DeAndre Jordan isn’t Bill Russell. Nerlens Noel won’t be Bill Russell. And not even a prime Kevin Garnett was Bill Russell.
According to the Boston Celtics legend’s most talented teammate, though, there’s a spitting image of the 11-time champion currently playing in the NBA – and it’s not who anyone would think. Hall-of-Fame point guard Bob Cousy recently said that Hassan Whiteside – the hot-tempered Miami Heat center who has yet to play a full season – is the “first big guy” that he’s ever seen who evokes Russell.
Here’s the 86-year-old Cousy via Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram:
“I have never said this in the 40 years since I retired,” Cousy said in a recent telephone interview, “but he is the first big guy, not (Patrick) Ewing, (Hakeem) Olajuwon, Shaq (O’Neal), who reminds me defensively and on the boards of Russell. He runs the floor well, he has excellent timing, he blocks shots and keeps them in play the way Russell did.”
[…]
“I don’t get excited too often about these guys,” Cousy said, “but this kid looks to me like a turn-around guy.
“This kid moves to every rebound, he just reacts to everything on the defensive boards and he reacts the way Russell did. He leaves his man and comes over to help. He’ll block five or six shots a game and he catches them. The league hasn’t caught up with him yet.”
This talk, frankly, doesn’t deserve much scrutiny – it’s absolutely ridiculous. A lot of players “leave their man and come over to help,” for instance.
But why not provide you with some quick and dirty reasons for why Whiteside is a horrible Russell comparison, anyway? Now seems a good time to mention that we’re very high on the 25-year-old giant, too; Whiteside is bound for All-Star Games if his attitude improves.
But he’s no Russell, and not just because no other player is, either.
For all of Whiteside’s crazy stat lines and towering blocks, the Heat’s center simply hasn’t made an overwhelmingly positive impact on his team defensively. Miami actually defends better when he’s riding the bench as opposed to running the floor, allowing 102.6 points per 100 possessions in the former scenario and 103.8 in the latter.
Why? Likely because Whiteside just isn’t the rim-protector his numbers and highlights suggest. Opponents shoot a solid 48.3 percent at the rim against the Marshall product, the 24th-best mark in the league among players who face at least 6.0 such shots per game. Despite the less discerning eye-test indicating otherwise, Whiteside just isn’t an elite paint-protector – he’s merely a good one.
Russell, of course, is broadly considered the best defensive player of all-time. He also played two inches shorter and approximately 45 pounds lighter than Whiteside, ran like a deer, and shot an underwhelming 44 percent from the field for his career. The Finals MVP namesake is known for being one of the most ardent competitors and best teammates in league history.
Like Michael Jordan, the five-time MVP is one of a kind. There will never be another MJ and there will never be another Russell, despite the basketball’s world’s never-ending search for rightful successors to both.
If there’s one player in the league who doesn’t make a Russell comparison seem quite so crazy, though, it’s definitely Anthony Davis, a long-limbed, fleet-footed, freak of nature who defends the entire floor and could come to define a franchise. But such praise is too high for even The Brow, let alone an up-and-comer with question marks like Whiteside – something Cousy seemed to realize immediately after showering him with adulation.
Cousy paused for a moment and added, “Maybe I’m overreacting.”
Just a bit.
[Telegram]
