Luka Doncic

Victor Wembanyama

Recently I wrote and posted my thoughts on the most “unstoppable” basketball players in the history of the game. The response was unbelievable. I had over 3,000 views and over 800 comments, shares, and likes. I appreciate all of them.  Most of you agreed with my two choices of Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Some thought I should have included Jordan, Shaq, Russell, Kobe, Jokic, and a few others. I wrote an earlier post about domination and how domination played a major role in my selection of my Top 75 greatest players of all time.  It was my #1 criteria. Domination according to Websters means supremacy or to exercise a mastery. I said it is easy to recognize greatness but often times hard to define. I could say the same thing about domination. I even conducted my own little survey among my sports friends and asked them what would they consider the #1 characteristic of a great basketball player. I had a variety of responses. Several said the #1 attribute of a great player is how many championships “they” had won. (Even though we are talking about a TEAM sport.) Some said the most important quality of greatness is how many MVP Awards the player had won. Some said they thought greatness was defined by statistics. I chose my Top 75 greatest basketball players of all time using 10 criteria. Winning, statistics, awards, longevity were four of the ten criteria, but my #1 criteria was domination. I used several examples in my book of what I meant about a player being dominant.

As a player and a coach, those players that I remember dominating  the game, both on the offensive and defensive end of the court where elite, special players. Not just really good, but great. Every sports fan recalls seeing and being in the moment of greatness. Like a historical event, you remember where you were when it happened. My first encounter with a dominant player was in high school.

I was a sophomore when we played McLeansboro, Il. High School. They were ranked in the top 10 in the state, when Illinois had only one class system in the entire state. They had the second best player in the state in a 6’5″ forward by the name of Jerry Sloan. Sloan grew up on a farm and played on a grade school team that did not have enough boys to field a team so they allowed girls to play on his team. Sloan averaged as many points a game as he wanted to in high school and was a great defensive player. (He went on to make several All-Defensive Teams in the NBA.) He scored 35 points against our Galatia High School team and didn’t even play the last quarter. He was an Illinois All-Stater, who signed at the University of Illinois but transferred to Evansville University where he was a two-time All-American. He played for the Chicago Bulls for 10 years, made two all-star teams, and has his jersey hanging in the rafters in United Center as “The Original Bull”. He was DOMINANT.

Another encounter I had with a dominant player was as a high school coach in Florida. Our team played in a summer basketball league. One of the high schools in the league was Auburndale High School, who had a junior by the name of Tracy McGrady. McGrady showed up at the gym about 10 minutes before game time and hardly warmed up. He scored 30 points in the FIRST-HALF. We had a D1 guard and a team that won 20 games that following season but we were totally out of our league. McGrady was playing at an entire different level. I said to my assistant while watching McGrady that he was a junior in high school but could be playing D1. The following year he went straight from prep school to the NBA. He was DOMINANT.

As an assistant coach at Oral Roberts University, we had our own dominant player in Richard Fuqua. Richard averaged 30 points for his career including finishing second and third in the country in scoring with  averages of 32 and 34 points per game. He scored 44 points against Memphis State in the first round of the NIT in 1971. He was voted to the All-American team in 1972. He was DOMINANT.

I have been fortunate enough to witness several dominating performances by individuals in a game, season, and career. These are examples of player domination that I have witnessed first hand. As a former coach and a basketball fan I still get excited when I am watching greatness. I think there are two players playing today that may one day “crack” the top 15 all-time basketball greats list.  One of my criteria for greatness is longevity so neither one of these players are quite there, yet.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, at the age of 29, has played in the NBA for 11 years. He has a 23.4 points per game average, 9.8 rebounds, and 4.9 assists average for his career. He has 8 All-NBA selections, 2 NBA MVP Awards, 6 All-Defensive Team Awards,  and 1 NBA Championship. He was the Final’s MVP. He is DOMINANT.

Luka Doncic is only 25 years old and has played in the NBA for 6 years. He has a 28.7 points per game career average, which includes leading the league in scoring this past year with a 33.9 average. He averages 8.7 rebounds and 8.3 assists as a 6’7″ point guard. He has made the All-Star team 5 times and been selected All-NBA 5 times. He has finished in the top 8 in MVP voting for 4 straight years. (Finished 3rd this year.) He is DOMINANT.

The outlier and the one player that has the highest ceiling is Victor Wembanyama. “Wemby” is only 20 years old and finished his first season in the NBA averaging 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, AND 3.6 blocks. At 7’4″ he may be the most versatile and complete player to ever play in the NBA. He was a unanimous ROY pick. It is obviously way to early in his career but the potential to be one of the all-time greats has everyone who follows the NBA talking. Wemby’s stats are even more impressive when you factor in his limited playing time of 29.7 minutes a game.

Dominating basketball players are the one’s that make everyone else who is playing look like they are “just” good. Domination happens at every level whether it’s high school or the NBA. Every athlete rises to their “maximum level of success”, defined as their potential. For 95% of all participants in sports it’s high school. For maybe 5% it is D1. For 1% OR less it is the NBA. And even for those “special” players, even they get dominated by the greatest.