I couldn't really see the list but I think the 70s was a low point in the NBA and anyone banging the drum for players from this era, should really factor this into their thinking. For one, half the talent for much of the decade was in the ABA. So the NBA was somewhat diluted and somewhat diminished compared to the 80s and after. In addition to the talent pool being largely diluted by the existence of a competing league (ie the ABA), you also had a rampant drug problem. I'm not passing judgment. Recreational use of cocaine was rampant at this time, however. This was the backdrop for why the NBA took off in the early 80s. Magic and Bird really elevated the NBA from where it had been. Magic and Bird brought the NBA out of the abyss, then Jordan and his teammates brought it to a transcendent level. The highest ratings for an NBA finals, at least as of a few years ago, was the 98 Finals between Utah and Chicago. Again, Utah was part of the most watched/cared about NBA finals in history. Not LA, not Boston, not NY....but Utah. Granted, they had two all time players in Stockton and Malone. But people cared because of those Bulls teams. The 96 and 97 NBA finals also had very high ratings.
So while the 70s Bulls players shouldn't be unceremoniously cast aside, proper heft should also be given to the 90s Bulls teams. That era, ie the 90s, for both those Bulls teams and Jordan individually, are constantly used as reference. And it's for a variety of reason. Those 90s Bulks teams, to a large degree, became a filter that re-shaped how people see the NBA. The players who have the biggest impact in the paint have, through the years, been in a position of great advantage. But until Jordan came along, that player was typically a center. Part of it was that, as a wing player, Jordan didn't accumulate fouls against centers since he was never guarding them but other centers would accumulate fouls since Jordan could get to the basket at will, practically. So Jordan erased thus idea that points in the paint had to come from post players. But then you also had rebounding, which is another stat that had been long considered the dominion of a center. Enter Horace Grant and, even better, Rodman came later. Those Bulls teams dissected the previously held beliefs about the role of a center. Part of the genius of those Bulls teams was in their design. They had paint scoring and rebounding covered with Rodman. The Bulls then proceeded to use rotational centers...guys who could never usurp Rodman or Jordan in living up to the traditional role of a center, but instead the Bulls 2 or 3 centers that were disposable. Their biggest value was that they were smart and knew how to give fouls.
So, really, when people bad mouth Longley, they should really see him as a forerunner for how the center's function was being re-defined. Any great center in NBA history only had 6 fouls to give against Jordan and Pippen in the paint. Meanwhile, the way the Bulls used their centers, the Bulls had 18 fouls to give against any great center in NBA history. So Luc Longley represents a complete re-configurement as to what the role of a center needs to be. Luc Longley, and Chicago's other post players from that era, doesn't represent 20/10 but he does represent a new idea.
