For those who could remember , starting 5's like we have today were very commonplace. The Lakers teams with Baylor, McMillain, Wilt, West and Goodrich were awesome. The Celtics 5 of Bird, McHale, Parish, Dj and Ainge-not bad! What do u bros think?...Best startin 5 EVEAH!!??

Wow, I dunno about ever. Before David Stern took over the business of basketball, the depth of talent per team was soooooo much greater.

I know this will be unpopular, but I probably gotta give best starting 5 ever to the Showtime Lakers.

LA Lakers, fastbreak makers, kings of the court shake and bake all takers. - RHCP

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Nov 13 LW Milan Lucic had an active night. He scored his first goal in eight games since his Oct. 25 hat trick and also pounded Michael Komisarek in a third-period fight. Lucic cut his hand in a fight with Michael Komisarek. "I'll be fine," he said. "(X-rays are) negative, but there's so many broken bones in there from before you can't really tell."

It is impossible to say. The team Detroit has today, several teams would have had in any of numerous years. Talent wasn't spread over so many teams and the lineups stayed together much longer.

Going back over the teams I've actually seen with some regularity, I always thought the 1982-83 76ers were as well-rounded a starting five as you could have, with Malone, Erving, Toney, Cheeks and Jones on the floor. That wasn't nearly as talented a squad as the Sixers had in previous years, but the fit was perfect.

Why don't you lay it on us BHQ. My Bball memory only goes back to '86 and I didn't see much. Who matches up with BBen?

For the Knicks it was Willis Reed, a gutty 6'10 workhorse at center who also had a nice shooting touch.

For the 70s Lakers it was Happy Hairston, a blue-collar rebounder who routinely pulled down over 1,000 boards a year at 6'7.

For the 66-67 76ers (68-13) it was the best fit of all in a guy named Luke Jackson -- the original shaven-head intimidator, a 6'9 small-college bruiser who rebounded, defended and shot like crap.

Lanier, you know your centers.

Thanks, but in those days they were a lot easier to know.

Actually, only Reed was a center among the guys named. I was just identifying guys who did Ben's kind of dirty work. Other guys like that were Bill Bridges of the Hawks (who made Ben look like TMac offensively) and Paul Silas, and Truck Robinson, and Danny Roundfield, and of course Mr. Mean, Larry Smith. Even their names were no-nonsense.