If William the Conqueror played basketball: center, rated 80

William the Conqueror as a basketball player: scouting report

William the Conqueror crossed the English Channel in 1066 and won at Hastings, and the lesson for basketball is simple: he takes ground and keeps it. That makes him a center. Rebounding is the best mark on his card by a wide margin, and he plays the glass like territory to be held, establishing position early, sealing off his man and refusing to give up the space under the rim. He became Duke of Normandy as a young boy and held onto the title, so fighting for position is nothing new to him.

His basketball IQ is the next best mark, and the record backs it up. As king he ordered the Domesday Book, a survey of land and property across England so detailed that historians still study it today, and that same attention to detail becomes a big man who knows every opponent's tendencies before the tip. He also began the great stone keep we now call the White Tower at the Tower of London, which is a fair picture of how he defends the paint. His defense is solid, and his athleticism is serviceable for the middle.

Shooting is the weak spot and the lowest mark on his card, so keep him close to the basket and surround him with shooters. He can slide to power forward with only a small drop, and he can play small forward in a very big lineup, though that is a stretch. Draft him in the early middle rounds as a rebounding anchor. Pair him with a playmaking guard who can find him on the block, and let him do what he did as Duke of Normandy and King of England: claim the ground in front of him and hold it.

Plays like A dominant interior big who claims every inch of the paint

Put William the Conqueror in your lineup

8 rolls, a starting five and a bench, 82 games. Can you go 82-0? Free, no account.