Amen doesn't use his athletic ability offensively enough so it might be a wash.... What's athleticism when you only use it on 1 side of basketball extensively.
Young Tmac jumps higher, and over people. Amen with all of his "functional athleticism" has a fraction of the big jump highlights Tmac does at the same point in his career, with a lot more minutes than Tmac had. The evidence doesn't support your assertion at all, show me the Amen highlight reels and I'll show you the Tmac ones.
Amen is physically responding to what an other person is doing then dominating said person. —> Predator VS TMac is doing unbelievable things on a basketball court. —> generational talent This is more a question of mindset because both are unraveled athletes on the far tail end of the bell curve of the world’s best, sadly from different time periods so comparing is Objective on many levels. There will never be a head to head competition to go with the comparison. Which takes more athleticism? IMO defense —> read / response, repositioning to someone else’s response (to you) till one overtakes the opponent with-in the moment. Timing is the greatest factor.
Amen is best athlete we've ever seen in league. No one is capable of all the athletic feats he possess outside of his brother. Tmac may have a marginally higher vert but his 2nd and 3rd jump is no where near as quick. Hell the first jump alone Amen reaches his peak before everyone else. Tmac wouldn't beat him in a foot race. Nor is his reaction time as fast. A lot of Amen's most athletic feats or not even highlights. It's the random as **** he does in games that won't make highlight reels because they're often on busted plays or don't result in anything of note. Like him soaring over everyone, before they can even react, for a ball that just goes out of bounds. Or becoming a blur sprinting down the court only just to marginally miss a block chance or a ball poke.
Great post! An example that always pops in my mind is that rebound he had against the Celtics, going over two guys like they were kids, getting the board, landing and then going back up and dunking before they realized what was happening. Or that chaesdown steal(foul?) against Was, where he looked like Quicksliver on the court. Just monstrous grit and athleticism.
If you're talking about random crazy insane things in game Amen doesn't come close to young Lebron, not even remotely. This is pure fan goggles I'm afraid.
The thing is athleticism isn't even the most important aspect in this sport, we are arguing about sth that is the 3rd or 4th important.
It is not mere athleticism, it's reaction time and having a sharper mind than a ton of also ran NBA players.
And that's why i love him and think he's our franchise player. An almost unique blend of max level athleticism and processing speed and basketball iq and feel for the game.
Than he is NOW, not how he was then, are you ****ing crazy? LeBron is different, so is Wilt. Amen is not even remotely in that league put down the ****ing crack pipe. Like seriously, LeBron was way more explosive and built like a ****ing tank. You're seriously on drugs trying to put Amen as #1 ever, if he was he wouldn't have been coming off the bench behind ****ing anybody. Get real you absolute ****ing weirdos, it's ridiculous at this point.
I voted Amen but I am waffling. T-Mac had elite balance to get his shot off. Add that to the vert and dunk package and I will call it a wash.
This was a good article explaining Amen's unique athletic abilities: https://www.theringer.com/2025/04/09/nba/amen-thompson-houston-rockets-defense-athlete-nba-history
