Hard to imagine the all time, any team, scoring leader, Kareem, not dominating this poll. We see Magic on TV all the time, and some of the younger folks never had the opportunity to see Kareem play. Magic was a great player, best Laker point guard, second all time to Oscar.
This actually reminds me of why Lebron's approach is also flawed. It's the mirror of Kobe. Lebron sometimes confuses being unselfish as the best play. Kobe confuses his taking the shot, even if it's well defended, as the best play. The difference with Jordan was that his taking the last shot was actually probably the best play usually. And his own confidence in himself meant that he was unshakeable in the clutch. Even then, he figured out later on when to pass it to his teammates. Magic, always knew what the best play was: often it was to feed Kareem in the post, sometimes it was to feed Worthy on the break and sometimes it was for him to take his guy either in the post or off the dribble. Magic just knew from day 1 who needed to score at each time, depending on the circumstances. I think that's where Lebron and Kobe fall short. I think for Lebron, even though tactically he gets how to beat his man, he lacks an overall strategic understanding of the game that Kobe has gained from being an obsessed student of the game. Problem for Kobe as I said, is that his ego makes him make the wrong plays. Lebron's lack of strategic understanding and situational awareness makes him more tentative when the pressure gets amped up. Because he doesn't get intuitively what will maximize his chances of winning a game, he starts second guessing himself and fashions himself as a facilitator even when he has such a physical advantage in scoring. Physically, Lebron is just better than everyone else, even Jordan. But it's the mental part where Magic and Jordan really beat out Lebron and Kobe.
Kareem may be the all-time most underrated player on this board. The man had the best jump hook(something every player tries to master now) in the history of the game. The guy is a legend... Holds NBA career record for: Most points (38,387)[25] Most minutes played (57,446) Most field goals made (15,837) Most All-Star selections (19) Most All-Star games played (18) He's also 3rd in blocked shots AND rebounds... 2nd in most games played.. and 10th in fg%(55.9) He won rookie of the year, SIX MVP awards(which is the record btw).. He won 6 nba titles and 2 finals MVP awards and was the first player in NBA history to play 20 seasons... Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the greatest Laker of all time... <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lM6xCirDOKs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Magic, and then flip a coin between The Logo and Kareem, but good lord, the Lakers have had some amazing players. It just rediculous. Worthy, Baylor, Scott, Cooper... one could reel off a dozen and just keep going. Hell, look at the defending champions knocked off by the young Rockets in the WC Finals in '86. A team full of All Stars. I still rank that as one of the great upsets in NBA history, although I never doubted that we would beat them. The thing is, everyone and their dog thought the Lakers would kill that team. Folks like me were a small minority, even in the Houston media. Boston and LA? Look at who they've had in their history and it just isn't fair!
HP, I have to disagree. During the 70's Kareem's playoff averages were 30.15 pts/game, 16.37 reb/game, 4.06 ast/game 53% FG% They only started keeping stats on blocks in the '73-74 season but from that point until '79 Kareem averaged 3.21 blk/game in the playoffs. Not only aren't those numbers "bad", in fact they are historically good.
I wasn't picking Wilt as best Laker, and in fact didn't even list him as one of the options for best Laker, might want to read that post again.
Great point. Jordan killed basketball for about 10 years. It didn't happen while he played, but the group of players that came along after him were all one-on-one ball stoppers. The 2000's was some bad basketball. Its finally gotten to the point where I enjoy watching the NBA again. Playing pickup or even league games while Jordan was popular became unbearable. The game devolved into mini games of one on one with 8 other people watching. I finally just stopped playing.
