Happy Moses Malone Day

OK, since it is Moses Malone Day in Philly, let's go through some Moses Malone love.


1) Most importantly,
Moses is my #18 player of all-time.  Since I spend weeks on that analysis every 3 years, and I rank Moses so high, I think it is pretty egregious that Moses is only now getting his number retired in Philly.


2) Moses Malone was so physically dominant as a high school player that he was told to go home early from Five Star Camp.  As recently as 2016, Hubie Brown stated that Moses was the greatest player ever at Five Star Camp.

Moses once stated of his own physical dominance that he and any 4 guys he could pick off the street in Petersburg, VA could win NBA games. 

3)  Moses Malone in 1979-83, finished 1-9-4-1-1 in MVP voting:

1979 --  Beat George Gervin 112-35

1980 - received a first-place vote (Magic did not)

1981 - finished behind Dr. J, Bird and Kareem

1982 - beat Bird 40-20 in first place votes

1983 - had 69 out of 75 first-place votes.  (defeating Bird, Magic, Dr. J, Kareem)


So, over a 5 year stretch, Moses did better in MVP balloting than 4 of the top 20 players of all-time - Dr. J,  Magic, Bird, Kareem).


3) Over this same stretch of time, Moses' Houston team went to the Finals from the West in 1981 (displacing Magic/Kareem - something that was not done again in the Western Conference until 1986) 

Moses led the NBA in playoff Win Shares in 1981 and 1983.  Again, this means he had more playoff WS than Bird in 1981 and more playoff WS than Magic or Kareem in 1983. 


There is a solid argument that from 1979-1983, Moses Malone was the #1 player in all of basketball. Certainly he destroyed Kareem in head-to-head competition on a regular basis, taking him out in 1981 as a Rocket and then sweeping the Lakers in 1983.  In 1983, Moses was so head and shoulders above his competition that he stated his classic "Fo-Fo-Fo" boast before the playoffs, and, but for a long Sidney Moncrief buzzer beater, would have gone 4-4-4.  As it was, teams got exactly 1 game off the Sixers, and the Magic/Kareem Lakers were swept.


CAREER STATS

4) Moses

-- #2 in career FT made and attempted
-- #9 all-time in career points
-- #3 all-time in career rebounds
-- #14 in Win Shares

Only Russell and Wilt have more rebounds.


5)  4X first-team all-NBA, 4X second team all-NBA   The league did not go to 3 teams of all-NBA until 1988-89. 

Moses was a 13x all-star, so he was really good for 13 years, even though only 8 of them resulted in all-NBA honors.

6) Moses was the greatest offensive rebounder since offensive rebounds were counted as a statistic in the NBA in 1973-74.

NBA Seasons with over 330 Offensive Rebounds:

Moses 14, Rodman 7, no one else more than 5.


NBA Seasons with over 400 offensive rebounds

 Moses 6, Rodman 3, Drummond & Larry Smith 2.  No one else with over 1.


Seasons with over 500 offensive rebounds.

 Moses 3, Rodman 1 (end of list)


Career Total Offensive Rebounds:

Moses 7382
Gilmore 4816


Now, imagine that there is some statistic that has been around for 45 years and you are number one by roughly 50% in excess of the 2nd place guy.

The active leader is Dwight Howard.  If Dwight Howard gets 22 more offensive rebounds, he will have 50% of Moses Malone's career rebounds.


7) Moses Was the greatest Offensive Rebounder/Scorer Ever, By a Huge Margin.

Games With 40+ Points and 10 Offensive Rebounds - Moses 5, Shaq 3

30/10 - Moses 29, Barkley 10, Shaq 8, David 7, Hakeem 7

25/10 - Moses 40, Barkley 17, Shaq 13, Hakeem 12, David 10.



8)  How great was Moses as a 30 points/20 Rebound Player?


For seasons after 1973:

Moses -- 36 Such Games
Kareem 27
McAdoo 22
Barkley 20
Shaq 18
Hakeem 15
Cousins 10
Big E 10
Ewing 8
Dwight Howard 8

9) 24 Point and 12 Rebound Seasons

Wilt 10
KAJ Baylor Pettit 9
Moses 6
McAdoo 5
Bellamy Hayes Shaq 4
Hakeem 3


10) Moses Had 3 MVPs, and a Finals MVP, and was regular season and Finals MVP in the same year, in a year where he led the league in both regular season and playoff WS and WS/48.

This has been done as follows:

1971 - Kareem
1983 Moses
1991 Jordan
1996 Jordan
2000 Shaq
2012 LeBron

Worthy of a Note:

In 1967, Wilt won the MVP and his team won the title and he won WS and WS/48 for the season and the playoffs.  But there was no Finals MVP formally awarded.

In 2013, LeBron waon MVP, Finals MVP, WS and WS/48 in the season and WS in the playoffs - but his temmate Chris Anderson had the best WS/48 at .303, playing roughly 300 minutes.  Chris Paul also had a higher WS/48, playing around 200 minutes.



CONCLUSION -- Moses was awesome.  Happy Moses Malone Day!!!