Old and In the Way: A Salute to the ABCA's Greybeards
Jun 18, 2015 14:49:08 GMT -6
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Post by Portland on Jun 18, 2015 14:49:08 GMT -6
A torch was passed recently in the ABCA but it went unnoticed by most of the league and the media which follows it. So it falls to me to report that the Milan Olympia are no longer the oldest collection of basketball fossils in living memory. I was analyzing some stats for an end-of-year article when I stumbled upon the fact that the trade of Darrall Imhoff and Jerry Lucas from Milan to Berlin recently brought the Olympia average age down from 29.7 to 28.6. The 36 year-old Lucas and 35 year-old Imhoff have been plying their trade in the ABCA for more years than most of us can recall and we know Milan fans will miss that pair laboring up and down the floor during the season's final weeks. They'll have to be content to cheer on the remaining senior Olympians: Elgin Baylor, 35; Jerry Sloan, 34; Dave DeBusschere, 34; Dave Cowans, 33; Pete Maravich, 32; and a pair of spry 30 year-olds in Dragan Kicanovic and Bennie Cartwright.
Now the Golden Oxygen Mask has been passed to the London Towers who sport an average age of 29.4 years. The Towers nosed into the top spot by recently adding 31 year-old Robert Parish, who is only the fifth-oldest player on the squad behind Lee Shaffer, Jeff Mullins, Pee Wee Kirkland, and Walt Wesley. The team only has one player - Tayshaun Prince - under the age of 27 so it's obvious the gm prefers experienced players. Maybe the rest of us should take note seeing that a lot of younger teams can't match the .731 winning percentage these old farts have posted so far.
Now the Golden Oxygen Mask has been passed to the London Towers who sport an average age of 29.4 years. The Towers nosed into the top spot by recently adding 31 year-old Robert Parish, who is only the fifth-oldest player on the squad behind Lee Shaffer, Jeff Mullins, Pee Wee Kirkland, and Walt Wesley. The team only has one player - Tayshaun Prince - under the age of 27 so it's obvious the gm prefers experienced players. Maybe the rest of us should take note seeing that a lot of younger teams can't match the .731 winning percentage these old farts have posted so far.
Another old team that wins a few games now and then is the Knickerbockers of New York. The 'other' team on Manhattan island as an average age of 28.3 years, mostly thanks to their two ancient big men - Elvin Hayes and Willis Reed, 35 and 33 respectively. Otis Birdsong, Zoran Slavnic, and Bobby Jones are all 31. Three of these five players are under contract for next year when Adrian Dantley will also join the 30 ear-old club, so don't expect the Knicks to be dropping out of the aged elite very soon.
. I wouldn't mind my team being even older. 
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