After George McCann announced his retirement in 1956, players in many positions in the NBA have emerged, the originator of small forwards, the "father of the NBA jump shot" Paul Alikin is one of the representatives, although his career is only a short decade, but ten times selected as an All-Star, ten times the best team, two scoring kings, a championship career is also brilliant. Ali brought changes to the NBA's technical moves, but in the end it failed to make small forwards the main trend of the subsequent era.
Paul Alikin
The reason is simple, in 1956 and 1959, two giants Bill Russell and Chamberlain joined the NBA, allowing the center to usher in another boom in the post-McCann era, while cutting off the development of small forwards, but also incidentally killing all hopes for the championship of Elgin Baylor, the league's first small forward and Finals punch card maker at the time. The great small forwards became the best supporting roles in the NBA center era.
In the basketball philosophy of the 1960s, there was no clear distinction between big forwards and small forwards, but Elgin Baylor was regarded as one of the first star small forwards, the founding father of playing above the basket. However, Baylor's career was full of tragedy, and to this day he is still being abused as an unlucky egg without a ring, and he has not changed the status of a small forward by himself.
In the 1980s, the NBA ushered in the golden age of the No. 3 position, and the small forward group improved its overall presence. The 1981 regular season MVP belonged to Dr. J, followed by Bird with a slight disadvantage, and Abdul-Abdul-Jabbar, Moses Malone and George Gervin watched as the two ace small forwards stole the limelight, notably six of the top 14 in the charts. In 1984 Bird won the first MVP trophy of his career, with Bernard King in second place. In 1986, Bird completed the MVP triple, and Wilkins was second in the vote. In 1988, the MVP was finally snatched away by Jordan, but there was still no shortage of small forwards in the leaderboard, and James Worthy was also named the MVP of the Love Finals that year.
Bird, Dr. J, Inglish, Dentley, Wilkins, and Bernard King together created the small forwards' Colorful movements, but most of them did not become the rulers of the times, because the small forwards at that time were closer to the single-function scorers, cutting points like probing, but unable to contribute more in other aspects. As one of the few successful small forwards, Bird proved that he could score, but his contribution was not limited to scoring, his attacking tandem and team control showed a comprehensive style, and history also proved that small forwards who only have scoring labels are difficult to succeed.
Pippen gave a whole new definition to small forwards in the 90s, and the all-around gradually became the label of the 3rd position. In Chicago, Pippen seems to be completing fill-in-the-blank questions, sharing Jordan's defensive tasks, unleashing his organizational talents, and he is the most loyal executor in Zen's triangular offensive system. "I never force a shot," Pippen said, "and I never do anything uncomfortable with myself." My game is not just about scoring, it's about showing other abilities, and for the sake of the team, I'm going to defend hard and do what I love. ”
At the same time, Grant Hill began the overclocking experiment in the No. 3 position, picking up the Pistons in points, rebounds and assists, becoming another ace small forward who contributed 20+9+7 in a single season after Bird, but the serious injury made his new exploration abruptly stopped. Pippen and Hill further proved to the world that the small forward is not just a single-function machine, but can also be an all-round warrior.
Patricelli once had a great idea: "In the future, there will be 5 people about 2 meters tall on the basketball court to form a team." Riley's forward-thinking ideas didn't serve as a regular line-up for the teams, but he found the perfect model for the idea — LeBron James. It is unclear whether Pippen had the ability to score at the top of his life. From the perspective of the role alone, James is like Pippen, who has a heavier offensive task, he almost pushed the comprehensiveness of the small forward to the extreme, not only maintaining the level of top scorers for many years, but also ranking among the first-class defenders, which is Jordan's play that year, and more importantly, he showed unparalleled dominance over a team.
Durant has a more distinct scorer attribute than James, and it is widely believed that playing like LeBron is just a false proposition. However, Durant is not satisfied with the storm, he has been the team's chief rebounder for the past two seasons, but also realizes that in the face of many blocks, sharing the ball and scoring the ball at the right time are also mandatory lessons for top small forwards. Similarly, Paul George and Leonard and even Butler and Jaylen Brown showed a strong desire for all-round evolution.
Unlike the above hipsters, Anthony is seen as a descendant of the traditional small forward because he, like his New York predecessor Bernard King, is lackluster in addition to scoring, which is somewhat out of place in the context of the era when small forwards pursue all-around.
God has made a small joke about the definition of a striker, in the development of the sport, the forward has gradually been refined into a big forward, a small forward, but in the past few years, the focus of the era has been adjusted again, and the No. 3 and No. 4 positions have become blurred again. (Wrote a similar article, link placed here small forward x2, infinite swing)
Talking about the heat's successful championship winning in the past, Spotra believes that the key is to liberate James, in fact, putting the little emperor on the 4th position is the way to success in Miami. In terms of athleticism and stature, James already has the basic qualities of playing the No. 4 position - now even in the center position, but the previous poor basket technique hindered his deep exploration in this position, and as this skill improved, he showed greater power in this position.
Anthony's best season came in the '12-13 seasons, his scoring average and PER per game set a career high, the secret is that he appeared in the No. 4 position most of the time, playing extremely efficiently in the game of misalignment, and Woodson appeared more avant-garde than Spoorstra.
And now, the role of the front player is getting bigger and bigger, in large part due to the prevalence of small ball tactics and the blurring of the position of the court, in our usual impression, the defender players are short in stature and flexible, while the inside players are tall and physically strong, which also determines their very different ways of playing, the backcourt players usually use technology to tease the opponent, and the center is better at using the body and strength to crush the opponent. Small forwards are all-rounders who combine the two, they can break through, they can shoot, they can also use flexible footsteps and a calm center of gravity to complete the back attack, although in recent years it has become increasingly difficult for us to see the old-school back singles on the court, but for a top small forward, this is a must-master technology.
What are some of the famous small forwards in history?
Rick Barry
The Warriors have no shortage of passionate outside players like Richmond, Chris Mullin, Tim Hardaway and Curry, but before Curry, no one can score as fast as Barry and grab the victory. In the 1960s and 1970s, Barry was one of the league's best passing scorers, and when he led the team to the Finals in 1967, he was just a second-year student, playing six games with the 76ers led by Chamberlain, averaging 40.8 points per game, a record that was not broken by Jordan until 1993. In the 1974-1975 season, Barry averaged 30.6 points per game, ranking second in the league, and he was also the only forward in the top 10 assists list, and although he missed the regular season MVP, he led the mediocre Warriors to their first championship since relocating to Golden State.
When he retired, his career total was 25,279 points (19th in the NBA), with four seasons averaging more than 30 points. Barry used a two-handed shooting position commonly known as a "urinal" to shoot free throws, and in the 1978-79 season he only conceded nine free throws. It is the only player to have won the title of "Scoring King" in all three games of the NCAA, NBA and ABA.
Elgin Baylor
Famous columnist Bill Simmons once made a list of great black athletes: Jessio Vince, Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson, Muhammad Ali and Elgin Belle. Baylor, who doesn't have the title, seems out of place, but Simmons insists that the moment he entered the league, he reversed the direction of basketball, working with Russell to turn the game from flat to three-dimensional.
Baylor is widely regarded as the founding father of playing above the basket, he never broke the law of universal gravitation, just did not want to easily succumb to gravity. Tom Heinthorn said: "Baylor is the fastest small forward in history, he is not only a great scorer, rebounder and passer - these are all printed in black and white on the datasheet, and he is also the best defender." The eight-time overall runner-up experience is not just irony, the Green Army players have a vision of an opponent who lost to them seven times, baylor cut 61 points and 22 rebounds in the fifth game of the 1962 Finals, Kusi recalled: "We defended him to 61 points, and after the game I walked to Sanders, and sincerely said, you did a great job on the defensive side. "Baylor's tragedy is that because of Chamberlain he can't be remembered as the scoring king, because the Celtics have always been out of the championship, he can't break through the era of center dominance.
Julius Owen
If Baylor was the first Skywalker, then Dr. J was the first dunk artist. Sports Illustrated columnist once wrote: "Before Irving, basketball was never like this, even dunks were just shows of power, and Irving transformed what was once a rough dunk into a creative action." ”
In his career, Dr. J has contributed countless magnificent goals, but it is not only the free throw line dunk that is widely praised, but also "The move", "Rock the Baby" that surpasses Cooper's head, and the ABA's acting genes Irving also has a tradition of winning. In the 1976-1977 season, Dr. J led the team to the Finals just after transferring to the NBA, and until his official retirement in 1987, the 76ers never missed the playoffs.
Unlike his smooth ABA career, Dr. J suffered a brutal setback in the NBA, being 31 years old when he lost to the Finals for the third time in 1982. Bad luck came to an abrupt end after Moses Malone joined, and in 1983, Irving finally fulfilled his dream of the Finals, averaging 37.7 points, 14.2 rebounds, 6 assists per game, and in the sixth game, he reversed the victory after falling behind by 22 points, and gave a great performance.
Kevin Durant
Before the 12-year finals, espnantiers the atmosphere like this: "The emperor duels the future king, the three-time MVP winner fights the three-time scoring king, and the thousands of people point to the thousands of pets." The media hopes that Durant and James will become the most blood-swollen enemies after Bird vs. Magician, setting the tone for an era in the future, but they are more like Russell and Chamberlain in the ancient era, fighting in different styles in the same position.
Durant, who has been ranked second on the MVP list for three consecutive years, watched James collect trophies and he was tired of the decline of the millennium two. And setbacks and failures are the driving force of constant evolution. In the 12-13 season he became the second star small forward to enter the 180 club after Bird, and the 13-14 season With a injury in Wisbrook gave him the opportunity to completely complete the leap from scorer to ruler. In terms of technical details, he is very different from James, but in the overall direction, the two are the same way, and they are the core of the team.
Perhaps the most important thing for Durant is the summer of '17 and '21. In the summer of 2017, relying on the Platform of the Warriors, he beat James face to face to win his first personal championship and won the MVP of the Finals; and in 21 years, he was reborn after the Achilles tendon rupture, still playing an epic playoff performance, proving his extraordinary strength.
Larry Bird
The magician is famous for his tongue-in-cheek lotus, but his speech at Bird's retirement ceremony was not half hypocritical: "There will never be another Larry Bird, absolutely not." In the decades that followed, the white forwards with the "second title of Bird" were invariably reduced to laughing stocks (Not counting Nowitzki), and the legend of the Big Bird refused to be copied.
The late star John Woodden said of big birds: "I can't confirm that Bird is not the most perfect player in history. Back in the 1980s, Bird had completed the ultimate exploration of forward technique, and he could use thousands of ways to get the ball into the basket, but he was tireless in passing the ball. According to Cortranbis, Bird and Magician belong to the same species: "What makes them different is that they are willing to give the key balls that determine the outcome to their teammates to shoot, they don't have to do everything, but they are willing to pass the ball." ”
Bird was arguably the first small forward in the NBA to show dominance, and before that, the MVP was reduced to a plaything for the center and control, Dr. J took the lead in breaking the monopoly, and Bird became the first small forward to complete the MVP 3 consecutive. More importantly, Bird showed the world how to stand on top of the world with iq and technology as a white player who is not physically top-notch. Although not impressed by the molament of the title "The Only Hope of a Great White Man," Bird revived the enthusiasm of white fans for the NBA, becoming the nightmare of countless black Americans as a white boy in the context of an era when black players were gradually becoming mainstream.
The magician said: "Bird is the smartest player I've ever played against, and I like to play with him because they inspire the best me, he's the only player I've ever been afraid of. ”
LeBron James
God always tests the pride of heaven, James has encountered Jordanian dilemmas, conquered the world of data but had no chance of the championship ring, but he still broke through the window paper, ended the Sisyphus tragedy, from excellence to greatness, standing side by side with his childhood idols.
In the summer of 2011, James completed a magical metamorphosis, and Spoelstra joked that he downloaded and installed Olajuwon and the Low Program to lead a team that was extremely weakened center and point guard to win the championship. Later this season, James upgraded his shooting patch again to become one of the league's most effective shooters. Some media pointed out that James's technical style is closer to that of the magician, but the Lakers have never shown dominance at the same time at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends.
On a technical level, James has become perfect, and the only thing to blame is the decision to deviate from the king, but no one can deny that under his leadership, the Cavaliers have also changed from a weak brigade to a strong east side, and he has become the team master at the fastest speed in the group mode, and Wade and Irving have retreated to the second place closer to the law of natural selection. No matter where he is, James has the ability to be the leader of the team.
In 2020, James won the Championship again with the Lakers, becoming the third player to have won a championship on three teams (john Sairey and Robert Horry before), and the only player to have won an FMVP on three teams. James, who is honored and equal, has become the vanguard of the times, one position ahead of his contemporaries, and his continuous evolution has made the ownership of the strongest and small forwards in history clear.