Hollinger has it right with this comment on Wade at #3: I'd argue this is the easiest call on the board. There are two players in the league who are clearly better than Wade, but he's clearly better than everyone else.
Dirk is the best and that should be an easy call. So there's 2 guys ahead of him on the team he just beat for the championship? Is that a sick joke? Unbelievable. Chris Paul ahead of Dirk? Looks like it turned into an ESPN First Take debate with the 2 Live Stews on the panel or something. Anyone who put LBJ #1 has mental problems. Sorry.
CHAMPIONSHIPS ARE WON BY TEAMS NOT PLAYERS. Anyone taking Dirk over Lebron or Dwight is an idiot. There is something called defense and they both impact offense as much as Dirk. Stop being stupid bandwagoners. It's annoying that everyone thinks they more than every ****ing analyst. They watch more basketball than almost everyone else here. Try and look further than the last 5 games you watched. Pau Gasol 8 months ago was rated higher than Dirk by pretty much everyone when he was dominating the NBA. 3 straight finals runs and having to play 40 minutes a night early in the season wore him out. I dunno what's more of a joke. Gary Payton being better than Scottie Pippen? Pau Gasol being worse defensively than Amar'e and somehow barely being top 20? Or Lebron not being the best single player in the NBA? Ask the Cavs. I'm not saying ESPN is without fault. I hate the Blake Griffin and Kevin Love rankings. But damn. Look past the last 5 games you watched.
That's just not true. That's like putting Billups as the number 1 PG after 04. Or Pierce as the best player in the NBA after 08. Hell no one/barely anyone said Wade was the best player in the NBA after 06. And Wade dominated the NBA Finals more than Dirk did this year. ESPN are accused of being complete bandwagoners. Dirk was the number 1 story. His redemption. And yet they ranked him below CP3.
Here is how I know you didn't watch them play. Gary Payton was an absolute monster in his prime. Absolute monster. And no, getting to the second round is not "deep". That's equivalent to saying Kobe got his team "deep" in the playoffs by getting IN the playoffs in the first place.
I have no problems with the list outside of Kobe under Durant and DWill under Rose. CP3 is easily worthy of the top 5 spot as Blake Griffin is worthy of his top 10 spot. The guy was unstoppable as a rookie, give him two more years and he will be in the top 5 list easy, maybe even top 3.
