http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=15502326&sf26040540=1 T-Mac thinks so. With Kobe, KG, Pierce, Allen, VC gone. Duncan and Ginobili probably gone. D-Wade, Dirk, Pau and TP on last legs. Amare injuries, Dwight Howard, Carmelo Anthony both having huge decline into role player status. What is left of the mid 2000s veteran stars? LeBron and CP3? Aldridge isn't a superstar. Neither are Horford or Conley or Marc Gasol. What about the younger vet stars? Derrick Rose was promising and ruined by injury. Not a superstar. Kevin Love? Stat Padder on a loser team, now just another Bosh level role player. DeAndre isn't a superstar. Whiteside isn't. Hayward isn't. Giannis isn't. SUPERSTARS LeBron James - Going on 32 years old. Been in the NBA since 18. Probably has 3 true superstar level seasons before it's over. Chris Paul - Just turned 31. Still can't find playoff success. Injury prone. Kevin Durant - 28 before next season. Foot concerns after missing a season. Steph Curry - Already 28 years old. You'd think he's been dominating the league for 10 years like LeBron with the way people talk about him being GOAT status. Was not a superstar before last years breakout. Ankle concerns. Has missed a season due to said ankles. Blake Griffin - 27. Injury prone. Can't seem to take the next leap to dominate like a superstar. Russell Westbrook - 27. Stat padder? James Harden - Will be 27 before next season. Zero defense. Relies on ft line.Stat padder? Paul George - 26. Came off gruesome injury where he missed a season. Jimmy Butler? 26. Not a superstar. 25 and under SUPERSTARS: Anthony Davis Kawhi Leonard (not really a franchise player) DeMarcus Cousins Kyrie Irving a superstar? (all star) John Wall a superstar? (all star) Damian Lillard a superstar? (all star) Andre Drummond a superstar?(all star) Klay Thompson a superstar?(all star) Draymond Green a superstar?(all star) In a few years, it's going to be difficult to name 5 true Superstar franchise players.
T-Mac is a dumbass. Its not that it's watered down so much, its that a player (and a team you could say) have changed the dynamic of the game.
Also, the term superstar isn't an inherent quality of a player imo (sounds off I know...), but relative to the league much like the MVP. There are probably about 5-8 players you could call superstars if you are generous with the term, ideally less than 5. The rest are all stars and that isn't anything to scoff at. Sorry, a bit of a rant too, just hate how the word gets thrown out there so much.
Not saying I agree or disagree with this, bu I just want to say that I think MerGady has a horrible take on basketball. I've watched him a few times on TNT and ESPN and he's not that good.
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When I first joined Clutchfans, I never understood why guys like Antisonic (what happened to him btw?) disliked T-Mac so much. Dude was on the money about Tracy. T-Mac opens his mouth and turns everything into a pride issue, saying something stupid. From his tone, and the preceding "You played with those guys.." it was clear there was a personal slight to what he was saying. When Lebron won his first ring he said something similar about him to put him down.
The league is more role player and team driven than before. Stars cannot win anything without specialists and uber role players. Great players have become more versatile. Bigs can dribble, smaller ones can post up, rebound and so on I think Defenses have watered down though, superstars are rare and they conserve most of their energy on Offense than Defense. You will see more offense minded teams and when they happen to have decent Defense, they will go far
T-mac is just confused. The league is watered down when it comes to big men. There are no more dominant centers anymore. But the level of competition among guards is greater than ever.
The league has been watered down since Lebron got here. Teams are handed championships by bogus calls & the rules are WNBA caliber. No physicality whatsoever
MerGady's mind has been watered down ever since he lead the Spurs to the NBA Finals in 2013 and lost.
I don't see a connection between a number of superstars and whether the league is watered down. My intuition is that the floor on talent is probably higher than ever and the average is higher than ever. Maybe that means the superstars don't stand so far above the crowd anymore. But that would mean the league has more talent, not less.
I'll tell you why the league seems to be watered down. They don't let the players play. Now players with attitude like KG are considered to be "unsportsmanlike". They've taken the fun out of watching the NBA in my opinion. Also the charge rule needs to be changed IMO. Maybe charges should only count outside of the paint or perhaps even the 3 point line which would be an extreme change. Even though I can't stand OKC, I appreciate watching Westbrook because he's mean and really aggressive. I don't think there is a lack of talent, I just think the rules were tweaked. Maybe they are setting the NBA up for a WNBA merger.
You can probably count good post up players on one hand, regardless of position. That's bad. Is it though? Among point guards, maybe so, probably so. But it's one of the weakest generations of SG's in history.
I'll piggyback off this too. The emotions have been taken out the game. Players no longer have the same emotional attachment to winning. The superstars are more concerned with being celebrities than working on their games. The officiating seems to have gotten worse too. Basically the league has got soft and looks like one big pick up game. I miss the 90's
No, his left eye is. I never knows which way to go. Therefore, making him confused? Yes, t-wack is confused and by confused, I mean an idiot.
Roy was fun to watch as much as I hated him beating us. He's the kind of player I wanted to watch for a while but those darn knees.
I loved watching Brandon Roy play as well. He was so smooth. I just hated when he had to shoot FT's and we got face full of afro armpit hair.
I still love Tmac... But he's out of his mind here! Every professional sports league is being played at a higher level today than it ever has. And in 20 years, the same will be true! The "current" era will always be the best, it's the natural progression of sports. They constantly improve in terms of talant.
