to come from the NBA. Two is that they have to have been in the NBA for at least five years worth of their career. And three, to make it interesting, each player will have their exact skills and abilities that they had in their prime, when they were playing their very best. Earth gets to field a 12 man team, with three alternates.
The task then is to create this team, utilizing all of the all time best NBA players (pre-1975 era), that could best play a critical, high stakes series with all of the importance of playing for the survival of your planet. The object would have to be for this team to not only be a good statistical team, but also to be a team that can compete at the very HIGHEST of levels and can WIN the biggest series of games in their lives. You will need players that can score (as their opponents will undoubtedly play good defense), but you also need a team with players that can defend THEIR opponents, play unselfish team basketball and most of all, do what it takes to WIN. Who would you choose?
Here’s who I chose.
Coach – Red Auerbach. The Boston Celtic coach and architect of all of their great championship teams knew how to get a team to play defense. Knew how to get them to run the fast break enough to get as many easy points as possible, and yet run enough of a structured offense to get his team to get the best shot selection possible when the other team got back on defense. When big games were played during the Celtic Era, Auerbach got his teams ready to play. They WON nearly every big game they ever played. I want Auerbach coaching this team.
Bill Russell – If you want to put together a team to WIN the most important series ever played, there is no one any better than Bill Russell, the great defensive center of the Boston Celtics who won 11 out of 13 NBA titles in his NBA career. He blocked shots, rebounded the ball defensively as well as anyone who ever played, he made great outlet passes to start the fast break, and he simply played like the main cog in the wheel of championship style basketball. There were many years when he averaged over 20 rebounds a game. Oh, and in college, Russell led his team to two unbeaten seasons and two NCAA championships. Plain and simply, he is the greatest winning basketball player ever. He could compete against anybody.
Wilt Chamberlain – In his prime, Wilt once scored 100 points in a game and AVERAGED over 50 points a game over an entire season. That’s not having one or two games when he SCORED 50 points. That is averaging 50 points for EVERY game of the season. Wilt could score. And he could play defense too. He consistently got between 15 and 25 rebounds per game. He blocked shots. He clogged up the middle. He was as strong as an ox, and would be on nearly every short list of the greatest centers to ever play the game. You want this man as a centerpiece of this team.
Oscar Robertson – The Big O was the first true “point, scoring guard” to play in the NBA. In his prime, he AVERAGED a triple double, scoring over 30, and getting over 10 rebounds and 10 assists every game over a whole season. To see him play was to see a guard who could control a game with his dominant guard play. He was legendary for his ability to back in on a defender who was guarding him 20 feet out and bump him back until he could get off an 18 foot turn around jumper. And hit it consistently. He was better when the defender was right on top of him. Double team him and he’d pass off for the assist. He was the guard you wanted to have the ball as much as possible. He was a guard that could dominate.
Jerry West – There is a reason that Jerry West, the man they base the logo on for the NBA’s trademark, is on most lists of greatest players of all time. He was a player that made all of the players on his team better by the sheer will of his desire to win. The Laker guard led his team to the NBA finals eight times in his 14 year career. West could create his own shot and get off a jumper at any time and any place. One year in the playoffs, injuries forced him to be a one man team and he averaged 46 points a game in a heroic playoff win. His game would translate to be great in ANY era and you need only see how well he has functioned as an executive to know how smart he was and how well he understood what it takes to win in this sport. In this critical of a series, he’s the guy you want with the ball at the end of a close game.
Rick Barry – I want Rick Barry on this team as a “point forward” type of player that knows how to make all of the players around him to be better players. He can shoot the ball, drive the ball and create opportunities for his teammates with some excellent passes. Oh, and he can hit better than 90% of his free throws too. He led an average team to a championship. I could only imagine what he would do with the rest of this team as his teammates.
Walt Frazier – Walt “Clyde” Frazier would be the sixth man guard coming off the bench behind West and Robertson. He can shoot, defend, pass, and control the ball and the flow of the game as well as any point guard. He would be a starter at guard on this team if not for the greatness of the other two. His Knicks won two championships in a very competitive era in the late 60’s, early 70’s and his team play at point guard was the primary reason. I’m not so sure during the key moments of a close game in this series that you would WANT him on the court playing defense during crunch time.
John Havlicek – Havlicek has often been called the best sixth man in NBA history. He’s either a sub off the bench for the big, shooting guard or the small forward. He’s a tireless player, always running around at top speed on both offense or defense. A great player on the wing during the fast break, he’s also a clutch shooter that always seemed to be in the right place at the right time. The best thing about Havlicek, though, is that he played on eight championships with the Celtics. He was a man that knew how to do what it takes to win big games.
Elvin Hayes – Elvin Hayes, The Big E, was an early prototype of the power forward position. He was as good as anybody who ever played at backing his defender up and turning around and hitting some form of offensive shot. A big rebounder, he would be on this team to be the traditional power forward off the bench that could score and rebound when needed. He would compliment the rest of this team well.
Elgin Baylor – Elgin Baylor was one of the best forwards of all time for many years before other players started getting more athletic (and frankly, bigger than him), but he could do so much as an all around player. He is on this team because he can shoot, rebound really well for a guy 6’5″, and best thing of all, he could drive to the basket, jump, hang in the air off balance, and yet either get fouled, or hit a large percentage of his shots on offense. One of the best NBA scorers of all time, he also was, what would now be considered a “double – double machine.
Willis Reed – Reed was a great shooting power forward type playing center for a pair of Knick championship teams. If a defensive center wanted to stay back on defense, Reed would hit the outside shot. If they came up on him, he would drive past him. He was a big, thick power player that could play great team defense and rebound with the best of them. On this team, he could come off the bench and play like the center who played on the Knicks, or he could play some power forward off the bench behind Wilt and Russell. Mainly though, he was a winner.
Earl Monroe – Earl The Pearl Monroe would be on this team because if the game was fast paced, he could score in the open court with the best of them. If the pace was slower, he could play a form of shooting guard with the ability to get the ball and either drive or pull up and hit shots. He has championship and deep in the playoffs pedigree from his years on the Knicks or the then Baltimore, later Washington Bullets (now Washington Wizards).
Lou Hudson – There are two words that come to mind when you hear the name Lou Hudson. Jump shot. Every team needs a pure, outside shooter to hit the outside shots when the defense either zones you up or packs it in on the big men. A consistent twenty plus points per game ball player, Sweet Lou Hudson could stroke it from outside as well as anyone who ever played. He did not get the benefit of the three point shot when he played, but he would get it on this team in this format. He made this team for his shooting over some other all around players, but if this team needed him to make a key shot, he would.
The alternates to the team would be Nate Thurmond, a big, hard working center that could play solid on both offense and defense, Hal Greer, a quick, slick shooting outside threat to give some more depth to the guard position, and Jerry Lucas, an early version of the power forward position, who was one of the smartest and best pure rebounding players ever.
Also considered for the team were:
Walt Bellamy (too many centers), Dave Bing (too many guards), Sam Jones (was he a product of the Celtic success or good on his own?), Bob Pettit, George Mikan, Bob Cousy (unsure how they would translate in a speed oriented basketball universe), and Wes Unseld (would he be too short to play center and too limited offensively to make it as a power forward? He certainly was one of the best ever at the outlet pass for a fast break). Some other players did not come into the league until after the “eligibility period.”
This is the team I would field in 1975 against the best team in the galaxy. With the history of mankind on the line, I would want the twelve players I chose out there on the court playing for our survival. Although it’s a game (or a series) that could only be played in the mind, it sure would be fun to see this team playing against an all star team of outsiders, wouldn’t it?
