Top 5 Centers in Bulls History

The Bulls have been around for over 40 years. Who have been the top 5 centers who played for the team?

My list:

1) Artis Gilmore
2) Tom Boerwinkle
3) Bill Cartwright
After this, the pickings get slim.

Clifford Ray, Joakim Noah, Eddy Curry, Luc Longley. Nate Thurmond was an all-time great, but was 33 years old by the time he played for the Bulls.

 

I suppose you've gotta give Gilmore the top spot, but I never liked him. Coming out of college he looked like the next Wilt, but it turned out that he lacked Wilt's badass-ness. Still, Gilmore put up numbers that no Bulls C can touch.

Boerwinkle's an easy #2 for me. Didn't score much and seldom blocked shots, but did everything else very well.

Cartwright was a great fit for the first 3-peat team. Great post defense and always seemed to give the team some early offense. Also a very good veteran leader. Yeah, easy #3.

I'll go with Noah at #4. I could wait until he has a couple more seasons under his belt, but he's my favorite player so what the hell.

#5 is a tossup for me between Dave Corzine and Longley. Think I'll give it to the local kid.

 

The thing about Gilmore is that after watching Boerwinkle play for years, everyone wanted an actually good/great C. That the C position was long a sore spot for the Bulls.

Which says a lot about Boerwinkle being #2 on the list...

 

Very true. Cliff Ray captured the imagination of Bulls fans in large part because, unlike Boerwinkle, he was athletic and exciting to watch.

And yes, in general the Bulls' all-time centers list is pretty weak.

 

During his early career, Ray was a winner. His teams finished no worse than 2nd.

I had the opportunity to see the old Warriors practice at my high school during the playoffs. The Bulls were using Angel Guardian, and our gym was really nice, so they chose to practice there.

Rick Barry wore a full length mink coat, and practiced FTs by himself for the whole practice. The rest of the team ran 3 man weave drills and full court 3-on-3 drills. Ray could not make an uncontested dunk for the life of him.

But he did guard Kareem and Wilt and the other great Cs of the time.

 

Wait. I need clarification. Was AGO your high school? If so, yeah it was a great gym and I played there many times in grammar school and high school (went to little ol' St. Gregory's for both). Our gym was nice, but small. When we went to AGO, we were like the kids in Hoosiers when they went to the state championship.

 

I went to Latin School. The bulls and visiting teams used AGO for practices. Since there was a schedule conflict, the Warriors used our gym the one time.

I played at AGO many times, too. It was awesome.