What are your all decade teams? I decided to do the 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's. You can't really include the 50's because there was no shot clock for half the decade. The current decade is obviously unfinished, but you can include the 2000's if you wish. I was thinking about doing some kind of poll or mini tournament, but it's really hard to compare teams from different decades against each other... 60's: G: Jerry West G: Oscar Robertson F: Bob Pettit F: Elgin Baylor C: Wilt Chamberlain The only tough pick here was Pettit. He only played half his career in the 60's, but he aged like fine wine, averaging 27 points and 16 rebounds his final six years in the league. Wilt vs. Russel was pretty tough, but stats win out over rings in this tourney. There aren't any members of the Celtics' 60's dynasty, but that team was the ultimate example of team play rather than individual accomplishments. 70's: G: Walt Frazier G: Pete Maravich F: Julius Erving F: Elvin Hayes C: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Dr. J had his best years in the ABA, but the ABA stillhad great competition and was a legit league, so I think including him here is OK. I was struggling between Elvin Hayes and Bob Mcadoo, but Big E's Houston connection wins out. 80's: G: Dominique Wilkins G: Magic Johnson F: Kevin McHale F: Larry Bird C: Moses Malone I had a really tough time with this bracket. Each one of these players can play multiple positions on the floor, but I placed them the best I could. I originally had Hakeem as the center of this team and Moses as the power forward, but that would have meant leaving off McHale. 90's: G: John Stockton G: Michael Jordan F: Charles Barkley F: Karl Malone C: Hakeem Olajuwon Hakeem vs. Shaq was probably the toughest choice I had to make for this thread. They both had eight dominating years in the 90's, but Hakeem's defense beat out Shaq's monster offensive numbers. Jordan could go in either the 80's or 90's, but let's face it, Jordan on the same squad as Bird and Magic just isn't fair. The immmortal draft class of 84 represents here.
G: Isiah Thomas G: Magic Johnson F: Clyde Drexler F: Larry Bird C: Moses Malone I like Thomas better because of the championships. Nice.
Clyde probably could've played the 3 and probably did during his career but he is a 2 first and foremost, that is the reason the Blazers selected Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan, they already had a 2.
From a purely statistical perspective, here would be the results for the 80s and 90s team (I won't make distinction between PG/SG and SF/PF): First, I'll use PER as the criteria (minimum of 10,000 minutes played): 80s Code: pos player min PER G Michael Jordan 13442 29.59 G Magic Johnson 26417 23.84 F Charles Barkley 14297 24.37 F Larry Bird 27560 24.14 C Hakeem Olajuwon 13990 23.53 90s Code: pos player min PER G Michael Jordan 22445 28.73 G John Stockton 26798 22.56 F Karl Malone 30005 25.97 F Charles Barkley 24413 24.90 C David Robinson 25364 27.66 Next, here are the teams based on total "win shares" (in theory, it's proportional to the total number of wins a player is responsible for). 80s Code: pos player min WS G Magic Johnson 26417 375 G Maurice Cheeks 26174 256 F Larry Bird 27560 389 F Adrian Dantley 25201 276 C Moses Malone 29039 353 90s Code: pos player min WS G Michael Jordan 22445 376 G John Stockton 26798 352 F Karl Malone 30005 432 F Charles Barkley 24413 334 C Hakeem Olajuwon 26260 309
But Clyde always insisted he was really a forward in spite of this, there was an old chronicle article from way back when about small forwards that had some quotes where he said that.
Cheating to make things easier... 1997-2006 Shaquille O'Neal Tim Duncan Kobe Bryant Allen Iverson Jason Kidd 1987-1996 Hakeem Olajuwon Karl Malone Scottie Pippen Michael Jordan Isiah Thomas 1977-1986 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Moses Malone Larry Bird Julius Erving Magic Johnson 1967-1976 Wilt Chamberlain Elvin Hayes Rick Barry Clyde Frazier Jerry West 1957-1966 Bill Russell Bob Pettite Elgin Baylor Oscar Robertson Bob Cousy
Funny thing is Stockton was never the best PG any one year. He was either not as good as Magic and Thomas when they were near the peak, then passed up by Payton when those guys retired (even if it took the media a few years to recognize Payton as better, it was obvious when they played each other). Wilkens and Drexler don't belong on all decade teams IMO. Great players (I think each only 1 time 1st team all NBA), but not the level of your MVP heavies like Hakeem, Bird, Magic, Shaq, Barkley, Malone, Duncan, etc http://www.insidehoops.com/history-all-nba-teams.shtml Personally, I'll take the 1987-88 FIRST TEAM all NBA and mop up any other team ever assembled. Larry Bird, Boston Charles Barkley, Philadelphia Hakeem Olajuwon, Houston Michael Jordan, Chicago Magic Johnson, Los Angeles Lakers Here are some other impressive squads: 1988-89 (Basically sub's Malone for Bird and have Chuck play the 3. Personally, for playoff success, I'd rather have Bird than Malone to play with Jordan, Magic, Hakeem and Barkley) FIRST TEAM Karl Malone, Utah Charles Barkley, Philadelphia Hakeem Olajuwon, Houston Magic Johnson, Los Angeles Lakers Michael Jordan, Chicago 2002-03 FIRST TEAM Tim Duncan, San Antonio Kevin Garnett, Minnesota Shaquille O'Neal, L.A. Lakers Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers Tracy McGrady, Orlando 1984-85 FIRST TEAM Larry Bird, Boston Bernard King, New York (great player when healthy--better than Nique or Cylde at their peaks IMO as he was a much more efficient offensive player) Moses Malone, Philadelphia Magic Johnson, Los Angeles Lakers Isiah Thomas, Detroit 1966-67 FIRST TEAM Rick Barry, San Francisco Elgin Baylor, Los Angeles Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia Jerry West, Los Angeles Oscar Robertson, Cincinnati 1963-64 and 1961-1962 FIRST TEAM (actually this might be the best ever) Bob Pettit, St. Louis Elgin Baylor, Los Angeles Wilt Chamberlain, San Francisco Oscar Robertson, Cincinnati Jerry West, Los Angeles Interesting, Pettit, Baylor, Robertson and Wilt or Russell was the team from 60-64, quite a consensus of the best players with the exception of at C.
60's: cousy robertson baylor pettite russell 70's: frazier west erving hayes wilt 80's: magic thomas bird moses kareem 90's: stockton jordan pippin malone hakeem prediction for 00's: shaq duncan lebron kobe nash
My memory is hazy, but are you referring to the 96 WCFs? I remeber somebody abused somebody in that one. Also, do you recall what year it was that "the Glove" was exposed/humiliated in the playoffs? It was actually shockingly early, not long after his peak. Was it that same year against jordan? It seems like after that he totally lost it on D.
Jordan and Harper certainly abused Payton in that Finals (96, IIRC). As I recall, they were calling him out in the press before it even began, daring him to try and post either of them up. Evan
so are we holding that against gary because he couldn't guard jordan and harper. he's a point guard. who did stockton guard against the bull?
okay, gary payton and john stockton, and jason kidd all have there cases for point guard of the nineties. when steve was still with the rockets I used to say that gary and jason were the only two point guards who could get there team in the playoffs with little talent and therefore it was unfair to knock steve for the rockets' lack of playoff appearances. you could eliminate kidd on offensive ability if that was your criteria, you could eliminate stockton if you wanted to talk about defense, and gary is probably the lessor of the three in playmaking ability. kidd is a better open court player and gary and stockton are better half court players, and that goes along with kidd being the lessor of the three in shooting ability.
i'd take 87-88. those might be the consensus best pg, sg, and sf ever, along with barkley probably being #3 on the pf list (duncan, karla), and hakeem being in the discussion for best center ever (unless you are one of those who has to put wilt first for this dominance). obviously the other team has some damn huge names, but the 87-88 team is the big 3 (though i don't think bird is a top 3 player) plus hakeem and barkley, just nasty. i would probably just go ahead and put hakeem and jordan on both the 80s and 90s lists. basically the 80s would be the 87-88 team with maybe barkley traded out for someone. and the 90s team i would probably go with A-Train's team even though quitten was the best sf just b/c barkley was the better player and hakeem and jordan give you all the D you need.
John Stockton is a great point guard for sure. I mean, his numbers in the late 80's and early nineties were amazing. 17pts, 14 assists, 3 steals, FG% > 50%! greatest point guard of the 80's? Goes to Magic of course. Maybe less assists, but Magic could rebound and score a lot more. As for the 90's, I think Isiah was the best in the early 90's only because he was more versitle. and Gary Payton gets the nod over Stockton as well, he was far more of a scoring threat and defensive stopper.
This was similar to my point. Stockton was a great player. But I don't think he was ever the best point guard in the league at a specific time, even at the top of his game. During his era IMO some combination of Magic, Isiah, and Payton simply were more dominant players who could more individual control a game. Actually Kevin Johnson and Jason Kidd at their best might have been better than Stockton at his best too. But noone sustained it as high as Stockton as long as he did, and that deserves a lot of respect. Him and Malone really enhanced each other because they covered each's weakness as a superstar (Stockton needed Malone to score when they needed a bucket and create doubles, Malone needed Stockton to get him the ball in the right place at the right time).
