It wouldn't be my handiwork unless I tossed in a few Advanced Stats nuggets to support my Michael Is Best position. Here are a few.
Seasons with a PER over 25 -- Jordan has the most with 12 (Shaq 11, Kareem and LeBron 10)
Seasons With a PER Over 30 -- Jordan tied with LeBron for the most at 4 each (Wilt and Shaq with 3 each)
Win Share Seasons over 17 WS -- Wilt 9, Jordan 8
WS/48 over .300 -- Jordan 3, Kareem 3, LeBron 2
Most Playoff Seasons With Over 3 Playoff WS -- Jordan 8, LBJ and Magic tied for 2nd at 6.
Guards With most seasons with over 5 Defensive Win Shares:
Jordan 8, Cousy second place with 5
Guards With 6+ DWS in a season: it has happened 8 times since 1946-47. Jordan has two such seasons.
How rare is it for a guard to register a 6 Defensive Win Shares season? JoJo White had one such season in his career -- 1973.
Between 1973 and 1988, no guard ever registered 6 DWS in a season. In 1987-88 Jordan registered almost 400 steals plus blocks and put up 6.1 DWS.
In 1995-96, at age 32 and fresh off being retired, Jordan registered 6.2 DWS. No guard since 1995-96 has ever registered 6 DWS. So, Jordan did something that had never happened for 15 years, did it again 8 years later, and it has never been done by anyone else in 20 years (the last guard to register even 5 DWS was Rajon Rondo in 2008-09, so I don't look for 6 DWS from a guard any time soon).
Jordan had two seasons with over 230 steals and over 100 blocks. No one else has ever done that. Jordan had three seasons with over 230 steals and over 65 blocks. Only one other player, Alvin Robertson (69 blocks) has ever done that.
If you search for over 200 steals and over 100 blocks, you get Hakeem (1X) and Jordan (2X).
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Saturday, April 25, 2015
The Greatest NBA Player of All-Time? Michael Jordan
I am sitting in LAX waiting for my redeye. I have two hours and 67% phone charge to tell you why not Magic, not Duncan, not LeBron, Kareem or Wilt, but Michael Jordan, is the greatest NBA player of all-time. I have limited ability to access Advanced Stats due to working on my phone, so I will have to go off the top of my head for some stuff.
First - Michael was always the best player on his team. LeBron is 30, but everyone else in the top 6 had stretches where someone else on the team was the better player. Michael always carried his team. How do I know that? He had 6 titles and 6 finals MVPs. He scored 63. The Pistons double, triple, quadruple teamed him. Once he got a coach and enough around him - look whose reigns ended: the Pistons, the Celtics, Magic Johnson And who never got to the top due to Michael - clearly Barkley. Shaq as a Magic got to the Finals through #45 Michael's club. Once Michael was back as #23 the Magic never got a sniff. He beat Magic, Drexler, Barkley, Payton and Kemp, and Stockton and Malone twice.
It was said that Michael won because he wanted it more. I prefer to believe Jeff Van Gundy who said "I coached a lot of guys who wanted it as much or more than Michael. Michael was just way, way better." The young Jordan was freakishly fast, could leap 40 inches, was 6'6" and built with long, lean features perfect for a basketball player. He moved differently than the other 9 guys on the floor.
One story - a young Kevin Garnett was just impossible to score on. 7 foot tall, fast as a deer, gasoline hose arms, played at 100 percent. Jordan was killing the Wolves one night at Target Center in 1996, 97 or 98 and the Wolves put Garnett on him. Jordan catches the ball at the three point line, foul line extended, left side. Garnett pushes way up and gets in a stance almost touching the ground. Jordan looks at him, takes one dribble and lays it in with his right hand on the left side. No contest.
Jordan regularly shot 50 percent. Jordan regularly had a usage rate around 35. So he was hogging it like there was no tomorrow and yet you couldn't stop him even 50 percent of the time. He had a season of like 32-8-8. Again, shooting a high percentage. Imagine how demoralizing that is to an opponent. You literally cannot stop the guy and he just goes and goes and goes.
From 1988 through 1998, Jordan was the best player in the league when he played. Some other guys were given the MVP, but it was more due to voter fatigue than anything else. Michael is #1 in career MVP shares at like 8.1. LeBron might get enough votes this year to pass Kareem's 6.2 for second. Now think about that - Michael got screwed out of the MVP 2-3 times. He STILL kills everyone else in MVP Award Shares. This is akin to going back to Wilt's 100 point game and finding out he had 14 points wrongfully disallowed.
Michael left the Bulls as 3x champs to (wink wink nod nod) "play baseball". Within a year and a half, the Bulls were a .500 team. They were going nowhere and Jordan returned as #45 for some number of games. (17 sticks in my mind). He finished 11th in the MVP race. Within 2 years the Bulls won 72 games. This, I suppose, should not be surprising since Michael once had an 11 Value Over Replacment season (multiply by 2.7 to get wins over replacement). He was worth 30 wins. Both statistically and literally.
Three seasons over 20 win shares. The last man to clear 21 win shares. Career WS/48 as a Bull was .277. Career. LeBron is .240 Plug in any amazing Win Shares number you want - 17, 19. He and Wilt are always at the top. He had two rather embarrassing seasons (for him) with the Wizards. They dropped his overall stats. Career WS/48 - still first. Career PER - still first. Career playoff Win Shares - still first. Career playoff points - same. Career PPG regular season. And playoffs. The best of anyone with any resume.
Jordan was the greates defensive guard I ever saw. Period. Garnett was great, Duncan great. Kirilenko great. Chris Paul, David Robinson, Hakeem, all great. Jordan was as good as any of the big guys, and he was a guard. Defensive player of the year. Basically invented the "chase down block". Find a montage of Michael's blocks. A young Michael appeared out of nowhere and was vicious. Any loose ball was his. No one could score regularly on Michael. And playing at that sick defensive level had absolutely no impact on his offensive effort or his offensive efficiency.
Examples of greatness - the belief of some that Scottie Pippen was a better player than Michael was quickly put to rest and Pippen sans Jordan is remembered for his inconvenient headache and his failures in Portland and Houston. Second - Kobe. Look, I despise Kobe but he has had a great career. I ranked him the 18th best player of all-time. I now want to vomit for bringing that up again, but.,,,,,moving on. Look at Kobe's stats and Jordan's stats. Go to basketball-reference.com and use their player comparison tool (use the full site not the mobile one). Jordan is significantly better than Kobe at every single important phase of the game. Look at their playoff stats. Jordan is the all-time greatest and Kobe is, well, not. I can SAY that Tim Tebow is the next Steve Young, that does not make it so.
Finally on this issue - LeBron. LeBron is the #4 player of all-time per my analysis. And I am WAY pro-LeBron. I would LIKE to say he is better than Jordan. Sorry, there is no comparison. Jordan is a better scorer, shot a higher percentage. Better Advanced Stats. Better in the playoffs. Better in Finals. Jordan is a better defender and maintained his defensive. greatness on a game by game basis. LeBron is bigger and heavier. It is not his fault that he was built that way, but it impacts his stamina and his ability to maintain the highest level of excellence as a defender. If LeBron passes Jordan on the playoff lists it will be because LeBron plays more games and more minutes.
This is not to say that LeBron sucks. He is the closest thing to a Magic-Jordan hybrid we have ever seen. Take Magic at his absolute, absolute best. Not as good as LeBron's best. LeBron has more 20-5-5 games and more 30-9-7 games. He is more reliably an "all three stats" guy. He is great. But Jordan? Look at 30 and 40 point games. Look at shooting percentage, look at defensive win shares on a yearly basis. There just aren't many guards who ever have 5 DWS seasons. Jordan did.
He went to the Finals 6 times. Won 6. MVP 6. I am sure, without even looking that he was the Bulls' top scorer in all 6. No one else can say that. Who are the supposed great winners since Mikan? Russell ? I think he was generally 4th or so in Celtics scoring. Wilt? 2 for 7. Kareem? 1 for 2 pre-Magic. Magic? Had Kareem. Worthy won an MVP. Duncan? Nope. LeBron beat him and other Spurs have won MVP and scored more. Bird? 1981 MVP was Cornbread Maxwell. Shaq and Kobe? Shaq had 1995, 2004 as losses. Kobe can add in 2008. Shaq had 3 straight Jordans but not 6.
LeBron - had been the best guy and top scorer 5 times but only won twice.
When you add it all up, Jordan was the best. The guys with an argument are Wilt (Jordan didn't score 50 a night with 27 boards, have a 20-20-20 game or lead the league in assists just on a bet. Jordan did not defeat Magic when Magic had the Showtime Lakers while Wilt did beat both Russell at his peak in 1967 and Kareem at his peak in 1972) And Kareem (has 6 titles and had a ton of MVP awards and played longer. Holds the all-time season mark for WS at 25.4).
But Wilt and Kareem both had moments they'd rather forget at key times (Wilt with the bad knee in Game 7 and the loss to a crippled Willis Reed - Kareem getting toasted by Moses Malone in 1981 and 1983 and, if I recall correctly, begging out of a game of the 1983 sweep due to "migraines" which most believed could have been cured had all players named Moses been suspended for the series). Jordan has playoff failures as a younger man, but none that stand as a scar on an otherwise stellar career.
I don't believe the 1990s Bulls were the greatest team of all-time, but I do believe that Michael Jordan is the greatest NBA player of all time.
First - Michael was always the best player on his team. LeBron is 30, but everyone else in the top 6 had stretches where someone else on the team was the better player. Michael always carried his team. How do I know that? He had 6 titles and 6 finals MVPs. He scored 63. The Pistons double, triple, quadruple teamed him. Once he got a coach and enough around him - look whose reigns ended: the Pistons, the Celtics, Magic Johnson And who never got to the top due to Michael - clearly Barkley. Shaq as a Magic got to the Finals through #45 Michael's club. Once Michael was back as #23 the Magic never got a sniff. He beat Magic, Drexler, Barkley, Payton and Kemp, and Stockton and Malone twice.
It was said that Michael won because he wanted it more. I prefer to believe Jeff Van Gundy who said "I coached a lot of guys who wanted it as much or more than Michael. Michael was just way, way better." The young Jordan was freakishly fast, could leap 40 inches, was 6'6" and built with long, lean features perfect for a basketball player. He moved differently than the other 9 guys on the floor.
One story - a young Kevin Garnett was just impossible to score on. 7 foot tall, fast as a deer, gasoline hose arms, played at 100 percent. Jordan was killing the Wolves one night at Target Center in 1996, 97 or 98 and the Wolves put Garnett on him. Jordan catches the ball at the three point line, foul line extended, left side. Garnett pushes way up and gets in a stance almost touching the ground. Jordan looks at him, takes one dribble and lays it in with his right hand on the left side. No contest.
Jordan regularly shot 50 percent. Jordan regularly had a usage rate around 35. So he was hogging it like there was no tomorrow and yet you couldn't stop him even 50 percent of the time. He had a season of like 32-8-8. Again, shooting a high percentage. Imagine how demoralizing that is to an opponent. You literally cannot stop the guy and he just goes and goes and goes.
From 1988 through 1998, Jordan was the best player in the league when he played. Some other guys were given the MVP, but it was more due to voter fatigue than anything else. Michael is #1 in career MVP shares at like 8.1. LeBron might get enough votes this year to pass Kareem's 6.2 for second. Now think about that - Michael got screwed out of the MVP 2-3 times. He STILL kills everyone else in MVP Award Shares. This is akin to going back to Wilt's 100 point game and finding out he had 14 points wrongfully disallowed.
Michael left the Bulls as 3x champs to (wink wink nod nod) "play baseball". Within a year and a half, the Bulls were a .500 team. They were going nowhere and Jordan returned as #45 for some number of games. (17 sticks in my mind). He finished 11th in the MVP race. Within 2 years the Bulls won 72 games. This, I suppose, should not be surprising since Michael once had an 11 Value Over Replacment season (multiply by 2.7 to get wins over replacement). He was worth 30 wins. Both statistically and literally.
Three seasons over 20 win shares. The last man to clear 21 win shares. Career WS/48 as a Bull was .277. Career. LeBron is .240 Plug in any amazing Win Shares number you want - 17, 19. He and Wilt are always at the top. He had two rather embarrassing seasons (for him) with the Wizards. They dropped his overall stats. Career WS/48 - still first. Career PER - still first. Career playoff Win Shares - still first. Career playoff points - same. Career PPG regular season. And playoffs. The best of anyone with any resume.
Jordan was the greates defensive guard I ever saw. Period. Garnett was great, Duncan great. Kirilenko great. Chris Paul, David Robinson, Hakeem, all great. Jordan was as good as any of the big guys, and he was a guard. Defensive player of the year. Basically invented the "chase down block". Find a montage of Michael's blocks. A young Michael appeared out of nowhere and was vicious. Any loose ball was his. No one could score regularly on Michael. And playing at that sick defensive level had absolutely no impact on his offensive effort or his offensive efficiency.
Examples of greatness - the belief of some that Scottie Pippen was a better player than Michael was quickly put to rest and Pippen sans Jordan is remembered for his inconvenient headache and his failures in Portland and Houston. Second - Kobe. Look, I despise Kobe but he has had a great career. I ranked him the 18th best player of all-time. I now want to vomit for bringing that up again, but.,,,,,moving on. Look at Kobe's stats and Jordan's stats. Go to basketball-reference.com and use their player comparison tool (use the full site not the mobile one). Jordan is significantly better than Kobe at every single important phase of the game. Look at their playoff stats. Jordan is the all-time greatest and Kobe is, well, not. I can SAY that Tim Tebow is the next Steve Young, that does not make it so.
Finally on this issue - LeBron. LeBron is the #4 player of all-time per my analysis. And I am WAY pro-LeBron. I would LIKE to say he is better than Jordan. Sorry, there is no comparison. Jordan is a better scorer, shot a higher percentage. Better Advanced Stats. Better in the playoffs. Better in Finals. Jordan is a better defender and maintained his defensive. greatness on a game by game basis. LeBron is bigger and heavier. It is not his fault that he was built that way, but it impacts his stamina and his ability to maintain the highest level of excellence as a defender. If LeBron passes Jordan on the playoff lists it will be because LeBron plays more games and more minutes.
This is not to say that LeBron sucks. He is the closest thing to a Magic-Jordan hybrid we have ever seen. Take Magic at his absolute, absolute best. Not as good as LeBron's best. LeBron has more 20-5-5 games and more 30-9-7 games. He is more reliably an "all three stats" guy. He is great. But Jordan? Look at 30 and 40 point games. Look at shooting percentage, look at defensive win shares on a yearly basis. There just aren't many guards who ever have 5 DWS seasons. Jordan did.
He went to the Finals 6 times. Won 6. MVP 6. I am sure, without even looking that he was the Bulls' top scorer in all 6. No one else can say that. Who are the supposed great winners since Mikan? Russell ? I think he was generally 4th or so in Celtics scoring. Wilt? 2 for 7. Kareem? 1 for 2 pre-Magic. Magic? Had Kareem. Worthy won an MVP. Duncan? Nope. LeBron beat him and other Spurs have won MVP and scored more. Bird? 1981 MVP was Cornbread Maxwell. Shaq and Kobe? Shaq had 1995, 2004 as losses. Kobe can add in 2008. Shaq had 3 straight Jordans but not 6.
LeBron - had been the best guy and top scorer 5 times but only won twice.
When you add it all up, Jordan was the best. The guys with an argument are Wilt (Jordan didn't score 50 a night with 27 boards, have a 20-20-20 game or lead the league in assists just on a bet. Jordan did not defeat Magic when Magic had the Showtime Lakers while Wilt did beat both Russell at his peak in 1967 and Kareem at his peak in 1972) And Kareem (has 6 titles and had a ton of MVP awards and played longer. Holds the all-time season mark for WS at 25.4).
But Wilt and Kareem both had moments they'd rather forget at key times (Wilt with the bad knee in Game 7 and the loss to a crippled Willis Reed - Kareem getting toasted by Moses Malone in 1981 and 1983 and, if I recall correctly, begging out of a game of the 1983 sweep due to "migraines" which most believed could have been cured had all players named Moses been suspended for the series). Jordan has playoff failures as a younger man, but none that stand as a scar on an otherwise stellar career.
I don't believe the 1990s Bulls were the greatest team of all-time, but I do believe that Michael Jordan is the greatest NBA player of all time.
Friday, April 17, 2015
The Second Greatest NBA Player of All-TIme? Wilt Chamberlain
Any guy who slept with 20,000 women deserves to be #1. But, here I only consider on-court performance, so Wilt comes in at #2.
As I said in evaluating Kareem, the decision between #2 and #3 is very tough. Kareem won more titles, Kareem was more often first-team all-NBA. Kareem lasted longer....again, on the court. Kareem even had 3 awesome seasons that were as good or better than any Wilt ever had. But Wilt's stats over a 12 season career just cannot be denied.
Scoring --
Most consecutive seasons leading league in points,
Most points, seasonHighest average, points per game, season
Most points, rookie, season
Highest average, points per game, rookie, season
Most points, game
100-Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia vs. New York, at Hershey, Pa., March 2, 1962
Most points, rookie, game
Most games, 50 or more points, career
118-Wilt Chamberlain
Most games, 50 or more points, season
Most consecutive games, 50 or more points
7 -Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia, December 16-December 29, 1961
Most games, 40 or more points, career
471-Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia, 1959-60-1961-62, San Francisco, 1962-63-1964-65; Philadelphia, 1964-65-1967-68; Los Angeles, 1968-69-1972-73
Most games, 40 or more points, season
Most consecutive games, 40 or more points
14-Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia, December 8-December 30, 1961
Most consecutive games, 30 or more points
65-Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia, November 4, 1961-February 22, 1962
Most consecutive games, 20 or more points
126-Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia, San Francisco, October 19, 1961-January 19, 1963
Most points, one half
59-Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia vs. New York, at Hershey, Pa., March 2, 1962 (2nd half)
Rebounding Records --
Most seasons leading league
Most rebounds, career
Highest average, rebounds per game, career
Most rebounds, season
Most rebounds, rookie, season
Most seasons, 1,000 or more rebounds
Highest average, rebounds per game, season
27.2-Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia, 1960-61(2,149/79)
Most rebounds, game
55-Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia vs. Boston, November 24, 1960
Most rebounds, rookie, game
45-Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia vs. Syracuse, February 6, 1960
Wilt had a 20-20-20 game.
Wilt led the league in assists for an entire year.
Wilt is said to have blocked 26 shots in a game, yet they didn't keep blocks during his time (his 20-20-20 was with assists). When Wilt and Bill Russell played at the same time, Wilt was first-team all-NBA 7 times. OK, you understand that? Bill Russell, who claims to be the greatest player in NBA history, was regularly second-team all-NBA behind Wilt.
Wilt was 4X MVP in a league that included Russell, Oscar, Baylor, and Petit.
In the 1963-64 season, in which Oscar averaged nearly a triple double, Oscar was named the MVP. Wilt finished second. Wilt was robbed. Wilt's 1963-64 season is arguably the greatest season ever played. Wilt led the league in minutes played, PER, Win Shares (25), WS/48 (.325) and scoring. He had 14 offensive Win Shares and 10 defensive Win Shares.
In the history of the game, no one else has ever had 14 OWS and 10 DWS in a season. Never. In the history of the game, no one else has ever had 10 OWS and 10 DWS in a season. Ever. No one. In the 6 seasons that Russell had 10+ DWS, he never logged 4 OWS. Think about that. 10 DWS in a season has occurred only 8 times. Russell 6 and Wilt in 1963-64 (14 OWS) and 1967-68 (9 OWS).
The 1963-64 Warriors were coached by Alex Hannum. The #2 Win Shares player for them that year was Tom Meschery (similar career path to Robert Reid and Mark Olberding). That team reached the NBA finals by defeating a team of Bob Petit, Zelmo Beatty, Cliff Hagan, Richie Guerin and Lenny Wilkens. Wilt averaged 38 PPG. In the Finals, Russell managed to hold Wilt to 29-27 and 2 and the Celtics won in 5.
Wilt that year had 3.8 playoff Win Shares and a .323 WS/48. Yet that goes down as just another year where Wilt lost to Russell and Wilt didn't even win the MVP. Arguably the greatest year of basketball ever played, lost to the sands of time.
So, why isn't Wilt #1? Well, Wilt had opportunities to win and didn't win. He only won 2 titles. He did reach the finals 7 times. There is one guy in NBA history who has about as many statistical #1 placements as Wilt, and he won the title 6 times in 6 finals, so I have to give him the edge. But I will NEVER abuse anyone who thinks that Wilt is the greatest NBA player of all-time on the court, and if you add in the off the court legend, well......
RIP big fella.
As I said in evaluating Kareem, the decision between #2 and #3 is very tough. Kareem won more titles, Kareem was more often first-team all-NBA. Kareem lasted longer....again, on the court. Kareem even had 3 awesome seasons that were as good or better than any Wilt ever had. But Wilt's stats over a 12 season career just cannot be denied.
Scoring --
Most consecutive seasons leading league in points,
Most points, seasonHighest average, points per game, season
Most points, rookie, season
Highest average, points per game, rookie, season
Most points, game
100-Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia vs. New York, at Hershey, Pa., March 2, 1962
Most points, rookie, game
Most games, 50 or more points, career
118-Wilt Chamberlain
Most games, 50 or more points, season
Most consecutive games, 50 or more points
7 -Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia, December 16-December 29, 1961
Most games, 40 or more points, career
471-Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia, 1959-60-1961-62, San Francisco, 1962-63-1964-65; Philadelphia, 1964-65-1967-68; Los Angeles, 1968-69-1972-73
Most games, 40 or more points, season
Most consecutive games, 40 or more points
14-Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia, December 8-December 30, 1961
Most consecutive games, 30 or more points
65-Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia, November 4, 1961-February 22, 1962
Most consecutive games, 20 or more points
126-Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia, San Francisco, October 19, 1961-January 19, 1963
Most points, one half
59-Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia vs. New York, at Hershey, Pa., March 2, 1962 (2nd half)
Rebounding Records --
Most seasons leading league
Most rebounds, career
Highest average, rebounds per game, career
Most rebounds, season
Most rebounds, rookie, season
Most seasons, 1,000 or more rebounds
Highest average, rebounds per game, season
27.2-Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia, 1960-61(2,149/79)
Most rebounds, game
55-Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia vs. Boston, November 24, 1960
Most rebounds, rookie, game
45-Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia vs. Syracuse, February 6, 1960
Wilt had a 20-20-20 game.
Wilt led the league in assists for an entire year.
Wilt is said to have blocked 26 shots in a game, yet they didn't keep blocks during his time (his 20-20-20 was with assists). When Wilt and Bill Russell played at the same time, Wilt was first-team all-NBA 7 times. OK, you understand that? Bill Russell, who claims to be the greatest player in NBA history, was regularly second-team all-NBA behind Wilt.
Wilt was 4X MVP in a league that included Russell, Oscar, Baylor, and Petit.
In the 1963-64 season, in which Oscar averaged nearly a triple double, Oscar was named the MVP. Wilt finished second. Wilt was robbed. Wilt's 1963-64 season is arguably the greatest season ever played. Wilt led the league in minutes played, PER, Win Shares (25), WS/48 (.325) and scoring. He had 14 offensive Win Shares and 10 defensive Win Shares.
In the history of the game, no one else has ever had 14 OWS and 10 DWS in a season. Never. In the history of the game, no one else has ever had 10 OWS and 10 DWS in a season. Ever. No one. In the 6 seasons that Russell had 10+ DWS, he never logged 4 OWS. Think about that. 10 DWS in a season has occurred only 8 times. Russell 6 and Wilt in 1963-64 (14 OWS) and 1967-68 (9 OWS).
The 1963-64 Warriors were coached by Alex Hannum. The #2 Win Shares player for them that year was Tom Meschery (similar career path to Robert Reid and Mark Olberding). That team reached the NBA finals by defeating a team of Bob Petit, Zelmo Beatty, Cliff Hagan, Richie Guerin and Lenny Wilkens. Wilt averaged 38 PPG. In the Finals, Russell managed to hold Wilt to 29-27 and 2 and the Celtics won in 5.
Wilt that year had 3.8 playoff Win Shares and a .323 WS/48. Yet that goes down as just another year where Wilt lost to Russell and Wilt didn't even win the MVP. Arguably the greatest year of basketball ever played, lost to the sands of time.
So, why isn't Wilt #1? Well, Wilt had opportunities to win and didn't win. He only won 2 titles. He did reach the finals 7 times. There is one guy in NBA history who has about as many statistical #1 placements as Wilt, and he won the title 6 times in 6 finals, so I have to give him the edge. But I will NEVER abuse anyone who thinks that Wilt is the greatest NBA player of all-time on the court, and if you add in the off the court legend, well......
RIP big fella.
10 Awful Minnesota Timberwolves Horror Stories - Off the Top of My Head
After another 60+ loss season, I am feeling all Britt McHenry, so I will rip off just 10 for now. I am not saying these are the worst 10, or I couldn't think of 50 more, but here are ten bad memories from my 26 years as a Wolves season ticket holder.
10. Joe Smith Fiasco -- It was common in the late 1990s and early 2000s to violate the salary cap by telling your own players (whom you could sign for any amount) to wait for contract renewals until after you signed new free agents (where you were capped) and then you would sign the currently rostered guy to a big deal. There were dozens of secret deals done, and everyone knew it was being done.........but the Wolves got caught, As I recall, Smith fired his agent and the agent sued, saying he wanted a percentage of the $84M deal that Glen Taylor had put into a writing brought to him in the hospital by Kevin McHale before Taylor's surgery.
We lost 5 1st round picks, later reduced to three. The Wolves became a laughingstock for putting a secret illegal agreement into writing, and chances to improve the team got even slimmer. On the plus side, Smith didn't get the $84M. But he got worse, and still was re-signed by the Wolves.
9. Stevie J, The Target Center DJ -- Stevie J was an African-American guy whom the Wolves hired to do in-arena entertainment. He was a very loud and obnoxious guy. Very few, if any, fans liked him. The Wolves had, I am pretty sure, Gary Trent and Marc Jackson at the time. Marc Jackson had gone on a fitness program in the off season and lost around 50 pounds. Stevie J goes into the crowd and has a trivia question, "What Wolf weighs the most?" Everyone is trying to help the guy -- I am pretty sure he answers "Gary Trent." Ooooh, no, The correct answer is Marc Jackson..... Jackson was none too happy with Stevie J., and J disappeared from the public eye shortly thereafter. A Wolves staffer stated that he could not understand my distaste for Stevie J. since the Wolves believed he was "edgy entertainment" that the fans wanted.
8. The Despair of Andrew Lang -- the Wolves got rid of Christian Laettner because he had the gall to claim that his Wolves teammates and coaches weren't high quality. WHAT!?!? Jimmy Rodgers, Sidney Lowe, Bill Blair, not high quality? Laettner gets traded to Atlanta where he becomes a one-time all-star and solid playoff performer for the Hawks. The Wolves get Spud Webb and Andrew Lang. Lang comes to Minnesota and just about literally wants to kill himself. He hates the team, hates the city, hates everything about being here. He looks and acts like a guy who literally has to cry himself to sleep every night.
The Wolves eventually have to move Lang because they fear for his life. The "upside" story of Andrew Lang is that Lang was good enough that Milwaukee felt he was a good enough piece to the puzzle to trade Milwaukee's higher pick to Minnesota for a lower pick (if Milwaukee got Lang). The Wolves at the time touted this development that allowed them to get Stephon Marbury and only give up........Ray Allen. Sigh.
7. The Departure of Cheerleader Natalie Kane (Nyhus) -- the most gorgeous Timberwolves cheerleader of all-time was Natalie Kane (now WCCO personality Natalie Nyhus). Two things to note about Natalie: 1) she is FAR better looking in person than on TV; and 2) when she was early 20s, she was even BETTER looking. Natalie left the squad for a year, causing a deluge of calls to the Wolves to ask where she went (study abroad was the reason given). She then returned and was later promoted to the in-arena hostess (basically Stevie J's old job). I sat near Natalie for half a quarter once. I do not remember anything that occurred during that time frame other than that she sat near me and maybe talked to me briefly. Although she was a great in-game hostess, the loss of Natalie as a cheerleader is a loss from which the organization has never recovered. Some say it was Garnett's departure....could be either, could be both.
6. Jonny Flynn and Ndudi Ebi -- The Wolves drafted these two guys, I am pretty sure, without ever having seen either play a full game live in person. Flynn was drafted for his charisma and the fact that he "fought hard" when posted up by Tyreke Evans during a workout. Now, he couldn't dribble the ball with any degree of skill, but hey. He was selected ahead of Stephon Curry. Ebi was picked with the 26th pick in the draft ahead of ACC 1st Team player Josh Howard (who played the same position) because Ebi had once held LeBron James to around 20 points in an all-star game. You selected a guy who weighed like 175 pounds over a first-team all-ACC player on the basis of an all-star game. Flynn and Ebi were both out of the league quickly.
5. Paul Grant Hits the Side of the BackBoard....Twice -- the Wolves drafted large white stiff Paul Grant from Wisconsin in the first round (ahead of Bobby Jackson, a local hero whom the Wolves subsequently acquired, then let go right before he got really good). In an exhibition game, Paul Grant comes onto the floor to the hopeful cheers of Wolves fans. His legs were almost the same color as his brand new white socks. If you had to ask me which was whiter, I would go with the legs. Anyway, Grant gets the ball. 15 footer, baseline. Hits the side of the board. Yikes. It is hard to hit the side of the board on a 3, much less a 15 footer. The very next time that Grant gets the ball on the baseline. Same shot. Same result. Now, I have watched thousands of high school and college and NBA games in my 51 years. To this day, I have never seen anyone else hit the side of the board twice in the same game. Never. Three years later, the Wolves are playing an early season game. The Wolves had improved, so the fan base is pretty active. Guy takes a shot from 18 feet on the baseline -- hits the side of the board. A fan 6 rows behind me stands up and shouts, "We have a Paul Grant sighting!!!" I was howling with laughter. Grant, by the way, hung around on NBA benches for a few years and was quickly out of basketball.
4. Kurt Rambis and His Players at Media Day -- I get an invite to attend Media Day and there is Kurt Rambis. You almost literally cannot hear what the guy says. He speaks in almost a whisper. But if you stand close enough and use context clues from the question he is being asked, you can figure out what he is saying. Is Corey Brewer a starter for you? No. Is Kevin Love a potential all-star and rebound champion? What? Kevin Love? God, I cannot see him ever being a star in the NBA. Questions for Brewer and Love -- do you expect to start? Yes. Play 40 minutes a game? Yes. How a coach and his players could be so far off from the same page is/was baffling and astounding. It is also unclear who Rambis felt would start instead of these two, given the absolute dearth of talent on the roster, but maybe he was thinking he could go with three guys?
3. The Wolves' Various Draft Day Reports On Their Own Draft Choices -- For first round choices -- "We really didn't get the guy we wanted." For second rounders -- "There was no one left we liked." or "You cannot get anyone good after the first 15 picks." Some other great efforts -- the confusion of Fred Hoiberg when the Wolves traded O.J. Mayo (whom he had just got done anointing the next Michael Jordan); the despair in the voices of guys who had actually selected players they didn't want. Now, this remarkable history of player hate has been, of course, offset by a lot of the ridiculous optimism of the Wolves on certain other guys based upon.......basically....nothing. Flynn - played hard in a tryout and smiled big. Ebi - one game of some medium success against LeBron. William Avery - he really looked great in unguarded three point shooting drills. Louis Bullock and Bracey Wright and Glenn Robinson III -- "These are basically the equivalent of first round picks."
It is very, very difficult to get through a Wolves draft night. This is particularly true when you start hearing the inside scuttlebutt. "I mean, yeah, we love Jonny Flynn." "We aren't picking Danny Granger, we really like Rashad McCants (the 4th best player on his UNC club) because no one could stop him in 3 on 3 and 4 on 4 scrimmages." "We selected Wes Johnson (the knock on him being that he was disengaged as a player) because he is a safer bet than Paul George." "Derrick Williams has physical talent no one can teach."
2. Darko -- Oh, Darko. We got him from the Knicks for nothing, and he played so hard in his first action (and was so horribly out of shape) that I literally thought he was going to die. Rambis continued to play him (Rambis also would regularly leave an injured Love lying in the 3 point lane in harm's way and refuse to call a time out). Darko had some upside skills, but my God was he a dog. He would regularly attempt passes that were sidearm, underhand, flipped over the soldier, which would be great, except 50% went for turnovers. Once the Wolves decided they just couldn't hack him anymore, I watched a few minutes of a Wolves scrimmage one day. Darko would literally jog down the court as the last guy down, ask for the ball just inside the three point line and then attempt bank shots from 22 feet. I would have thought it just a lapse in judgment, but he did it twice in a row and, thereafter, would request the ball at the same spot (and not receive it).
Early on, David Kahn said to Chris Webber about Darko -- "We think he can be like Vlade." Webber was shocked into asking "Vlade Divac!?!?" Kahn stuck by his claim and basically told Webber he didn't know WTF he was doing and Darko would be great. Webber's famous reply, "Good luck."
1. The Best of Times, the Worst of Times -- ironically, the Wolves' best season of 2003-04 was also one of the most heart breaking. One must remember that the Wolves got extremely lucky in 2003-04. The original plan was to cut Ervin Johnson immediately after trading for him. However, due to injuries, the Wolves had to keep him for a while to fill out their roster. By pure happenstance, Johnson proved to be a perfect fit and gave the Wolves tremendous interior defense, even against Tim Duncan. The Wolves also added as a throwaway free agent Trenton Hassell for under $1M per year and he was their best perimeter defender. The Wolves actually finished 6th in the NBA in Defensive Rating! Let me repeat that - Flip had an elite defensive team!
But few remember that the Wolves had home court advantage on the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals and should have advanced to the Finals to play Detroit, except for the horrors that befell the Wolves late in the year. First, Troy Hudson's leg, foot, ankle, etc. blew out completely (Hudson, by the by, is another tremendous Wolves horror story - the Wolves wanted to pay him $X if he was healthy and $xminus20 million dollars if he was not healthy. The Wolves submitted the contract to the league in that manner. The league said that such a contract was improper and would not approve it. So, you would guess the Wolves offered him $Xminus10M as a compromise, right? Nope. He got the higher figure even with no guaranty he would be healthy).
Anyway, Hudson being sh-sh-sh-sh-shutted down left the Wolves with Darrick Martin as a backup, but Sam Cassell had been second team all-NBA that year and in the playoffs he would be playing 44 mpg, so who cares? Well, in the Sacramento series Cassell was hampered by what Wolves medical staff identified as "back spasms" so Martin had to play more, even contributing some key late free throws one game. Then Cassell reached the point where his "back spasms" made it impossible for him to run. He couldn't play at all. Diagnosis -- torn hip socket. Out for the last 5 games of the Lakers series.
During the Lakers series, Darrick Martin or Fred Hoiberg were the choices at PG. Garnett regularly brought the ball up the court and started the offense. Despite this awful situation at point guard, a position where, again, Cassell had been second-team all-NBA and had run up over 12 Win Shares during the regular season, the Wolves managed to take two games off the Lakers.
But, even during the greatest season ever, they were still the Wolves and were cursed, denying them of their chance to win an NBA title.
10. Joe Smith Fiasco -- It was common in the late 1990s and early 2000s to violate the salary cap by telling your own players (whom you could sign for any amount) to wait for contract renewals until after you signed new free agents (where you were capped) and then you would sign the currently rostered guy to a big deal. There were dozens of secret deals done, and everyone knew it was being done.........but the Wolves got caught, As I recall, Smith fired his agent and the agent sued, saying he wanted a percentage of the $84M deal that Glen Taylor had put into a writing brought to him in the hospital by Kevin McHale before Taylor's surgery.
We lost 5 1st round picks, later reduced to three. The Wolves became a laughingstock for putting a secret illegal agreement into writing, and chances to improve the team got even slimmer. On the plus side, Smith didn't get the $84M. But he got worse, and still was re-signed by the Wolves.
9. Stevie J, The Target Center DJ -- Stevie J was an African-American guy whom the Wolves hired to do in-arena entertainment. He was a very loud and obnoxious guy. Very few, if any, fans liked him. The Wolves had, I am pretty sure, Gary Trent and Marc Jackson at the time. Marc Jackson had gone on a fitness program in the off season and lost around 50 pounds. Stevie J goes into the crowd and has a trivia question, "What Wolf weighs the most?" Everyone is trying to help the guy -- I am pretty sure he answers "Gary Trent." Ooooh, no, The correct answer is Marc Jackson..... Jackson was none too happy with Stevie J., and J disappeared from the public eye shortly thereafter. A Wolves staffer stated that he could not understand my distaste for Stevie J. since the Wolves believed he was "edgy entertainment" that the fans wanted.
8. The Despair of Andrew Lang -- the Wolves got rid of Christian Laettner because he had the gall to claim that his Wolves teammates and coaches weren't high quality. WHAT!?!? Jimmy Rodgers, Sidney Lowe, Bill Blair, not high quality? Laettner gets traded to Atlanta where he becomes a one-time all-star and solid playoff performer for the Hawks. The Wolves get Spud Webb and Andrew Lang. Lang comes to Minnesota and just about literally wants to kill himself. He hates the team, hates the city, hates everything about being here. He looks and acts like a guy who literally has to cry himself to sleep every night.
The Wolves eventually have to move Lang because they fear for his life. The "upside" story of Andrew Lang is that Lang was good enough that Milwaukee felt he was a good enough piece to the puzzle to trade Milwaukee's higher pick to Minnesota for a lower pick (if Milwaukee got Lang). The Wolves at the time touted this development that allowed them to get Stephon Marbury and only give up........Ray Allen. Sigh.
7. The Departure of Cheerleader Natalie Kane (Nyhus) -- the most gorgeous Timberwolves cheerleader of all-time was Natalie Kane (now WCCO personality Natalie Nyhus). Two things to note about Natalie: 1) she is FAR better looking in person than on TV; and 2) when she was early 20s, she was even BETTER looking. Natalie left the squad for a year, causing a deluge of calls to the Wolves to ask where she went (study abroad was the reason given). She then returned and was later promoted to the in-arena hostess (basically Stevie J's old job). I sat near Natalie for half a quarter once. I do not remember anything that occurred during that time frame other than that she sat near me and maybe talked to me briefly. Although she was a great in-game hostess, the loss of Natalie as a cheerleader is a loss from which the organization has never recovered. Some say it was Garnett's departure....could be either, could be both.
6. Jonny Flynn and Ndudi Ebi -- The Wolves drafted these two guys, I am pretty sure, without ever having seen either play a full game live in person. Flynn was drafted for his charisma and the fact that he "fought hard" when posted up by Tyreke Evans during a workout. Now, he couldn't dribble the ball with any degree of skill, but hey. He was selected ahead of Stephon Curry. Ebi was picked with the 26th pick in the draft ahead of ACC 1st Team player Josh Howard (who played the same position) because Ebi had once held LeBron James to around 20 points in an all-star game. You selected a guy who weighed like 175 pounds over a first-team all-ACC player on the basis of an all-star game. Flynn and Ebi were both out of the league quickly.
5. Paul Grant Hits the Side of the BackBoard....Twice -- the Wolves drafted large white stiff Paul Grant from Wisconsin in the first round (ahead of Bobby Jackson, a local hero whom the Wolves subsequently acquired, then let go right before he got really good). In an exhibition game, Paul Grant comes onto the floor to the hopeful cheers of Wolves fans. His legs were almost the same color as his brand new white socks. If you had to ask me which was whiter, I would go with the legs. Anyway, Grant gets the ball. 15 footer, baseline. Hits the side of the board. Yikes. It is hard to hit the side of the board on a 3, much less a 15 footer. The very next time that Grant gets the ball on the baseline. Same shot. Same result. Now, I have watched thousands of high school and college and NBA games in my 51 years. To this day, I have never seen anyone else hit the side of the board twice in the same game. Never. Three years later, the Wolves are playing an early season game. The Wolves had improved, so the fan base is pretty active. Guy takes a shot from 18 feet on the baseline -- hits the side of the board. A fan 6 rows behind me stands up and shouts, "We have a Paul Grant sighting!!!" I was howling with laughter. Grant, by the way, hung around on NBA benches for a few years and was quickly out of basketball.
4. Kurt Rambis and His Players at Media Day -- I get an invite to attend Media Day and there is Kurt Rambis. You almost literally cannot hear what the guy says. He speaks in almost a whisper. But if you stand close enough and use context clues from the question he is being asked, you can figure out what he is saying. Is Corey Brewer a starter for you? No. Is Kevin Love a potential all-star and rebound champion? What? Kevin Love? God, I cannot see him ever being a star in the NBA. Questions for Brewer and Love -- do you expect to start? Yes. Play 40 minutes a game? Yes. How a coach and his players could be so far off from the same page is/was baffling and astounding. It is also unclear who Rambis felt would start instead of these two, given the absolute dearth of talent on the roster, but maybe he was thinking he could go with three guys?
3. The Wolves' Various Draft Day Reports On Their Own Draft Choices -- For first round choices -- "We really didn't get the guy we wanted." For second rounders -- "There was no one left we liked." or "You cannot get anyone good after the first 15 picks." Some other great efforts -- the confusion of Fred Hoiberg when the Wolves traded O.J. Mayo (whom he had just got done anointing the next Michael Jordan); the despair in the voices of guys who had actually selected players they didn't want. Now, this remarkable history of player hate has been, of course, offset by a lot of the ridiculous optimism of the Wolves on certain other guys based upon.......basically....nothing. Flynn - played hard in a tryout and smiled big. Ebi - one game of some medium success against LeBron. William Avery - he really looked great in unguarded three point shooting drills. Louis Bullock and Bracey Wright and Glenn Robinson III -- "These are basically the equivalent of first round picks."
It is very, very difficult to get through a Wolves draft night. This is particularly true when you start hearing the inside scuttlebutt. "I mean, yeah, we love Jonny Flynn." "We aren't picking Danny Granger, we really like Rashad McCants (the 4th best player on his UNC club) because no one could stop him in 3 on 3 and 4 on 4 scrimmages." "We selected Wes Johnson (the knock on him being that he was disengaged as a player) because he is a safer bet than Paul George." "Derrick Williams has physical talent no one can teach."
2. Darko -- Oh, Darko. We got him from the Knicks for nothing, and he played so hard in his first action (and was so horribly out of shape) that I literally thought he was going to die. Rambis continued to play him (Rambis also would regularly leave an injured Love lying in the 3 point lane in harm's way and refuse to call a time out). Darko had some upside skills, but my God was he a dog. He would regularly attempt passes that were sidearm, underhand, flipped over the soldier, which would be great, except 50% went for turnovers. Once the Wolves decided they just couldn't hack him anymore, I watched a few minutes of a Wolves scrimmage one day. Darko would literally jog down the court as the last guy down, ask for the ball just inside the three point line and then attempt bank shots from 22 feet. I would have thought it just a lapse in judgment, but he did it twice in a row and, thereafter, would request the ball at the same spot (and not receive it).
Early on, David Kahn said to Chris Webber about Darko -- "We think he can be like Vlade." Webber was shocked into asking "Vlade Divac!?!?" Kahn stuck by his claim and basically told Webber he didn't know WTF he was doing and Darko would be great. Webber's famous reply, "Good luck."
1. The Best of Times, the Worst of Times -- ironically, the Wolves' best season of 2003-04 was also one of the most heart breaking. One must remember that the Wolves got extremely lucky in 2003-04. The original plan was to cut Ervin Johnson immediately after trading for him. However, due to injuries, the Wolves had to keep him for a while to fill out their roster. By pure happenstance, Johnson proved to be a perfect fit and gave the Wolves tremendous interior defense, even against Tim Duncan. The Wolves also added as a throwaway free agent Trenton Hassell for under $1M per year and he was their best perimeter defender. The Wolves actually finished 6th in the NBA in Defensive Rating! Let me repeat that - Flip had an elite defensive team!
But few remember that the Wolves had home court advantage on the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals and should have advanced to the Finals to play Detroit, except for the horrors that befell the Wolves late in the year. First, Troy Hudson's leg, foot, ankle, etc. blew out completely (Hudson, by the by, is another tremendous Wolves horror story - the Wolves wanted to pay him $X if he was healthy and $xminus20 million dollars if he was not healthy. The Wolves submitted the contract to the league in that manner. The league said that such a contract was improper and would not approve it. So, you would guess the Wolves offered him $Xminus10M as a compromise, right? Nope. He got the higher figure even with no guaranty he would be healthy).
Anyway, Hudson being sh-sh-sh-sh-shutted down left the Wolves with Darrick Martin as a backup, but Sam Cassell had been second team all-NBA that year and in the playoffs he would be playing 44 mpg, so who cares? Well, in the Sacramento series Cassell was hampered by what Wolves medical staff identified as "back spasms" so Martin had to play more, even contributing some key late free throws one game. Then Cassell reached the point where his "back spasms" made it impossible for him to run. He couldn't play at all. Diagnosis -- torn hip socket. Out for the last 5 games of the Lakers series.
During the Lakers series, Darrick Martin or Fred Hoiberg were the choices at PG. Garnett regularly brought the ball up the court and started the offense. Despite this awful situation at point guard, a position where, again, Cassell had been second-team all-NBA and had run up over 12 Win Shares during the regular season, the Wolves managed to take two games off the Lakers.
But, even during the greatest season ever, they were still the Wolves and were cursed, denying them of their chance to win an NBA title.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Republicans Suggest $269 Billion Tax Cut For Paris Hilton and Other Heiresses
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/14/republicans-push-269-bill_n_7061458.html
You want to know who owns your GOP government representatives? Ask no more.
The estate tax exemption is over $10M for a couple. If you have a decent trust and estates attorney, you never pay that tax anyway. But what this would do is basically give Paris et al all of her daddy and mommy's money and the government would NEVER receive $1 of capital gains tax on the money.
So, if you have $5,000 in the bank and get $20 a year in interest, you pay the government $4. Paris Hilton's dad may have made $200,000,000 on his investments, but once he dies and gives them to Paris, she gets the $200,000,000 tax free. Seems fair.
Oh Citizens United.....
You want to know who owns your GOP government representatives? Ask no more.
The estate tax exemption is over $10M for a couple. If you have a decent trust and estates attorney, you never pay that tax anyway. But what this would do is basically give Paris et al all of her daddy and mommy's money and the government would NEVER receive $1 of capital gains tax on the money.
So, if you have $5,000 in the bank and get $20 a year in interest, you pay the government $4. Paris Hilton's dad may have made $200,000,000 on his investments, but once he dies and gives them to Paris, she gets the $200,000,000 tax free. Seems fair.
Oh Citizens United.....
Wednesday, April 08, 2015
The 3rd Greatest NBA Player of All-Time? Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Lew Alcindor left Power Memorial high school, went to UCLA, and won three straight titles. He then, under his birth name and later as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, went to the NBA and won 6 MVPs and finished in the top 5 of MVP balloting 15 times.
That is not a misprint. Kareem finished in the top 5 in MVP balloting from 1970 through 1981 and then came back to spring into the top 5 again in 1984-86. Most guys do not play for 15 years. Kareem led the league in Win Shares 9 times. He had 11 seasons with at least 12.9 WS. He had over 10 WS in a season 16X. He was 10X first-team all-NBA.
Kareem won 6 NBA titles. He is the all-time leader in points, Win Shares, minutes played, Offensive Win Shares. He is 3rd in blocks even though the league did not keep blocks as a statistic for the first 3 years of his career. If you give him 900 blocks for those three years of play, he is #1 in blocks.
Kareem put up the #1 Win Share season of all-time (25.4 in 1971-72). He has three seasons of at least 20 Win Shares with at least a .3 WS/48. 38% of all such seasons. Between 1971 and 1974, his stats are insane. His stats would tell you that from 1971 to 1981, he was the best player in the league. For ELEVEN YEARS he was statistically the best player in the league!!!
His regular season and playoff stats for his first 8 years in the league are frighteningly good. If you stopped Kareem's career at year 12, comparing them to my three other greatest players (LeBron, Wilt, Jordan) here are his stats: http://bkref.com/tiny/qye24
As you can see from the last link, trying to find the difference between these four guys is tough. So why does Kareem (6 titles, played longer) fall behind Wilt (2 titles, played less)? I must admit, this 2nd place 3rd place fight was the hardest for me. LeBron is clearly the worst of the 4 (though he still has time to advance). But why does Kareem fall behind Wilt and Jordan?
Between his rookie year and Magic coming to the Lakers in 1979-80, Kareem had 2 finals appearances and 1 win. Wilt in 11 years had 1 title and 5 finals appearances. LeBron 2 titles and 4 appearances. Jordan 4 and 4. While Kareem was a great dominant player, his presence on a team pre-Magic did not guaranty a finals appearance. If you review the info in the last link, you will see that Kareem had the fewest playoff games played and Win Shares of the top 4 guys.
If you look at Kareem's Win Shares per season and place them next to Wilt's, you see that Kareem wins twice, there is one tie, and Wilt has more WS 11 times out of 14 years:
Wilt was a slightly better player. He didn't play as long. He didn't win as many titles, but he also was more successful on his own than was Kareem. If I am going to rank Magic as the 6th best player of all-time, I obviously have to discount by some amount the last 10 years of Kareem's career. Not by much, but by some. In 1980 Kareem sat Game 6 while Magic won the series. In 1981, Kareem was lit up by Moses Malone. In 1983, Kareem was lit up by Moses Malone. By 1984, the team was 50% Magic's and 50% Kareem's. The three-peat Lakers (1987-88-89) were primarily Magic's team.
So I rank Kareem #3. I could see #1 and I could see #2. I don't see him falling below #3, so that is where I put him.
That is not a misprint. Kareem finished in the top 5 in MVP balloting from 1970 through 1981 and then came back to spring into the top 5 again in 1984-86. Most guys do not play for 15 years. Kareem led the league in Win Shares 9 times. He had 11 seasons with at least 12.9 WS. He had over 10 WS in a season 16X. He was 10X first-team all-NBA.
Kareem won 6 NBA titles. He is the all-time leader in points, Win Shares, minutes played, Offensive Win Shares. He is 3rd in blocks even though the league did not keep blocks as a statistic for the first 3 years of his career. If you give him 900 blocks for those three years of play, he is #1 in blocks.
Kareem put up the #1 Win Share season of all-time (25.4 in 1971-72). He has three seasons of at least 20 Win Shares with at least a .3 WS/48. 38% of all such seasons. Between 1971 and 1974, his stats are insane. His stats would tell you that from 1971 to 1981, he was the best player in the league. For ELEVEN YEARS he was statistically the best player in the league!!!
His regular season and playoff stats for his first 8 years in the league are frighteningly good. If you stopped Kareem's career at year 12, comparing them to my three other greatest players (LeBron, Wilt, Jordan) here are his stats: http://bkref.com/tiny/qye24
As you can see from the last link, trying to find the difference between these four guys is tough. So why does Kareem (6 titles, played longer) fall behind Wilt (2 titles, played less)? I must admit, this 2nd place 3rd place fight was the hardest for me. LeBron is clearly the worst of the 4 (though he still has time to advance). But why does Kareem fall behind Wilt and Jordan?
Between his rookie year and Magic coming to the Lakers in 1979-80, Kareem had 2 finals appearances and 1 win. Wilt in 11 years had 1 title and 5 finals appearances. LeBron 2 titles and 4 appearances. Jordan 4 and 4. While Kareem was a great dominant player, his presence on a team pre-Magic did not guaranty a finals appearance. If you review the info in the last link, you will see that Kareem had the fewest playoff games played and Win Shares of the top 4 guys.
If you look at Kareem's Win Shares per season and place them next to Wilt's, you see that Kareem wins twice, there is one tie, and Wilt has more WS 11 times out of 14 years:
| Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | 25.4 | 22.3 | 21.9 | 18.4 | 17.8 | 17.0 | 14.8 | 14.4 | 14.3 | 13.8 | 12.9 | 12.1 | 11.2 | 10.9 | 10.8 | 10.7 | 8.9 | 7.5 | 5.3 | 2.9 | |
| Wilt Chamberlain | 25.0 | 23.1 | 21.9 | 21.4 | 20.9 | 20.4 | 18.8 | 18.2 | 17.0 | 15.8 | 15.1 | 14.7 | 12.6 | 2.3 |
Wilt was a slightly better player. He didn't play as long. He didn't win as many titles, but he also was more successful on his own than was Kareem. If I am going to rank Magic as the 6th best player of all-time, I obviously have to discount by some amount the last 10 years of Kareem's career. Not by much, but by some. In 1980 Kareem sat Game 6 while Magic won the series. In 1981, Kareem was lit up by Moses Malone. In 1983, Kareem was lit up by Moses Malone. By 1984, the team was 50% Magic's and 50% Kareem's. The three-peat Lakers (1987-88-89) were primarily Magic's team.
So I rank Kareem #3. I could see #1 and I could see #2. I don't see him falling below #3, so that is where I put him.
Tuesday, April 07, 2015
Duke v. Wisconsin, the Final 4:25 -- Wisconsin goes up by 2.
Remember now, in the post-game, Bo Ryan does NOT complain about any out of bounds calls. He complains that his team couldn't win because they were being physically beaten up by Duke. Let's examine that position.
After Wisconsin took a 2 point lead, for the final 4:25, there were exactly ZERO foul calls that Wisconsin got and didn't deserve or deserved and didn't get. Sorry Bo Ryan:
Tyus Jones 8
Okafor 4
Kaminsky 3
Hayes 2.
Wisconsin lost. Someone has to win and someone has to lose. Whining about non-existent fouling issues does not make you a sympathetic loser.
After Wisconsin took a 2 point lead, for the final 4:25, there were exactly ZERO foul calls that Wisconsin got and didn't deserve or deserved and didn't get. Sorry Bo Ryan:
| 4:25 | Sam Dekker made Layup. Assisted by Josh Gasser. | 58-56 | |
| 4:09 | 58-59 | Tyus Jones made Three Point Jumper. | |
| 4:06 | Duke Timeout | ||
| 3:38 | Frank Kaminsky missed Jumper. (Bo is watching the play right in front of him, he makes no protest about any alleged foul - Frank just blows an 8 footer) | 58-59 | |
| 3:38 | 58-59 | Justise Winslow Defensive Rebound. | |
| 3:22 | Official TV Timeout | ||
| 3:14 | 58-61 | Jahlil Okafor made Layup. | |
| 3:14 | Foul on Frank Kaminsky. (Kaminsky tackles Okafor, clear foul, even if it were not, Okafor misses the free throw) | 58-61 | |
| 3:14 | 58-61 | Jahlil Okafor missed Free Throw. | |
| 3:14 | Sam Dekker Defensive Rebound. | 58-61 | |
| 2:50 | Frank Kaminsky missed Layup. (Frank plows into Okafor, gets his shot blocked, gets the rebound anyway) | 58-61 | |
| 2:50 | Frank Kaminsky Offensive Rebound. | 58-61 | |
| 2:41 | Frank Kaminsky missed Jumper (the ball kicks around and Kaminsky jacks an awful one hander at the shot clock buzzer) | 58-61 | |
| 2:41 | (actually a team rebound on a 24 second violation) | 58-61 | Justise Winslow Defensive Rebound. |
| 2:13 | (one of 12 missed layups for Duke on the game) | 58-61 | Justise Winslow missed Layup. |
| 2:13 | 58-61 | Jahlil Okafor Offensive Rebound. | |
| 2:08 | 58-63 | Jahlil Okafor made Layup. | |
| 1:53 | Bronson Koenig missed Layup. (Koenig charges wildly into Winslow who doesn't move and inch, Koenig tosses up an awful airball) | 58-63 | |
| 1:53 | Really a team rebound | 58-63 | Justise Winslow Defensive Rebound. |
| 1:24 | 58-66 | Tyus Jones made Three Point Jumper. | |
| 1:09 | Frank Kaminsky made Three Point Jumper. Assisted by Bronson Koenig. | 61-66 | |
| 1:05 | Wisconsin Timeout | ||
| 1:03 | Tyus makes a horrible decision, he is arguably fouled, but in a late game situation in a national championship game, you won't get such a minor foul call....as you can see by the fact that in all of the plays listed above, no one has been called for a foul where a tackle was not involved. | 61-66 | Tyus Jones missed Layup. |
| 1:03 | Frank Kaminsky Defensive Rebound. | 61-66 | |
| 0:50 | Nigel Hayes made Dunk. Assisted by Bronson Koenig. | 63-66 | |
| 0:43 | Duke Timeout | ||
| 0:35 | Foul on Nigel Hayes. (There are actually 39 seconds to go). | 63-66 | |
| 0:35 | (Hayes inexplicably waits 11 seconds and then attacks Tyus with the body at the halfcourt line -- Jones falls over backwards into the back court and not one person watching has any doubts that a foul has occurred. The announcers believe that Wisconsin has fouled intentionally to stop the clock.) Badgers send a 90% shooter to the line and he, as you might expect, makes both. | 63-67 | Tyus Jones made Free Throw. |
| 0:35 | 63-68 | Tyus Jones made Free Throw. | |
| 0:21 | (Winslow knows Duke has a foul to give, so he just wraps up Koenig on the dribble so Koenig cannot go by him for a layup). | 63-68 | Foul on Justise Winslow. |
| 0:18 | Bronson Koenig missed Jumper. | 63-68 | |
| 0:18 | (Wisconsin holds the ball out front and dribbles around aimlessly for 20 seconds, They eventually end up with a closely guarded 3 by a small guard over Amile Jefferson, who might get a piece of the ball. No dispute by anyone on the play. No one claims a foul has occurred). | 63-68 | Justise Winslow Defensive Rebound. |
| 0:15 | Foul on Josh Gasser. (Tackles Winslow to stop the clock). | 63-68 | |
| 0:15 | 63-68 | Justise Winslow missed Free Throw. | |
| 0:15 | 63-68 | Duke Deadball Team Rebound. | |
| 0:15 | 63-68 | Justise Winslow missed Free Throw. | |
| 0:15 | Frank Kaminsky Defensive Rebound. (Down 5, the Badgers' only chance to win is to score very quickly, then foul or get a steal, and then hit a miracle 3 to tie. Instead, they go pretty slowly and give it to a guy who is 0-5 from 3 to that point, with 3 airballs). | 63-68 | |
| 0:09 | Sam Dekker missed Three Point Jumper. | 63-68 | |
| 0:09 | Josh Gasser Offensive Rebound. | 63-68 | |
| 0:04 | Nigel Hayes missed Three Point Jumper. | 63-68 | |
| 0:04 | There are absolutely no fouls involved in any of this. Wisconsin puts on a shooting gallery display like the town drunk at a bad small town carnival and just runs out the time trying to score over token defense by guys just trying not to foul). | 63-68 | Amile Jefferson Defensive Rebound. |
| 0:00 | End of Game | ||
Okafor 4
Kaminsky 3
Hayes 2.
Wisconsin lost. Someone has to win and someone has to lose. Whining about non-existent fouling issues does not make you a sympathetic loser.
Monday, April 06, 2015
Duke v. Wisconsin Championship Game -- Preview
Duke beat Wisconsin earlier in the year by shooting 65%. I think we can safely assume that this level of shooting will not occur again. I can also assure you that Rasheed Sulaimon will not have another great game of 14 points for Duke, because, well, he has been kicked off the team.
It is basically a pick'em game. I was told by my brother-in-law yesterday that the line is now Wisconsin -1. Fair enough.
The greatest thing going for Wisconsin is that they beat Kentucky. I am sure that great historic upsets have happened in the past and the team failed to win the title (I am thinking Houston over the Lakers in 1981 and 1985, even though those were first-round upsets, but Houston got to the Finals both times). But generally when a team (USA Hockey, Duke over Vegas in 1991) gets a great penultimate win they also get the ultimate prize. There is such a huge boost.
Anyway -- strengths and weaknesses:
Wisconsin Strengths -- rarely foul, rarely turn it over, cannot give them open shots because virtually every guy can shoot. Play very solid fundamental defense and offense. Hard to guard because their guys all can shoot, dribble and pass. Big across the front line. As Kentucky learned, they will not get overwhelmed by an opponent's size. Every primary guy shoots free throws well.
Duke Strengths -- rarely turn it over, have some high end offensive players (Okafor, Winslow, Cook), they play as a team and understand their roles, most guys don't try to do too much. Okafor demands a double team. When they lead with 6 minutes or less to go, they can use their four ballhandlers to run off time - two of whom shoot 90% from the line. You do not want to trail Duke with under 6 minutes to go.
Wisconsin Weaknesses -- Losses to Duke, Maryland and RUTGERS!?!?! Not explosive inside, not physically overwhelming in the backcourt, can give up some guard penetration. Not huge shot blockers or steals guys. Their general concept of defense is to try to keep you in front of them and allow you to get bad shots off. That is both good and bad since many teams are poor offensively and take poor shots, but some teams are good offensively and will make the shots they are given. Generally do worse against well coached teams who don't panic late in the shot clock, so teams with a good coach and good PG play can trouble them.
Duke Weaknesses -- losses to Notre Dame twice, NC State and.......MIAMI!?!?!!? Very poor at stopping guard penetration; very poor against pull up 3 point shooters, very thin on the bench (3 scholarship bench players, two of whom played under 15 minutes a game during the year). Okafor and Jefferson are poor free throw shooters, which could be death in a close game. Okafor can easily be taken out of the game with a double team. Tyus Jones from a scoring standpoint has been uneven. Struggle against big teams and teams that are very athletic with shot blockers.
So, where do we go from this information? Well, the Wisconsin guards generally do not concentrate on penetration off the dribble, so that is a huge Duke weakness that probably won't be exploited. The Badgers don't force many turnovers, and Duke rarely turns it over, so we will see a lot of shots at the basket by Duke. Wisconsin does not have great shot blockers, so that should be a plus for Duke.
Things to look for:
1) Duke players will get a lot of shots, will they make them? Clearly in the first matchup Duke got a lot of shots and made them. Wisconsin is not going to turn you over or block your shot, so their goal is to force you into bad shots and get the rebound (which they can do, because they are huge and all of their players rebound).
2) Is Wisconsin willing to play a little faster and shoot a bunch of threes? If you walk the ball up the floor against Duke, and slowly get into your sets and look for the perfect shot, Duke can beat you and actually keep you under 65 points. When, however, you run the ball up the court and take the first open 3 you have, Duke has a real hard time stopping you. That is just a fact - witness Duke's losses and the first 4 minutes of the Michigan State game. That is how you beat Duke. Your goal should be to beat them by 10-20 points and play fast and shoot a ton of threes, even threes off the dribble. Duke has two 6'1" guards, they cannot stop aggressive jump shooters. Jahlil Okafor is very fast at running.......to the offensive end. He rarely gets back on defense before the opponent is done preying upon the midget-y Tyus Jones and Quinn Cook on fast breaks.
3) Fouls -- who wins the fouls battle? No one in this tournament has taken advantage of the fact that Duke has 8 guys and really likes to play 6 guys. No one. Duke has been playing against some really slow, ugly, offensively challenged clubs (SDSU, Utah, Michigan State) and a team in Gonzaga that seemed content to walk the ball up and play a slowdown game. If you get 3 fouls on Tyus Jones, his defense goes from mediocre to non-existent. Duke goes to a matchup zone that has more holes in it that Carly Rae Jepson's dress on SNL. Jahlil Okafor is such an awful defender that he is hard to draw fouls against (must be like playing against a ghost at times) but no one seems very willing to try to get any fouls on him. Winslow is so wildly out of control at times that he could easily be sitting with 2 or 3 fouls 4 minutes into the game, If Kaminsky gets in foul trouble against Okafor early, Duke could be up 15 at half. That would turn the game into a 14 minute game where Wisconsin had to catch up from 15 to 5 by 6 minutes left. Not ideal for the Badgers.
4) Oh Tyus -- It is All Up To You -- as is the case with most close Duke games, so much depends upon which Tyus Jones shows up. Is he the Ricky Rubio type of Tyus Jones who does everything else well but shoots 3-9? Or is he the Chris Paul type of Tyus Jones who went 22-4-6 against the Badgers in Madison? Cuz, frankly, when Duke gets the Chris Paul type of Tyus Jones, Duke will win. Tyus played 5 years of high school basketball and 4 years of traveling basketball in Minnesota against gritty, flopping white guards. The game sets up well for him against the gritty flopping white Badger guards. But if he goes 3-9 or 1-11, it is likely to be all Badgers all of the time tonight.
My prediction -- Duke will win. I would guess 68-63. Wisconsin was a perfect matchup for Kentucky -- big, well coached, able to force Kentucky into awful airball shots, played harder than Kentucky while the Kentucky kids were just left looking around staring at their press clippings. Duke was an awful matchup for Kentucky. Kentucky beats Duke by 15+. But Duke is a bad matchup for Wisconsin. Duke has tiny guards, but Wisconsin does not have big athletic guards. Wisconsin likes to set it up on offense and run its sets - Duke doesn't struggle against those sorts of teams. Duke fares poorly when overwhelmed physically. Wisconsin is big, but they don't terrify you with the ability to run and jump. And I think Bo Ryan may decide to single-team Okafor, which Izzo did, but which is just ridiculous. You are taking a guy who is a 20 point scorer when singled and giving him 20 points instead of 6 to 10. The theory of not doubling Okafor is that you "take away Duke's 3s" -- news flash, Duke gets their killer threes when the game opens up and Quin Cook spots up. So if you are slowing down the game anyway, there is no reason not to double Okafor unless you are super concerned that Matt Jones will pop open for 9-12 points. So you are giving up 10-14 points with the hope that you can hold Matt Jones down by 9-12 points? Genius.
Wisconsin Scenario for Victory -- Duke gets in foul trouble, shoots poorly and Wisconsin overwhelms Duke with drives from Dekker and Hayes and the Badgers pound the offensive glass for layups and broken play threes.
We shall see.
It is basically a pick'em game. I was told by my brother-in-law yesterday that the line is now Wisconsin -1. Fair enough.
The greatest thing going for Wisconsin is that they beat Kentucky. I am sure that great historic upsets have happened in the past and the team failed to win the title (I am thinking Houston over the Lakers in 1981 and 1985, even though those were first-round upsets, but Houston got to the Finals both times). But generally when a team (USA Hockey, Duke over Vegas in 1991) gets a great penultimate win they also get the ultimate prize. There is such a huge boost.
Anyway -- strengths and weaknesses:
Wisconsin Strengths -- rarely foul, rarely turn it over, cannot give them open shots because virtually every guy can shoot. Play very solid fundamental defense and offense. Hard to guard because their guys all can shoot, dribble and pass. Big across the front line. As Kentucky learned, they will not get overwhelmed by an opponent's size. Every primary guy shoots free throws well.
Duke Strengths -- rarely turn it over, have some high end offensive players (Okafor, Winslow, Cook), they play as a team and understand their roles, most guys don't try to do too much. Okafor demands a double team. When they lead with 6 minutes or less to go, they can use their four ballhandlers to run off time - two of whom shoot 90% from the line. You do not want to trail Duke with under 6 minutes to go.
Wisconsin Weaknesses -- Losses to Duke, Maryland and RUTGERS!?!?! Not explosive inside, not physically overwhelming in the backcourt, can give up some guard penetration. Not huge shot blockers or steals guys. Their general concept of defense is to try to keep you in front of them and allow you to get bad shots off. That is both good and bad since many teams are poor offensively and take poor shots, but some teams are good offensively and will make the shots they are given. Generally do worse against well coached teams who don't panic late in the shot clock, so teams with a good coach and good PG play can trouble them.
Duke Weaknesses -- losses to Notre Dame twice, NC State and.......MIAMI!?!?!!? Very poor at stopping guard penetration; very poor against pull up 3 point shooters, very thin on the bench (3 scholarship bench players, two of whom played under 15 minutes a game during the year). Okafor and Jefferson are poor free throw shooters, which could be death in a close game. Okafor can easily be taken out of the game with a double team. Tyus Jones from a scoring standpoint has been uneven. Struggle against big teams and teams that are very athletic with shot blockers.
So, where do we go from this information? Well, the Wisconsin guards generally do not concentrate on penetration off the dribble, so that is a huge Duke weakness that probably won't be exploited. The Badgers don't force many turnovers, and Duke rarely turns it over, so we will see a lot of shots at the basket by Duke. Wisconsin does not have great shot blockers, so that should be a plus for Duke.
Things to look for:
1) Duke players will get a lot of shots, will they make them? Clearly in the first matchup Duke got a lot of shots and made them. Wisconsin is not going to turn you over or block your shot, so their goal is to force you into bad shots and get the rebound (which they can do, because they are huge and all of their players rebound).
2) Is Wisconsin willing to play a little faster and shoot a bunch of threes? If you walk the ball up the floor against Duke, and slowly get into your sets and look for the perfect shot, Duke can beat you and actually keep you under 65 points. When, however, you run the ball up the court and take the first open 3 you have, Duke has a real hard time stopping you. That is just a fact - witness Duke's losses and the first 4 minutes of the Michigan State game. That is how you beat Duke. Your goal should be to beat them by 10-20 points and play fast and shoot a ton of threes, even threes off the dribble. Duke has two 6'1" guards, they cannot stop aggressive jump shooters. Jahlil Okafor is very fast at running.......to the offensive end. He rarely gets back on defense before the opponent is done preying upon the midget-y Tyus Jones and Quinn Cook on fast breaks.
3) Fouls -- who wins the fouls battle? No one in this tournament has taken advantage of the fact that Duke has 8 guys and really likes to play 6 guys. No one. Duke has been playing against some really slow, ugly, offensively challenged clubs (SDSU, Utah, Michigan State) and a team in Gonzaga that seemed content to walk the ball up and play a slowdown game. If you get 3 fouls on Tyus Jones, his defense goes from mediocre to non-existent. Duke goes to a matchup zone that has more holes in it that Carly Rae Jepson's dress on SNL. Jahlil Okafor is such an awful defender that he is hard to draw fouls against (must be like playing against a ghost at times) but no one seems very willing to try to get any fouls on him. Winslow is so wildly out of control at times that he could easily be sitting with 2 or 3 fouls 4 minutes into the game, If Kaminsky gets in foul trouble against Okafor early, Duke could be up 15 at half. That would turn the game into a 14 minute game where Wisconsin had to catch up from 15 to 5 by 6 minutes left. Not ideal for the Badgers.
4) Oh Tyus -- It is All Up To You -- as is the case with most close Duke games, so much depends upon which Tyus Jones shows up. Is he the Ricky Rubio type of Tyus Jones who does everything else well but shoots 3-9? Or is he the Chris Paul type of Tyus Jones who went 22-4-6 against the Badgers in Madison? Cuz, frankly, when Duke gets the Chris Paul type of Tyus Jones, Duke will win. Tyus played 5 years of high school basketball and 4 years of traveling basketball in Minnesota against gritty, flopping white guards. The game sets up well for him against the gritty flopping white Badger guards. But if he goes 3-9 or 1-11, it is likely to be all Badgers all of the time tonight.
My prediction -- Duke will win. I would guess 68-63. Wisconsin was a perfect matchup for Kentucky -- big, well coached, able to force Kentucky into awful airball shots, played harder than Kentucky while the Kentucky kids were just left looking around staring at their press clippings. Duke was an awful matchup for Kentucky. Kentucky beats Duke by 15+. But Duke is a bad matchup for Wisconsin. Duke has tiny guards, but Wisconsin does not have big athletic guards. Wisconsin likes to set it up on offense and run its sets - Duke doesn't struggle against those sorts of teams. Duke fares poorly when overwhelmed physically. Wisconsin is big, but they don't terrify you with the ability to run and jump. And I think Bo Ryan may decide to single-team Okafor, which Izzo did, but which is just ridiculous. You are taking a guy who is a 20 point scorer when singled and giving him 20 points instead of 6 to 10. The theory of not doubling Okafor is that you "take away Duke's 3s" -- news flash, Duke gets their killer threes when the game opens up and Quin Cook spots up. So if you are slowing down the game anyway, there is no reason not to double Okafor unless you are super concerned that Matt Jones will pop open for 9-12 points. So you are giving up 10-14 points with the hope that you can hold Matt Jones down by 9-12 points? Genius.
Wisconsin Scenario for Victory -- Duke gets in foul trouble, shoots poorly and Wisconsin overwhelms Duke with drives from Dekker and Hayes and the Badgers pound the offensive glass for layups and broken play threes.
We shall see.
Friday, April 03, 2015
The 4th Greatest NBA Player of All-Time? LeBron James
Now, for anyone who reads this Blog or even sorts through old entries, there is no question that I am not very objective when it comes to LeBron. From the first time I saw him play on TV as a high school player, I saw greatness. So, I am a huge fan. That said, I think there is an objective basis for naming LeBron the 4th best player of all-time, and here it is.
If you look at players with at least 170 career Win Shares, a WS/48 of at least .2 and a PER of at least 22 (I think it is 11 guys) then you will see that LeBron is 10th in career Win Shares, 4th in WS/48 and 2nd (only to Jordan) in PER.
So, just based upon his existing statistics for the regular season, even assuming he never plays another minute, his average in these stats is around 5.33 - so roughly 5th place.
Then, if you take his career "MVP Award Shares" of 6.1, he ranks 3rd all-time behind Kareem and Jordan. Assuming that he gets a few votes this year, he could pass Kareem for 2nd. So, based upon contemporary evaluations of his dominance as a player, he is the 2nd or 3rd most dominant regular season player of all-time.
Points per game - 3rd best; PER - 2nd best; assists per game 28th best; steals per game 28th best.
WS/48th -- 6th best; Box Score Plus-Minus - 1st; Value Over Replacement Player - 3rd (this is a stat that generally improves with years played - he could eventually be 1st).
8X First-team all-NBA. 4X MVP (should be 5 or 6); 2X Finals MVP, 2 titles, 5 finals appearances.
He has had 10 years with a Value Over Replacement Player of at least 7. That means that there have been 10 years where he has accounted for 19 or more wins versus what the team would have had with a replacement player. Jordan is second with 9 such season., He had a year at 11 VORP. That is roughly 30 Wins Added. Jordan had two such years, LeBron had one, it has never been accomplished by anyone else.
Seasons with Win Shares over 15 and WS/48 over .27 -- Jordan has the most, then Kareem and Wilt, then LeBron.
Seasons with Win Shares over 18 with WS/48 over .3 - Kareem and Michael have 3, LeBron 2, Wilt 1.
Let's be blunt - since Jimmy Carter took office, there have been only two guys putting up freakish dominant regular seasons -- Michael Jordan and LeBron.
OK - let's go to LeBron's supposed "weakness" - the playoffs. He has as many titles as Wilt. He has 5 finals appearances, all of which were his doing. There are very, very few players who can say that they led a team to 5 finals.
The most "really good" playoff seasons? http://bkref.com/tiny/jVV5e Michael first, Kareem and LeBron tied for second most. If the Spurs go out early this year and the Cavs reach the Finals, it is conceivable that LeBron will have the 2nd most playoff Win Shares of any NBA player ever......trailing only Michael.
So why isn't LeBron first? Well, if you go through basically every single stat, LeBron trails Jordan. He has a few stats where is comes out ahead, but if I had to guess, I would say LeBron is behind Jordan in 90% of stats and/or invented seasons that I could possibly review or make up. Jordan was a slightly better defender. Jordan always won; LeBron just sometimes wins. (A LeBron defender would say that winning at all with Mike Brown and Erik Spoelstra is a miracle, but I won't go that far).
Why not second place or third? Well, both of the big guys, Wilt and Kareem, were just so freakishly dominant in overall production that LeBron just cannot catch them without more MVPs or titles and more first-team all-NBAs. If you go through the seasons and start looking at season-by-season Win Shares, Wilt has 11 seasons with over 15 Win Shares. Kareem had 11 seasons with over 12.9 Win Shares.
LeBron, by comparison, has only seven 15 WS seasons and only ten 12.9 WS seasons. He won't make 12.9 WS this year, and his days of doing so may be over. I see no indication from watching today's LeBron that his body will hold up at a 13 WS level ever again. We have probably seen the best of LeBron, and 10 WS may be a very good season for him from here on out.
So, while he is undoubtedly my favorite, he appears stuck at 4th place. What could he do to move up? Well, if he rolled up 60 more career WS and 3 more first-team all-NBAs and won an MVP, he might move up. Or if he won 2 more titles where he was Finals MVP he might move up.
But hey. The guy is 30 years old and I have him at #4 overall. I could see an argument for dropping him a spot. I could see an argument for pumping him up to #2. His overall rank in the history of the game will depend upon how his body holds up over the next 5 years. We shall see.
If you look at players with at least 170 career Win Shares, a WS/48 of at least .2 and a PER of at least 22 (I think it is 11 guys) then you will see that LeBron is 10th in career Win Shares, 4th in WS/48 and 2nd (only to Jordan) in PER.
So, just based upon his existing statistics for the regular season, even assuming he never plays another minute, his average in these stats is around 5.33 - so roughly 5th place.
Then, if you take his career "MVP Award Shares" of 6.1, he ranks 3rd all-time behind Kareem and Jordan. Assuming that he gets a few votes this year, he could pass Kareem for 2nd. So, based upon contemporary evaluations of his dominance as a player, he is the 2nd or 3rd most dominant regular season player of all-time.
Points per game - 3rd best; PER - 2nd best; assists per game 28th best; steals per game 28th best.
WS/48th -- 6th best; Box Score Plus-Minus - 1st; Value Over Replacement Player - 3rd (this is a stat that generally improves with years played - he could eventually be 1st).
8X First-team all-NBA. 4X MVP (should be 5 or 6); 2X Finals MVP, 2 titles, 5 finals appearances.
He has had 10 years with a Value Over Replacement Player of at least 7. That means that there have been 10 years where he has accounted for 19 or more wins versus what the team would have had with a replacement player. Jordan is second with 9 such season., He had a year at 11 VORP. That is roughly 30 Wins Added. Jordan had two such years, LeBron had one, it has never been accomplished by anyone else.
Seasons with Win Shares over 15 and WS/48 over .27 -- Jordan has the most, then Kareem and Wilt, then LeBron.
Seasons with Win Shares over 18 with WS/48 over .3 - Kareem and Michael have 3, LeBron 2, Wilt 1.
Let's be blunt - since Jimmy Carter took office, there have been only two guys putting up freakish dominant regular seasons -- Michael Jordan and LeBron.
OK - let's go to LeBron's supposed "weakness" - the playoffs. He has as many titles as Wilt. He has 5 finals appearances, all of which were his doing. There are very, very few players who can say that they led a team to 5 finals.
The most "really good" playoff seasons? http://bkref.com/tiny/jVV5e Michael first, Kareem and LeBron tied for second most. If the Spurs go out early this year and the Cavs reach the Finals, it is conceivable that LeBron will have the 2nd most playoff Win Shares of any NBA player ever......trailing only Michael.
So why isn't LeBron first? Well, if you go through basically every single stat, LeBron trails Jordan. He has a few stats where is comes out ahead, but if I had to guess, I would say LeBron is behind Jordan in 90% of stats and/or invented seasons that I could possibly review or make up. Jordan was a slightly better defender. Jordan always won; LeBron just sometimes wins. (A LeBron defender would say that winning at all with Mike Brown and Erik Spoelstra is a miracle, but I won't go that far).
Why not second place or third? Well, both of the big guys, Wilt and Kareem, were just so freakishly dominant in overall production that LeBron just cannot catch them without more MVPs or titles and more first-team all-NBAs. If you go through the seasons and start looking at season-by-season Win Shares, Wilt has 11 seasons with over 15 Win Shares. Kareem had 11 seasons with over 12.9 Win Shares.
LeBron, by comparison, has only seven 15 WS seasons and only ten 12.9 WS seasons. He won't make 12.9 WS this year, and his days of doing so may be over. I see no indication from watching today's LeBron that his body will hold up at a 13 WS level ever again. We have probably seen the best of LeBron, and 10 WS may be a very good season for him from here on out.
So, while he is undoubtedly my favorite, he appears stuck at 4th place. What could he do to move up? Well, if he rolled up 60 more career WS and 3 more first-team all-NBAs and won an MVP, he might move up. Or if he won 2 more titles where he was Finals MVP he might move up.
But hey. The guy is 30 years old and I have him at #4 overall. I could see an argument for dropping him a spot. I could see an argument for pumping him up to #2. His overall rank in the history of the game will depend upon how his body holds up over the next 5 years. We shall see.
Thursday, April 02, 2015
Chris Paul -- April Fool's Day 2015 -- 41 points, 17 assists, 1 turnover
http://bkref.com/tiny/Fa69L
Best point guard game in the past 30 years. As I said in ranking Chris Paul the 26th best player of all-time, guys just don't turn out 14 assist (or, here, 17 assist) games with one or two turnovers.....unless you are Chris Paul.
Best point guard game in the past 30 years. As I said in ranking Chris Paul the 26th best player of all-time, guys just don't turn out 14 assist (or, here, 17 assist) games with one or two turnovers.....unless you are Chris Paul.
The 5th Best Player in the History of the NBA -- Tim Duncan
Two players in the history of the NBA have 100 Defensive Win Shares -- Bill Russell and Tim Duncan.
Tim Duncan has a career Defensive Rating of 95.6, 3rd best all-time. Of active players, Kevin Garnett is next best at 19th best all-time and has a defensive rating of over 99 points per 100 possessions. Tim Duncan has a better career Defensive Rating than the other two greatest defensive centers I ever saw play in person -- David Robinson and Hakeem Olajuwon. David's rating is close, Hakeem's is not.
Tim Duncan, with a Spurs run this year, will break Michael Jordan's all-time Win Shares record for the playoffs. Most ever. No one has more. Name any name, they will be behind Duncan for playoff productivity.
In the next game he plays, Duncan will likely become the 6th player in NBA history to register 200 career Win Shares. He has 5 titles. He is 2X MVP, 10X first-team all-NBA, 3X Finals MVP. He has 12 seasons with over 10 Win Shares (5th best all-time). He holds the NBA record for most Win Shares in a playoff season (5.9 in the 2002-03 playoffs).
Tim Duncan is arguably the greatest player in the history of the game. His combination of offensive prowess, defensive prowess and team success stands up to virtually anyone. He is 8X first-team all-defense. He is 14X first or second team all-defense (the most of all-time by 2 seasons). He has those stats despite the fact that he was also for several years the #1 offensive option on his team. He had a year where his defensive rating was 89 (lower is better).
So why does Tim Duncan rank only 5th on my list? Well, it is kinda hard to explain, but let me tell you and see if you buy my explanation (for you Duncan fans out there - there can be no question that the guy is underrated on the all-time list, but I don't think you will see many guys ranking him top 5, so cut me some slack).
Tim Duncan's career has been marked by tremendous consistency, but not consistency during the regular season at a historically dominant level. Example - while he ranks very high in the "most 10 Win Share seasons" category - if you move the sort way up to 15 Win Share seasons, you see: http://bkref.com/tiny/R9YUK
Duncan has as many 15 Win Share seasons (2) as Bob McAdoo and Alex Groza. Bird has 4; Magic has 4; David Robinson 5; Oscar 6; Karl Malone 9. A good argument could be made that the Spurs do not need Duncan to play that well or that much in order to win. But then if you go to WS/48, which takes into account that a guy may not play that much, you get this: http://bkref.com/tiny/tYj6m
Duncan has 5 really great WS/48 seasons, tied for 10th. Again, far worse than David Robinson, far worse than Karl Malone. Shaq, always maligned as a regular season slacker, has 7 such seasons. Duncan's "per game" career regular season statistics look very pedestrian for someone claiming all-time top 5 great status -- 19.5/11/3 and 2.9 steals plus blocks.
But you cannot deny the fact that he went 2-1-1-2 in MVP balloting over 4 regular seasons, and that he may soon pass Jordan in career Playoff Win Shares and that he has anchored 5 NBA title teams (which would have been 6 but for his coach's inexplicable decision not to have him in during the end of Game 6 against the Heat) or that his Defensive Win Shares are better than anyone but Bill Russell. http://bkref.com/tiny/uiEHu
or that he seemingly does not age and, in the playoffs, where it counts, he continues to dominate while playing on championship teams.
I rank Tim Duncan the #5 player in the history of the game.
Tim Duncan has a career Defensive Rating of 95.6, 3rd best all-time. Of active players, Kevin Garnett is next best at 19th best all-time and has a defensive rating of over 99 points per 100 possessions. Tim Duncan has a better career Defensive Rating than the other two greatest defensive centers I ever saw play in person -- David Robinson and Hakeem Olajuwon. David's rating is close, Hakeem's is not.
Tim Duncan, with a Spurs run this year, will break Michael Jordan's all-time Win Shares record for the playoffs. Most ever. No one has more. Name any name, they will be behind Duncan for playoff productivity.
In the next game he plays, Duncan will likely become the 6th player in NBA history to register 200 career Win Shares. He has 5 titles. He is 2X MVP, 10X first-team all-NBA, 3X Finals MVP. He has 12 seasons with over 10 Win Shares (5th best all-time). He holds the NBA record for most Win Shares in a playoff season (5.9 in the 2002-03 playoffs).
Tim Duncan is arguably the greatest player in the history of the game. His combination of offensive prowess, defensive prowess and team success stands up to virtually anyone. He is 8X first-team all-defense. He is 14X first or second team all-defense (the most of all-time by 2 seasons). He has those stats despite the fact that he was also for several years the #1 offensive option on his team. He had a year where his defensive rating was 89 (lower is better).
So why does Tim Duncan rank only 5th on my list? Well, it is kinda hard to explain, but let me tell you and see if you buy my explanation (for you Duncan fans out there - there can be no question that the guy is underrated on the all-time list, but I don't think you will see many guys ranking him top 5, so cut me some slack).
Tim Duncan's career has been marked by tremendous consistency, but not consistency during the regular season at a historically dominant level. Example - while he ranks very high in the "most 10 Win Share seasons" category - if you move the sort way up to 15 Win Share seasons, you see: http://bkref.com/tiny/R9YUK
Duncan has as many 15 Win Share seasons (2) as Bob McAdoo and Alex Groza. Bird has 4; Magic has 4; David Robinson 5; Oscar 6; Karl Malone 9. A good argument could be made that the Spurs do not need Duncan to play that well or that much in order to win. But then if you go to WS/48, which takes into account that a guy may not play that much, you get this: http://bkref.com/tiny/tYj6m
Duncan has 5 really great WS/48 seasons, tied for 10th. Again, far worse than David Robinson, far worse than Karl Malone. Shaq, always maligned as a regular season slacker, has 7 such seasons. Duncan's "per game" career regular season statistics look very pedestrian for someone claiming all-time top 5 great status -- 19.5/11/3 and 2.9 steals plus blocks.
But you cannot deny the fact that he went 2-1-1-2 in MVP balloting over 4 regular seasons, and that he may soon pass Jordan in career Playoff Win Shares and that he has anchored 5 NBA title teams (which would have been 6 but for his coach's inexplicable decision not to have him in during the end of Game 6 against the Heat) or that his Defensive Win Shares are better than anyone but Bill Russell. http://bkref.com/tiny/uiEHu
or that he seemingly does not age and, in the playoffs, where it counts, he continues to dominate while playing on championship teams.
I rank Tim Duncan the #5 player in the history of the game.
6th Best NBA Player of All-Time -- Earvin "Magic" Johnson
So, we are down to our Final 6. Magic comes in at #6, behind, in alphabetical order, Abdul-Jabbar, Chamberlain, Duncan, James and Jordan.
Magic Johnson -- took his team to the Finals in 1980, 82, 83, 84, 85, 87, 88, 89, and 91. Remarkable. Now, the next best teams in the league during those years were generally in the East (Boston, Philly, Milwaukee), but may never see another run of 9 finals in 12 years (Moses Malone's Houston team, the Twin Towers Rockets team and the Drexler-led Trailblazers were the three teams to appear other than the Lakers.)
Now, some like to say that Magic was the greatest player of all-time, even greater than Jordan. He has 3 MVPs. 9X first-team all-NBA, 3X Finals MVP. His career "MVP shares" ( a measure of how many MVP votes you get, even if you don't win) is 5th all-time, behind Jordan, Kareem, LeBron and Bird.
If you start tightening down the advanced stats requirements so that you eliminate most players, you see that Magic ranks high on advance stats as well -- of guys who have over 150 Win Shares and .2 WS/48 and a 20 PER,
http://bkref.com/tiny/vITIX
Magic ranks 14th in Win Shares, 6th in WS/48, and 9th in PER on the list.
In the playoffs, if you tighten down the advance stats requirements so that you get the best 10 playoff performers of all-time statistically,
http://bkref.com/tiny/LAgGo, you get Magic at 5th in Win Shares, 3rd in WS/48, and 8th in PER on this all-time playoff greats list.
No question - one of the greatest of all-time. So why is he behind 5 guys? Well:
1) He never was a good defender. Look for an All-defense award. You won't find any. Because he was 6'9" tall, he played the worst offensive player the other team had who wasn't the center. Despite playing on many great teams, his defensive rating was never low. The Lakers had Kareem, Worthy, Byron Scott, Michael Cooper. Magic never had to lock down anyone good, and it is doubtful that he ever could have done so.
2) He didn't play that long. It wasn't his fault. He got HIV and the entire world freaked out. But you do lose a couple points when you stop playing early. Also, not to be cruel, but you would think that a man struck down in his prime with no "bad" seasons weighing him down due to age would be ranked higher in PER and WS/48 (stats that do not require longevity). He isn't top 1 or top 2. Jordan had two retirements and the ill advised two years with the Wizards. His stats are still far better, even on per minute stats.
3) I have to mark him down for playing with Kareem. Sorry, but if you watch an NBATV game with the Lakers 1979-80 through 1983-84, they go to Kareem virtually every time down the floor. Magic's career PPG is under 20. He was far more impressive 1984-85 and after, but you have to wonder whether he could have won all of those titles without Kareem.
One could argue that Magic's lack of longevity and poor defense and the fact that he always played with Hall of Famers (Kareem, Worthy, they had Bob McAdoo off the bench for goodness sake) should rank him down closer to Bird (whom I have at #13). But that ignores his ridiculous playoff success and the fact that Magic hated to lose and rarely did he ever lose when he was playing at full speed and ability.
I think #6 is a fair compromise.
Magic Johnson -- took his team to the Finals in 1980, 82, 83, 84, 85, 87, 88, 89, and 91. Remarkable. Now, the next best teams in the league during those years were generally in the East (Boston, Philly, Milwaukee), but may never see another run of 9 finals in 12 years (Moses Malone's Houston team, the Twin Towers Rockets team and the Drexler-led Trailblazers were the three teams to appear other than the Lakers.)
Now, some like to say that Magic was the greatest player of all-time, even greater than Jordan. He has 3 MVPs. 9X first-team all-NBA, 3X Finals MVP. His career "MVP shares" ( a measure of how many MVP votes you get, even if you don't win) is 5th all-time, behind Jordan, Kareem, LeBron and Bird.
If you start tightening down the advanced stats requirements so that you eliminate most players, you see that Magic ranks high on advance stats as well -- of guys who have over 150 Win Shares and .2 WS/48 and a 20 PER,
http://bkref.com/tiny/vITIX
Magic ranks 14th in Win Shares, 6th in WS/48, and 9th in PER on the list.
In the playoffs, if you tighten down the advance stats requirements so that you get the best 10 playoff performers of all-time statistically,
http://bkref.com/tiny/LAgGo, you get Magic at 5th in Win Shares, 3rd in WS/48, and 8th in PER on this all-time playoff greats list.
No question - one of the greatest of all-time. So why is he behind 5 guys? Well:
1) He never was a good defender. Look for an All-defense award. You won't find any. Because he was 6'9" tall, he played the worst offensive player the other team had who wasn't the center. Despite playing on many great teams, his defensive rating was never low. The Lakers had Kareem, Worthy, Byron Scott, Michael Cooper. Magic never had to lock down anyone good, and it is doubtful that he ever could have done so.
2) He didn't play that long. It wasn't his fault. He got HIV and the entire world freaked out. But you do lose a couple points when you stop playing early. Also, not to be cruel, but you would think that a man struck down in his prime with no "bad" seasons weighing him down due to age would be ranked higher in PER and WS/48 (stats that do not require longevity). He isn't top 1 or top 2. Jordan had two retirements and the ill advised two years with the Wizards. His stats are still far better, even on per minute stats.
3) I have to mark him down for playing with Kareem. Sorry, but if you watch an NBATV game with the Lakers 1979-80 through 1983-84, they go to Kareem virtually every time down the floor. Magic's career PPG is under 20. He was far more impressive 1984-85 and after, but you have to wonder whether he could have won all of those titles without Kareem.
One could argue that Magic's lack of longevity and poor defense and the fact that he always played with Hall of Famers (Kareem, Worthy, they had Bob McAdoo off the bench for goodness sake) should rank him down closer to Bird (whom I have at #13). But that ignores his ridiculous playoff success and the fact that Magic hated to lose and rarely did he ever lose when he was playing at full speed and ability.
I think #6 is a fair compromise.
Wednesday, April 01, 2015
Monday, March 30, 2015
Shooting In Houston's Dome -- Who TF Made This Set-Up?
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/30/sports/ncaabasketball/vast-stadium-falls-silent-except-for-clangs.html?_r=0
I am unaware of any other Dome setup where the court is set in the very center of the dome and the stands are angled at a ridiculously flat angle. If someone stands up in front of you 4 rows ahead, I really doubt you can see anything as a fan.
But the bigger problem in Houston is the shooting background. On TV, I saw an angle from behind Tyus Jones in the first half against Gonzaga where Tyus was shooting (and making) a free throw. He was shooting into a black abyss that resembled outer space, except he also had to shoot over the heads of a group of fans who seem to be presenting a play or musical of some sort, since they were very brightly illuminated for whatever reason.
At a basketball stadium, you can look through the glass backboard and into the crowd when you are shooting. The game is played in what appears to be daylight, and, if anything, the lights on the crowd are LESS bright than those on the court. Houston's stadium, like Del Griffith's anecdotes, is a miracle, it has none has none of that. You shoot out of the light and over the heads of someone presenting a play and then into the deepest darkest abyss you have ever seen.
I would imagine that someone shooting a corner 3 sees the rim and then acres of black space. Perhaps the best strategy for a player would be to find a poorly lit outdoor court 100-150 miles from Houston on a cloudy night and shoot into the darkness. Of course, that would not provide the additional wild card of the bizarre crowd angle and lighting, but maybe you could park 300 cars facing one another with their lights on about 50 yards from the court?
I am sure Houston has warm weather and a lot of millionaire boosters and the museums/strip bars that fans want, but my lord, can't someone advise them as to how to set up a basketball arena?
I am unaware of any other Dome setup where the court is set in the very center of the dome and the stands are angled at a ridiculously flat angle. If someone stands up in front of you 4 rows ahead, I really doubt you can see anything as a fan.
But the bigger problem in Houston is the shooting background. On TV, I saw an angle from behind Tyus Jones in the first half against Gonzaga where Tyus was shooting (and making) a free throw. He was shooting into a black abyss that resembled outer space, except he also had to shoot over the heads of a group of fans who seem to be presenting a play or musical of some sort, since they were very brightly illuminated for whatever reason.
At a basketball stadium, you can look through the glass backboard and into the crowd when you are shooting. The game is played in what appears to be daylight, and, if anything, the lights on the crowd are LESS bright than those on the court. Houston's stadium, like Del Griffith's anecdotes, is a miracle, it has none has none of that. You shoot out of the light and over the heads of someone presenting a play and then into the deepest darkest abyss you have ever seen.
I would imagine that someone shooting a corner 3 sees the rim and then acres of black space. Perhaps the best strategy for a player would be to find a poorly lit outdoor court 100-150 miles from Houston on a cloudy night and shoot into the darkness. Of course, that would not provide the additional wild card of the bizarre crowd angle and lighting, but maybe you could park 300 cars facing one another with their lights on about 50 yards from the court?
I am sure Houston has warm weather and a lot of millionaire boosters and the museums/strip bars that fans want, but my lord, can't someone advise them as to how to set up a basketball arena?
Friday, March 27, 2015
Best 12, Next 12, Trash 12 -- Part IV -- Guys 12-7."
Who are the best 12 NBA players of all time, based upon the Hoops Maven's review of the stats, historical record, personal observations and personal preferences? Well, we already know that in alphabetical order they are:
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,
Wilt Chamberlain,
Tim Duncan,
LeBron James
Magic Johnson,
Michael Jordan,
Karl Malone,
George Mikan,
Shaquille O'Neal,
Oscar Robertson,
Bill Russell, and
Jerry West
Interestingly, in 1980, the NBA announced its 35th Anniversary Team: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_35th_Anniversary_Team This is the most exclusive team ever announced, as it includes only 11 players!!
6 of those players still made my top 12 (Kareem, Wilt, Mikan, Oscar, Russell, West). For guys who starred mainly between 1981 and 2003, I have added 4 guys (Magic, Michael, Karl, Shaq) and for guys who are still current players I have Duncan and LeBron.
So let's get to work;:
12. Oscar Robertson -- a one-time MVP who only won a title while on his last legs with Milwaukee (riding Kareem to the title - watch those game films, you will wonder how Oscar was ever considered such a great player). His teams were not always good, and of the top 12 he had some of the least playoff success (Oscar's college team also never won the title while he was there, but they won the year after he left!). So why is he on the top 12 versus, say, Bird. Oscar was regarded by his peers as a top 5 player. 9X first-team all-NBA, 9X top 5 in MVP balloting, won an MVP in a league that featured both Wilt AND Russell AND Bob Petit. I also give some credit for the fact that people who saw Magic and Oscar play routinely stated that Oscar was, by far, the better all-around player. Now, some of that is old guys being old guys, but if you look at Oscar's career Win Shares overall and per season, there is only one guy who is regularly superior -- Michael Jordan. And it is hard to dismiss a 30-10-10 season. It just is.
11. Jerry West -- never won an MVP, so there is an argument that he doesn't belong on this top 12 list with the other guys. But let me defend my selection -- he was top 2 in the MVP balloting 4 years and top 6 nine times. First-team all-NBA 9 times. He was the Finals MVP in a year that his team LOST!! Does own a title in 1972 when he was still first-team all-NBA. If you review his WS/48 (top 10) and then review his playoff stats (only Jordan and Magic have better stats for guards in the history of the game), you have to conclude that he is top 12.
10. George Mikan -- it pains me to put him so low, especially since it appears that I am favoring the guys I have actually watched play and trashing all of the older guys at the bottom. But.....Mikan only played 7 years. He was so ridiculously dominant during those years that he won 5 titles and put up numbers and advanced numbers that are just silly they are so good. His career playoff PER is 28.5!!!!!!!!!! And, he changed the game. He was so good at basketball that they made the lane wider so he wouldn't score so much. Teams held the ball against his team, leading to a cry for more action and the 24 second clock. Goaltending used to be legal, but, again, Mikan was so good in college that they changed that rule. I cannot take him out of the top 12, but his short career and the fact that he had only 3 super great seasons will leave him stuck at 10.
9. Shaquille O'Neal -- From 1992 through 2004, he was virtually unguardable when healthy. The 3 time Finals MVP during a three-peat (ala Jordan). 14 times all-NBA (8X first-team), which, for a center competing with Hakeem and David Robinson all those years, means he was damned good. One wonders where Shaq would come in on the list if he cared seriously about getting in shape for the regular season. But, that said, part of greatness is picking up your game when the playoffs come around. How great was Shaq in the playoffs? BANG! Even when he was sometimes fat and sometimes hurt, he would draw doubles and triples in the post. Took Orlando to the Finals, took the Lakers to the Finals, was a good starter when Miami won the Finals. I believe that he is a victim of his own potential. When a guy is 14X all-NBA and an MVP and has 4 titles and owns 3 finals MVPs, and he basically cannot be stopped on the offensive end for 13 years, he is a top 10 player in my book.
8. Bill Russell -- I know, he won all of those titles, and he was way ahead of his time as a defensive player (watch old NBA footage - he is the only guy with any concept of the word "help" on defense. Everyone else stays glued to their guy as if they were subject to removal from the league if they strayed an arm's length away). He always won -- San Francisco won two titles, the Celts won almost every year. Yet I just cannot get over his extremely mediocre offensive stats. He shot 44% from the field and 56% from the line. His career PER is under 20. He did not reach 30 Career Offensive Win Shares (he had an NBA record 133 Defensive Win Shares). His playoff numbers are not any better.
I just have to conclude that a top 5 player needs to contribute significantly on both ends of the floor. Sorry, Bill.
7. Karl Malone -- statistically, Karl Malone has an argument to be a top 4 player. Who contributed more, as a star, to his team during the regular season? Only Wilt and Jordan, if you believe this stat. The guy was truly great for a LONG LONG LONG time. He was MVP of the league twice. 11X First-team all-NBA!! 11X!! He is 3rd for total Win Shares, 2nd (behind only Jordan) for Value Over Replacement Player. Despite playing a ridiculous number of years, he STILL is top 20 all-time in WS/48 (a stat that will get worse as you get older -- ask LeBron). Statistically, Malone is arguably a top 4 player. The fly in the ointment, of course, is his playoff performance. It is poor. Everything plummets. There is not one year that you can point to and say, "That is the year he showed he was a top 5 all-time player." What else can you say? I mean, "if you are so great, why can't you win a title and why do you get eliminated early A LOT!?!?" That said, he did reach the Finals twice, and he WAS the best guy on those teams. So you cannot say he was McGrady-esque or Garnett-ish. I will put him at #7 and let everyone take shots at me, both pro and con
Next up -- guys 6-1.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,
Wilt Chamberlain,
Tim Duncan,
LeBron James
Magic Johnson,
Michael Jordan,
Karl Malone,
George Mikan,
Shaquille O'Neal,
Oscar Robertson,
Bill Russell, and
Jerry West
Interestingly, in 1980, the NBA announced its 35th Anniversary Team: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_35th_Anniversary_Team This is the most exclusive team ever announced, as it includes only 11 players!!
6 of those players still made my top 12 (Kareem, Wilt, Mikan, Oscar, Russell, West). For guys who starred mainly between 1981 and 2003, I have added 4 guys (Magic, Michael, Karl, Shaq) and for guys who are still current players I have Duncan and LeBron.
So let's get to work;:
12. Oscar Robertson -- a one-time MVP who only won a title while on his last legs with Milwaukee (riding Kareem to the title - watch those game films, you will wonder how Oscar was ever considered such a great player). His teams were not always good, and of the top 12 he had some of the least playoff success (Oscar's college team also never won the title while he was there, but they won the year after he left!). So why is he on the top 12 versus, say, Bird. Oscar was regarded by his peers as a top 5 player. 9X first-team all-NBA, 9X top 5 in MVP balloting, won an MVP in a league that featured both Wilt AND Russell AND Bob Petit. I also give some credit for the fact that people who saw Magic and Oscar play routinely stated that Oscar was, by far, the better all-around player. Now, some of that is old guys being old guys, but if you look at Oscar's career Win Shares overall and per season, there is only one guy who is regularly superior -- Michael Jordan. And it is hard to dismiss a 30-10-10 season. It just is.
11. Jerry West -- never won an MVP, so there is an argument that he doesn't belong on this top 12 list with the other guys. But let me defend my selection -- he was top 2 in the MVP balloting 4 years and top 6 nine times. First-team all-NBA 9 times. He was the Finals MVP in a year that his team LOST!! Does own a title in 1972 when he was still first-team all-NBA. If you review his WS/48 (top 10) and then review his playoff stats (only Jordan and Magic have better stats for guards in the history of the game), you have to conclude that he is top 12.
10. George Mikan -- it pains me to put him so low, especially since it appears that I am favoring the guys I have actually watched play and trashing all of the older guys at the bottom. But.....Mikan only played 7 years. He was so ridiculously dominant during those years that he won 5 titles and put up numbers and advanced numbers that are just silly they are so good. His career playoff PER is 28.5!!!!!!!!!! And, he changed the game. He was so good at basketball that they made the lane wider so he wouldn't score so much. Teams held the ball against his team, leading to a cry for more action and the 24 second clock. Goaltending used to be legal, but, again, Mikan was so good in college that they changed that rule. I cannot take him out of the top 12, but his short career and the fact that he had only 3 super great seasons will leave him stuck at 10.
9. Shaquille O'Neal -- From 1992 through 2004, he was virtually unguardable when healthy. The 3 time Finals MVP during a three-peat (ala Jordan). 14 times all-NBA (8X first-team), which, for a center competing with Hakeem and David Robinson all those years, means he was damned good. One wonders where Shaq would come in on the list if he cared seriously about getting in shape for the regular season. But, that said, part of greatness is picking up your game when the playoffs come around. How great was Shaq in the playoffs? BANG! Even when he was sometimes fat and sometimes hurt, he would draw doubles and triples in the post. Took Orlando to the Finals, took the Lakers to the Finals, was a good starter when Miami won the Finals. I believe that he is a victim of his own potential. When a guy is 14X all-NBA and an MVP and has 4 titles and owns 3 finals MVPs, and he basically cannot be stopped on the offensive end for 13 years, he is a top 10 player in my book.
8. Bill Russell -- I know, he won all of those titles, and he was way ahead of his time as a defensive player (watch old NBA footage - he is the only guy with any concept of the word "help" on defense. Everyone else stays glued to their guy as if they were subject to removal from the league if they strayed an arm's length away). He always won -- San Francisco won two titles, the Celts won almost every year. Yet I just cannot get over his extremely mediocre offensive stats. He shot 44% from the field and 56% from the line. His career PER is under 20. He did not reach 30 Career Offensive Win Shares (he had an NBA record 133 Defensive Win Shares). His playoff numbers are not any better.
I just have to conclude that a top 5 player needs to contribute significantly on both ends of the floor. Sorry, Bill.
7. Karl Malone -- statistically, Karl Malone has an argument to be a top 4 player. Who contributed more, as a star, to his team during the regular season? Only Wilt and Jordan, if you believe this stat. The guy was truly great for a LONG LONG LONG time. He was MVP of the league twice. 11X First-team all-NBA!! 11X!! He is 3rd for total Win Shares, 2nd (behind only Jordan) for Value Over Replacement Player. Despite playing a ridiculous number of years, he STILL is top 20 all-time in WS/48 (a stat that will get worse as you get older -- ask LeBron). Statistically, Malone is arguably a top 4 player. The fly in the ointment, of course, is his playoff performance. It is poor. Everything plummets. There is not one year that you can point to and say, "That is the year he showed he was a top 5 all-time player." What else can you say? I mean, "if you are so great, why can't you win a title and why do you get eliminated early A LOT!?!?" That said, he did reach the Finals twice, and he WAS the best guy on those teams. So you cannot say he was McGrady-esque or Garnett-ish. I will put him at #7 and let everyone take shots at me, both pro and con
Next up -- guys 6-1.
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Best 12, Next 12, Trash 12 (Part III)
So, we started with this list.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Ray Allen, Charles Barkley
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Ray Allen, Charles Barkley
Rick Barry, Elgin Baylor, Larry Bird
Kobe Bryant, Wilt Chamberlain, Clyde Drexler
Tim Duncan, Kevin Durant, Julius Erving
Patrick Ewing, Kevin Garnett, John Havlicek
LeBron James, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan
Karl Malone, Moses Malone, George Mikan
Reggie Miller, Steve Nash, Dirk Nowtizki
Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal, Chris Paul
Gary Payton. Bob Petit, Scottie Pippen
Oscar Robertson, David Robinson, Bill Russell
John Stockton, Dwayne Wade. Jerry West.
After "Trashing 12," in Part II, we are down to these 24 all-time NBA greats:
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Charles Barkley, Elgin Baylor, Larry Bird
Kobe Bryant, Wilt Chamberlain, Tim Duncan, Julius Erving
Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan
Karl Malone, Moses Malone, George Mikan, Dirk Nowtizki
Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal, Bob Petit, Oscar Robertson,
David Robinson, Bill Russell, John Stockton, Jerry West.
So now I have to relegate 12 guys to the "Next 12" and then (in Part IV) I will list and rank the Best 12. Let's get started.
What makes someone not just merely "great" but one of the true elite -- the greatest players of all-time? It is difficult to identify exactly what the characteristics are. Here are ten -- 1) was regarded at his time as truly great; evidence of this would be all-NBA selections and top 5 MVP voting; 2) was regarded as the best player in the game at least once, and, hopefully, on multiple occasions, as would be generally reflected by MVP awards; 3) was dominant in some aspect of the game - teams needed to adjust their games to stop him and generally did not succeed; 4) was physically superior to other players; 5) was well ahead of his time as a player/there simply were not players that did what he did at the time he did them (and possibly there still aren't today); 6) played a sufficient amount of time that his body of work can be considered not just a blip; 7) was consistently excellent for a long time (this can be determined most easily by advance stats); 8) his playoff performance did not generally decline substantially (same); 9) led his team far into the playoffs on multiple occasions; 10) won multiple titles.
I am sure there are more, but as you go through the list of great players, these all appear to be common traits. So, ranking 24-13, I go with the following:
24. John Stockton - 1, 6, 7, 8, 9. Lacks in the remaining categories. Great player, played at a high level forever. I have reviewed the issue of "who was better, Stockton or Malone" many times and many ways. And I always eventually reach the conclusion that Malone was the better player, and by a lot.
23. Dirk Nowitzki -- 1, 2, 3 (shooting), 5, 6, 7, 8. His teams did not always advance as far in the playoffs as you would imagine, and he was not physically superior to other players such that he was regarded as truly unstoppable, Like Stockton, he has been excellent for a long time, but he also has an MVP and a title. But only 4X first-team all-NBA.
22. Kevin Garnett -- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (maybe), 8. Hurt by the fact that he had so many playoff failures in his prime, and had only 1 title. Does have an MVP. The best "out on the floor" defending big man ever. Tremendous passer. Played at 100% effort more than almost all great players.
21. Charles Barkley - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (kinda), 8. The Round Mound was a dominant scorer and rebounder. Great out on the open court for a man whose weight ranged from 240 to 310. 1 MVP, reached one final, and his Philly teams didn't always go far in the playoffs.
20. Elgin Baylor -- 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (kinda), 8, 9. Baylor is a difficult call. Widely regarded during his time as a top 5 player (10X first-team all-NBA), people talk about him as if he was basically an unstoppable force of nature. His scoring feats are legendary and he could pull down 15-20 rebounds a night. Yet he has 0 MVPs and 0 titles that he contributed to. 20 seems about right.
19. Julius Erving -- 1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (kinda), 9, 10 (if you count ABA). The rating of the good Doctor J. all depends upon how much credit you give him for his ABA stats and titles. His NBA stats alone are sufficient to probably get him into the tail end of the top 24, but if you completely discount his ABA stats I have him too high and if you give 100% credit to his ABA stats, he is too low.
18. Kobe -- 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10. Kobe was not as physically dominant as some other players, his playoff stats are not as good as his regular season stats, he won 3 titles with Shaq as the main guy, and his Lakers teams could collapse at times in the playoffs. Only 1 MVP. Look, I despise the guy, and I despise putting him this high, but he does have 5 titles, played forever and was given an MVP despite my protestations, so.....yuck, #18 overall.
17. Bob Petit -- everything but maybe not 7. 10X first-team all-NBA. 1 MVP, 1 title (recall that only Petit's Hawks and Wilt's Philly squad took a title off Russell's Celtics). Regularly flirted with 20-20 seasons. Simply excelled as a player. We cannot lose him to the trash heap of history, so he needs to be ranked very high.
16. Moses Malone -- everything except 10 and maybe not number 7. The mileage and bumps and bruising and fractured eye sockets eventually caught up to Moses, and his truly great years are basically 1977-83. Played a lot longer, but it was that stretch where he and his teams flourished. Led an awful Houston team to the finals. Embarrassed Kareem in the 1983 Finals, which is something I don't think any other player in NBA history could say - that he whipped Kareem for four straight important games.
15. Hakeem Olajuwon -- once we get to 15, what we need to start doing is picking at weaknesses, however slight, since the strengths are so plainly obvious (one of the best defenders of all-time, two titles, has an MVP). People seem to forget that by 1989 the Rockets were unhappy with Hakeem and were shopping him. Had Jordan never retired or had John Starks been able to make a shot in 1994 Finals, Hakeem might have never received his due as a player. But Hakeem's teams did not always win, his playoff performances were not always great, and since we need to really split hairs here in the top 15, I have to leave him at 15.
14. David Robinson -- look, this is personal preference, I concede, but David played on teams that were a LOT worse than Hakeem's teams and before Duncan got there David was basically playing by himself (Sean Elliott anyone? Willie Anderson?), coached by..........you tell me? David's WS/48 for his career is the same as Jordan's. David's teams against good teams were regularly -10 per game without him on the court. In my opinion, a truly great player who has been shorted by history. He will not be shorted here - #14.
13. Larry Bird -- Well, this ranking should cause some outrage. He was 9X First-Team all-NBA and 3X MVP. From 1980-1987 he was one of the best 4 players in the league every year. Won 3 titles and also went to the Finals and lost in 1985 and 1987. But, again, we are top 15 now, so we are tearing people down and not building them up. His playoff stats are far worse than his regular season stats. Of the three titles the Celts won, two were against flukish Houston clubs. If you value longevity and greatness over a lengthy period of time, Bird simply does not match up. For all-time Win Shares, Bird is ranked 23rd. For all guys with over .200 WS/48 and 100 Win Shares, his .203 WS/48 ranks last.
Bird's 24.8 Playoff WS ranks him 11th in career playoff WS, and of guys with at least 15 playoff WS, Bird's .179 WS/48 ranks him 19th, just behind Kevin McHale. So, despite the fact that he played on great Celtic teams, his overall performance and longevity of performance in the playoffs simply was not that great.
There are just too many holes in Bird's relatively short NBA resume (he started at age 23 and once his back went, so did he, and so did the Celtics) to crack the top 12. I realize other may disagree, but then they can write their own lengthy analysis.
The Best 12 in alphabetical order:
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Tim Duncan, LeBron James
Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, George Mikan,
Shaquille O'Neal, Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, Jerry West
The Best 12 in alphabetical order:
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Tim Duncan, LeBron James
Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, George Mikan,
Shaquille O'Neal, Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, Jerry West
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Best 12, Next 12, Trash 12 (Part 2) -- "The Trash Heap"
I previously listed 36 all-time NBA greats: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Ray Allen, Charles Barkley
Rick Barry, Elgin Baylor, Larry Bird
Kobe Bryant, Wilt Chamberlain, Clyde Drexler
Tim Duncan, Kevin Durant, Julius Erving
Patrick Ewing, Kevin Garnett, John Havlicek
LeBron James, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan
Karl Malone, Moses Malone, George Mikan
Reggie Miller, Steve Nash, Dirk Nowtizki
Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal, Chris Paul
Gary Payton. Bob Petit, Scottie Pippen
Oscar Robertson, David Robinson, Bill Russell
John Stockton, Dwayne Wade. Jerry West.
Here is my bottom 12 list, per the rules, these guys are on the Trash Heap:
36. Scottie Pippen -- never the #1 option on a great team, he failed in Chicago, Portland and Houston when asked to step up to the #1 spot. Great second banana with the Bulls.
35. Gary Payton - great player, great defender, just not as good as the rest of the list.
34. Reggie Miller -- extremely one-dimensional, no titles, played a long time, but not that awesome.
33. Patrick Ewing - very very good, just not an all-time top 24 player. The 1994 Knicks were better than the 1994 Rockets. He wasn't better than Hakeem.
32. John Havlicek -- consistent and played forever on winning teams. Stats don't match up to top 24 guys.
31. Dwyane Wade -- great player, durability a question mark, not someone who has put up huge overall numbers for his career given how long he has played.
30. Steve Nash -- cannot deny his 7 appearances on various all-NBA teams or his 2 MVPs, but is one of the worst defenders of all-time. There has to be some deduction for that.
29. Clyde Drexler -- extremely underrated. But he cannot make top 24 because, while he was great, his career accomplishments do not match up to those I have ranked above him.
28. Ray Allen -- at his best, he was a top 5 off guard all-time. Add in his success late in his career with championship teams and he is top 28, just not top 24.
27. Rick Barry -- A guy who no one but true basketball fans recalls. I probably rank him too high, but he was 9 times first team all-NBA or all-ABA and led his heavy underdog team to an NBA title. Led college, NBA and ABA in scoring.
26. Chris Paul -- there is probably no one in basketball history who is more underrated than Chris Paul. He is several times first-team all-NBA, his WS/48 number is ridiculous (top 3) and he just keeps going. Guys just don't regularly put up 14 assist/2 turnover games while being the best defensive PG in the league. It doesn't happen, except for CP3. Durability, shortness of career, and lack of playoff success keep him off the top 24 list........so far.
25. Kevin Durant -- do you realize that Kevin Durant has ALREADY been named 5X first-team all-NBA and won an MVP? Except for Steve Nash, no one else on the Trash Heap has won an MVP. Durant has become a ridiculous force in the NBA. He is kept out of the top 24 because he is young and now he is injured. If his career were to end today, he would not have the career that the top 24 guys have.
Next -- Part III, guys 13-24.
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Stretch With Michelle Jenneke
I have literally watched this clip 5 times and I have never heard one word she says. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=344475529076498&fref=nf
Monday, March 23, 2015
Best 12, Next 12, Then Trash 12
Here are 36 all-time great NBA players in alphabetical order -- pick the all-time best 12, then separate out the next best 12, then throw the other 12 on the proverbial Trash Heap.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Ray Allen, Charles Barkley
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Ray Allen, Charles Barkley
Rick Barry, Elgin Baylor, Larry Bird
Kobe Bryant, Wilt Chamberlain, Clyde Drexler
Tim Duncan, Kevin Durant, Julius Erving
Patrick Ewing, Kevin Garnett, John Havlicek
LeBron James, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan
Karl Malone, Moses Malone, George Mikan
Reggie Miller, Steve Nash, Dirk Nowtizki
Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal, Chris Paul
Gary Payton. Bob Petit, Scottie Pippen
Oscar Robertson, David Robinson, Bill Russell
John Stockton, Dwayne Wade. Jerry West.
You are not required to pick by position. You may have 12 centers or 12 guards if you would like. The question is, "Who, in your opinion, are the best 12 NBA/ABA players of all-time and then who are 13-24?" Then you toss the last 12 on the trash heap, regardless of how close you think the vote is between 24 & 25, etc.
You are not required to pick by position. You may have 12 centers or 12 guards if you would like. The question is, "Who, in your opinion, are the best 12 NBA/ABA players of all-time and then who are 13-24?" Then you toss the last 12 on the trash heap, regardless of how close you think the vote is between 24 & 25, etc.
I will post my choices in a week.
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