Question for fans of 60s era basketball.

[RoundMoundOfReb]

Are there any hyper athletic players from the 60s who weren't good? Like Javale McGee/James White today?

[B-hoop]

Wilt...

Lol

[Lebronxrings]

uhhh I think that 5'3 white guy... can't remember his name...

[RoundMoundOfReb]

Wilt...

Lol
I mean weren't good in their time.

[STATUTORY]

were there any black players that were not good period?

[RoundMoundOfReb]

were there any black players that were not good period?
Didnt they have their own league back then?

[Dro]

Gus Johnson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uchAeIUAZco
:applause:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0oYuSgG_cs

bio
http://www.jockbio.com/Classic/Gus_Johnson/Gus_Johnson_bio.html

thread by CavsFTW
http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/showthread.php?t=290143

edit - just realized you meant ridiculous athletes...Gus may not totally fit the mold but according to his peers, he was the Lebron of his day....

[RoundMoundOfReb]

Gus Johnson was good though...

[kshutts1]

1) Those players are easily forgotten, so really difficult exercise.

2) Hyper athletes likely played baseball and football back then. Basketball was not, at all, popular. Similar to soccer/hockey now.

[RoundMoundOfReb]

1) Those players are easily forgotten, so really difficult exercise.

2) Hyper athletes likely played baseball and football back then. Basketball was not, at all, popular. Similar to soccer/hockey now.

1) I realize that but surely there must be a couple of examples. Every single team has a few of these guys in the modern NBA.

2) So it was a weak era?

[RoundMoundOfReb]

Lol at the mod edit. Im still waiting for a response from cavsftw/lazerus.

[Kblaze8855]

Of course there were.

There were track standouts in the NBA nobody knows about because they never made an impact. There was an olympic gold medalist and world record holding high jumper.....role player....on the Warriors when they had Paul Arizin. And he was like 6'9''. 6'9''....olympic GOLD MEDALIST on the warriors. And 99.5% of ISH will have to google to find out who it is.

Nobody knows him because nobody gives a shit about marginal players.

You not knowing these guys just proves that point....it says nothing of their existence.

[CavaliersFTW]

Lol at the mod edit. Im still waiting for a response from cavsftw/lazerus.
Great athletes have never always resulted in great basketball players, and great basketball players have never always needed to be great athletes. The same was just as true then as it is now. So you've never heard of the great athletes that didn't make impact on the league in the 60's? Shocking.

I will sum up your clickbait with as tasteful an answer as possible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48rz8udZBmQ

[Psileas]

Of course there were, though, for obvious reasons, it's way harder to find evidence of their athleticism.
A few cases that come to mind:

-Cleo Hill (it's said that his teammates froze him, but I still see poor shooting and rebounding numbers)
-Young Don Kojis or LeRoy Ellis were no stars by any means.
-Bob Beamon was drafted by the Suns, couldn't make the team.
-Jim Brown was only a decent college basketball player, was drafted by the Nationals, never played in the NBA.

[MiseryCityTexas]

Of course there were.

There were track standouts in the NBA nobody knows about because they never made an impact. There was an olympic gold medalist and world record holding high jumper.....role player....on the Warriors when they had Paul Arizin. And he was like 6'9''. 6'9''....olympic GOLD MEDALIST on the warriors. And 99.5% of ISH will have to google to find out who it is.

Nobody knows him because nobody gives a shit about marginal players.

You not knowing these guys just proves that point....it says nothing of their existence.

Paul Arizin was an All Star though

[Psileas]

Paul Arizin was an All Star though

Paul Arizin was. Not the other guy, though.

Hint: Averaged around 5 pts, 4 rebs in his career.

[SHAQisGOAT]

That was like 50 years ago. Hit me back in 50 years and tell me about all the players (from right now) who were great athletes but basically scrubs... It ain't easy.

I wasn't alive back then and I'm not gonna call myself a big expert about it, but I can think of:

Walt Davis
Greg Smith
LeRoy Ellis
Walter Dukes (7 footer)
...
Furthermore, Gus Johnson was a beast of an athlete and much more than that yet he wasn't out there winning MVP's, making all-nba 1st's and whatnot...

Shit, I was just watching this vid the other day, and I see a nice putback dunk by this dude I've never even heard of...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut3R7SViJlY&t=13m58s
A big and buff 6'10'', 255+ lbs, center by the name of Bob Christian:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut3R7SViJlY&t=12m5s
Not even more than 5 seasons in the league...

Guess only Wilt, Russell or Baylor were great athletes :rolleyes: Lots of ignorant people here...

[Psileas]

Herb White (not Smith - post 18)

http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/showthread.php?t=278907&page=2

[senelcoolidge]

The NBA has always had outstanding athletes. But trying to remember scrubs fro 40 years ago..that's hard unless you were following the league back than. I barely remember some of the athletic scrubs from the 90's and 00's.

[WillC]

LeRoy Ellis comes to mind.

[MavsSuperFan]

No Javale would have been an all-time great if he played then, his athleticism alone would have made him elite back then

[Marchesk]

Gus Johnson doesn't count because he's in the HOF. He's just one of the more forgotten players form that era, like Same Jones.

[pudman13]

Herb White comes to mind, also Helicopter Hentz, who was barely a scrub in the lesser ABA yet was able to tear down two backboards in one game. I'm sure every team had a few---we just don't know who they were because they were failures in the NBA.

Also, I should point out that some of the era's biggest playground legends never played in the NBA for various reasons, in some cases because they had athletic ability but never really learned how to play a team game. There's a reason Jumping Jackie Jackson played on the Globetrotters rather than in the NBA.

[SHAQisGOAT]

No Javale would have been an all-time great if he played then, his athleticism alone would have made him elite back then

Just "another" Walter Dukes...