If somehow you feel like ranting about how the center position is not what it used to be or how the Kareem Abdul-Jabbars and Wilt Chamberlains of the world have been lost through the years, Miami Heat center Hassan Whiteside wants to hear none of it.
“I don't know who ‘they' are. ‘They' don't watch basketball if it's not centers. I don't have a day off at the center position,” Whiteside told Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “Even (Joel) Embiid at the end of the game was talking about how we're bringing back the centers.”
Whiteside was coming off from a career-high 32-point night in a 101-94 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, which he completed with 13 rebounds and two blocks.
“And when you hear it from the players, they're saying it, Embiid saying it, I don't know who ‘they' are,” said Whiteside. “But they must not watch basketball, because every night I've got Dwight (Howard), (Andre) Drummond, (DeMarcus) Cousins. I got a really good center every night. So I don't know where these nights off are happening.”
It wasn't long until his head coach followed by giving praise to his starting center.
“He's getting better and he's getting competitive,” Erik Spoelstra, who was slowed only by foul trouble Monday night. “And more and more, each game, he's really trying to take on a responsibility and help this team win. And he'll continue to get better.”
“Hassan has gotten so much better as a one-on-one defender. He always had been a great help, impact shot-blocking defender [off the ball]. Now he's really becoming elite one on one.”
If anything, the center position has evolved with every center being different — there's more than just lefties and righties, it's about a skill set.
Embiid is a center with great footwork and range, but he's young and can be lured into double teams easily. Drummond is an Energizer bunny that can come from out of nowhere to clean up the offensive glass and stuff it right in front his defender who failed to box him out. Marc Gasol is a shooting big that can make teams pay from the perimeter as much as he will on the block, but don't expect him to gobble up 15 rebounds every game.
Centers are now multi-faceted and can provide a variety of problems if they're not scouted or defended properly, hence why Whiteside doesn't really get a day off in this league.
“Some people always ask me who the toughest guys are to guard,” Whiteside said. “I say, ‘Who are the refs?' That's what it comes down to. The refs control the game.”
“Even the block I had on (Jahlil) Okafor, the ref came back and told me it wasn't a foul. Like, ‘OK, so let's get it right.'”
Spoelstra felt it was crucial to manage Whiteside's fouls, which ultimately translated into Whiteside playing just 33 minutes.
“He's getting a lot better playing in foul trouble,” Spoelstra said. “It happens. I was taking him out, anyway, in the first quarter. He was able to play all the way through the second, all the way through the third, and got a couple of tough calls that may or may not have been real heavy-contact fouls. But he's getting much better with that.”
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