Context:
Other ESPN award picks
What year was Caitlyn Jenner Woman of the Year? (treehozz.com)
The NBA's 75th Anniversary Team, ranked -- Where 76 basketball legends check in on our list (espn.com)
A typically terrible list by them, where they predictably mostly overrated older players and underrated current ones, with one notable exception ( At S bag at 33, blowing away the likes of Davis and Harden, among others).
Gervin at 52, Robinson at 25, Duncan at 8.
Context:
Other ESPN award picks
What year was Caitlyn Jenner Woman of the Year? (treehozz.com)
I'd say they are OVERRATING current players too. Lillard on the list? no. LeBron over Kareem? no. Curry as #16? No. Giannis at #18? NO. Load Management at 33? NO.
They're basing it off of who was selected, which was terrible to begin with.
There's a lot of sentimental attachment for many folks with Allen Iverson, but I'd say his rating is way too high. No way he's better than Walt Frazier, Kawhi, or Pippen. In some ways, he laid the groundwork for Russell Westbrook with big numbers, poor shooting, sky high usage rate, & high turnovers... His advanced stats are barely better than average. I'd start a team with Manu or even Andrei Kirilenko before I'd start a team with Iverson.
It might be interesting for the league to add one player to the "best NBA players of all time" list every year rather than adding 25 names every 25 years. I don't see that happening though.
I'm not sure if any one tuned in but on Saturday TNT drafted from the top 75 with four Wild Cards, can anyone guess who the four Wild Cards were who they decided to draft? Barkley, Jerry West, Shams, Wade, Sue Bird, Dominique and among others were the ones who drafted.
Joker, TMac, Bosh and Klay.
Disrespectful to Vince and Manu.
Didn't they lobby to get Laker Anthony Davis put on the list, which he very much never deserved? ESPN is the rag of sports journalism.
I mean Giannis should be 18 tbh. DPOY. 2x MVP. Finals MVP. 6x all star. About to be 6x all nba. It’s hard to come up with 17 better players/resumes than Giannis. There’s slight projection of course but Giannis could legitimately be top 12-15 if he rings again this year.
Curry is another wild card. He has a chance to be too 12-15 if he wins a ring AND a finals MVP this year. Tall order I know but if he has 8 all star appearances. 2x mvp. 4 rings and a finals MVP, and about to be 8x all nba team. Like it or not but he belongs on the list
Kawhi though belongs nowhere near top 30. Dudes stats are terrible. He has scored less than 12k points. Has low rebound and assist numbers. And really will he come back the same?
He was the most popular NBA player around 2001-02, even more than Kobe and Shaq. When I was in middle school, all the kids wanted to wear Iversons. He was portrayed as a "Little Jordan"
From Lakers Daily:
Shaquille O'Neal adamantly states who he believes is the greatest NBA player to never win a championship. Los Angeles Lakers legend Shaquille O'Neal revealed that Hall of Fame guard Allen Iverson was one of the toughest players to guard and the best player to never win a le.
Yeah, he had the flair and street cred of an AND1 league star, but in the NBA.
Rankings are popularity contests tbh
Also the ringz argument is stupid; if Jordan never got a good team a and a good coach, would he be in the GOAT convo?
No, but that's wrong, because it shouldn't take anything away from him as a player
Same thing with the Finals MVP argument, did Jordan really deserve it in 1996?
Porker was FMVP in 2007 but Duncan was really the most impactful presence in those series
Magic didnt deserve Final MVP in 1980, sure he had that great game 6 but Kareem torched the Sixers frontline for 5 games, and reporters voted he award, so they went with the super media friendly Magic as opposed to Kareem who they hated
Did Worthy deserve FMVP in 1988? No, but they gave i to him because of his game 7 triple double, bu over he whole series, Magic was the real Finals MVP
Also, Curry has no problem letting other players take the spotlight, he puts the team above anything else
It's a team sport, period
Last edited by lefty; 02-22-2022 at 10:58 AM.
Iverson was awesome in 2000-2001, but that's about it
He was really electrifying and his duel with VC in the playoffs was epic
Philly shouldn't have won the East though, Milwaukee was robbed
I would put Shaq over Kobe, and both of them into the Top 10 over Oscar. Timmy anywhere from 3-8.
I know Dirk has a ring and a Finals MVP and scored a lot of points, but I just can’t put him over DRob. Same with KG. KG is a worse version of Robinson in almost every way (except he was a much better passer) but bc he won one ring with Boston people prop him up. Robinson is so much better than KG.
I love him but throw out team stats and no reasonable person would claim Tony Parker was a better player than Lillard.
[Edit: double post]
I have always felt Drob was better than both. Neither of those two guys would have defeated Hakeem in '95.
It's a lot closer than you think. Lillard is a much better shooter than Parker. Parker was a great finisher and could easily score in the paint compared to Lillard. Parker's speed was on another level compared to Lillard. Both are on the same level playmaking wise and defensively. Parker is a better scorer than Lillard even though his scoring average is lower than Lillard. The reason for this is the spurs system he played in and the era he started his career in. The league's rules didn't fully favor perimeter players until the start of the 2010's right when Lillard entered the league while Parker's prime was starting to wind down. Parker's numbers would have been even greater if he got play with these types of rules earlier in his careers and got to play on a team that was focused on offense.
I agree with you when it comes to rankings everything is debatable and it comes down to mainly perception and popularity. I even go back to '93 when everyone proclaimed Jordan was the goat after retiring. You could easily make the case back then that Kareem was still ahead of Jordan due to him having more rings, league MVPs, career points, etc.
It's because I see how trivial these rankings are now that as I have gotten older, I don't care about debating people anymore on these things.
He also props himself up. Showmen get the love. Look at Rodman. I've never seen a one dimensional player get as much love as Dennis did, but flash equals cash.
If Timmy had played for a larger market and promoted himself like LeBron and Jordan did, he's be in the conversation for top 3 all time instead of 7-10.
Timvp said it best that if Danny Green dyed his hair and dated Rihanna that we would view him the same way as Rodman. Rodman dying his hair and dating Madonna is what really catapulted his image from being viewed as a good role player to a star along with playing in Chicago. When in reality he was a just a very good role player.
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