1/8/70 - Center Tom Boerwinkle hauls in a franchise record 37 rebounds versus the Phoenix Suns at Chicago Stadium. Read more http://www.nba.com/bulls/history/on_this_date.html
Wilt averaged 27 RPG in one season. Puts that 37 in a little perspective. For every 20 rebound game he had, he'd have had a 34 rebound game to end up averaging 27.
Yes it is. The game was a lot faster pace back then. Dave Cowens averaged at least 15 rebounds in 5 of his first 6 seasons. He was about the size of Dunleavy, and he might be a SF today
To further put this in perspective, the fastest paced team this season is Golden State with 98.4 possessions per 48 minutes. In the 1972-73 season, the slowest paced team was Boerwinkle's Bulls at 104.5.
Boerwinkle was a very large man in a game of predominantly smaller players. There were PFs who were 6'5" at the time.
There were plenty of tall, skilled centers during Boerwinkle's era. www.insidehoops.com/forum/showthread.php?s=8b0ff01a862397d2740fbff71bacd376&t=268283
Bull Russell was about the same size as Mike Dunleavy Jr, too Elvin Hayes was about the same size as Mike, too, but 15lbs heavier. I remember Unseld well. He was short at 6'7", but guarded the handful of 7 footers at an elite level. He had one bad knee and always shot off the other leg. He had an enormous ass, which allowed him to box out extremely well. Not only was he a brilliant passer in the offense, but was known for being king of the outlet pass to start the fast break. I heard his practice was to grab a rebound, turn, and throw it off the backboard at the other end of the court. He was that accurate and strong. I remember Hayes, too, from his college days and through his pro career. He ended up in Baltimore/Washington where he moved from C to full time PF next to Unseld. I also remember Boerwinkle. Fans hated that he started, but they didn't really have anyone else. When the Bulls traded for Thurmond, the headlines were, "Bulls FINALLY get a quality center." I had no beef with Boerwinkle. He was really good at what he was good at. Bob Love was the PF on those old Bulls teams at 6'8", 215 lbs. That's about Luol Deng size. The SF was Chet the Jet Walker at 6'6", 215 lbs. Roughly E'Twaun Moore's size, a tad heavier.
Those guys were big then and they'd be big now. The key there is that those measurements are without shoes. It's become generally accepted in the NBA to use a player's w/shoes height as his official height. Bill Russell, who at 6-9.5 wasn't considered all that tall a center in his day is a half inch taller than Dwight Howard who without shoes is only 6-9. Noah is considered a 7-footer, while Walt Bellamy was not; this despite the fact that they were both 6-10.5. I suspect that the barefoot vs shoes thing probably applies to all the positions so that a 6-6 player then would be about a 6-7.25 player now (it appears that 1.25" show height is most common though 1" and 1.5" are also common).
Nobody knows how tall Kareem was. He was an anomaly (as was Wilt). They said you couldn't get Kareem to sand up straight next to a tape measure.
I remember when Jabbar/Alcindor was in college and his height was listed as 7-1 3/8. It was the first time I had ever heard a player's height taken to eighths. I always thought they did that to give it the aura of being authoritative. He looked at least 7-3 to me.
You're right about Boerwinkle being less than a fan favorite. Before there was Thurmond, there was Clifford Ray who was 6-9 but had serious hops. Ray really took over the starting C job from Boerwinkle in his sophomore season (1972-73). Then after the 1973-74 season, the Bulls traded young for old moving Ray and a 1st-round pick (ended up being Kobe Bryant's pappy, Joe) to Golden State for Thurmond. Then in a cruel twist of fate, Ray's Warriors knocked Thurmond's Bulls out of the playoffs in the Western Conference Finals. As I recall, Thurmond wasn't completely healthy for that series and Boerwinkle played most of the Bulls' center minutes.
That season the Bulls were favored to win the championship. The Warriors came to town and needed a place to practice. The Bulls practiced at Angel Guardian gym (I played a bunch of HS games there). The Warriors chose to use my high school's gym for practice. When the final bell rang and school was out, a lot of us went down to the gym and sat int he stands to watch. Rick Barry came in wearing his shorts and jersey underneath a full length mink coat. He spent the whole practice at one of the side baskets shooting free throws (underhanded, you know). The rest of the team ran layup drills and 3-man weave drills and full court 3-on-3 drills. Cliff Ray could not dunk. Seriously. He would hit back iron on wide open dunks, at least in practice. The man had no real offensive game when it came to scoring. Just putbacks on offensive rebounds. I would call Ray a winner, though not a good well rounded player. His teams finished no worse than 2nd for the first five years he played. And he was a major factor in those records. He guarded the Kareems and Thurmonds and Wilts. Someone had to I remember that series well that the Bulls lost against the Warriors. Jim Durham was the most amazing basketball radio announcer I've ever heard. His description of the flow of the game really put you there. And that series, he was constantly saying, "Rick Barry from the twilight zone!" which spelled bad news for the Bulls. Note it wasn't "Rick Barry with the defensive pressure," all game I think Barry was about the worst defender of his time. Here's a bit of trivia. In 1979, the Bulls lost a coin flip for the 1st overall pick in the draft. Had they won, Magic Johnson would have been a Bull.
