i think the supersonics team of the 90s were stacked with talent. superstar duo with payton n kemp, n pretty much all solid players at the other positions. the ones i remember off the top of my head, detlef schrempf, hersey hawkins, that center with the same name as magic, sam perkins, nate mcmillon. they were good at least till kemp had his trouble with alcoholism. and they signed jim something that made more money than kemp. least talent, that lockout season (99?) knicks team van gundy coached into the finals against the spurs. i remember sprewell, and maybe an old larry johnson. maybe allan houston n charlie ward too.
Peja has finished top 5 in MVP voting, he was also amazing in his prime. No one could hit big time shots like Bibby They had one of the greatest defenders of his generation in Doug Christie A perennial 6th man candidate and winner Bobby Jackson A group of incredibly talented young players including Hedo Turkoglu and Gerald Wallace Vlade was one of the all-time greatest passing big men and Brad Miller cam on towards the end of their runs as well. That team was incredibly talented and deep, but they were always ****ed over by the refs
That NJ Nets teams with Kidd,Kittles,Martin, and Mutombo were pretty good......Also those Pacers teams with Miller, Jackson, McKey, Smits, and the Davis Boyz were talented too..........
Kings about 5 years ago: Bibby (in his prime) Artest (in his prime) A young hedo and non broken peja Brad miller And two good youngsters in Gerald Wallace and Martin, my most talented to not win
That's why in my original post, I specified "modern era" which (correct me if I'm wrong) I thought was generally understood to start from 1980.
The Barkley/KJ Suns were pretty talented. But the ROCKETS beat them. You guys forget Drexler's Portland team. Oh, and the Rockets in the mid '80s. Injury to Ralph and cocaine with the guards ruined that potential dynasty.
They won largely due to Malone's injury. Without Malone, that Lakers lost to Spurs the previous season too.
That Nets team was arguably the worst team to ever make it to the NBA Finals. That was back in the days when the East was dreadful and the real NBA Finals was played in the West.
Hmm no one mentioned the Mavericks of a few years ago. Best record in the league (60+ wins) and lost to the 8th place Warriors in I believe 6 games. That was a pretty talented Dallas team. I was so happy when they got knocked out that year because if they got past the Warriors they were definitely going to get to the Finals.
I know we're talking team here, but Allen Iverson comes to mind. So damned talented, yet so damned bone-headed. I know he did a little bit of winning, but instead of watching the greatest player to ever play the game at his height fade into the sunset as a 6th man on a winning team, we're, well, not watching him. Obviously T-Mac too. Regardless of what happens the rest of his career, he will be known as a loser. 50 years from now people will be thumbing through statistics and see him as a two time scoring champion and be like WHO? Quite a shame. I hope he doesn't fade away like Iverson though.
They double teamed Kobe. And Kobe didn't shoot well. Still better than the so call "king" in his only presence though.
The best team that lost was the defending champion '86 Lakers, who Akeem in his 2nd year simply destroyed 4-1 with something approaching 35 ppg in the 4 wins. Magic Kareem Worthy Scott Cooper and Mitch Kupchak (that bastid)
Notice how nobody's mentioning "the king's" team as one of the most talented teams to ever choke away a championship though? Also, was there some reason Kobe had to keep shooting against double teams, especially when he had two other healthy Hall of Famers on the floor?
They were one of the weakest champs, but did have one hall of famer- recently, posthumously inducted: Dennis Johnson.
Regardless of Kobe's performance, the absence of Malone severely dropped the talent level of that team. Payton is being remembered as if it were the 96 version. After Kobe and Shaq, it was a deep drop, as it usually was w/ those teams. Unless you're position is that the most deep team in recent memory that didn't win a title had to resort to inserting Stanislav Medvedenko into the starting 5 to replace Malone. Yeah...team for the ages.
