As mentioned last week, the folks over at ESPN are ranking the Top 100 players in NBA history while also putting together their all-time Top 10 players by position. Clyde Drexler, who played the bulk of his career in Portland and led the team to two NBA Finals appearances in three seasons before finally winning a championship with the Houston Rockets, was named No. 5 all-time among shooting guards. And now another Trail Blazer, Hall of Famer Bill Walton, has made a Top 10, coming in at No. 10 all-time among centers.
Here's what ESPN NBA experts Chris Broussard, Bradford Doolittle, Rob Peterson and Micah Adams had to say about Walton's ranking...
Players ranked just ahead of Walton include George Mikan, Patrick Ewing and David Robinson.
Three of the four panelists note what every Trail Blazer fans knows: Walton's NBA career was unfortunately shortened by injuries. The 6-11 center know for his wizardry in passing the ball and his fondness for the Grateful Dead played just 468 games during his NBA career thanks to lingering issues with his feet, but managed to cram a whole lot of accolade-worthy basketball into 10 seasons.
But while Walton managed to make ESPN's Top 10 centers, he was also picked by others on the voting panel as the player who least deserved to be on the list due to the injury-plagued nature of his career and the number of deserving candidates. Here's J.A. Adande, Kevin Pelton and Peterson...
All fair points, though I'd still take winning a championship during Walton's two-year peak over, say, 15 years of a healthy Patrick Ewing in New York.