Clash of the titans

The NBA of the 70s was the era of dominant big men.  Coming to mind are the head-to-head battles of Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell.  There was also Nate Thurmond, Bob Lanier, Artis Gilmore and Dave Cowens.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Robert Parish, Patrick Ewing, Bill Walton, Dikembe Motumbo, the huge Mark Eaton and Jeff Ruland, Bill Laimbeer and the original Twin Towers, Hakeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson owned the 80s.

The 90s saw the emergence of a mobile and powerful big like Shaquille O’Neal.  The next edition of the twin towers was born in David Robinson and Tim Duncan, winning two titles in their six seasons together. Euro big men Arvydas Sabonis, Rik Smits, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Vlade Divac and Dino Radja made their presence felt.

Yao Ming, Dwight Howard, Ben Wallace, Amar’e Stoudemire, Brad Miller, Pau and Mark Gasol ruled the early part of 2000s.  Yao could have played longer than eight seasons in the league if not for a recurring foot injury which forced him to miss 250 games in six seasons.

This time, two seven-foot bamboo poles, one picked second overall in the 2022 draft and the other picked first overall in this year’s rookie draft, are making a potential center rivalry.  One lived up to the hype, the other, after missing the whole of last season, is sharing the limelight.

Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembanyama had an anticipated duel two weeks ago but it did not go as expected as both had modest production, but their overall performance in this young season had been exceptional.  Holmgren, pairing with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, seemed to be effective for the OKC Thunder and as of this writing, sits second behind, surprisingly, Minnesota at the Western Conference.

Wemby’s San Antonio Spurs are also second, but to the last of the WC, ahead of the bottom dwelling Portland Trailblazers.

The 19-year Wemby’s best game so far was a 38-point output in a win against the Phoenix Suns last November 2.  He added 10 rebounds and 2 blocks.  In 13 games, he had averages of 19.3 points, 9.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.6 blocks.  The Spurs haven’t won since then.

Holmgren, 21, has a 14-game average of 17 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.1 blocks.  His best game was an overtime win over the Golden State Warriors the other day where he scored 36 points, had 10 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 blocks.  That performance made him the first rookie since Luka Doncic in 2019 to have at least 35 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists in a game.  He also made Thunder history by   having the most points scored by a rookie.

These two emerging game titans will be having more entertaining battles ahead.

Interestingly, both, more or less, have the same size and build as our own big league hopeful Kai Sotto.  Sadly, he’s not NBA material, yet.  If his handlers insist on pushing the issue, Chet and Wemby will have him for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  The brutal, painful truth.