NBA Season Part 2: Life In The Orlando Bubble

I personally believe they will find some way to have the playoffs. In what form or fashion, who knows.

 

Nah. Kareem is the best basketball player of all time. Kareem vs. Jordan one on one would have been fun. How would Jordan have ever gotten the ball?

 

Jordan might be the best to ever do it, but he played in an era that was very watered down. During his career, 5 teams were added to the league via expansion. His shooting guard competition was Drexler and Reggie Miller. All those Knicks/Bulls rivalries had him going against John Starks. Let's not forget the Bulls were one bad officiated game away from making it to the ECF without Jordan.

Like I said, Jordan might be the greatest player ever, but he benefited greatly from an over-expanded league stretched pretty thin and having a marketing push by Gatorade and Nike that created an almost mythological figure.

 

You're absolutely right D-Fish Man, it's silly to compare players not only of different eras but different positions as they do different things/have different strengths and weaknesses.

That said, when I see a bunch of folks here say Jordan is the GOAT, then I'm going to counter that Kareem is the GOAT because that's how I feel. At the end of the day this stuff is all subjective, all just personal opinion.

However, if you want to know my reasoning, I'll tell you. Kareem is the best player I've ever seen. He is the reason I started watching basketball. He's the reason I'm a Lakers fan. Kareem wasn't just a star college basketball player, he was arguably the BEST college basketball player. They outlawed the freaking DUNK because of this guy. How many games did he lose in college? He won three championships because they wouldn't let freshman play. But his freshman team beat the older championship Bruin squad! Have you checked out his record as a high school player at Power? 71 game win streak and 79 and 2 in his high school career. In his college career at UCLA he was 88 and 2. Three straight championships.

From Wiki:
During his college career, Alcindor was twice named Player of the Year (1967, 1969); was a three-time First Team All-American(1967–1969); played on three NCAA basketball champion teams (1967, 1968 and 1969); was honored as the Most Outstanding Player in the NCAA Tournament three times and became the first-ever Naismith College Player of the Year in 1969.

In 1967 and 1968, he also won USBWA College Player of the Year, which later became the Oscar Robertson Trophy. Alcindor became the only player to win the Helms Foundation Player of the Year award three times. The 1965–66 UCLA Bruin team was the preseason #1. On November 27, 1965, the freshman team, led by Alcindor, defeated the varsity 75–60 in the first game in the new Pauley Pavilion.[28] Alcindor scored 31 points and had 21 rebounds in what was a good indication of things to come. After the game, the UCLA varsity was #1 in the country but #2 on campus. If the "freshman rule" had not been in effect at that time, UCLA would have had a much better chance of winning the 1966 National Championship.

As of the 2011–12 season, he still holds or shares a number of individual records at UCLA:[39]

• Highest career scoring average: 26.4;
• Most career field goals: 943 (tied with Don MacLean);
• Most points in a season: 870 (1967);
• Highest season scoring average: 29.0 (1967);
• Most field goals in a season: 346 (1967);
• Most free throw attempts in a season: 274 (1967);
• Most points in a single game: 61;
• Most field goals in a single game: 26 (vs. Washington State, February 25, 1967).

That's just high school and college. Kareem was the very best I've ever seen. The sky hook was a thing of beauty, an unstoppable weapon that hasn't been surpassed in the game.

Kareem gave the game everything he had for 20 years at the highest level. Jordan conversely quit on the game for a year and a half in his prime. He left to play baseball, his great sports love. I will never concede that a guy who quit the game in his prime was the best.

 

Yeah, was thinking winners outs for sure.

Kareem stops Jordan by blocking his @$$. 7 foot 2 with those arms. I'm talking about prime Kareem vs. prime Jordan. Kareem was a monster defender.

How does Michael Jordan stop prime Kareem again? Kareem's got about 7 to 8 inches over him, 85 pounds of pure lean muscle on him, and wields the Skyhook, the most unstoppable shot in the history of basketball. Tall order that.