Jerry West Comes in at No. 9 on List of Top 50
- Thread starter Woodie
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I would have put Chamberlain above Kareem, but it's a solid list. The only pick I question is Walton. While Walton was the best college player I ever saw, he only had a year and half in the NBA with good legs. Overall I'd rate him as a pro below his Celtic running mate Kevin McHale, which isn't bad.
Right now, I'd have Bird > Lebron. I'd also have Barkley ahead of Malone, and Isiah Thomas ahead of Dewayne Wade.
Not sure Clyde Drexler belongs on the list, but for sure not ahead of Dirk or Durrant...Maybe not Ewing either.
Bill Simmons already work this all out in the The Book of Basketball.
Not sure Clyde Drexler belongs on the list, but for sure not ahead of Dirk or Durrant...Maybe not Ewing either.
Bill Simmons already work this all out in the The Book of Basketball.
Jackie McCullum was the SI writer attached to the original Dream Team and wrote a book about it - awesome read, The Dream Team.
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I'd maybe have Worthy, or even Rodman over Clyde, jmo.
Maybe even Reggie, Gary Payton, Vince Carter, or Ray Allen over him too...good guard though.
Only player from Dream Team not on is Mullin...and Laetner.
9 for West seems proper, Simmons had him as Top 10 (maybe 11 or 12?), I think.
Curry already has his title and an MVP - must be ahead of Stockton.
Maybe even Reggie, Gary Payton, Vince Carter, or Ray Allen over him too...good guard though.
Only player from Dream Team not on is Mullin...and Laetner.
9 for West seems proper, Simmons had him as Top 10 (maybe 11 or 12?), I think.
Curry already has his title and an MVP - must be ahead of Stockton.
Jerry West would be unstoppable in todays game........Jerry never played a game with the three point shot awarded........He was a deadly shot, a three point shot was like a layup to him......
What Barkley did at 6'4 will never be seen again. And it wasn't that long ago, players are not taller now. He just never won that championship.
Jerry on this year's team would be national champs.
His 3's would force opponents to extend their defense out, and spread it, setting up inside buckets to go with Jerry's 3's. Jerry was a pure a shooter as Curry. He would have score 60 against Cal if the 3-point line were in then.
I think Jerry is higher than 9th.
I'm surprised McCallum has Malone a head of Barkley. In his book, McCallum basically says Barkley was the most dominant and most important member of the Dream Team. Says he could score anywhere on the floor whenever he wanted and no one could match up with him.
He seemed cool on Malone.
In that one game scenario I take Bird. But if I'm building a team around one player (from those options), it's Lebron.
Bob Ryan uses a similar scenario for measuring the best basketball team of all time. Some say it's the 97 bulls, Ryan says it's the 86 Celtics, and uses the example that if aliens came down to earth to challenge us in a basketball game (one team) for universal domination - would we really want Luc Longley as our center?
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He's physically more dominant, for sure.
Bird is now just known for shooting(to people who never watched him)...but good rebounder, elite passer, all time great trash talker, and 100% sneaky as hell on the court...he roamed defensively and jumped passing lanes better than anyone. Maybe best instincts, ever on a basketball player.
Ferociously competitive, unlike Lebron.
lebron would still be 3rd in the team building scenario. what he has in raw physical talent, is diminished by his lack of competitive spirit. championships are the key for me and bird, magic, and even thomas did it in the golden age of the nba.
players stayed in school for 4 years, honed their skills, and developed a game understanding far beyond today's player. the nba game was simply better, more skilled, and tougher in the 80s. having fewer teams was also a part of that.
Not even close. I bet you only have seen highlights of JW. JW was much taller player and better defensive player. Curry plays with a three point line and JW didn't.
A quick Google has West listed at 6'2, sometimes 6'4 and Curry at the 6'3. Either way, not much taller.
I'm 6'4+ and was near Curry and that height seemed accurate.
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seen a couple game tapes. nothing live. both great handlers, passers, and shooters. about the same size and build. yeh, their skills and games are similar.
from what i've read jerry was a great defender.
The West/Curry comparison seems OK with me. Great passers and shooters. West was probably more physical.
West had a wing span of a 6'7" forward. There's a reason west was a. All defensive player in the nba. Curry is a better shooter but west could play outstanding defense.
West wasn't as good a shooter but Jerry s wing span was that of a 6'7" forward. I believe he was all defensive nba too.
Bingo! A buddy of mine dated West' niece back in the mid 70's, about a year or so after he retired. I encountered West a number of times in those days. The guy had arms as long as your average gorilla. Remember that he played small forward when he first went to the Lakers.
Rodman over Clyde, Darth? Clyde could do it all, Dennis could rebound and throw the outlet. Rodman was a huge offensive liability, with gimme layups stretching his skill set.
I've always admired players that caused the rules to be changed. Wilt and Russell caused the lane to be widened, Kareem got the dunk banned for a decade in college, and Barkley brought about the wholesale change to breakaway rims in the college ranks with his antics at Auburn. I once saw Barkley break two rims in a OOC road game on ESPN. The second time he did it they had to truck in a basket in from an arena across town. That game went hours longer than it was supposed to. I want to say it was against UAB in Birmingham, but that's been over thirty years ago. All those games have run together with time. To top it off, he was a backup linebacker on the Auburn football team that season.
The biggest difference in the NBA before roughly 1990-95 and now is the skills the players brought to floor. In those days if you left almost any pro player open within 20 feet of the basket, you could count it. Now the game is a brickfest.
Wilt changed most of the rules not Russell. Wilt could jump from the foul line and dunk on free throws. That was changed. In bound pass over the back board and wilt would catch and dunk on way down. Changed that one. With the narrow lane, wilt could catch and dunk. Wilt was the man. Just like shaq he was mild mannered or he could have really hurt people.
Before his knees went there was nothing like him on the planet. He had a helluva track career at Kansas running relays, all conference.
Can you imagine the stride he had running full speed on a track? Talk about closing speed, sheesh!
Can you imagine the stride he had running full speed on a track? Talk about closing speed, sheesh!
Rodman, imo, was the best defensive Foward ever in NBA history and the best rebounder. He was NOT a liability on offense, not even close...because he always played within his capabilities.
Watch Rodman guard Shaq in the 96 playoffs....awesome. 13 pts, 21 rebounds.
Clyde was very good, but his skill set in the NBA isn't hard to come by. Rodman is really one of a kind.
The Jordan, Pippen, Rodman rotation was the best defensive group I've ever watched....the way they could hound players with their length and speed...jump passing lanes, deny passes, ect....just awesome basketball.
I'll give Clyde his due. Best player on two NBA Finals teams, Dream Teamer (late selection), very good swingman.
Showed up for Dream Team practice wearing two left shoes - and played in them because he didn't want Jordan to find out and trash him....Barkley ended up noticing.
If the Blazers would have beat the Lakers in 90-91, that would have given him three straight NBA Finals appearances, which is remarkabe - although he would have ended up 0-2 against Jordan.
So, that would have meant 4 NBA Finals appearances all together, 3 as the best player in losses, , and 1 NBA Championship as the second best player with Rockets - in a Jordanless season, by getting traded to an already built contender. 95 he was All NBA 3rd team, so still productive.
Showed up for Dream Team practice wearing two left shoes - and played in them because he didn't want Jordan to find out and trash him....Barkley ended up noticing.
If the Blazers would have beat the Lakers in 90-91, that would have given him three straight NBA Finals appearances, which is remarkabe - although he would have ended up 0-2 against Jordan.
So, that would have meant 4 NBA Finals appearances all together, 3 as the best player in losses, , and 1 NBA Championship as the second best player with Rockets - in a Jordanless season, by getting traded to an already built contender. 95 he was All NBA 3rd team, so still productive.
The mid 80's Lakers and Celtics would have beaten the 97 Bulls easily. Both of those teams had better depth and better play at center. In 97 there were maybe 5 centers that demanded a double team ever. They won in the playoffs against Utah with Greg friggin' Ostertag at Center and they also beat Washington with Gheorghe Muresan at center. The toughest center they played that post-season was when they played against Atlanta with Mutumbo. Not exactly a killers row.
A still near his prime Kareem would have made life hell for that team. The triangle doesn't work when you have 7'2" in the middle clogging up any and all penetration. Even Parrish would have dominated the interior.
Wilt played basketball and women. But, not necessarily in that order. At least, that's what he claimed. 10,000? Not! 20,000? Maybe.
LOL - Easily?
You think those mid-80's team would have EASILY beaten arguably the greatest basketball team ever, lead by the greatest basketball player off all time? Nope.
Jordan's teams played good Knicks teams every season, anchored by Ewing. I don't recall Parish giving Jordan many fits.
Rodman defended Center's like no one else did.
The best NBA Finals that never happened was Jordan/Bulls v. Hakeem/Rockets.
Yes easily. How much better was Jordan in 1997 than Magic in 1986? 5%? I would argue Magic did a better job at making his TEAM better than Jordan ever did.
Michael Cooper was a defensive wall back then. He would at least have slowed down Jordan.
Rodman was fine against 1997 bigs. He would have been eaten alive by Kareem. Scotty against Worthy would have been a draw as well. The Lakers depth and size would have crushed your " best team ever."
Lebron - 4 MVPS
Bird - 3
Bryant - 1
LBJ still has several years left to play as well.
