Most unique players to play in the NBA?

[fpliii]

Who comes to mind? In particular, I'm thinking of guys who had unusual skillsets or the ability to fill several different roles (different roles meaning you rarely see them embodied in the same player, for whatever reason) at a high level. Here are the first ten guys that came to mind:

Charles Barkley
Larry Bird
Kevin Durant
Kevin Garnett
Dirk Nowitzki
Magic Johnson
Dennis Rodman
David Robinson
Bill Russell
Maurice Stokes

I've left out the point forwards we've seen since they're the most cited, but they're obviously worthy of mention so feel free to bring them up.

[no pun intended]

Elgin Baylor.

Chuck Hayes.

[AngelEyes]

Magic : 6'9" point guard

Barkley : 6'4" 3/4 power foward with incredible strength, great rebounding, ability to lead the break and finish it with a dunk

Olajuwon : just under 7 feet tall, incredibly quick, could adeptly guard perimeter players

LeBron : 6'8" 250-265 lbs, incredible power, speed, leaping ability. Fantastic passer and can guard every position

Durant : Just under 7 ft tall and is a perimeter player

Sabonis : 7'3" could shoot the three, go to the post and was a fantastic athlete in his youth

Dirk : 7 ft tall, great shooter, including from 3 pt range

KG : 7ft tall, great athlete, great all around player

Bird : 6'9" forward with passing skills of a point guard

Walton : 7 footer with great passing skills and great mobility when healthy and in his youth

Kareem : 7"2", mobile, most unique, unstoppable shot in history of the league

[AngelEyes]

Dr. J : Incredible leaping ability, with enormous hands for a small forward

MJ : incredible combination of speed, leaping ability, strength for a guard. Like Dr. J he also has huge hands

Dantley : 6'5" forward he dominates in the post and shoot a very high percentage

Connie Hawkins : 6'8", 6'9" forward with massive hands and great athletic ability

[willds09]

allen iverson- shooting guard in a point guards body, best crossover until they banned it, crossed mj twice in his prime, played every game like his last, over 20 injuries and still played, best player to led a horrible team to nba finals, theres too much to say about this guy, he talked about tha actually game not practice, 6'0 but played like 6'6, one of tha true 50 greatest players

[AngelEyes]

T-Mac - 6'8" two guard with great shooting ability, great using his left hand, talented passer and great at driving to the basket when healthy

Penny - 6'7"- 6'8" point guard with awesome passing skills, great athlete, good shooting

Grant Hill - 6'8" forward, very good passer, good rebounder, good scorer, great athlete

Ralph Sampson - 7'4" power forward, center - great athlete

Oscar : 6'5" point guard with rebounding skills and great scoring

[KembaWalker]

Ben Wallace? Major defensive presence for a 6'9" center

[AngelEyes]

Ben Wallace? Major defensive presence for a 6'9" center

6'9" is probably very generous, 6'7" is perhaps closer to the truth, which makes his accomplishments all that more impressive.

[xoneatom]

how about yao ming? freakishly tall but can shoot the ball well (fade away jumpers, fts, etc.)

[scott0326]

Jan Vesely, he's white, can't shoot and is good at dunking.

[Force]

No Shaq mention?

That's as rare/unique a player you will ever see. Nobody that height and size has any business having that kind of footwork. Look up what the legendary Pete Newell had to say about his abilities. He said that people think of his size but he suggested for anybody to watch Shaq play 3 games and just watch his feet and you will be blown away that those feet could be moving on a body that size. Unreal. Pete was the #1 authority on all NBA big men and taught plenty of nba stars. I don't think there will ever be anything like Shaq again.

[Djahjaga]

Not that I don't like any thread that leads to an actual discussion of players' abilities (instead of vague concepts like clutchness or will to win), but if you describe any player thoroughly enough, you'll find he's unique.

I think you can say we'll see an X type of player before another Y type of player (i.e. a Carmelo before another Lebron), but, in general, every great player is pretty unique. That's what makes them great.

I always struggle choosing between Barkley, Bird, and Magic. Those guys were all ridiculously unique. How many players can dominate on such little athleticism? How many bigs can pass better than 99% of guards? How many SG sized players can grab 30 boards and shoot so damn well from the field?

NBA history is great.

[elementally morale]

It makes very little sense listing all the great players and telling us obvious things like unique speed or unique passing ability. Actually, these are not unique. There are people who were better than others, that's it.


A Few Unique Things Though
[LIST][*]the skyhook, the dirk-like fadeaway[*]earl boykins, spud webb, muggsy bogues and the like[*]being luke waltonian -- not much of a baller but still making the nba on iq alone[*]rodman at the time (now it's overplayed, at the time it was unique)[*]phil jackson's approach to coaching (same as rodman, at the time)[/LIST]


If you like the list, I can think about it some more. If you think these things are not unique, no amount of thinking on my part will be of any help.

[senelcoolidge]

Wilt Chamberlain duh. 7 footer with the speed of a guard (when he was you). Athletic ability and strength unmatched for a big man. Great offensively and defensively. Top class skills. Great passer.

[JerryWest]

Kobe Bryant, chucks a lot but can win games single handedly.