TG2000

Well I'm glad my first post was well received, if not necessarily agreed with. On my first point I think offense > defense in terms of evaluating overall greatness, and clutch offensive performances in the playoffs seem to stick out the most. Larry Bird was far from being a great defensive player, and Scottie Pippen might have been the best defensive player of all time, but was Pip better than Bird? Not even close, and judging from the SF GOAT lists, everyone agrees. Bird had all the intangibles it took to lead his team to the championship, and Dirk is displaying those same qualities this year.

Let's look at things from this persepective: let's say there was 1:00 left in a tight playoff game (within 3 points either way), and you could pick any PF from any year to be on your team- who would you pick? For me the choice would be Dirk from this year, and it would be fairly easy (take into consideration I never saw Pettit play). Alot of these PF's limitations in terms of shooting range and FT shooting ability meant they weren't even the go-to-guy on their own team! I feel like this definitely needs to be taken into consideration.

I guess the same type of reasoning prevents me from seeing Malone as the greatest PF ever, despite his impressive career. Hakeem makes a decent point, but stats don't really tell the whole story (and you did point out 4 times where he did did come up short). Notice I didn't outright call him a choker , but to be considered the greatest ever at your position I think the standard should be a little higher than "not a choker". The standard instead should be set to where you manage to lead your team victory in a crucial game they had no business winning, and Malone really never did that. And that '98 Bulls team was ripe for the picking, the Jazz were playing much better overall team ball then the Bulls and had homecourt in the Finals. Malone didn't even really have to play better than Jordan in that Finals as much as he had to show he wasn't intimidated by him, but he was. That factor more than anything else decided that series.

As far as Kemp and Coleman go, what wastes. Especially Coleman, he could have been as good as anyone on the list, but it seemed like he didn't even try. I personally think someone like Elton Brand has already carved out a legacy as a great player that surpasses both of them.

PS- What about Tom Chambers? Is he top 20?