Slam Magazine's 50 Best NBA Players - Page 4

No 3 point line. Softer rules (ie hand checking) and reinforcement of said rules (particularly bad in LBJ's case). Re-adjust.

not much but i'm a laker fan, and i'm into soccer so i dislike it when people rate players based on championships won, as though the other 20 guys on the team had nothing to do with it.

you can only evaluate a player by watching him play and seeing what he does, the decisions he makes, the plays he makes. stats don't tell you much because they are effected entirely by the teammates, strategies of the coach, etc...

Unlike a football player (who is one of 11 members of his team on the field and does not play both offense and defense) or a baseball player (who cannot affect play but only respond to events as they occur), a basketball player has a direct and significant effect on the outcome of a game. For that reason, postseason success, or lack thereof, is an important part of a basketball player's legacy, much more so than that of a football player or baseball player. Obviously, this proposition has limits; no one would contend that Robert Horry is a better basketball player than Charles Barkley. It is quite useful in ranking comparable players, however. Why do you think Olajuwon is ranked above Robinson, who is ranked above Ewing?

i understand they use that for ranking, but i don't think they should. as i said, if you put a great player on a lousy team, he's not going to win anything, but he's still a great player. you can rank kobe as better than lebron because of his championships, but if kobe played for cleveland, he wouldn't have any championships either. if lebron played for the lakers, he'd be the champion right now. that's all i'm saying.

No they didn't.

In Jordan's first 10 seasons the Bulls made the playoffs EVERY year.

In his first 3, they lost in the first round.

In his next 3, they lost in the conference semis once and the conference finals twice.

In his next 3, they won the championship.

Not exactly sucking royally, by most definitions.

If Jordan never won an NBA title, he would be considered a better Dominique Wilkins.

Michael Jordan was the kind of player that would have won a title even on a shitty team. He just was.

I could be wrong, but didn't Phil Jackson (with help from Tex Winter) introduce the Triangle offense? I go back and forth with people on whether it was Joe Montana or the West Coast Offense.

AC:

You don't think a pitcher has a direct effect on play in baseball?

sorry, you misunderstood, i said sport.

i love iverson but i'm surprised he is on the top 50.

Of course not LeBron's numbers, but close. I was only pointing out that the correlation between statistics and basketball greatness, whatever that means anymore, is streneous at best.


I know this kind of statement if fun to say for shit and gigles, but there's really no way to prove or disprove it. After all, Phil and Scottie were there for the whole ride.