Sorry, I should have clarified, Sporting News NBA MVP* in 1984. He was as effective of a scorer if I ever saw one. Truly, one of the most efficient scorers ever at his position.
Most overrated ever: Vince Carter - Every team he went to got worse. I don't fully buy into him quitting on Toronto, part of me feels like that was an excuse for him underachieving there. The east was at it's worst when he took Toronto on that playoff run. Most overrated today: Kobe Bryant - He didn't deserve most of his All Defensive Team selections. Since 2009, Wade deserved to be on the All NBA First Team over him. I think he's been the most clutch in the NBA for years, but the media and some fans hype him up too much. He hasn't been that clutch in the playoffs. His assist totals in playoff elimination games aren't that good. He got blown out numerous times in elimination games, and couldn't close out a depleted Phoenix Suns team despite a 3-1 series lead. The media tried to credit Kobe for Bynum closing against Boston, Bynum or Gasol should have gotten more touches all season, especially late in games. Sometimes Gasol's importance is undervalued until trade rumors become serious. Whether the team had Shaq or Gasol, the Lakers played well without Kobe and Kobe didn't always have to be great for the Lakers to succeed. He had bad teams for 2 seasons (the 2005 roster wasn't that bad IMO) but numerous great players rarely got to play with established stars or roleplayers as much. I disagree with Kobe being called a top 10 player. Tim Duncan was a better defender, has more MVP awards, more finals MVP awards, and was the best player on all of his most successful teams, yet Kobe is usually ranked ahead of him. The 2002 WCF, the 2008 WCSF, and the 2010 NBA finals were series that Lakers likely would have lost if not for officiating. His shortcomings are often glossed over. One example is getting all the credit for beating an undersized defender on a depleted Hornets team despite struggling, or shooting 17/47 in one game. He had some overlooked seasons, probably because the Lakers lost, such as 02-03 & 05-06. He's one of the most durable athletes, the most clutch in recent years, at least in the top 17 of all time and had countless great moments. I feel people were too hard on him for the Lakers going in a different direction and for how he treats his teammates. Most underrated today: Greg Monroe. Grant Hill's defense has been underrated in recent years. Pau Gasol got heat throughout the season when his numbers were on par with his averages. There are numerous guys I want to list as all-time underrated: Ron Harper. People forget his time before joining the Bulls and Lakers. He had numbers good enough to be an all-star. Injuries, his minutes decreasing, playing within a system and taking a smaller role were all reasons why his numbers declined. Jack Sikma and Detlef Schrempf. Charles Barkley, because of how people say he slacked off. He was a great rebounder, especially for his height. Dirk Nowitzki, because he should have 2 rings without another star in their prime, and he rarely got credit for his playoff performances until last year.
I honestly think Vince Carter is underrated. He gets completely destroyed by the media. You would think he is Gerald Green or something.
You know we could do this all day, right OP? Overrated and underrated? Yesterday and today? Good question though...and I suppose two cents is two cents, no matter what you spend it on... I'll get the easy stuff out of the way first...the most underrated player in the NBA today is Rajon Rondo. The only reason he isn't considered the best point guard in the game today is that his outside shooting is inconsistent. He has NO other weaknesses. Even something as important to a guard as shooting the basketball cannot be brought to bear against him enough to make him a liability. He makes players better because he allows those players to do what they do best. Only Steve Nash has been better in recent history at anticipating a scoring opportunity for teammates and capitalizing on it. When you have a guy playing point who knows where and when to get guys good quality shots that they can make like it's practice virtually on demand...well...we really haven't seen the like since Magic Johnson. Kevin Garnett or Ray Allen or Paul Pierce may get more credit for the Boston Celtics' recent success, but that team has only been as good as Rondo has been for the past three years. The greatest compliment―Rondo may be on pace to SHATTER the league record for assists. That's getting the job done―not to mention all the rebounds and steals he manages. Scottie Pippen is probably the most underrated Hall of Fame player ever. His career numbers (even at their best) won't ever accurately convey the importance he had to those championship Chicago Bulls teams he played on, because he played alongside Michael Jordan. Pippen did for the Bulls what Rondo does for the Celtics―practically everything. I believed for a long time that the main reason why Doug Collins was replaced by Phil Jackson in Chicago was that he couldn't get used to the idea of somebody other than Michael Jordan facilitating the offense. Jackson made that easier with the triangle offense, of course. But Collins loved experimenting with Jordan playing point guard (which Jordan was able to do successfully for a stretch in 1989, I believe). Jordan could do everything. But what you needed most from him was his ability to SCORE, particularly on a team as offensively challenged as Chicago was outside of Jordan. Somebody else had to be the first mate. The "Robin" to Jordan's "Batman", as it's been called. Michael Jordan unquestionably made the Bulls champions. But Scottie Pippen made the Bulls legitimate. The year and a half Jordan took off at the height of his prowess, with Pippen keeping the Bulls relevant almost single-handedly (with the rest of the league still very competitive in both conferences), says it all. Pippen won't be appreciated because he did seek to be acknowledged publicly for what he meant to the Bulls too tempermentally, and his bitterness towards his national underappreciation ultimately would undermine his reputation, to a degree. Pippen was just as indispensible to the Bulls as Jordan was. Jordan was the type of player that could win the Indy 500 driving a 1978 AMC Pacer. But you would still need a great mechanic to keep the thing running, and Pippen was that mechanic. And the best mechanics hardly ever get noticed...because if they're doing their job, you'd never hear about them. Let me think about this a little more...and I'll get back to you guys....
Pippen is overrated. People put him as the 2nd best SF of all time behind Larry Bird and a top 20 player of all time. I find that crazy.
The thing bout Walton is he gets a bit more credit because he owned the college bball days...he won a chip late in his career as a role player, with tons of injuries that fell upon the man....so it'd be like saying Yao is overrated bc He did almost the same thing, didn't win a chip, but had better NBA stats, and had a great Chinese national career...I see why Walton gets praise, but him, and Russell are usually placed way too high. Current underrated- Al Jefferson, granger, Milsap, Lowry (maybe we'll see in tor.), Aldridge, G Wallace...and a few more maybe monte ellis as well
Rondo is def not underrated he got rings, he gets respect, and leads L in steals, and assist he is a for sure future HOF at a young age...I don't think he gets hyped like CP3 tho...but he gets pub., he's in Boston. I'm sure Boston rips him, so maybe there he's underrated, butwilliams, rondo, ad Paul are top PGs in L, Rose has to get back there...
Again, I would say Joe Johnson is underrated as a basketball player. His contract makes people hate him as a player even though he is quite good.
Thought he was sixth man type of machine, they had him on a "minutes Yao thing"-but didn't care about minutes, think they just said guard the middle, and put backs, I know his prime was tough, and yes I was actually referring to the blazers only chip, I thought he was pretty injured then as well. ..Which I just checked and he was, I was kind of not mentioning his boston years, he was actually in his 4th season maybe when he finally played 65 games (his most since entering the L as the "savior from UCLA"-he then dominated Kareem, and then beat the sixers, his focus from Ramsey after checking as well was just to hold down the middle...rebounds and blocked shots leader that year, he won't he chip, and then actually won MVP the next season winning the first 50 out of 60 played games, he then broke his foot, yet still won the MVP that yr...and thus the string of injuries hit him harder than ever, from his back, to now foot, leg. Problems-so you're right he had two seasons in his "prime"-man reminds me of Yao except of course the whole ring thing, but man them two had some horrible luck...my bad though I claimed he was old, but he was actually in his prime those two years, one winning the chip. Olajuwon since people are discussing, he is not underrated in the NBA circle, however the media gets better hits when talking about those old guys, they try to act like they know it all, they knew the league, they witnessed it, it makes it what should I say dramatic, by trying to act as if these great bigs, which they were, but they do it I think for "Stern" to give sort of an "aged" "legacy" to the NBA, the 90s greats and that 84,85 draft often gets overlooked as changing the NBA...the media gives Jordan the credit, but those were some wild deep HOFers ended up draft classes....now a days it is the opposite while "stern" built this "legacy" thing, he wasn't even around then, he now projects rookies he think swill be great "faces of the league", and does whatever possible to relate them to the NBA, why bc the demographic of who watches the game has changed....I know this is a rant, ad it's a rant that Dream is a tad underrated, but we all know who hewas, the players aren't going to Russel, or Kareem, nor ever did ...they go to Dream to learn the footwork, and while Shaq has got a big head since retirement he always gave great praise to the DREAM the man who taught Shaq how to do it. Shaq told people of this many people, it took hears for kobe to accept the fact he could get better through help, and thus he called not another guard, not MJ, not Jerry west, he called dream! And...now we know Dream is nice, and he will teach anyone (cough Amare, cough Dwight)-for the right price....Olajuwon was, and should be ranked as a top 3 player of all time, if MJ goes at the top so be it, dream is number one to me, and if....MJ is number one just read Tinman's sig-per Clutch paraphrased some say we don't deserve our two rings, because MJ was out, but MJ should thank his "lucky stars" he never had to face Dream.....end of story Dream is THE MAN, The Teacher
That IS crazy. ...that Pippen is overrated. Not for any of the reasons you mentioned, though, VBG. Scottie Pippen doesn't have anything like the RAW numbers, production-wise, to be considered as a top TWENTY player all-time. And in all honesty, Scottie Pippen shouldn't be thought of as one of the very best small forwards in NBA history...and if he is by anybody, strictly in a pound-for-pound, play-it-by-the-numbers sense, then they miss the point of Pippen's career (in Chicago). What Scottie Pippen was (and should be know as), was the PROTOTYPE small forward. Pippen's job was to level the playing field enough for Michael Jordan to put the whole thing over the top. Pippen was the epitome of "glue-guy" or "no-stats-All-Star" that we paraded around in front of Shane Battier's resume for a lot longer than we were supposed to here in Houston. That whole "leveling the playing field" idea was even more difficult to do, given that it had to be accomplished without a decent big man most of the time (Horace Grant, and later, Dennis Rodman excepted). It's hard to see it, sometimes, because there's a tendency, in my view, to value basketball statistics (individually and collectively) much the same way you'd value them in baseball. Basketball is too fluid a sport for there to be simply ONE way to win...and more precisely, basketball players tend to have more than one specific responsibility that they have to tend to in order to be vital contributors to their teams. The Chicago Bulls were a GREAT defensive team, especially when you consider that they had virtually NO intimidating defensive presence at the basket. Scottie Pippen was as large a reason for that as Michael Jordan was. The both of them started to make the idea of a big man to anchor your team defensively seem outdated, they way they wreaked havoc in half-court defensive rotations and ball-hawking passing lanes all over the court. Jordan was fundamentally sound (offensively and defensively) for such an amazing athlete. So was Scottie Pippen, and it was more prevalent with Pippen defensively than offensively. Pippen was so versatile that he could play (and often did play) 4 different positions for the Bulls, in the same game. He very rarely got credit for it, because his success at it wasn't as flashy or as spectacular as Jordan's offense, but that's the trade-off he made in order to win. Pippen did a great many things better than most everybody else did, so because the numbers don't reveal to us an ability to score alot, o the ability to pile up a bunch of rebounds or assists or steals, it's hard to acknowledge that unless somebody gets their hands dirty, nothing's going to get done. I honestly don't feel that Scottie Pippen's overrated. Even saying he's underrated isn't quite right. He's probably waht you'd call underappreciated. I look at Scottie Pippen's career, VBG, in the context of his "riding Michael Jordan's coattails", like this... ...IF all Scottie Pippen had to do was ride Jordan's coattails to all those rings he has... ...Pippen sure weighed a lot less than alot of those other guys did... ...3-time NBA champion Jack Haley, for instance...
Speaking of Dreams famed MVP, Finals MVP, and Def. Player of the year - only person ever, and the discussion on Walton's ranking among over/or under-rated..... Walton was the only player to ever win an MVP! A finals MVP, and sixth,an award, these were done over his career, only player to ever have those feats.....so that shows just how hard Dream's feat was...it's like when tiger owned or coined the "tiger slam" owning every major at the time, it had been done once before, differently, but to each feat brings more understanding of how great some accomplishments are....and Dream gave his heart for the Rockets, his family, and himself, and his religion, a man that minded you fasted during important par of the seasons, yet still dominated the L in a league full of dominant bigs
The whole concept of overrated/underrated doesn't really make much sense anymore. It date back to a time prior to NBA league pass, advanced stats, youtube, twitter, blogs , bleacher report etc when we were largely dependent on the [print] media to do the rating so it loses a lot of luster. Basically its unclear now who sets the baseline for deyerminimg what's what. I.e. a casual fan might think Carmelo is a great player whereas a Hollinger devotee insists otherwise. Which one counts on a relative over-under rating basis? Unclear.
Blake griffin is not underrated check his stats, he is just gassed a little more because of his dunks but he is right where he belongs as far as ratings
Overrated: Players who play better in the regular season than in the playoffs. Underrated: Players who play better in the playoffs than in the regular season.
