last time i checked it was about 11 NBA Finals Appearances 8 NBA Finals Championships combined 7 NBA MVP titles 3 NBA Career Records held 3 of the original Dream Teamers 4 of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA history and that's just from Stockton, Dream, Jordan, and Barkley combined.
Im gonna stick with 96. Deepest draft... I understand there were 4 big boys in 84. Its a great argument to say 84 was better. But when you tell me 84 was deeper you lose me. Willis, Thorpe, Perkins? Over who? Kobe, O'Neil, Nash, Iverson, Allen? Seriously. Perkins? Perkins? Come on now Perkins? Steven A Smith (may he rot in hell) would yell at you...
'96: Iverson,Camby,Abdur-Rahim,Marbury,R.Allen,A.Walker,Bryant,Stojakavic,Nash,J.O'Ne al,Dampier, Ilguaskas, VS. Dream, MJ, Barkely, Stockton AND my dead grandmother would destroy that overrated pile of no defense playing, stat padding hype!
Looks to me like you're comparing the absolute top of 1 draft to the bottom of the other draft. You're not helping. This isn't close.
u talking about dream in his prime. and barkley stockton in his prime.. while u compare that to the 96 players how they are right now.. consider every single one of them in their prime.. (stojakavic was stroking it in his prime for example).. they'd put up a good game.. definitely... AI and Bryant in their prime is as good as any perimeter player in nba history.. nash and stockton cancel eachother out.. in any case... the diff is 4 HOFs vs 3 HOFs and several more all stars.. pretty stacked either way
If you want depth, the 84 draft had ten rounds. 84 (rounds 1&2 only) Code: 1. Akeem Olajuwon Houston Houston 2. Sam Bowie Kentucky Portland 3. Michael Jordan North Carolina Chicago 4. Sam Perkins North Carolina Dallas 5. Charles Barkley Auburn Philadelphia 6. Melvin Turpin Kentucky Cleveland (*) 7. Alvin Robertson Arkansas San Antonio 8. Lancaster Gordon Louisville LA Clippers 9. Otis Thorpe Providence Kansas City 10. Leon Wood Cal State Fullerton Philadelphia 11. Kevin Willis Michigan State Atlanta 12. Tim McCormick Michigan Seattle (*) 13. Jay Humphries Colorado Phoenix 14. Michael Cage San Diego State LA Clippers 15. Terrance Stansbury Temple Dallas 16. John Stockton Gonzaga Utah 17. Jeff Turner Vanderbilt New Jersey 18. Vern Fleming Georgia Indiana 19. Bernard Thompson Fresno State Portland 20. Tony Campbell Ohio State Detroit 21. Kenny Fields UCLA Milwaukee 22. Tom Sewell Lamar Philadelphia 23. Earl Jones District Of Columbia LA Lakers 24. Michael Young Houston Boston Code: 25. Devin Durrant Brigham Young Indiana 26. Victor Fleming Xavier Portland 27. Ron Anderson Fresno State Cleveland 28. Cory Blackwell Wisconsin Seattle 29. Stuart Gray UCLA Indiana 30. Steve Burtt Iona Golden State 31. Jay Murphy Boston College Golden State 32. Eric Turner Michigan Detroit 33. Steve Colter New Mexico State Portland 34. Tony Costner St Joseph's Washington 35. Othell Wilson Virginia Golden State 36. Charles A. Jones Louisville Phoenix 37. Ben Coleman Maryland Chicago 38. Charles Sitton Oregon State Dallas 39. Danny Young Wake Forest Seattle 40. Anthony Teachey Wake Forest Dallas 41. Tom Sluby Notre Dame Dallas 42. Willie White Tenn-Chattanooga Denver 43. Greg Wiltjer Victoria (B.C.) Chicago 44. Fred Reynolds Texas-El Paso Washington 45. Gary Plummer Boston University Golden State 46. Jerome Kersey Longwood Portland 47. Ronnie Williams Florida Boston 1996 Code: 1 PHI Allen Iverson Georgetown 2 TOR Marcus Camby Massachusetts 3 VAN Shareef AbdurRahim California 4 MIL Stephon Marbury Georgia Tech 5 MIN Ray Allen Connecticut 6 BOS Antoine Walker Kentucky 7 LAC Lorenzen Wright Memphis (TN) 8 NJN Kerry Kittles Villanova 9 DAL Samaki Walker Louisville 10 IND Erick Dampier Mississippi State 11 GSW Todd Fuller North Carolina State 12 CLE Vitaly Potapenko Wright State 13 CHA Kobe Bryant Lower Merion (PA) HS 14 SAC Predrag Stojakovic PAOK Greece 15 PHO Steve Nash Santa Clara 16 CHA Tony Delk Kentucky 17 POR Jermaine ONeal Eau Claire (SC) HS 18 NYK John Wallace Syracuse 19 NYK Walter McCarty Kentucky 20 CLE Zydrunas Ilgauskas Lithuania 21 NYK Dontae' Jones Mississippi State 22 VAN Roy Rogers Alabama 23 DEN Efthimis Rentzias PAOK Greece 24 LAL Derek Fisher Arkansas-Little Rock 25 UTA Martin Muursepp Kalev Tallin (Estonia) 26 DET Jerome Williams Georgetown 27 ORL Brian Evans Indiana 28 ATL Priest Lauderdale Central St/Greece 29 CHI Travis Knight Connecticut Code: 1 HOU Othella Harrington Georgetown 2 PHI Mark Hendrickson Washington State 3 PHI Ryan Minor Oklahoma 4 MIL Moochie Norris West Florida 5 DAL Shawn Harvey West Virginia State 6 SEA Joseph Blair Arizona 7 LAC Doron Sheffer Connecticut 8 DEN Jeff McInnis North Carolina 9 BOS Steve Hamer Tennessee 10 PHO Russ Millard Iowa 11 GSW Marcus Mann Mississippi Valley St 12 SAC Jason Sasser Texas Tech 13 HOU Randy Livingston Louisiana State 14 PHO Ben Davis Arizona 15 CHA Malik Rose Drexel 16 SEA Joe Vogel Colorado State 17 POR Marcus Brown Murray State 18 SEA Ron Riley Arizona State 19 PHI Jamie Feick Michigan State 20 ORL Amal McCaskill Marquette 21 HOU Terrell Bell Georgia 22 VAN Chris Robinson Western Kentucky 23 IND Mark Pope Kentucky 24 MIL Jeff Nordgaard Wisconsin-Green Bay 25 UTA Shandon Anderson Georgia 26 WA1 Ronnie Henderson Louisiana State 27 CLE Reggie Geary Arizona 28 SEA Drew Barry Georgia Tech 29 DAL Darnell Robinson Arkansas Playing devil's advocate, how many HOF locks do you see with 96? Personally, I count 2, with a couple others as fringe. Also, one that's being overlooked a bit is the '98 draft: 2. Mike Bibby 3. Raef LaFrentz 4. Antawn Jamison 5. Vince Carter 7. Jason Williams 8. Larry Hughes 9. Dirk Nowitzki 10. Paul Pierce 11. Bonzi Wells 15. Matt Harpring 17. Radislav (Rasho) Nesterovic 21. Ricky Davis 25. Al Harrington 29. Nazr Mohammed 31. Ruben Patterson 32. Rashard Lewis 41. Cuttino Mobley Seems deeper than the 96 draft to me...
nah... 98 is comparable to 03 with many good players.. 96 and 84 is more similar with several GREAT players.. i think kobe ai and nash all will get HOF.. nash is only one that's a maybe but after this season i think he pretty much secured it..
7 LAC Lorenzen Wright Memphis (TN) 8 NJN Kerry Kittles Villanova 9 DAL Samaki Walker Louisville 10 IND Erick Dampier Mississippi State 11 GSW Todd Fuller North Carolina State 12 CLE Vitaly Potapenko Wright State 13 CHA Kobe Bryant Lower Merion (PA) HS 14 SAC Predrag Stojakovic PAOK Greece 15 PHO Steve Nash Santa Clara 16 CHA Tony Delk Kentucky 17 POR Jermaine ONeal Eau Claire (SC) HS wow, I had totaly forgotten that the number of stiffs that were taken before a couple of multiple all star/HOF quality players.
The '84 draft is still the greatest draft ever. I couldn't care less about depth when you have Hakeem, Stockton, Barkley, and Jordan in one draft. You can look at it this way : The greatest player of all time, The greatest assist man of all time, Possibly one of the 3-5 best centers of all time, and One of the 3-4 greatest PF's of all time came out of that one draft. Alvin Robertson, Jerome Kersey, Sam Perkins, and Otis Thorpe were also pretty damn good players as well from that draft. The 1996 draft was great, but here are the greats as history will note them from that draft : Allen Iverson Kobe Bryant Here are the potential greats from that draft : Jermaine O'Neal Ray Allen Steve Nash No, Stephon won't be considered among the elite 20 years from now. Y'all can say Marcus Camby, Antoine Walker, Peja, etc., but 20 years from now nobody's gonna know what they did. Even Ray Allen may fall into that category. Only Iverson and Bryant are going to be mentioned in the same breath as Hakeem, Jordan, Barkley, and Stockton. The 1984 draft hands-down.
Stockton, Barkley, Jordan and Dream on one team with scrubs would beat the crap out of a team all consisted of the elites in 96,97,98, or 99... whatever draft.
96 was the greatest draft ever. 2003 is looking pretty impressive though, and there still maybe some additions made to that list of productive players because I'm sure there are guys still on their way from Europe that could later be even All-Star caliber players, as Peja became from the 96 class.
The guard matchup would be fun to watch as 1996 could come in waves. I think Jordan and Stockton would come out on top, but they would have to work hard for it. They'd also have Alvin Robertson, one of the best defensive guards ever to spell them a bit. In the frontcourt, it would be a massacre. It's good O'Neal and Camby would be on the same team because they'd need all 12 fouls against Dream, who would completely dominate. Prime Chuck would take the leftovers (SAR? Please.) to school and Thorpe, Willis, Perkins, Kersey, even Cage could more than hold their own. Peja might pose some matchup problems, but really, as long as you control Nash 1996 becomes a team like some of our recent Olympic disasters.
right now it has to be 84, there are 4 hall of famers, countless rings, the greatest guard to ever play the game, arguably the greatest center ever, wow..... it has to be 84 we'll have to wait and see on 03, there are a couple of great drafts in the 90's as well, but the awesome 03 class has to accomplish a lot to be anywhere near the 84 class. there's a lot to live up to.
To end this debate, lets just pit the 1996 class against the drafts that followed that year. The best, most sensible (you can't have a PF playing friggin point) starting 5 and we can take it from there. And we're going to base each player off of the best year they had...their primes if you will. 1996: Camby Abdur-Rahim Peja Bryant Iverson 1997: Duncan Van Horn McGrady Derek Anderson Billups 1998: Nazr Mohammed Nowitzki Antawn Jamison Vince Carter Bibby 1999: Brand AK47 Marion Ginobili Andre Miller 2000: sucked lets move on 2001: Zach Randolph Shane Battier Joe Johnson Arenas Parker 2002: Yao Amare Tayshaun Caron Butler Mike Dunleavy 2003: Bosh James Melo Wade TJ Ford 2004 Dwight Howard Emeka Luol Deng Igdoula Ben Gordon I would honestly think that c/o 1996 would have a tough tough time beating c/o 1997 and would have a pretty good matchup against 1998, 1999, and maybe even 2003.
Dude, how could you pick Derek Anderson over Bobby Jackson and Stephen Jackson? Anyways.. Duncan > Camby Van Horn < SAR BJax < Allen (I'd choose Ray Allen here..Bryant can handle SF better.) Billups < Iverson (debatable really, Billups would run his offense better). McGrady | Bryant tie Class of 1996 wins the matchup game, IMO. It's hard to decide between Iverson and Nash at PG ... Iverson is a scoring machine, Nash is a passing machine. Both are potential HOFers.
