Utah Jazz: Is Rudy Gobert the best center in franchise history?

Did someone call for a non-shooting, non-switching, rim-protecting stationary big? Greg Ostertag would like a word with them.

The rough-and-tumble Kansas product spent almost his entire career with the Utah Jazz, save for a brief foray to Sacramento in the 2004-05 season. He was also a member of the most successful teams in Jazz history, manning the middle alongside the famed duo of Karl Malone and John Stockton through much of the 90s, including back-to-back Finals appearances in 1996-97 and 1997-98.

Greg Ostertag didn’t offer much on offense. His most impressive individual season in terms of basic counting stats came in 1996-97, his sophomore year. Even then, he probably didn’t garner a lot of All-Star interest with averages of 7.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.0 blocks a contest.

His lack of offensive ability simply didn’t matter for an attack that was built around Stockton and Malone’s historic pick-and-roll chemistry. Ostertag’s role was to bully opposing players, and protect the rim, and he did each exceedingly well.

In fact, the man known as (the other) Big O posted a sub-100 Defensive Rating for three consecutive seasons between 1998-99 and 2000-01. A 7’2, 280-pound monster of a human being, Ostertag may have been relatively immobile, but once he had position in the middle, he was also unmovable.

Ostertag certainly existed in a different era of NBA basketball. Some of his contemporaries as NBA centers include Shaquille O’Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson and Patrick Ewing. It wasn’t Ostertag’s role to carry the Utah Jazz: it was his role to make sure those players felt him as they attempted to carry their teams.

Neither Stockton or Malone couldn’t have asked for a better man for that particular job.