Completely subjective and based on whether I felt the player got too much credit/recognition despite middling statistics/impact. This isnt to say the players played poorly (though some could be argued), nor are the players ranked by how good they were, just which were over-hyped and by how much. So without further ado .......... THE LIST #5 Michael Jordan - 2K3The GOAT IMO and plenty of others, he was also one of the greatest to ever play at such an advanced age, but he too was overrated. His 2 year stint with the Wizards was filled with a few nostalgic games, overall though he was simply too ineffective to justify his status as an All-Star. I overlooked the 2002 season because he really did start the season off with a spring in his step (25-6-6) also some may have simply wanted to see MJ make it one more time. In 2003 however the fans reverted to voting for the truly superior players and it was the coaches decision to include him. Putting all bias aside can someone seriously say a 40 year old MJ was a better player than Ray Allen during his prime? He was arguably on par with teammate Jerry Stackhouse. This won't be a popular choice but MJ was indeed overrated by many. #4 Chris Kaman - 2K10 When people use the expression "its easy to put up #'s on a losing team" as the justification for not selecting a player to the All-Star team, its usually an oversimplification and rarely warranted. What they mean or should say is that its easier to put up superficial averages on a bad team. Such was the case with Kaman who averaged 19-9 for the 3rd worst offense in the league and did so with poor efficiency Kaman isnt without his strengths, he's a dominant rebounder on the defensive glass (putting up 9Boards alongside Camby is no joke) and has the potential to be a fine outlet option but his offensive game was weak especially for a primary option. For someone who relied on the midrange jumper and struggled to create offense for others, his turnover rate was alarmingly high and he didnt get to the line nearly enough to offset these deficiencies. I know Stern was the guy to select him to the game but to this day too many look at him as atleast an All-Star caliber big, when the reality is hes at best a 4-5th option offensively. Hes a decent 2-way player but not a game changer on either end. #3 T-MAC - 2K8 One of my favorite players of all time, I defend him with 100% conviction with the certainty that he's among the most underrated players of our generation. That said, this was one of the few moments in his career where he was given too much credit, ironically it came the first year he didnt make the All-Star team since becoming one. If the Chris Kaman selection signifies an ignorance to statistics, this selection displays the extremes to which we take the intangibles of winning. Riding the wave of a 22GM winning streak Mac was suddenly the recipient of some MVP pub, he was never a strong or even a darkhorse candidate for the award but the mere fact that he was in the conversation was ridiculous. In all he ranked 8th on the ballot and the media was so blinded by this run that they saw fit to name him to an All-NBA team. Tmac outplays most on the list, particularly because of his playoff performance without Yao. It's the sheer amount of players he leapfrogged for his 3rd-Team Selection that placed him here. In terms of production/impact the list of players who deserved the selection before him runs deep, Billups, TP, Iggy, Baron, Roy, Iverson and arguably Wade, Redd, VC, Kidd, Ray Ray, Monta. All for a guy who was a chucking defensive liability that couldnt stay healthy. #2 Antoine Walker - CAREER JK, 98Choosing between the most overrated Antoine Walker campaign is like trying to choose between the worst Steven Seagal flick, in fact I had to limit this list to 1 per player because of him or else it would have simply been known as the Antoine Walker sucks dong thread. I wound up choosing his sophomore season because it was his first All-Star birth and it came before his peak. With averages like 22-10-3 its easy to see why he was able to fool enough heads into buying his All-Star play but facts are he epitomized the term chucker. Luckily coaches didnt fall for it often but unlike the other 2 selections the Celtics werent even winning. The most deserving candidate, Chris Webber, accomplished the remarkable feat of having more better stats, more W's, and popularity among fans yet failing to catch the coaches attention. Even Rodman and Kemp were more deserving F's but all 3 had a less than sterling reputation/characters among coaches. #1 Allen Iverson - 2K1Say what you will about the inconsistencies regarding the criteria for MVP, there is no fathomable, logical deduction that ends up with Iverson on top. Whether you go by stats, leadership, impact, importance/replacement value and any combination of all the above, there is no way AI was the most deserving player in a year in which several bigmen dominated. Duncan, Shaq, KG, C-Webb were all viable candidates, AI wasnt even the sure fire best perimeter player in the league much less its most valuable player overall. Him winning the MVP isnt what makes this #1 (though it plays a large role), its the fact that its constantly mentioned as the year AI "carried" BUMS to the Finals when the reality is AI had the most support of any perimeter player in the league and still struggled to make it. Just because it was comprised of Defensive Talent with little name recognition doesnt make it any less valuable. The facts are AI was a gunner who couldnt share the ball and couldnt defend his own position, rather than continue failing to surround AI with offensive support they built him the only team that could win with him as the main man. A team full of scrappers that could contribute in other ways. For a team allegedly filled with little help they sure did receive a ton of recognition and praise as the Sixers swept every conceivable award save for ROY. So again for a team with such a defensive liability as the centerpiece to finish among the best defensive teams in the Conference, it is empirically impossible for AI to be playing with bums and should come as no shock to anyone that they made the Finals. An overused cliche that never holds true, no player can ever "carry" a team to such a degree, that AI continued to improve as a player and would never replicate that amount of success should prove this beyond a shadow of doubt. So there you have it, feel free berate me but be sure to include more deserving individuals.
i've never explicitly spoken on this, i've chosen to ignore it cuz i like tmac : ), but he shouldn't be given the credit for the 22 game win streak, he make huge plays in some of the games, and he played overall pretty well if i remember, but that was pure team, and he didn't stand out for the whole stretch.
A lot of players stepped up during that streak, most notably Alston. But without McGrady that streak would not exist. There were many games where he stepped up to keep the streak alive, including ones against Dallas and New Orleans. It was an incredible team performance, but McGrady was the leader throughout that streak.
I like that its overrated seasons. I think Steve Nash's 2nd MVP season was overrated. It was indeed a fine season. But Kobe Bryant was an 81 point scoring force that year carrying a team with Kwame Brown, Smush Parker, Brian Cook, Brian Cook and Luke Walton getting big minutes. Everyone wanted that throwback shining example "true" point guard again and Nash came through on that big. Which then leads to Kobe's 2008 actual MVP season. He got it finally on lifetime achievement, with Chris Paul getting snubbed cuz young Chris Paul would one day "get his later". Even though Paul followed that up with one of the most dominating seasons for a point guard EVER since Magic Johnson, he hasnt come that close to MVP consideration. Forgotten in that is the "point guard that makes everyone better" standard that got Steve Nash his MVPs wasnt applied for Chris Paul (Nash even almost got a THIRD straight MVP!) Maybe its the MVP process thats overrated.
That streak was Dikembe, Alston, Novak, McGrady.... everyone deserves a piece of that pie. Surely there have to be more overrated seasons besides McGrady's 2008.
The process of the MVP is actually pretty straightforward. It is NOT meant to be the "best player in the league" as many think, as it accounts for team performance. If it were the best or "most dominant" player then Wilt and Shaq both would have won it pretty much until their final few years. Wilt didn't win it when he averaged 50/26, nor did Oscar when he averaged something like 30/12/12 (those two achievements happened in the same season, BTW, and the winner was Bill Russell with his "ok" stats and dominant team). MJ didn't win it when he averaged 37. So why should Kobe get it when he averaged 35? Many feel that Nash didn't deserve his MVPs; certainly with two it puts him up with the all-time greats and I can see where that would be controversial. But first of all, when you actually look at his numbers-- always at or near the esteemed 50/40/90 club that all perimeter players strive for, while leading the league in assists most years-- you realize he's been both the best passer and best shooter in the NBA for much of his career. That is pretty damn impressive. He's also taken teams with questionable talent consistently to the playoffs and beyond. Yes, he had for a while a fellow all-star in Amare, but let's see just how good Amare really is now that he's coupled with a player many feel is better than Nash in Melo. I think these Knicks won't be nearly as good as the Suns of yesteryear. As far as his MVPs have gone, the first one came when Nash put up fairly average (for him) stats as the defacto leader of the best team in the NBA. Basically the same way Russell got his. The second came when he put up much better stats (incredible offensive numbers) on a team that had no business making the playoffs, much less 50+ wins and the #2 seed. I think in most years he wouldn't have gotten the MVP but that year all of the other candidates either had too much help or much worse records than the Suns.
The streak was incredible, and while T-mac shouldn't be credited for being the sole reason why the streak was there, he was a big part of it, and I don't think we could've done it without him.
Very much know the MVP award in all leagues has an internal "spread it around" mechanism so it doesnt go to the same 2 players every year. The "Valuable" in MVP makes its variable to a lot of things. Amare was injured the year of Nash's 2nd MVP so Nash was seen as carrying the team to a good record. Which he did, so Amare getting injured actually helped Nash there. By then people could see the SYSTEM helped out Nash. Though Kobe didnt have anyone near as good as Amare from the beginning. He had 3rd option Lamar Odom playing 40+ minutes as the next best player. I'm not a Kobe lover by any stretch, and his ball-dominating and attitude don't come across well compared to "pass-first/shoot second" coaches dream. But they ended up getting Kobe the MVP later on ANYWAY on one of his more average-for-him seasons helped out by Pau Gasol and emerging Andrew Bynum. Was Kobe BETTER and MOST VALUABLE in '08 compared to '06? I don't think so. So because MVP is a "delayed" dispersal, they end up having to overrate a future season.
Just plug in the starting five of the 67-15 Dallas Mavericks that got annihilated by the Golden State Warriors in the first round. Aside from the Rockets championships, that series was easily one of my top three or four favorite
iverson's mvp season is not overrated, that's silly. his percentages were low but he was the only offensive force on that team. The second leading scorer on that team wasn't mckie, it was theo ratliff. FREAKIN THEO RATLIFF.
+1. now that was a star with a bunch of absolute offensive scrubs. however, they did have the DPOY in deke. i have never seen this in my lifetime actually. i don't know how they got to the finals. AI had some ridiculous 50+ pt games in that playoff run for them to do that, vs vince carter in one round and ray allen in another.
Wasn't their gameplan give the ball to Iverson and hope he can score more points than the other team? He carried that team.
They got to the Finals that year because the average Eastern conference "contender" was worse than most D-League teams today. Ok, I'm exaggerating, but the East was absolutely horrible that year.
Chris Kaman? Don't you have to be rated decently high to be overated, I don't remember people even bother rating him.
AI's season as #1 is ridiculous. Shows an OP bias. Who cares if he won MVP or not; you're overrated how MVP should be considered in overrating people. We all know Shaq should have won nearly every year then. Just like MJ should have won instead of Barkley, etc. Who cares about that. AI carried that team. Oh, and Deke was a late trade, due to a Ratliff injury. Logging 26 games with the '76rs. They were 14-12 over that span. But yeah, he did produce in the playoffs. Ratliff was averaging 3.7 blocks per game, btw.
