Pippen always has been "disregarded" to prop the MJ legend even more ... Overall , I still have the same issue with these lists , it makes little sense to compare players of different eras
WTF CPFlop at number 6? rofl @ the Payton, Mo Cheeks, Kevin J, Dennis J, Tiny A. or even Mark Price and Jackson snubs. I'll put them in before the flopping choker.
List is out for the PFs by the way: 1. Tim Duncan 2. Karl Malone 3. Dirk Nowitzki 4. Charles Barkley 5. Kevin Garnett 6. Kevin McHale 7. Bob Pettit 8. Elvin Hayes 9. Pau Gasol 10. Dennis Rodman
Agree. Numbers-wise, Dirk has him beat, but KGs game isn't all about numbers. Efficiency, defense (something Dirk knows nothing about), and team game. Glad to see Rodman in there. Wasn't sure ESPN would do the right thing.
That's a fine list but those who voted probably in these started following the NBA in the 90s... I hate Lurch, and there is BIG reason for that, he should be top 3. Same with Bird who should be number 1.
Even if he was a significant better all around player in his prime , I wouldn't put KG over Dirk . Dude could trashtalk and play the tough guy as much as he wanted ... He was always hiding when it mattered the most ( way worse than Lebron ) whereas Dirk was and still is clutch
While that is true - I am pretty sure that only applied to the offensive side of the ball. KG was one of the best defenders EVER, so I am pretty sure he's made enough clutch defensive plays. These simply get often overlooked.
So, the only one that really bothered me was seeing Curry at 4th. It got me thinking: if the two aspects are peak performance and career performance, how the hell can Curry be ahead of Isiah, and how is Gary Payton not on the list? Best year: Thomas's 21.2, 13.9, and 4.5 in 84/85 were paired with 2.3 steals and 46% from the field. In a full season, Steph's best year is 24.0, 8.5, 4.3, with 1.6 steals and 49% from the field. Is Curry's best season better than Thomas's? It's not clear to me. Then look at the career performance, and Thomas destroys Curry. Just way too early to have Curry that high. Briefly, for The Glove: 24.2 points, 8.9 assists, 6.5 rebounds, 1.9 steals, shot 45% from the field. He was also along with Kidd the best PG defender in the league for a decade.
Lebron would be great in any era, but i don't think he'd be GOAT SF great in the 80's and 90's. He's so damn talented and physically gifted that he could get by in eras past, but several things would hinder him. 1. He's not fundamentally sound in terms of footwork. Dude travels and gets away with it more than any superstar I've ever seen. That ish was called by refs more often back then. 2. A lot of his game is relying on bulldozing into the paint, flopping and getting a foul called. He's so big, strong, and fast that he's practically unguardable without fouling by today's rules. Without today's sissy "jump into a retreating defender to draw the foul" rules, what would Lebron be? He'd be great, but not what we see today. 3. He's not mentally tough enough to play in that era. He got over (mostly, but not totally) his fear of failure stuff and the choking and quitting on his team several years ago. But that's not what I'm talking about. I don't think he's mentally tough enough to be played extremely physically. Remember when Kobe played him 80's style for those few possessions during that ASG...damn! I know it's a tiny sample size and it was an ASG for crying out loud...but i think it speaks volumes. How would "King-everybody's-friend" deal with being hand-checked or Oakley, Mason, or Rodman putting some serious hurt on him? He'd need a MUCH better midrange game because he'd be terrified to go to the paint. BTW, where's Bernard King on the SF list?
Shocked that Pau made the list. Not that he didn't deserve to but that BSPN included him. But wait, this is probably their way of slighting Kobe - that he couldn't do it without an all-time big.
In his prime, he rivaled Bird for the best SF in the league. Injuries and drugs kept his prime to a small window. I don't think he has the resume to knock out any of the top 10.
according to the press, pau has been a big bucket of wussy crap...until they needed him to make a case against kobe's greatness. and I'd put LeBron at #1 among sfs. I don't think the 80s would have done anything to him. he's 6'9", 250. he's basically as big and strong as Charles Oakley, but like, 1000 times more mobile. he'd dunk on that dude. on the flipside, imagine that physical monster gets to put his hands on you defensively...could shut down any position save center. I know people don't like LeBron (I don't either--I'm particularly annoyed at his continually stacking the deck in his favor rather than competing against the other greats), but he's an all-time great. he's about to take a team to a sixth consecutive finals.
I don't doubt his physical tools at all. I think he'd completely wilt mentally against mean physical teams like the Knicks and bad boy pistons. You're right about his defense though... he'd be scary.
