If a young Bill Russell and Michael Jordan were time traveled to the same draft...

[SHAQisGOAT]

Some of the answers from these ignorant children

[Hamtaro CP3KDKG]

The dominant college player who was the leader of his title team.

[Nikola_]

Gotta go with big man, more impactful

[IncarceratedBob]

If I get pippen then Jordan

[tpols]

I think any player from 1956 drafted in to this league would struggle. The game has moved on so much, Russell would be lacking so many fundamentals of the modern game.

Now take Russell being born in 1995, growing up and learning the modern game and still having the same attitude and ability? Now that's a much more difficult question.

The only fundamentals that are different are ball handling and traveling rules and long range shooting. Big man fundamentals have regressed.. Russell wouldn't be missing anything

[Akrazotile]

The interesting thing is that when I watch footage of Bill Russell, the guy he really does remind me of in terms of stature/fluidity/skill set is Noah.






Obviously Russell appears more "dominant" on film because he's playing against a much less significant talent pool. But I honestly believe the actual talent/physical comparison by today's NBA standards is Joakim Noah. Which is no slight, really. Afterall Noah is a 2014 MVP candidate

[Fazotronic]

Russell and Hakeem have identical frames.

pfffffffffffffffffffffff
russell doesn't have anywhere near as much agility as hakeem did.
he would never develop the skill set of a hakeem just based on his god given talents.
everybody that tries to imitate hakeem ends up forcing those moves which makes them look completly unnatural.

He played against Wilt... who nobody you mentioned outside of Shaq even comes close to physically. He'd be fine.

yea wilt who was a mental miget in the playoffs and played on way lesser teams.
easy for a guy like russell on the best team to talk shit in his ear and keep him in check.
but iam glad wilt wasn't on those celtics or he had all them rings plus all the crazy stats which would make him GOAT for ever. at least for some ppl like you that would be enough.

much easier to discredit a russell and his 11 rings so its all good.

[Myth]

Give me Russell 1970s and earlier, and Jordan 1980 and later.

[iamgine]

Definitely Michael Jordan.

You can argue ability wise, most people think MJ's definitely better.

But you can't argue on the $$$ impact MJ made.

[Johnny Jones]

Bill Russel is slightly better than Kyle O'Quinn in this era. His ceiling is probably Dwight Howard with less offensive skills, so Jordan easily.

[fpliii]

pfffffffffffffffffffffff
russell doesn't have anywhere near as much agility as hakeem did.
he would never develop the skill set of a hakeem just based on his god given talents.
everybody that tries to imitate hakeem ends up forcing those moves which makes them look completly unnatural.



yea wilt who was a mental miget in the playoffs and played on way lesser teams.
easy for a guy like russell on the best team to talk shit in his ear and keep him in check.
but iam glad wilt wasn't on those celtics or he had all them rings plus all the crazy stats which would make him GOAT for ever. at least for some ppl like you that would be enough.

much easier to discredit a russell and his 11 rings so its all good.

Really?

I say this as a big, big Hakeem fan, but he does not have a massive edge in terms of agility over Russell. He may not be better at all in that regard.

[Fazotronic]

Really?

I say this as a big, big Hakeem fan, but he does not have a massive edge in terms of agility over Russell. He may not be better at all in that regard.

whatever makes you sleep better

[russwest0]

People picking Bill Russell, especially for this era, are retarded.

Jordan playing in Russell's era would be unfair as hell

[NumberSix]

The interesting thing is that when I watch footage of Bill Russell, the guy he really does remind me of in terms of stature/fluidity/skill set is Noah.






Obviously Russell appears more "dominant" on film because he's playing against a much less significant talent pool. But I honestly believe the actual talent/physical comparison by today's NBA standards is Joakim Noah. Which is no slight, really. Afterall Noah is a 2014 MVP candidate

This is what I've been saying for a while but people keep thinking I'm trolling or trying to be funny. I'm not. Bill Russell is basically Joakim Noah playing against worse competition.

[LAZERUSS]

This is what I've been saying for a while but people keep thinking I'm trolling or trying to be funny. I'm not. Bill Russell is basically Joakim Noah playing against worse competition.

From the mid-60's until the end of his career, he was playing in 9-12 team leagues. The best centers of that era were Beaty (go ahead an look up his entire career), Reed, Bellamy, Thurmond, and Chamberlain. And even Unseld and Hayes in his last season.

He was battling those guys 8-10 times each, per season.