Greatest cager ever
Despite LeBron James’ incredible achievements in basketball, NBA veteran Bruce Bowen said he’s not the greatest ever to play the game. Bowen, a recent Manila visitor, faced James when the San Antonio Spurs swept the Cleveland Cavaliers, 4-0, in the NBA Finals in 2007.
“LeBron was a young player at that time,” said Bowen, who played on three Spurs title teams, in a Star interview. “He didn’t understand what was truly going on but I think he learned from that, he learned from his time in Miami and that’s why he’s gone to eight consecutive Finals.”
Bowen, 47, admitted that James is “a tremendous talent.” “I put him in the top five,” said Bowen. “But the greatest ever? This is going to sound quirky but you look at Michael Jordan, what he was able to do. You look at Bill Russell, what he was able to do. I think when it comes to basketball, you look at how someone transcended the game to the point where he really changed the game for the future. Russell was one of those individuals to do that. I’ve been able to fortunately sit down and talk to Bill and really soak up a lot of his stories and you know, he was the first guy who kept the ball in play so you get transition baskets. It wasn’t just about him scoring all the time. He understood that if (Bob) Cousy and (John) Havlicek were on the floor with him, those guys would benefit from the team play aspect of things, not just selfish or I should say, the scoring mentality. You look at what Wilt Chamberlain did back then. Wilt scored a lot but when he went up against Boston, they lost because of what Bill Russell was able to do. As far as I’m concerned, Russell was the greatest ever.”
Bowen singled out Jordan as the toughest he defended. “If there’s someone behind Michael, it would be Kobe (Bryant) because Kobe worked hard,” he noted. “Kobe’s ability to compete, I recognize when guys quit on me and there were very few times when Kobe quit.”
A five-time All-Defensive First Team pick, Bowen said his attention to detail was a factor in holding down big-time scorers like Allen Iverson, Vince Carter, Ray Allen and Tracy McGrady. “All those guys, I had to guard differently,” he said. “The only thing that was the same was they were all great scorers. But they were different in the way they scored. That took studying. You have to realize that certain players want to do certain things and quickly adjust. For example, Ray Allen likes to run off different screens, he’s not creating off the dribble like Iverson. I can drop off on Iverson because he’s not shooting as many threes as Ray Allen. Then, there’s Kobe. His ability to get to the right elbow, his pump fakes. Carter is a guy that if he gets going, his athleticism is unlike anybody else’s if he’s in the paint. McGrady, same thing. Tracy will settle for a jumper so you don’t want him shooting a jumper. If anything, you want him trying to drive while you make sure he feels you at different times.”
Bowen said his path to the NBA was far from smooth. He was undrafted in 1993 and labored as an import in the French league before signing a 10-day contract with Miami in 1997. “If you’re passionate about something, you have to go for it,” said Bowen who ended up playing 13 years in the NBA, eight in San Antonio where his jersey No. 12 was retired. “I don’t have any regrets. It’s not how you start but how you finish. Along my journey, there were many obstacles and it was just a matter of how you went about things when it came to fulfilling whatever you had to do. There will always be naysayers in every walk of life. You just have to be confident in your own abilities so when others come in to play, they can have that same confidence in you.”
Bowen’s advice to aspiring Filipino players is to shoot for the moon because “even if you miss, you’re still among the stars.” “Whatever you do in life, make sure you do it without any regrets,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s ultimately about how you go about things and I know the spirit of Filipinos is one of passion and great concern. So if you have that passion, you have the desire, I don’t think you should allow anything or anyone to stop you from accomplishing your goals.”