[A new book is out this winter about the rise of the expansion Milwaukee Bucks, 1968-1975. It comes from Jordan Treske, who has done outstanding work covering the Bucks for the past decade. Jordan knows the franchise like the back of his hand, and his new book, titled simply Building the Milwaukee Bucks, is definitely worth the read for all Bucks fans and curious-minded NBA historians, too.
Riffing off the topic of the expansion Bucks, here is a story that takes a measure of Lew Alcindor after he and the Bucks bagged the 1971 NBA title. It asks what’s next for Alcindor (soon to be forevermore, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), assuming that he’d remain in Milwaukee for, well, forevermore. Alcindor obviously had other thoughts, but the story is worth the read because of its quotes from Bill Russell comparing his game to Alcindor’s. The story, from writer Keith King, was published in the Action Sports’ 1971-72 Pro Basketball Yearbook. Give it a read, and please be sure to do the same for Jordan’s new book.]
****
Alexander the Great sat down and wept when he learned he had no more worlds to conquer. What will Alcindor the Great do?
At the tender age of 24, there doesn’t seem much left in basketball that 7-2 Lew Alcindor hasn’t already accomplished. He has been the hub of championship teams on every level of the game. He also has won virtually every individual honor a player can claim, from high school All-America status at New York’s Power Memorial to All-America three straight years at UCLA, to MVP in the NBA last season when he led the Milwaukee Bucks to the easiest championship title in history.
After compiling a sensational 66-16 regular-season record, second only to the 68-13 mark turned in by Philadelphia in the 1966-67 season, the Bucks swept through three playoff series to the title, losing only two of 14 games en route.
Alcindor was the Bucks’ big man, literally and figuratively, though he had plenty of help from a fellow named Robertson. Big Lew led the league in scoring with 31.7 points per game, was second in field-goal accuracy with 57.7 percent, and was fourth in rebounding with 16 grabs per game.
But as imposing as those statistics appear, they hardly give the full measure of Alcindor’s domination of professional basketball last season. Or, as many of his fellow pros feel, the numbers don’t reflect the dominance he will display in the years to come.
Most indicative is the way outstanding players from the NBA and ABA spoke about Lew when they gathered in Houston late last May for history’s first interleague all-star game in the Astrodome. NBA players kidded their ABA rivals about the imminent arrival of “the big kid.” But there were no smiles when one man referred to Alcindor as “the player of the last 2,000 years—and probably the next 2,000, too.”
Bear in mind these are not impressionable, youngsters, speaking, but veteran pros. Listen to them:
“They just stopped us from getting the layup,” said Baltimore’s standout forward Jack Marin of the Milwaukee defense during the Bucks’ four-game sweep of the Bullets in last year’s playoff finals. “You look up there and see that Afro by the rim, and you just don’t figure out what to do about it. They gave me a lane to the basket all night. I took it once, I took it again, and then I said, ’Forget about it.’ It’s like taking a golf shot through a tree; it’s supposed to be 90 percent air, but you always seem to hit a twig. They figure you can’t beat them with 20-foot jumpers, and they’re right. I’ll tell you, it ain’t easy out there.”
“You’ve got to give Lew all the credit,” added Baltimore guard Kevin Loughery. “He may only block one shot here or there, but guys have to change their shots because of him. He’s the greatest defensive player I’ve seen since Bill Russell.”
Since Russell is considered the standard against whom all big men are measured defensively, that’s high praise indeed. And Alcindor’s offense equally awes opponents.
“When I play against him, I know my game has to be at its very best,” says New York Knick center Willis Reed. “If he makes up his mind to score, it’s practically impossible to stop him. It won’t be long before he is head and shoulders above everybody else. No matter what happens, you don’t think of stopping him. You just hope the other guys don’t hurt you too much. Right now, there is nobody in the league who influences a game as much as Alcindor. I admire anybody that tall with such body control, skill, coordination, and mobility. It’s amazing that a guy his size can do what he does.”
Alcindor’s teammates sympathize with their foes. “Sometimes we have a tendency to stand around and watch him when we’re supposed to be playing basketball,” said Milwaukee forward Greg Smith. “He’s unbelievable already, and he’s getting better all the time.”
“There really isn’t anything that he can’t do,” added Philadelphia 76er Fred Crawford, an ex-teammate of Alcindor on the Bucks. “I swear I think he could play guard if he had to. I’m not kidding. Lew can dribble and make moves that no big man ever could before. Bill Russell could dribble straight down the floor, but Lew can bring the ball down and handle it and give you fakes. No one his size ever could do that before.”
Crawford’s last sentence is precisely the point everyone makes about Alcindor in different ways. There have been other men his size, but none with anything approaching his full range of talents. Wilt Chamberlain was more of an offensive machine in his prime (though after watching Alcindor fire his hook shot down into the basket, you get the feeling that, as Reed says, he can score at will).
Bill Russell was more of an intimidating defender in his prime. But neither of these great centers, considered history’s best until Lew’s arrival, had Alcindor’s all-round ability. That’s why in the long run, he figures to surpass them both.
Russell has analyzed Alcindor at length and reached pretty much the same conclusions. “Lew Alcindor is not just going to be the next dominating force in pro basketball,” Russell said, “ he already is that. How dominating? I don’t know. A lot enters into that: the players he’s got on his team, injuries, the opposition, the bounce of the ball. I don’t know if he’ll help his team win as many championships has mine did. Probably not. Maybe no one will. I was good, but I was a little lucky, too. How many championships did I win? Eleven in 13 years. That’s a lot. I had to be lucky some.
“Lew plays a different game than I did. His approach is more to his offense; mine was more to the defense. But maybe that’s because of the teams we played on. My team stressed a balanced attack . . . Lew’s team depends on his scoring more. And he is a better shooter than I was. By far. He is more mobile, has better moves, a greater variety of shots, a nicer touch, and more places he can score from than any player of his size to come along.
“He’s also the most skilled big man to come along in all respects. He can handle the ball and play defense. He’s not blocking shots the way I did, but this is a deceiving thing. Lew may work more on not letting his man shoot or not letting him get good shots than on blocking his shot. But this is the area—defense—where Lew is going to improve the most because it’s the area that takes the most experience.
“I haven’t had to watch him play very much to see that he takes a very intelligent approach to the game. He made a tremendous improvement from his first game to his last game last season, and he’ll continue to improve for maybe four or five more years. I can see by the way he’s mastering subtleties that he wants to master the game. Lew is dedicated, and his attitude is the best part of his ability. He uses good judgment in everything he does. He could be an even bigger scorer than he is, but he sacrifices scoring.
“He plays the whole game and helps his teammates play the whole game. If it will help his team to speed things up or slow things down or go to different men or do different things, he does it. This is a very great thing for an athlete to be able to do. It’s more important than just scoring, but it isn’t publicized much.”
If Alcindor is as good as everyone says he is now, and if he figures to get even better (as everyone seems to think he will), what hope is there for the rest of the NBA to dethrone the Bucks? And more in keeping with the title of this story, what will motivate and challenge the big man in years to come?
It’s a problem Russell found difficult to cope with even as he was leading the Celtics to title after title. “I found each year tougher and tougher,” Russell said. “I quit because I got frustrated by it. I had done it too long. I wanted to do other things. I found out there is no final victory until you quit. No matter how much you win, you have to win the next time. There’s never enough. I enjoyed it. I never ran out of challenges, but I was getting bored with it. The playing had become mechanical.”
Money will not spur Alcindor. “I never had a big thing about money,” he said. “When I didn’t have it, I didn’t worry about it. Now that I have it, I don’t have to worry about it. Money has never been important to me.”
What, then, will incite Alcindor and keep his interest? The same thing that incites all great athletes—a competitive challenge. And, as Russell was, Lew will be challenged, game after game, season after season. For despite the awe in which he is held as an individual by his fellow players, basketball remains a five-man effort, a team game in which no one player can ensure a victory by himself. No one knows this better than Alcindor himself.
“I can be very effective, sure, but my effectiveness isn’t self-perpetuating unless it’s used correctly,” Lew said. “It becomes futile to keep passing the ball to me and expecting me to stuff it. Then the other team starts climbing all over me, and I’m useless. I don’t care whether I’m on your team or who’s on your team, you’ve got to play as a team, got to do all your different things, and mix ‘em up to keep the opponent guessing. When all five guys are out there working, then the big guy’s effective—and he stays effective.
“That’s one of the problems Wilt has had. They expected him to do it all. Power, power, power. But after a while, they ground him down. You can’t power everybody, and the other teams begin getting to you.”
Other teams are already scheming to get to the Bucks. In the post mortems immediately following Milwaukee’s shockingly easy march to last year’s title, people began to predict a Celtic-like dynasty for the Bucks. But time and a key trade by the New York Knicks—who got 6-8 superstar forward Jerry Lucas from San Francisco for sub Cazzie Russell and now seem to match up very favorably against the Bucks—changed a lot of minds.
“The Bucks will have Alcindor for many seasons,” said Los Angeles super guard Jerry West. “And as long as they have him to dominate and intimidate the other teams and help to inspire his teammates . . . and as long as they surround him with the youth, balance, and depth they now have, [plus] the quickness, intelligence, and fine coaching they have, they are going to be the team to beat.
“But I think New York has a chance to beat them this season, and I think we do. And one or two others have a better chance than most realize . . . the league is getting so well balanced that it will be tough for any team to even approach the 11 titles Boston won in 13 years. There may be some real surprises this year.”
It’s largely up to Alcindor to keep the surprises to a minimum. That’s challenge enough for any man.
From Way Downtown 