Greatest players of all time (number 9)

[e-monk]

Originally Posted by PauloCatarino

It took you way too long (understandable, cause you'r older than Father Time himself) to come to terms to the fact i'm one of the most knowledgeable (sp?) Portugese posters around...

ftfy

[PauloCatarino]

Originally Posted by E.H. Munro

You're a legend in your own mind.

Hey! It says so under my screenname!

Unfortunately it's just two reasonable things in one day. Most posters manage a much higher ratio.

I follow the Monk's Rule: i'm not here to educate you.
I'm like The Watcher: i'm only forced to interviene (sp?) when all hell is about to breake loose.
You can call me Uatu!

[PauloCatarino]

Originally Posted by e-monk

ftfy

Unfortunately, during my tenure in this forum, there has only been another portuguese poster.
But he was a Bulls and Benfica fan, so i devoured his soul via PM and made him leave.

[hobojoe]

Glad to not see Oscar Robertson overrated here. He's not a top 10 player of all-time, and nobody would consider him to be one if not for the novelty of averaging a triple-double in a season. To hell with the historical context surrounding the 1961-62 season, most people quote that stat and blast if you don't consider Oscar one of the greatest to ever play because "nobody else has ever done it". Pace and scoring were incredible that year, all you really need to know is that Oscar averaged 30.8/12.5/11.4, Wilt averaged 50.4/25.6 and neither of them won the MVP.

[e-monk]

why are you ranting about someone no one is even voting for?

[23AJ]

It was all a Dream I use to read Word Up magazine, SaltNPepa and Heavy D up in the limousine ....

[kbdullah]

7,8,9,10 should have been Hakeem, Kobe, Duncan, Shaq, but w/e.

[hobojoe]

Originally Posted by e-monk

why are you ranting about someone no one is even voting for?

Because you usually see Robertson up in this range where he shouldn't be, and it's pretty clear we're going to have Hakeem and Kobe rounding out the top 10. I'm proud of you guys, good job.

[jericho]

Hakeem here for me, pretty easily.

It gets messy after that. I'm nearly ready to vote for Lebron. Kobe was/is a weenie, but as a player in his prime my only real gripe about him is his lower offensive efficiency relative to some of his competition. It's about time for Moses to start entering into the debate.

[XxIrvingxX]

I'm just about ready to vote for Lebron too after this one. I know Lebron probably doesn't belong in the top ten just yet, but if that's the case then neither does Kobe. Lebron at this point is his career is easily better then Kobe was at the same age. The only time I see Kobe ever being better then Lebron was probably his early 20's when he became a dominant scorer, because he was already a terrific defender where as Lebron was good, but not great on defense (now of course he's an incredible defender). Kobe was able to pretty much do it all on offense were as Lebron didn't have much consistency outside the paint. But at this point I think it's pretty clear who's the better of the two.

[Luke]

LeBron could die in a car accident tomorrow and he wouldn't have had a better career than Kobe. A better prime, that's certainly arguable. But not a better entire body of work. Which means that he shouldn't go yet. Just because he should pass Kobe doesn't mean that he has yet.

[Luke]

And this is not as close as I anticipated. I still can't get behind voting for a guy whose only success came when the league's alpha male was on sabbatical. Not before someone with Bryant's resume.

[MemphisX]

Originally Posted by Luke

LeBron could die in a car accident tomorrow and he wouldn't have had a better career than Kobe. A better prime, that's certainly arguable. But not a better entire body of work. Which means that he shouldn't go yet. Just because he should pass Kobe doesn't mean that he has yet.

LeBron has been the best player in the league for 4-5 years. Kobe never had a run like that. When you consider that some of those years included Kobe's prime...

[Dornado]

Originally Posted by hobojoe

Glad to not see Oscar Robertson overrated here. He's not a top 10 player of all-time, and nobody would consider him to be one if not for the novelty of averaging a triple-double in a season. To hell with the historical context surrounding the 1961-62 season, most people quote that stat and blast if you don't consider Oscar one of the greatest to ever play because "nobody else has ever done it". Pace and scoring were incredible that year, all you really need to know is that Oscar averaged 30.8/12.5/11.4, Wilt averaged 50.4/25.6 and neither of them won the MVP.

These are obviously fair points, but Wilt basically averaged 19 ppg more than anyone else in the league (59% more than the next guy) that year. I don't even have to look to know that nobody has approached that kind of gap since then. Likewise, Robertson averaged 11.2 assists when the next highest guy in the league was averaging 8 per game, 42% higher (he led the league by wider gaps than that in other years). So relative to their peers (which is really the only apples to apples comparison) both of those guys were dominant.

[Luke]

Originally Posted by MemphisX

LeBron has been the best player in the league for 4-5 years. Kobe never had a run like that. When you consider that some of those years included Kobe's prime...

Kobe was easily the best player in the world from 2006 to 2008. Since that we have been living in LeBron's world. By my count that is four seasons. I do not think that one extra season of being the top guy overshadows Kobe's longevity. Will James pass Kobe down the road? Probably. But I'm not going to give him a premature title, he can earn it like everyone else.