Living Among Giants

Where the Wild Giants roam

The tale of how the NBA’s most fantastic beasts were set free

by Paul Flannery

magine, if you will, a 7-footer. Lithe and lean with boundless energy—this is no lumbering giant. Picture him shooting from 23 feet. Or picture another racing down the court on a fast break. It will happen quickly, a crossover dribble followed by a dunk that took only a few steps to travel the length of the court.

This scene takes place almost every night across the NBA as a new generation of big men thrill and amaze us, while changing the sport and breaking every orthodox tendency we previously took for granted. It took generations to get to this point, and it did not occur in a vacuum.

For as long as there has been basketball, there has been a need for giants. In the beginning the giants did not need to be swift or agile. That they were tall was enough. But as the game has evolved, so have the giants.

George Mikan brought skill. Bill Russell revolutionized defense and kickstarted the transition game. Wilt Chamberlain combined superior athleticism with power and ability. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar unfurled a graceful, unblockable shot. Bill Walton controlled both ends of the floor with his passing and defense.

Each of these trendsetters marked different evolutionary moments in the game's history. It's no accident that the NBA's early dynasties were all known for having a dominant big man. Between Russell's ascent in the late ‘50s to the early ‘90s, only two teams won championships without an All-Star center on their roster (the 1975 Warriors and the 90s Bulls).

The 1980s and 90s saw the rise of a different kind of franchise player. Guards and forwards who could do a little bit of everything were now in vogue, and the great teams were led by players like Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan.

It's ironic, then, that the ‘80s also marked a renaissance of evolutionary big men. Patrick Ewing had range. Hakeem Olajuwon reinterpreted post play with stunning agility. David Robinson was strong and fast. Shaquille O'Neal was simply monstrous.

But one player fell through the cracks. Long before big men shot threes and Euro-stepped from the free throw line, there was Ralph Sampson. He was 7'4, but he could shoot, dribble, pass, and block shots.

Ahead of his time and often derided for being too soft, Sampson is best remembered as an injury-scarred bust. After leading the Rockets to the 1986 Finals alongside Olajuwon, Sampson developed knee problems and never played a full season again. He left the game without winning a Final Four, an Olympic medal, or an NBA title.

Yet, Sampson had higher aspirations. He wanted to revolutionize the sport. As Sports Illustrated's Alex Wolff wrote in a 1986 profile, Sampson sought "to reinvent basketball's big man as a fluid prototype, someone who integrates skills from the other spots on the floor."

He never did get that chance, as injuries stifled his career. It wasn't until a decade later that a high school player from Chicago by way of South Carolina arrived on the scene to pick up the baton.

Kevin Garnett never wanted to be a 7-footer because he knew that meant being consigned to a life in the paint. KG insisted he was a forward and early in his career thought of himself as a point guard. He could do anything he wanted in the post, but Garnett liked to survey the court from the top of the key, where he could facilitate or knock down 20-foot jump shots. KG was no traditionalist, but his one nod toward conservatism was his belief that big men didn't shoot from behind the arc.

Garnett not only inspired waves of high school players to enter the NBA, he established the template for big men who could play the entire court.

Garnett could pass, shoot, and run like a guard, but as wonderful as he was on the offensive end, he revolutionized defensive concepts by cutting off entire sections of the floor. No longer would big men simply have to defend the paint, now their attention was needed everywhere.

More than two decades after KG made his debut, basketball's evolutionary cycle has brought a new era of big men into the world. They can do anything, and are encouraged to do so by open-minded coaches. The only limits to their games are our imaginations.