[Stardust]

OJ and King Kelly are/were both good for their eras, but give some thought to the following:

One player who graduated the same year (1956 I believe) as Coleman was Oscar Robertson. The Big O was from Indianapolis and was Indiana's Mr. Basketball, just like King Kelly was Mr. Basketball in Kentucky. Robertson said in his autobiography that his Indiana team had to play Kentucky in the Indiana-Kentucky All-Star game, and that he had looked forward to going up against Coleman because there had been so much hype leading up to the game about which player was the best. Well, Robertson scored over 30 points and Coleman had something like 3 points for the game. The second game was about the same.

It would be a good bet to say that neither Coleman or OJ are in the same status with the Big O, which kind of knocks down the theory of "players were good for their era" argument. The Big O was good regardless of the era. Put him in his heyday and give him the same training and conditioning as today's players and he would lay some smack down on OJ and many more modern day players. Heck, he is the only player to have averaged a triple-double in NBA history.

Big O was ahead of his time. I've had this same argument about Wilt. These guys were so far ahead of everyone else in their day that what they did could not be matched. However, I don't buy that give them today's training, conditioning, nutrition and enhancement drugs that they would dominate the league like they did in their era. Guys like Big O, Elgin Baylor, Wilt and Russel were one of few athletic African American players who got the opportunity to play in a league that was still dominated numbers wise with White ahtletes. In today's game, they could still be stars, but not to the degree that they were then. Wilt was a monster in comparison to players in his day. The only other 7 footers were slow unskilled white players. Today, Wilt would be smaller physically than man of the centers in the NBA. He could not jump over or push players around. The Big O was incredibly talented, but he was matched up against shooting guards in the 60's and 70's. Point Guards during that time were 6-0, not 6-5 like the Big O. So, the had to match up the shooting guard who were set-up shooters and did not have to play as athletic of a game. Those guys were just not athletic enough to match up. Put Big O into todays game, and at 6-5 he will be matched against another player who is as athletic and even taller than him.

Big O was not a great perimeter shooter. His game was pull-up jumpshots off of screens. We have no idea what kind of shooter he would have to be in today's game, but we know that with the athletic defenders of today, the mid-range jump-shot is no longer in existence. Big O drove past his defender and got into the lane where slow-footed space eaters could not stop him. He could still be successful at that part of his game today, but not nearly as easily as he did in his day. That allowed him to work the week-side and get rebounds. Today, that does not happen. Today, the NBA has guys who specialize in nothing more than rebounding. Their jobs are to patrol the back-side. These guys are 6-9 and bigger and as athletic as guards. There is just no way that Oscar would have that same level of success. As for his passing skills, that can still make him standout. But he played in an era that screens could get guys open under the basket. Today, screens in the paint no longer work. He would not have the easy dump pass to a guys standing under the basket for an uncontested shot.

We all get carried away with thinking how good guys would be today. I instead look at the guys that we try to compare those guys to. In this instance, it's thought that the Big O would be better than Mayo because we can compare what Oscar did then, and what Mayo is doing now. I contend that if you instead of moving Oscar forward 40 years, move a guy like Mayo back 40 years. I contend that Mayo would have success that would have made him a HOF'er. I'm not saying he would be as good as Oscar, but I do believe that his skills would be so far better than the players of that era that when we talk about the greats of the game from that time-frame, OJ would be mentioned in the same breath.