Pippen: LeBron 'Probably Greatest Player To Ever Play Game'

Just hilarious, wow. I didn't like jordan but come on are you serious.

 

Kareem's rebuttal: http://lakersblog.latimes.com/laker...lebron-james-may-be-the-greatest-player-.html

 

What a bitter old man. He penalizes Jordan for dominating in a bigger, more competitive league? He cites the 8-team league of Wilt's generation as if it is somehow more difficult to rise to the top from a more limited set of players?

They should build a statue of Jabbar yelling at children from his porch. That would accurately depict his legacy at this point.

 

Listening to what Jabbar said, I think i finally know what Lebron will be like when he becomes an old man.

 

I agree with Pippen.

The Lebron hate is out of control, and this won't help, but logically speaking, Pippen is right. Lebron finally has a supporting cast comparable to what Jordan had during his six championships, and look what he's doing with it.

 

To anyone who ever saw Michael play, he was the greatest ever. Didn't a European fan on a telecast even call him a basketball God?

When Michael had his game face on, no way he will let his team lose. The closest to him would be Kobe's attitude. Lebron and Wade somehow do not have it ... yet. Opponents and fans gave Michael a lot of admiring respect even as they lost. Lebron and Wade don't inspire the same kind of reaction.

 

Jabbar may be right in his assessment, or being a big man himself, Kareem might be biased towards big-man play. Since I've never actually watched Chamberlain or Russell play (or Jabbar for that matter), I can't really say one way or the other.

Anyway, I can understand arguing a player being the greatest of one era. Jordan was definitely top dog of his time, as James looks to be closing in on his.

But the whole GOAT argument always seemed a fruitless exercise to me. There are just too many variables.

 

LeBron doesn't have the killer mentality or instinct Jordan had

 

Jordan didn't win a championship until his 6th year in the league. Where was his killer instinct the first 5 years?

Lebron has the all the tools to be the best ever. If he wins more than 6 championships, I will consider him the best.

 

Great point (except that it was MJ's 7th year). Why wasn't MJ able to "will" his team to victory when the opposition had more talent?

It never ceases to amaze me how much credit (and blame) goes to the best player on the best team, as if basketball was singles tennis or something.

 

Because it was only 8 teams in the league then.

 

So Russell gets less respect because the league was less watered down?

 

I think the biggest argument against Lebron that will forever taint his legacy will be that he left his team to join other superstars in search of a ring. I certainly don't blame him for looking for a better opportunity to get a ring but people will definitely hold it against him.

 

They aren't comparable players. Magic was a much better passer but much worse scorer. LeBron is also a better defender now then Magic ever was.

 

it's 1 freaking playoff series where he shut down derrick rose, a point guard who does not have a jump shot. all of sudden, hes a better defender than magic who can play all 5 positions?

 

A league with 8 teams will have all 8 of those teams having super stacked rosters. Can you imagine if there were only 8 teams in the league today? All of those teams would have many stars on their rosters.

 

Because basketball back then totally has the same general appeal, mass marketing and corporate sponsorship as today right? This has to be the most ridiculous logic I've read in the past few months.

Can the average NBA fan even name 8 players who played in Russell's era?

 

Neither of these guys can reliably play all 5 positions. Magic got that hype because he jumped center ONE time when he was a rookie, only because Kareem was out. Magic played PG almost exclusively, until he got old, and then he played a bit of SF/PF. LeBron plays SF almost exclusively, some PG & PF in spot situations.

LeBron IS a better defender than Magic, who was never that great (he racked up some steals in his youth but could never stop a guy.. but then again defense wasn't a premium in the mid-80s when Magic thrived). Any top notch athlete in the NBA can be a great defender if they put their mind to it. Heck, Kobe is living off of a few times he stopped AI and TMac when most of the time his defense is godawful.

 

Lol dbag strikes again. I owned you in the last debate and I guess you want more.

I am pretty sure the average fan has probably heard of:
Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, Sam Jones, Bill Sharman*
Bob Pettit, Cliff Hagan, Lenny Wilkens
Elgin Baylor, Jerry West
Dolph Schayes, Hal Greer
Dave DeBusschere*
Wilt Chaimberlin*
Oscar Robertson*
Walt Bellamy**
Tom Gola** (okay, doubt people have heard of him but a HOFer none the less)

*they did have other HOFers (in most cases, multiple) but not somebody an average fan would have ever heard of
**I believe he was the only HOFer on their team.


The above is the list of some (not close to all) of the best players from the nine-team 1962 season. All of them are considered great players (in the HOF), all of them are guys casual basketball fans have probably heard the name of (with maybe the exception of a couple depending on how they follow the NBA).

His point was simple and quite frankly, I am not surprised that your tiny brain is unable to comprehend it. Teams were tougher back then because of how few there were.

If you have 20 really really good basketball players, an 8-9 team league would have multiple stacked teams (as seen by how many teams there were with multiple hall of famers). Yes variance is greater in a larger field but his point was, 11 championships in a 9 league team is more impressive than 6 in a 27-29 team league.

Just because you were not alive does not mean that great basketball players did not exist.

 

Magic may have been able to play a few minutes here or there at the 4-5 positions, but that's irrelevant. He didn't play very good defense at any position.

Lebron's history of strong defense goes back further than just one playoff series, by the way. Let's not forget that he was able to shut down Paul Pierce last year even after he had "quit."