Put JaVale McGee in the 50-60's and he's top 10 player all-time imo..

[noosaman]

I fee like McGee would be garbage no matter what era you put him in

[waseem780]

Thread is bad and OP should feel bad. Bring Wilt into our day and age, give him our work out programs and what we know about nutrition and what not and he'll still be a beast. Sure we have more legit bigs now but back then they measured with no shoes on. Mikan being on the high end of 6"9 barefoot would probably make him around Dwight's real size barefoot. Stop posting the same rubbish every week

mikan in todays league is a poor man's brian scalabrine.. same height same body same skill. i can guarantee that

[ralph_i_el]

You know why this thread is stupid? You could pick the 5 most talented ball players from ISH, and they would probably dominate the 50's. I know in my prime (22) I could go in and wreck havoc defensively on those guys, and play a similar game to Rondo, but at 6'4" and without the insane athleticism. I would be worried about some of these guys in the 50's catching my wrap around passes, or anything through the legs.

The physicality back then was insane - that would probably be the equalizer, and Cousy seemed to be the only pg that would pount the air out of the ball, so I probably wouldn't be overly accepted.

The skills I have worked on didn't really exist back then. Same with any modern baller (not talking about your average scrubs).

Overall, stupid idea for a thread. It's been done many times before, and Russell and Wilt would still destroy McGee.

those guys played ball for a living and you sit on your computer. What makes you think that you're any better because your gym, ball, and hoop are in 2012?


Mcgee would still be an idiot if he played back then. Obviously he'd put up better #'s because his greatest weakness is large bulky centers which he would not be facing at that time. However, it's not like you can just jump through people and become the GOAT. He would still have no idea how to be part of an offense or how to play in a real defensive scheme

[ralph_i_el]

muhammed ali,joe frazier ..etc wuld whoop todays boxer's (pacquio , mayweather)

well you'd hope so considering pacquio and mayweather weigh 80+ lbs less than Ali and frazier.

I'm starting to think OP is dumber than javale

[swi7ch]

I think top 5.

[fsvr54]

You know why this thread is stupid? You could pick the 5 most talented ball players from ISH, and they would probably dominate the 50's. I know in my prime (22) I could go in and wreck havoc defensively on those guys, and play a similar game to Rondo, but at 6'4" and without the insane athleticism. I would be worried about some of these guys in the 50's catching my wrap around passes, or anything through the legs.

The physicality back then was insane - that would probably be the equalizer, and Cousy seemed to be the only pg that would pount the air out of the ball, so I probably wouldn't be overly accepted.

The skills I have worked on didn't really exist back then. Same with any modern baller (not talking about your average scrubs).

Overall, stupid idea for a thread. It's been done many times before, and Russell and Wilt would still destroy McGee.

LOL at this nikka thinking he can ball.

[Deuce Bigalow]

[KG215]

muhammed ali,joe frazier ..etc wuld whoop todays boxer's (pacquio , mayweather)

Of course they would. Ali and Frazier were heavyweights. Ali was like 6'3" and over 200 pounds, and Frazier was like 6'0" and over 200 pounds. I don't know they exact weight restrictions for their classes but that's not a good comparison. And both Pacquiao and Maywether are is 5'7"-5'8" and around 140 pounds.

[Kiddlovesnets]

Nope, his B-ball IQ would still be as low as it is now, he aint making all-star games.

[TheBigVeto]

imagine putting JaVale McGee on a team during the 50's and early 60's he would Dominate with his athletiscm and size.. he would be as good as Wilt and Russel with a littel extra motor ... guys back then were unathletic 6'6 centers.. george mikan was considered a giant at that time and he was 6'9 1/2 .... while javale is 7'0 with long arms he can also beast offensively like he did against lakers in a couple games during the playoffs but he lacks consictency in todays time..But that would be easily fixed because the 50'60's were much easier and he would put those numbers on a bad day .. i mean like probably 1 out of 15 guys could dunk back then he'd be swatting it pretty easily

ok man. he may not end up top 10, but he'll be better than Wilt.

[Kblaze8855]

There were guys back then holding players who would go on to light up players in the 80s to awful performances. Players with skill. But Mcgee is just gonna jump over people and become a scorer and some dominant player?

You do know he wasnt that in college right? wilt was a 7'1'' 265-310 pound track star and Russell was a 6'10'' top 10 world ranked high jumper. Mcgee didnt dominate Boise st but hes gonna eat up guys who could contain/nearly shut down 7'3'' amazingly skilled kareem who has dropped 40+ on multiple players who played into the 2000s....

It amazes me what some people fail to notice. you could guard Mcgee with Deng and hes not gonna take the game over.

Even if the bigmen were as small as suggested(they were not) its not like Mcgee goes off on smaller bigmen now. he has little skill. In the 50s they would expect him to be a focal point...play back to the basket and be able to play inside out. Pass. Hit cutters.

half his problem is him thinking hes a skilled attacking type and that isnt helping when hes asked to be even more of a traditional bigman than he is now.

He goes out there and tries to dunk from the FT line over a set defender hes never playing again. Some of the shit hes pulled would probably set black people back a decade in basketball. Guys back then were getting benched for dunking on people. having their legs taken out for attempting to be flashy. nobody was throwing lobs.

If mcgee did play in the 50s all that would happen to show you hes as athletic as he is is amazing blocks of which 99.9% would never be seen by modern fans. You would be on here saying Tyrus thomas would be a star if he could be guarded by guys like Mcgee because you wouldnt know shit about him like you dont know shit about the players as they were.

And when you say maybe 1 of 15 players could dunk its clear you dont. The average height only went up an inch from like 67 to 07 and thats not considering the fact that they changed the official heigh listing to include shoes on.

Just because you never saw a lot of them dunk doesnt mean they couldnt. The Harlem Globetrotters did well known pregame dunk contests just for the fans in the 50s.

They were 6'3''-6'10'' people who playing sports for a living....and you think only 1 in 15 could dunk?

There is virtually no footage of Oscar Robertson dunking. You really think there are many 6'5'' guys like this:





Who cant dunk?

They had no reason to. Layup is 2 points. Why dunk? So someone who never watched them play anyway knows they could?

You dont appear to know that the guys who DID dunk could dunk. Ive see nthe Lakers in like 1954 dunking in layup lines warming up and none of them seemed to be really trying. So what?

There are plenty of guys who played modern ball who would totally shut Mcgee down that at a glance are no more physically capable than 50s players.

Chris Dudley or Kurt Thomas would shackle Mcgee and be stuck to the floor doing it.

The worst thing about topics like this is just how many people you could get to believe it. My little cousin told me today that basketball "Back in the day" was garbage. He meant 1996. When he was 3. We were watching the olympics and talking about the 96 dream team vs todays. a team he never saw....full of amazing players almost all of whom played modern stars as equals. And they are garbage.

Because hes a know nothing 19 year old idiot. Lot of those going around...

[AAckley1]

I'm tired of people insulting Walt Bellamy, Nate Thurmond and Kevin Willis.

[Kews1]

It's a very stupid premise, but by the sounds of your usage of the word 'mate', my guess is that you're an Australian....

Hahahahaha bloody Aussies mate I tell ya

[Trumpin]

I fee like McGee would be garbage no matter what era you put him in

So garbage that next year he'll make more money then your whole family made in it's entire existence.

[G.O.A.T]

ok my point is that this generation is much more athletic than the past and an average but athletic player could easily dominate in the 50'60s

your point is wrong.

If aestheticism was more important than skill Steve Nash, Kevin Love, Al Jefferson, Boris Diaw etc. would not be in the NBA, let alone be good to very good players. Athleticism gives you greater potential which is more valuable now that teams get to develop and mold players year round.