Young Kareem Abdul-Jabbar vs a forgotten 1960's HOFer - insanely good center play

[dantheman9758]

Dug up some more oldschool footage. That's Walt Bellamy, 4th best center of the 1960's decade as a vet against a young Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Bellamy earned his own HOF spot playing against guys like Wilt Chamberlain who he faced 100 times, Bill Russell 75 times, Willis Reed 38 times, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 24 times to name just a few of his HOF matchups. Kareem was agile af at that age. Think about a Hasheem Thabeet moving like that. Kareem measured a half inch taller than Thabeet.

 

[feelosofer]

Dug up some more oldschool footage. That's Walt Bellamy, 4th best center of the 1960's decade as a vet against a young Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Bellamy earned his own HOF spot playing against guys like Wilt Chamberlain who he faced 100 times, Bill Russell 75 times, Willis Reed 38 times, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 24 times to name just a few of his HOF matchups. Kareem was agile af at that age. Think about a Hasheem Thabeet moving like that. Kareem measured a half inch taller than Thabeet.

B.b.b.b.but the 60's made up of nothing but 6'5 CACs

 

[Brozay]

Wow, great, great footage

 

[dantheman9758]

B.b.b.b.but the 60's made up of nothing but 6'5 CACs

Yeah so I've heard

Forgot to mention Bellamy also played 62 times against another 6-5 'guy who does your taxes' in the modern era; Nate Thurmond

 

[bdkane]

Man, that sky hook is easily the greatest single weapon in the history of the sport.

 

[GOATpernick]

Love me some raw old school footage of any sport breh

 

[Knights89]

Had no idea Bellamy rookie year was so great. Had a lot of different parts to his game. That fade away on Wes Unseld @ 35 seconds

Because I heard John Wooden, I thought of my favorite Kareem story. Went out to UCLA and as freshman scored like fifty plus on the two time defending champs and led the freshman squad to the victory.

 

[Noah]

Even old #8 could run the floor as well as any big. There was a story about him in his first couple of years where, in practice, one of the guards challenged him to a full-court race. He said "Bellamy breezed right past me by mid-court." Bellamy was basically that guy that would go toe-to-toe with the Wilts, Kareems, Thurmonds, Russells etc. but since he didn't really care about a guy like Zelmo Beaty (no slouch himself but not top tier) he'd drop a lazy 20 that night and underachieve. There was also a question of whether surrounding talent influenced his statistics (he got put in progressively better team situations as his stats declined) but the general consensus on him was that for sure he was talented but could've been better.

Glad there's also been more out about the more athletic, Bucks Kareem, not the old bald one most people are used to. Amazing vid

 

[dantheman9758]

 

[thatrapsfan]

Why doesn't this thread have more hits? Footage is incredible.

 

[dantheman9758]

Somewhat related, it's Wilt Chamberlain's birthday today so I'm going to drop some Wilt clips in here:

 

[ℒℴѵℯJay ELECTUA]

brilliant...seen some of these clips..

 

[mastermind]

this is some amazing footage.

Thank you @dantheman9758

 

[dantheman9758]

Why doesn't this thread have more hits? Footage is incredible.

My guess is the name Kareem doesn't carry as much interest as it probably should.

For anyone who hasn't clicked the vid yet we're talking one of the GOATs in his athletic prime, battling against another great center. And the footage is better quality than most 90's footage. Worth the watch for any hoops fan IMO.

 

[dantheman9758]

Dunk at 6:50 by Kareem is vicious