2013 Lakers - Greatest starting five in NBA History?

[2013 Lakers]

LOL come on now, Artest & Kobe aren't HOFers.

are you retarded?

[Psileas]

No

The 1966-67 Philadelphia 76ers team was the best team of all-time. Consisting of the best player of all-time, Wilt Chamberlain, a world class athlete, volleyball player, bodybuilder, actor, doctor, and savior of our world. He averaged an amazing 20+ rebounds per game. He played 48 minutes per game. He was the greatest athlete of all-time. He could do everything. He dominated his peers and the league as a whole. Chamberlain is the butter to my bread, the milk to my cereal.

Them and Wilt >> anything the Lakers and Kobe did and will do this season.

[diamenz]

well, certainly not the greatest team in laker's history, but maybe the most stacked group of hof's.

... and they're barely making the playoffs! sheesh.

[PHILA]

The 1966-67 Philadelphia 76ers team was the best team of all-time.

Even the 1969 Sixers are far better than this Lakers team. They lost both Wilt & Luke Jackson after 25 games, though they acquired Archie Clark and Darrall Imhoff & thus embraced small ball. They changed into a running team offensively with even more movement & passing to compensate for the size lost in the paint. Defensively they played a scrambling 3-1-1 zone defense with guards like Wali pressing full court. Coach Jack Ramsay even set a maximum weight for each player, threatening them with a fine of $100 for every pound "overweight" they were.




Christian Science Monitor - Oct 15, 1968

Even without Wilt Chamberlain, the Philadelphia 76ers this year will be massive in size and talent. They will play a different game, built around more running, more passing, more defense, and more-diversified rebounding. But the overall results may be just as impressive. Chamberlain, who has worn out coaches than the Greyhound people, will be replaced by Luke Jackson, a natural center who has been playing the corner.

"Without Wilt, our approach will be different," said Coach Jack Ramsay, who has left his general manager's chair for a year on the bench. "We may not handle rival teams as easy as we have in the past, but we'll be tough. We're going to pressure people on defense. "We can't play a low post game any more," Ramsay continued. "When the clock begins to run out on us now we won't be able to funnel the ball into the pivot and let Chamberlain do the scoring. We're going to have to include more people in our offense and fastbreak whenever possible."




Christian Science Monitor - Mar 28, 1969

Ramsay teaches a disciplined defense and for the most part, a disciplined offense. While the 76ers run a lot, they almost always run with a purpose. Most of their free-lancing on offense comes only from their forwards. Philadelphia has been built to exploit other team's mistakes, while committing a minimum of their own. They seldom beat themselves. The 76ers probably would have won the Eastern Division title during the regular season if they hadn't lost their No. 1 pivot, Luke Jackson, after only 25 games. Jackson was board strength, plus scoring. While Darrall Imhoff, the man who replaced Jackson, did a marvelous fill-in job in 'Luke's absence, second best is never quite as good as the original. Losing Jackson put a double rebounding burden on Philadelphia's two starting forwards, Billy Cunningham and Chet Walker. Cunningham had a sensational year. He was great on the offensive board, he was excellent on defense; and he scored almost 25 a game.

Imhoff, the starting center, is one of the best passers in the league for a big man. He averaged 30 minutes of strong basketball. a game and he got good backup help from George Wilson, who came over to the 76ers in mid-season in a deal with Phoenix. Wally Jones and Hal Greer, the backcourt guards, complement each other nicely in what they do. Greer is a great scorer - one of the best middle-distance shooters in the history of the game. Jones is either all-on or all-off as a scorer, but his defense always the texture of barbed-wire.





Sports Illustrated - February 24, 1969

Philadelphia really has no business being in the race. The 76ers traded Wilt Chamberlain, the greatest scorer and second-best rebounder in the history of the game, to the Lakers, and their fine coach, Alex Hannum, switched over to the ABA. Then in December 6'9" Lucious Jackson, Chamberlain's burly replacement, went out with an Achilles' tendon injury and it seemed time to deflate the basketballs and disband. Yet, there stands Philadelphia right up near the head of the class and attendance at the Spectrum is running about 2,000 a game ahead of last season. If high winds do not damage the Spectrum's roof again, the lid might be blown off by sheer fan enthusiasm.

"After Wilt was traded, the best the papers could say was we'd be a more exciting team without him," says Billy Cunningham. "That's like somebody fixing you up with an ugly blind date and then trying to hide what a loser she is by saying she's a great dancer."

The main reason for the 76ers' surprise success is Cunningham, the brash forward from Brooklyn who is known as The Kangaroo Kid or just Kang. He is only 6'6", a sapling in a courtful of redwoods, but he is the team leader in rebounds and 10th in the NBA. That, he says, is what, comes of growing up practicing on playgrounds with guys nicknamed Airplane, Helicopter and The Elevator Man.

Operating last season as one of the league's best sixth men, Cunningham scored 19 points a game. Now, as a starter (and an All-Star pick), he is averaging almost 25, some baskets coming on the long jump shot he has perfected since his college days at North Carolina but most coming in heavy traffic close to the hoop. He loves to free-lance and is much more effective now that Chamberlain is not clogging up the key.

"You can't really stop him, he takes bad shots," said an Eastern Division opponent. "I don't think he can make 'em when you're not on him. He needs contact. He likes to go down the middle or across the middle, sort of like Elgin Baylor used to play—hanging up there and making shots under his arm and every which way."

"I wasn't too good at outside shooting before I turned pro," explains Cunningham, "because when I was learning basketball at home in Brooklyn we always played outdoors. Nobody shot jumpers much because you had to know where the wind was blowing from and compensate for it. Mostly it was a driving game."

Not only does he rebound and score, but he officiates, too. Many NBA players grouse about decisions that affect them directly. Cunningham likes to get in a word or two or three on almost every play, even if he is a floor length away from the incident. If a fellow 76er is the victim of a foul, Cunningham often makes the call before the referee has a chance to blow his whistle. In a game in New York he was, as usual, playing and officiating at the same time when Knickerbocker Coach Red Holzman, not having much luck with the refs that night, hollered in desperation, "Billy, if you're going to referee, how about calling them both ways."

Cunningham denies he deserves an honorary striped shirt, saying, with a touch of modesty, "I don't call three-second violations much."

Philadelphia is not all Cunningham, of course. After General Manager Jack Ramsay reluctantly replaced Hannum with himself, he installed a full-court press that is feared all around the league. He decided to put Guards Hal Greer, Wally Jones and Archie Clark in at the same time, backed up by Cunningham, and the result was a sort of dash-and-scramble mayhem that helps make up for the rebounding strength that disappeared with Chamberlain and Jackson.

"I figure with our speed and extra defense we can give away 10 rebounds a game and still win," says Ramsay. "To do it we must force turnovers and then handle the ball well when we get it. So far, it's worked."