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Originally Posted by Wang Zhi Zhi
Good stuff; all correct; and all very interesting.
On the other hand, it wasn't just that they gave Damp 6/60, but that 6/60 is almost exactly what PHX gave Nash and that Dallas refused to pay. So it's also the decision to pick Damp over Nash that affects some views of that.
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If people want to rip Cuban and Donnie for that decision, that's fine. It's unfair to rip Damp for it though. He simply took the offer that he was given to him- and like sefant said, for all the talk about how Dampier was so horribly overpaid and had such a terrible contract, 6/60 was pretty much the going rate for any serviceable big man back then, and Damp actually was better than most.
Damp's contract said a lot more about the talent, rather lack thereof, at the center position back then. This is a totally different discussion for a different thread, but it's quite amazing and inexplicable to me how far the talent level for centers dropped off after the Hakeem/Ewing/Robinson generation. All through the 2000s, it was utterly pathetic and embarrassing how little talent and skill there was at that position. For years the only two centers in the entire NBA worth a damn were Shaq and Yao. Hell, Jamaal Magloire was an all-star one year, that's how bad it got (and if Damp played in the East, he probably would have been an all-star too.)
Even now, there's been a slight resurgence but the center position is not nearly what it once was. Unlike the 2000's, there are at least a number of 'quality' big men in the league, but I don't think there is one single center in the league today who's nearly as good as Alonzo Mourning was, and Zo was at very most the 4th or 5th best center of his generation.