JD held a draft for the basketball side of things and here’s the results. Way too many guys from recent years and some glaring omissions.
Very true! For example, Dwight Jones is a top 5 center and an Olympic Silver (S/B Gold) Medalist who didn’t make the list.
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Yep, that was the biggest one for me.
I had the 12th pick and here was the list I made up before the draft - where they went in parenthesis:
- Elvin Hayes (1)
- Hakeem Olajuwon (2)
- Otis Birdsong (5)
- Clyde Drexler (3)
- Gary Phillips (12)
- Don Chaney (22)
- Rob Williams (13)
- Michael Young (4)
- Dwight Davis (26)
- Louis Dunbar (6)
- Don Boldebuck (Undrafted)
- Dwight Jones (Undrafted)
I expected Boldebuck not to get drafted as he was an old timer, but I thought someone would get Jones.
This list is tilted toward more recent teams, not a great list in my estimation.
The top 6 guys drafted are old timers. I’m with those that think that today’s athlete would run circles around yesterday’s athlete. Greatness would transcend the different generations but the others would get whooped. I graduated UH in 97 so didnt get to see the old timers but some of those guys that have played since old timer status deserve to be drafted where they did. Just my 2 cents.
Well, since Dwight Jones started and excelled at center for (i) the best HS BB team in Houston history, (ii) 2 or 3 nationally ranked UH BB teams, (iii) the U.S. Olympic BB team, and (iv) 10 years in the NBA after being a Top 10 NBA draft choice, I can’t recall any UH BB player within the past 30+ years that would even come close to his achievements.
Dwight Jones should have been one of the top five Coog draftees…Dwight Davis should have been higher also IMO…
If we’re talking about career accomplishments, it’s Olajuwon and everyone else by a mile.
While I absolutely loved Olajuwon, I think that his career accomplishments (in college & the NBA) are roughly equivalent to those of Elvin Hayes (in college & the NBA).
Then, you’d have some other guys with both college & NBA accomplishments like Clyde Drexler, Don Chaney, Dwight Jones and Otis Birdsong…
The list was to be based on only their collegiate career so as much as I love Hakeem, Elvin Hayes deserved to be the first pick. I do think there was too much of a slant toward more recent players but you have to remember this was done via twitter and you get more of a younger audience there. I graduated from UH in 1993 but still tried to do my research for the earlier years but it’s likely not everyone did research and just picked a player they remembered.
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Elvin’s numbers were much better than Hakeem’s in college…