I’m 90 percent sure Jordan is number 1. Because it’s not just the obvious eye test and 6 team championships with Jordan, the more you dig in to the data the more favorable the argument becomes. 1. Jordan 2. Kareem 3. Lebron 4. Russell 5. Shaq My guess based on his approach. My personal top 10 (I weight players peaks more than longevity) 1. Jordan 2. Lebron 3. Hakeem 4. Kareem 5. Russell 6. Shaq/Wilt tied 8. Magic 9. Bird 10. Duncan
He will site in Jordan’s peak seasons when the Bulls won 72 and 69-70 games back to back Jordan shot 40 percent from the 3pt line. Also career playoff 33 percent from the 3 pt line on par with Lebron.
Just so the prior discussion is not lost... http://bbs.clutchfans.net/index.php?threads/backpicks-goat-40-best-careers-in-nba-history.287174/
It's worth noting that Jordan was a 30% career three-point shooter before he retired the first time, and then shot 40% (on about twice as many attempts per game) for the 2+ years when he came back and the three-point line was shorter. As soon as they moved the line back out for his last year with the Bulls in '98, his percentage dropped back down to 24%. In short: Lebron is a *much* better three-point shooter than MJ.
I agree about 3pt relevance and digging in to stats backs up Jordan’s dominance. I just have this feeling he is going to put lebron 1 over Jordan.
I'm not here to argue MJ vs Lebron, but just to remind all that the 3pt line was 21 inches shorter In his best year, the league average was 37% ... the league average!! A sudden jump from 34%...The entire NBA's 3P % jumped so much they had to move it back...and it immediately fell back down to 34s as league average. Also note, for all but 2 yrs, Jordan didn't make enough to even qualify for leaderboard under today's criteria.
Where will Harden end up on this list? ... His last 3-4 years have been ridic ... What if he keeps it up for the next 10 years?
Sounds like this guy did his due diligence for sure, but I'd still object to Russell and Shaq being rated higher than Dream. I'd only allow it for MJ, Lebron, Kareem, and Wilt.
That’s great stuff. Loved reading his other profiles as well. I’m guessing Shaq is 5th since he said it was a close call.
Dreams greatest accomplishment was averaging 2.6 spg.. How many players have you seen in current generation hit that mark.. CP3 did it in his best season.. Hakeem averaged over 2 steals five freaking times, he wasnt a point guard, he was a center.. Hakeem also averaged 4.5 bpg that season.. his stat line regularly looked like 25 ppg, 14 rpg, 4 bpg and 2.2 spg.. No player can come close to matching those numbers.. and oh by the way, even though Hakeem averaged 11.2 rebound per game for his career, he always played next to another elite rebounder, he wasn't getting empty rebounds, he played next to Ralph Sampson for five seasons, then he played with Otis thorpe for 6 seasons.. he got one season break and then finished his career with Charles Barkley and Kevin Willis eating alot of his rebounds, otherwise hakeem would have averaged close to 14 boards for his career.. he still managed to average better rebounding then shaq, duncan, robinson and garnett
I found this interesting. I was thinking how this applies to Harden in a way and how his performance dipped in the playoffs compared to the regular season. I think Harden is like the exactly opposite, his offense runs on being crafty and exploiting defensive mistakes, before this season Harden didn't really take "difficult" shots, but mostly scored on being able to outsmart the defense. So naturally in the playoffs when Harden is scouted, his effectiveness went down due to fewer mistakes by the defense. I wonder if perfecting the stepback three will elevate Harden's game in the playoffs this year.
He was that great! Dream is the all-time NBA leader in 5 x 5 with 6 games. Check out below seasons from the 80's when he was at his destructive best defensively while being a 20-10 superstar. 88 - 89 season. Dream poured 24.8 points, 13.5 rebounds, 2.6 steals and 3.4 blocks per game. Easily the DPoY. Nope. Award goes to Mark Eaton with 6 points, 10 rebounds, 0.5 steals and 3.8 blocks per game. 89 - 90 season Dream averaged 24.3 points, 14.0 rebounds, 2.1 steals and 4.6 blocks per game. Surely, the DPoY in a landslide. Award goes to Dennis Rodman with 8.8 points, 9.7 rebounds, 0.6 steals and 0.7 blocks per game. Talk about media salt. Did not average a triple double.
