Marcin Gortat compares teammate Boban Marjanovic to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Per the LA Times’ Andrew Greif, LA Clippers big man Marcin Gortat recently compared teammate Boban Marjanovic to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

In case you weren’t watching, LA Clippers center Boban Marjanovic had a monster preseason, highlighted by two double-doubles in the span of roughly 32 minutes between them.

Bobi appeared in all five games this preseason (all of which the Clippers won, coincidentally), and absolutely crushed the competition whenever he was on the court. He looked so good, in fact, that fellow big man and new teammate Marcin Gortat had the highest of praises for him.

Per Andrew Greif, Gortat said the following of Marjanovic on Saturday:

"“I mean Boban is unstoppable. To be honest with you I’m just surprised how incredibly skilled he is for his size and incredibly smart. Just because people have a tendency to look [at the] physical aspect of him they’re thinking he’s a little funny but it ain’t funny when he out there on the court and you’ve got to guard him. It ain’t funny, I’m telling you right now. You’ve got to be really focused on the guy to guard him right because otherwise he’s going to get you 20 and 12 in eight minutes. That’s what he did, he showed up every game and checked in for eight minutes and he got a double-double. I mean, Jesus Christ, that’s better than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.”"

Now, obviously, it’s important to factor in the level of competition here (and surely Gortat wasn’t being completely serious). Marjanovic was going up against preseason rosters and players from international teams. But at the same time, what he was capable of achieving in such short stints of time was absurd.

Per Greif’s same tweet, Marjanovic averaged a ridiculous 55.3 points and 30.4 rebounds per 48 minutes during the preseason, marks which would easily rank him among the greatest players in NBA history.

Unfortunately, the thought of throwing Marjanovic out onto the floor for 48 minutes every night is about as ridiculous as those numbers. He’s best as a situational big, and just doesn’t have the stamina to play anything more than 20 minutes a night on a regular basis.

Those situations he excels in are the ones in which he can play the game comfortably at his own speed. Despite him having all the reach in the world with his 7’10” wingspan, Marjanovic isn’t agile enough to keep up with modern centers that run the floor more like guards do. However, when he’s matched up with bigs that play a style more like his, like Nikola Jokic, that’s when Marjanovic truly shines.

You have to wonder though, what it’d be like if Marjanovic played in a more old-fashioned era of basketball when the pace was much slower and there was less emphasis on the three-ball. Could Boban have been one of the greats? We’ll never know for sure, but he certainly fits the mold.