Who is the greatest offensive center to play the game?

[ThaSwagg3r]

Kareem? Wilt? Shaq? Olajuwon? Who you got? This is just a purely on an offensive standpoint. I think this is pretty tough question. Russell is pretty much out of the picture although he is a lot better offensively than most people give him credit for. He is still not in the level of Kareem, Wilt, Shaq, or Hakeem offensively though.

[1987_Lakers]

Tough question, but I give it to Kareem, he was more skilled than Wilt & Shaq and as good as Hakeem was with all of those moves, he wasn't better offensively than Wilt/Shaq/Kareem.

[DuMa]

Shaq. he had the most efficient, dominant unstoppable move.

[ShaqAttack3234]

I give Kareem the edge over Shaq because he didn't have the free throw shooting problem so he really had no holes in his offensive game. Though Shaq's physical dominance made teams change their gameplan more than any player I've seen, so it's close, but I'll stick with Kareem. Hakeem isn't far behind either, but a little more perimeter-oriented and his go to move was the fadeaway. I also think that he had to work harder for his points, but he was more skilled than any center I can think of, and unstoppable in his prime. Just a bit behind Kareem and Shaq in terms of effectiveness offensively.

[PHILA]

Who else? The main concern is whether his monstrous offensive rebounding edge over the other three C's listed in the OP is enough to compensate for his exceptionally poor foul shooting.







Russell & Walton also deserve mention in this thread.

[Scoooter]

Hard to go wrong with any of them, but I think Wilt takes it. He was just a points-scoring machine.

[with malice]

Kareem. He had the most indefensible offensive move.

[Odinn]

1. Kareem
2a. Shaq
2b. Wilt
4. Hakeem
5. DRob
6. Moses
7. Ewing

[Fatal9]

1. KAJ
2. Shaq
3. Hakeem
4. Walton
5. Wilt

[SFMF]

Kareem. I think his skyhook allowed him to score anywhere inside, and I think he was one of the greatest passing big man. I still get a headache understanding his 25.9 PPG .557 FG% 3.5 APG, the playoff numbers when he was 38 . He had a fantastic FT% as a big man as well. His only problem was rebounding, which isn't a big hole when we are talking about offensive game. Shaq was such a dominant monster post player, but his FT% is damaging when we are talking about the greatest offensive center, but you could still make a great case with him.

[D-Wade316]

Kareem. He had the most indefensible offensive move.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYq4CWeWaKg

[Big#50]

Kareem had the sky hook.
Shaq had the power.
Hakeem had the fade away and pump fakes/post moves. He could take most centers off the dribble as well. Had a great spin move. Good shot as well.
DROB had the speed and face up game. No center could keep him from driving. Had a good jumper.
Duncan had post moves, a good shot from behind the free throw line, the banker, and he was very quick off the dribble. He had that spin move.
Nobody can touch these five.

[Sakkreth]

Kareem had the sky hook.
Shaq had the power.
Hakeem had the fade away and pump fakes/post moves. He could take most centers off the dribble as well. Had a great spin move. Good shot as well.
DROB had the speed and face up game. No center could keep him from driving. Had a good jumper.
Duncan had post moves, a good shot from behind the free throw line, the banker, and he was very quick off the dribble. He had that spin move.
Nobody can touch these five.

Well thread title says to play the game, I might then say Sabonis, because he had everything, maybe spin moves not that much.

Hook shot ? Check
Power ? Not on Shaq level, but check.
Post moves and fadeaway ? Check
Face up game and speed ? Check
Shooting ? Better than most guards. Had best range than this whole list

Add passing, driving ability etc.

I just touched.

[millwad]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYq4CWeWaKg

Kareem had a whole season where he averaged 40 points on 52% shooting on Wilt. 2 blocks is not changing that..

[D-Wade316]

Kareem had a whole season where he averaged 40 points on 52% shooting on Wilt. 2 blocks is not changing that..

As if Wilt wasn't at the end of his career.