Not Enough Good NBA Centers Years 2000-2010.

You're right, 90s had a slew of excellent centers. Hakeem Olajuwon whose silky smooth moves has yet to be equalled by any center in the NBA (Luis Scola's moves come close, but then again he's not a center) Robinson, Ewing.... who were the truly dominant centers until the arrival of Shaq and Alonzo Mourning. The 21st century only boasts of a good center-Ben Wallace, but he's only dominant defensively. His offense sucks. Dwight Howard in my opinion is only an improved version of Wallace, high leaping, shot-blocking, bull-in-china shop rebounding..... but his post moves suck, he can't get anything done against a good one-on-one defense. That's not to mention his free throw shooting. At least Shaq had an excellent post curl to his right. And Shaq was real big, Dwight's kinda like Shaq-lite, which doesn't cut it against NBA defense. Pau Gasol's a really good center, when he plays center, but now most of the time he's doing power forward duties in the Lakers. The lack of centers in the USA is hurting NBA right now, as evidenced by the increase of foreign (not necessarily skillful) centers. Look at the USA team for the world championships....

I feel that they should have more centres, but it isnt stopping the youth of today to play basketball. ino not alot of them make it to the ''big time'' but they still have fun out there. there is alot of talent waisted becuase of yoouths not being abble to play becuase of crime. and alot of crime is starting becuase of bordem, so maybe it would make a bigger impact on the communtiy and todays youth.

Thanks for pointing out that one. Indeed centers in this decade from 2000-2010 are just not enough. I just want to point out that there have been 6 centers who have been drafted as the 1st overall pick in the NBA this decade. 2001 - Kwame Brown 2002 - Yao Ming 2004 - Dwight Howard 2005 - Andrew Bogut 2006 - Andrea Bargnani 2007 - Greg Oden That makes 3 straight centers from 2005-2007 as 1st overall draft picks. And as what you said, Dwight Howard is the best Center in the NBA no matter how Shaq bashes him up. Yao Ming was sensational before he got injured but hopefully he can make a come back next season. As for Andrew Bogut and Bargnani, both have improved their game rapidly and its nice to see those international guys stepped up their game and I like to see Andre Bargnani step up more with the Raptors now that Bosh is out of the picture and he's the legit starting center in the roster. Biggest bust? KWAME BRown! Wohoo. Of course there are other centers in the NBA today who plays sensational basketball such as Pau Gasol. But he's more of a PF than a center. There's no one else in the line for centers. There's potential but still lacks the quality of a superstar. I just hope they'll find really good NBA centers in the coming years who can dunk so hard and break glasses like Shaq did in the last decade. :)

hi elmiko yes Olajuwon, and Shaq and David Robinson,and Patrick ewing were the greatest centers along with Yao Ming and Dwight Howard.

I agree with you on that.. Dwight Howard is by far the best center right now and dominant centers are a thing of the past..

You said it.nowadays,great centers in NBA is as precious as panda .we can barely appreciate centers' show time .as you said ,the unique so-call "great center" is Howard ,who is good at defence instead of attack.so it is even harder to see centers'magnificient attack.however,it gives guards wide stage to perform.so we can focus on the duel between 23 and 24 .it is not bad ,is it ?

I agree the 1990s sported a slew of dominant big men while the following decade came up drastically short. Currently, any talented high school big man is looking at a one year and done deal in college. You can't develop true NBA level talent by spending one year at college against better competition and then get thrown out on the NBA court with grown men. It takes so many years to figure out how to play at that level that these young men fall very far behind the wing players and point guards. No one is going to trust putting the ball in your hands if you don't know what to do with it.