Tree Rollins

At 7-foot-1, Wayne "Tree" Rollins made a long career out of one elite skill: erasing shots at the rim. Over 18 NBA seasons — most of them anchoring the Atlanta Hawks — he became one of the game's premier shot-blockers, leading the league in 1982-83 at 4.3 blocks a night and finishing runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year. He earned All-Defensive First Team honors in 1984 and retired in 1995 with 2,542 career blocks, fourth-most in history at the time. Rollins was never asked to score much, and he didn't — his value lived almost entirely on the defensive end, where his timing and length turned the paint into a no-fly zone. Mastering a narrow role for nearly two decades is its own kind of greatness, and few protected the rim as long or as well as he did.