Someone has to be the most underrated great player in a sport, if only to keep tavern arguments perpetual while keeping them moderately civil.
Thus, we put it to the membership that the basketball player most qualified to hold that title was Nate Thurmond, the former Warrior who died today nine days short of his 75th birthday.
Thurmond was such a fixture within the community relations department for the Golden State Warriors that people almost forgot that he got the job by being one of the franchise’s greatest players. He is never mentioned as one of the sport’s great center/power forwards only because today’s fan has a visceral aversion to history, but he was, and almost from the start.