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Best basketball player of all time


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2 hours ago, row_33 said:

 

it connotates stylishness....

 

it's the best laugh in Simmons's Big Book of Basketball(or whatever it be called)

 

 

 

Did Bill say that whole line, or just the fern part?

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On 1/7/2018 at 3:16 AM, BeginnersMind said:

 

The word that captures Jordan for me is "clutch." Every shot clock wind down, end of quarter, and end of game, EVERYONE knew he was shooting, and it seemed like he made an incredible number of those shots no matter how many defenders. 

 

Jordan was also first team defense almost every year. He was a nightmare on D. 

 

On desire to win, no one compares with Jordan. He was and is still kind of insane about it. His HOF speech is one of the worst of all time because he can't let go. 

 

Jordan made me happiest to watch because of his pure grace as an athlete, competitiveness, and this clutch thing.  I never thought the other team would win a game that mattered. Never. HE was Brady-like in that way. 

 

Lebron will score more. Magic and Bird were better all around players. Wilt dominated the league in a way that won't happen again. But Jordan gets my vote. If he was playing any of these guys in a game, my money would be on his team to win. 

The thing in, for seven years he wasn't "clutch." He often made shots at the end and often missed them. No more or less than anyone else that was a good to great player did. That's my whole point. People got so used to seeing Jordan being clutch at the end of games in his championship seasons that they extrapolated that to his entire career and that wasn't the case at all. He was still a great player those first seven years but not really the Jordan people think of. As a rookie guard, Magic played center in the NBA finals clinching game, played all five positions in that game, and scored 42 points, with 15 boards and 7 assists.

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the only knock on Jordan is he had to wait for the Celtics and Pistons to have their run before he could man up and win something

 

his Bulls teams were nowhere near as talented as the Bird Celtics and Bad Boys, the game had entered a huge decline in team talent by the time he could win a title.

 

 

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1 hour ago, row_33 said:

the only knock on Jordan is he had to wait for the Celtics and Pistons to have their run before he could man up and win something

 

his Bulls teams were nowhere near as talented as the Bird Celtics and Bad Boys, the game had entered a huge decline in team talent by the time he could win a title.

 

 

I hear this argument all the time and while those teams were a bit better, that Bulls team was loaded with great role players and another pure star in Pippen (as you rightfully say compared to the rest of the league). For all the crap that Rodman rightfully got, he was an absolute fabulous player for your team, and a superstar's absolute dream, a guy who was the best rebounder in the league, a tremendous defensive player and didn't want the ball or care to shoot. All he did was get the ball for you, and did it better than anyone in the league and anyone on those Celtic teams. Grant was an extremely good all around reliable player. They always had a great gunner like Paxson or Kerr.

 

The idea that he was basically a one man team, which is purported a lot (not by you of course) is a complete fallacy. They had a great team and system and coach, along with Jordan. 

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On 12/30/2017 at 9:02 PM, Gugny said:

Jordan.

 

He made everyone around him better.  He commanded the respect and demanded they be better.

 

I love LeBron.  Consummate pro.  Ridiculous talent.  But when he sees that his team is losing, he takes it upon himself to win games.  To me, that's the difference between James and Jordan.  Jordan didn't just say, "here, let me do it."  He said, "you guys do THIS, and I'll do THIS and we'll get this **** done."

 

I think LeBron, Wilt and Magic are easily among the best, ever and there's not a strong argument against any of them being the GOAT.

 

But to me ... it's Jordan.  Hands down.

Though I don't agree at all with your argument over the difference between LeBron and MJ, I do agree with your overall assessment. Jordan is #1. I think LeBron is pretty close behind. 

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23 hours ago, Kelly the Dog said:

I hear this argument all the time and while those teams were a bit better, that Bulls team was loaded with great role players and another pure star in Pippen (as you rightfully say compared to the rest of the league). For all the crap that Rodman rightfully got, he was an absolute fabulous player for your team, and a superstar's absolute dream, a guy who was the best rebounder in the league, a tremendous defensive player and didn't want the ball or care to shoot. All he did was get the ball for you, and did it better than anyone in the league and anyone on those Celtic teams. Grant was an extremely good all around reliable player. They always had a great gunner like Paxson or Kerr.

 

The idea that he was basically a one man team, which is purported a lot (not by you of course) is a complete fallacy. They had a great team and system and coach, along with Jordan. 

 

 

Let's see....

 

Bird

Dennis Johnson

McHale

Parish

 

Worthy

Kareem

Magic

Scott

 

vs. what exactly beyond Jordan and Pippen (when he wasn't pussing out with a fake migraine because Rodman and Mahorn scared him into quitting)

 

Complete admiration and grovelling as fully deserved to Mr. Jordan, but a ton of talent just suddenly disappeared so his 2nd rate collection of teammates could dominate at just the right time.

 

Luc Longley was going to put the hurt on Parish and Kareem, or even Laimbeer????

 

 

and I'll add that Mr. Jordan basically re-invented his game with a dual dominance in the air for the first half and then as a lethal shooter and creator for the second half.  Nobody else has come close to doing something like this.

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On 1/6/2018 at 7:35 PM, Kelly the Dog said:

Magic.

 

I think perhaps if you were starting a team and could take one player you could make a case for Jabbar.

 

I think people remember Jordan for the second half of his career as if his first half were the same and it just wasn't. He missed a lot of late shots in his first seven or so years. He was great but not nearly as great. LeBron was clearly better early in his career compared to Jordan at that point of his career.

 

Magic had perhaps the greatest center in history, one of the best scoring forwards of his era and one of the best 3 point shooters of his era. He was flat out awesome but I don't see him in the same league with the all time greats. He's a level below Jordan, Wilt, James. 

Edited by BeginnersMind
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Magic completely changed the way we look at the game, as did Lawrence Taylor.

 

[He didn't bother to develop an outside shot, his form was laughable.]

 

 

 

 

 

and Magic's fastbreak was him dribbling the ball and eating up 18 seconds on the shotclock, while Bird's was defensive rebound, pass to center and pass for a layup without the ball touching the floor in about 3 seconds

 

 

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On ‎1‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 1:15 PM, row_33 said:

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Honourable mentions:

 

Olajuwon once he gave up being a total headcase, but it was kinda strange he didn't get to the FInals during the Jordan era except for the years MJ was "retired", it wasn't like Houston had to go through the Bulls to get there...  and that 86 team was loaded for the Rockets but fell apart for "miscellaneous reasons"

 

 

Good call about Hakeem.  The Rockets did win the two years Jordan "retired" but if you do look at Rockets vs Bulls in the Jordan era, that was the one team that had a winning record against them. 

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2 hours ago, Teddy KGB said:

1980 til present only list 

 

1. Jordan 

2. Olajuwon

3. Shaq/Kobe

4. Duncan 

5. Nowitzky

6. Durant 

7. Curry 

 

Bird and Magic played a little bit since the 1980.

 

 

 

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