Moses dominated his era with his strength and motor. Shaq would have dominated it even moreso. Moses's greatest offensive move was pretty much to throw the ball at the basket whenever he got stuck and then grab the rebound and score. And considering his strength and workmanlike game, he was surprisingly mediocre defensively (think of a more explosive Zach Randolph in terms of flavor, if not necessarily style).
This is selling Moses short...
People don't discredit other All-Timers from that era who had fairly basic games as well. Dr J didn't have this versatile, sublime game at all but we hear his name far more often than Moses---->the guy who got him his title...
Kareem's offense wasn't that varied, either...
Moses deserves just as much credit for being able to dominate with such a (perceived) simple game, as he gets discredited for. He was a transcendent rebounder, this isn't mentioned enough. He was an underrated passer, seemed to have a Jokic-esque ability of keeping the ball alive off the rim. And he was a major factor both in the postseason, and when the opposition was another All-Star (or higher) caliber center...
He's comfortably one of the 20 greatest players ever, yet his name is rarely mentioned. And when it is, it always comes with a backhand compliment or qualifier about how mediocre he was defensively or some lumbering brute offensive player...
Mo's prime overlapped with the primes of Gervin, Kareem, Dr J, Bird, Magic, Chief, Moncrief, King, Zeke, McHale, some of the biggest names in the history of the sport, and he was dominating MVP contention....
with these names all in their primes...
Obviously i never saw him play a minute, and i recall you mentioning that your basketball life goes back to the mid-80s, so you only saw the last couple years of Prime Mo and almost certainly missed his peak, correct? But as a historian of the sport, you gotta see sething off with the coverage Moses gets today, in comparison to a number of guys who were not as accomplished as he was within their own time...
