A 7-foot-4 lanky giant is taking over the league and becoming a problem for defenses all over. This news could very well be about Victor Wembanyama, but actually, before the French phenom, there was Ralph Sampson.
The Houston Rockets drafted Sampson first overall in the 1983 draft. Just a year before they drafted Hakeem Olajuwon. At that time, a center who could shoot was not seen in the same light as today. Rather, centers were asked to put the ball on the floor and stay near the rim.
Thus, Wembanyama’s entry into the league helped shine a bright light on Sampson’s career and bring him back to relevance because of all the comparisons made between the two centers who played almost 30 years apart. But Sampson would like to clarify his stance.
“But you know, I could have played in this era for sure, and I would probably dominate the game more than I dominated the game in the past,” said Sampson, who claimed he could have averaged 30.0 points and 20.0 rebounds in today’s NBA.
“They say I’m Wemby, the first; he’s Wemby, the second. But I’m Ralph the first, he’s Ralph the second. I could post-up, I could dribble, and I could shoot outside. We didn’t shoot many 3s when I played, but I’m sure my mindset would’ve been really tough to play and would’ve been at an elite level of the game.” Sampson told ClutchPoints during a recent charity event in Los Angeles.
The shooting aspect really does make a massive difference. Wembanyama has averaged 6.8 three-point attempts per game in his first two years in the league. On the other hand, Sampson did not even average a single three-pointer attempt across the 456 games he played in the NBA.
According to the former Rockets center, the game during their time was not well-suited to his unique skillset. Additionally, his career was marred by injuries, and his prime was arguably affected by the constant turmoil his body was going through.
One could argue that in today’s time, equal importance is given to training and recovery. So someone facing multiple injuries today is much better suited to deal with them than how it worked 30 years ago.
But the showrunners of the league, even at that time, understood his talent and star potential. One of the most highly recruited high school and college players of his time, he made it to the cover of Sports Illustrated multiple times in four years. He also became only the second player, after Bill Walton, to win the Naismith Player of the Year thrice, playing for the University of Virginia.
The former Rockets center started his professional career with an absolute masterclass in his debut season, winning the Rookie of the Year award for averaging 21.0 points, 11.1 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 0.9 steals, and 2.4 blocks per game. He did this while playing all 82 games in the season.
The dip in Sampson’s career came in March 1986. During a game against the Boston Celtics, Sampson landed weirdly after going up for a rebound. The fall ended up with him having a severely bruised back and missing three games. Some say that he was never the same after that day.
That year itself, the Rockets made it to the NBA Finals on the back of some miraculous clutch play by Sampson and a steady roster led by Hakeem Olajuwon. But they fell to the mighty Larry Bird’s Boston Celtics in the finals. Despite the loss, the Rockets received praise for becoming a young force to be reckoned with, and Sampson was a key figure in that success.
Although this would be the last time he would play an entire season. Next year, he faced a terrible cartilage tear that made him miss half the regular season. He was supposed to be out for good, but fast-tracked his recovery to join the team for the playoffs.
“I should have been out for a year, but came back after eight weeks because I wanted to play the game of basketball and the sport that I love… …I probably came back a little too early, but we had a chance to go back to The Finals with the team we had, and I wanted to go back with my teammates,” Sampson said, recalling the decision to rush back to the court.
Ralph Sampson was on his way to NBA immortality if he just stayed healthy enough to see his Rockets win back-to-back championships the next decade. Who knows how the chips may have fallen if he were there to support Olajuwon in the battles against the likes of the Chicago Bulls and the ‘Bad Boys’ Detroit Pistons.
