The Greatest Wolves Center Ever?

Talkbasketball.net posted this article today indicating that Radoslav "Rosho" Nesterovic has retired from professional basketball. While this has virtually no impact on basketball at any level (except those levels involved with possibly having to pay Rasho Nesterovic), when I read the article two thoughts crossed my mind. The first thought was the memory of a no-look Kevin Garnett pass travelling through Rasho's hands and hitting him in the face. The second thought was an internal inquiry: Is Rasho Nesterovic the greatest Minnesota Timberwolves center in franchise history? After a couple of minutes of thought, my answer was "arguably."

<-- Rasho's patented "Ole!" defense.

Disagree?

I would like to present for your examination my support of the pro-Rasho argument. The following are all Minnesota Timberwolves players, as listed by basketballreference.com, whose roster position is indicated by a "C", a "C-F" or an "F-C" (For the purposes of my listed years, "1990" would indicate the 1989-1990 season):

Thurl Bailey (1992-1994), Mark Blount (2006-2007), Calvin Booth (2009), Randy Breuer (1990-1992), Mike Brown (1994-1995), Jason Collins (2009), Michael Doleac (2008), Greg Foster (1995), Tellis Frank (1992-1993), Dean Garrett (1997, 1999-2002), Dan Godfread (1991), Paul Grant (1999), Andres Guibert (1994-1995), Ryan Hollins (2010), Marc Jackson (2002-2003), Ervin Johnson (2004-2005), Steve Johnson, (1990), Stacey King (1994-1995), Christian Laettner (1993-1996), Andrew Lang (1996), Gary Leonard (1990), Brad Lohaus (1990), Luc Longley (1992-1994), Kosta Koufos (2011), Darko Milicic (2010-2011), Oliver Miller (2004), Tod Murphy (1990-1992), Rasho Nesterovic (1999-2003), Michael Olowakandi (2004-2006), Cherokee Parks (1997-1998), Olesky Pecherov (2010, 2011), Theo Ratliff (2008), Eric Riley (1996), Stanley Roberts (1998), Clifford Rozier (1998), Sean Rooks (1995-1996), Brad Sellers (1990, 1993), Charles Shackleford (1995), Felton Spencer (1991-1993), Bob Thornton (1991), Anthony Tolliver (2011), Stojko Vrankovic (1997), Trevor Winter (1999), Loren Woods (2002-2003).

This list is not exactly a murderer's row of basketball big-men. Clearly, there are players on here that had better overall careers than Rasho, but this argument is limited strictly to performance in a Minnesota Timberwolves jersey. I would also automatically eliminate Christian Laettner from the list, simply because as a Timberwolves fan with memory of the Laettner era, I know he was not a center for us on anything resembling a regular basis. Curiously absent from the list is Al Jefferson, who didn't have "F-C" or "C-F" in any of the seasons. I would argue he was more of a center than many of the men on this list, and certainly the greatest "center" if he were included.

Rasho's tenure as a Timberwolves center (at least in whole years) is tied with Dean Garrett. Dean Garrett played at least one minute as a Timberwolf in 274 games. Rasho played in 316 as a Timberwolf. Their tenure's, for the most part, overlapped, making them the second great set of Twin Towers in Timberwolves Center history, the sequel, if you will, to the wildly popular original, Spencer & Longley.

I could go into further details about the merits of Garrett v. Nesterovic (including a statistical breakdown), but I am not going to. Rasho ultimately beat out Garrett for the starting job,a nd I would place Longley, Breuer, and Johnson over Garrett (and possibly more), as well. When I look back on Rasho's time with the Timberwolves, I think, "He wasn't that bad." I remember him being soft, slow to develop, and passive around the rim, but that describes almost every Timberwolves center in the franchise's brief history.

I originally asserted that Rasho is ARGUABLY the best Center in Timberwolves history. Again, I think that argument has support. However, if I had to put together a team with the centers we had, assuming they had the same skill set, experience, and age as they did when they were Timberwolves, I would pick:

Ervin "Non-Magic" Johnson

Johnson's time with the team was short-lived, but the Wolves organization has hardly employed centers on a long-term basis. Ervin Johnson was the perfect center for the best team we ever had. I think Ervin's role in that team's success is overlooked. The Timberwolves of the Kevin Garnett era were a outside jump-shooting team with good zone defense, this includes Rasho's years with the squad. When Rasho left for San Antonio, Michael Olowakandi and Ervin Johnson became the centers (with Johnson originally an afterthought and a money-dump by the Bucks). Between injuries and ridiculously poor play, Ervin quickly rose to more minutes, and eventually a starting role. For the first time in Wolves history, we had the correct complement of players around KG in his prime, with Big Erv taking up space down low while physically defending the opponent's bigs. (On a side note, Big Erv's stats for the season were laughable, so I think the only people that will agree with me are those that actually saw and remember Erv's play).

I still think we're one Sam-Cassell injury away from having won the whole thing that year.

In any event, enjoy retirement Rasho! That NBA money goes a long way in Eastern Europe.

So, who is your vote for greatest Timberwolves Center?

Things That Are Old: Old People Saying, "Back in the Day..."

I never wanted to write or otherwise reference my fantasy football teams, drafts, or really anything unless it was to persons that either (a) directly ask me, or (b) are in my league(s). However, as I went through a fantasy draft, and have another one coming up, I realized that my self-imposed boycott of anything NFL while the lock out was active resulted in me knowing less then I ever have about the NFL. It also made me realize how much I liked paying attention to football with my constantly-waning free time. My friends and I have conducted our drafts live for at least 9 years. After every draft, a few of the owners stay around to analyze (make fun of) each person's team and picks. This year's consensus team that had a questionable draft: my buddy Jason, who draft Chris Johnson and Peyton Manning in the first three rounds.

Normally, I would never criticize these picks, but when we drafted, Chris Johnson was holding out for a better contract, and Peyton Manning may or may not have an early-season (if not longer) threatening injury that no one outside of the Colts (and possibly only a few Colts) are aware of. Team Jason's success pretty much depends entirely on the performance of these two players. Jason is now secure in in Chris Johnson taking the field, and Chris Johnson will be a very rich man when that happens having recently signed a $53 million dollar contract, with $30 million reportedly guaranteed. Hold-outs like Johnson have been the ire of NFL and individual team fans for years. Apparently, Johnson's hold out resulted in a Twitter-storm of hate between the speedy back and his fans. All that aside, the general view on hold-outs is that they are greedy, individual-first players. This view is apparently not limited to NFL fans, but former NFL players, as well.

This morning on Paul Allen's show, former Viking great and NFL Hall-of-Famer Paul Krause discussed several things NFL with KFAN. I generally listen to KFAN in the background while doing work, and one of Krause's comments caused me to pay greater attention. The comment, in summary, indicated that players today do not think of the team and only think of individual reward and glory, while players of Krause's generation competed for the team first. Krause asserted that only a handful of players in today's game are an exception (with PA supporting Chad Greenway for this proposition). While I am not fan of contract hold-outs for higher pay, I find these comments by old-time players completely ridiculous. Didn't players of Krause's time and that of NFL generations after his fight for precisely the type of rights that players like Johnson use to leverage negotiations to this day? This would be like Obama complaining about his government-backed insurance coverage in 2030. It is my understanding that the owners held much more leverage over the players of Krause's generation to keep and hold the players to lower contracts to the point where players competed in tug-of-war competitions just to make more money. Again, players of those generations fought to make sure players of future generations had the right to take actions like demand more money or hold-out on current contracts.

I am willing to bet that if we could hop in a DeLorean equipped with a flux capacitor, pump 1.21 gigawatts into it, travel back in time and make immediate changes to the rules, these team-first old-timers would be hall-of-fame hold-outs.