You never want to be too early with an all-decade list because you never know when a last-minute, Tiger Woods-like incident could blow the whole thing up. But with only three days left in the decade, I think we're in the clear.
So without further ado, it's time for my all-decade lists -- except one. My list of the 10 best players of the decade will come under separate cover on Thursday. But I have 10 years' worth of other gripes, vents and monologues to get off my chest, and this is my last shot. Here's my best and worst of the "aughts," starting with the teams that ought to have won a title in the past 10 years but never did.
Best teams never to win a championship
http://a.espncdn.com/i/teamlogos/nba/med/dal.gif
1. Dallas Mavericks: The heartbreak loss to Miami in the 2006 NBA Finals was bad enough, but winning 67 games and losing in the first round a year later arguably was worse. And remember, the Mavs also had a great shot before losing Dirk Nowitzki (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=609) to a knee injury in the 2003 Western Conference finals.
2. Sacramento Kings: The Kings undoubtedly would be off this list if they had made another foul shot or two in Game 7 of the 2002 conference finals, if three other human beings drawn at random had officiated Game 6 or if Chris Webber hadn't blown out his knee in the 2003 postseason.
3. Phoenix Suns: The Suns had the misfortune of losing key players at the worst time -- Joe Johnson (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=1007) in the first two games of the 2005 conference finals, Amare Stoudemire (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=1727) and Boris Diaw (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=2167) for the pivotal Game 5 in the 2007 Western Conference semifinals, and Shawn Marion (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=510) after a franchise-wrecker of a trade in 2008.
Best Cinderellas
http://a.espncdn.com/i/teamlogos/nba/med/njn.gif
1. New Jersey Nets, 2001-02: The sheer misery of the Nets' history made what happened after the trade for Jason Kidd (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=429) all the more remarkable. It wasn't just Kidd -- the Nets pilfered Richard Jefferson (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=1006) and Jason Collins (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=987) in the draft, stole vastly underrated Todd MacCulloch (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=493) in free agency, and found a miraculous cure for Kerry Kittles (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=437)' knees -- but he led the way as the Nets were unlikely winners of consecutive Eastern Conference titles.
2. Phoenix Suns, 2004-05: Yes, Stephon Marbury (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=509)'s departure preceded this team's rise, as well. The Suns had won 29 games the previous season, but adding Steve Nash (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=592) quickly transformed them into one of the most exciting offensive teams in history.
3. Boston Celtics, 2007-08: It wasn't as big a shock as the two above, but it's technically the biggest U-turn in league history. Boston traded much of its youth for Kevin Garnett (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=261) and Ray Allen (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=9), kept just enough in reserve to help them along, and rode a tenacious defense to the title.
Best general managers
http://a.espncdn.com/i/headshots/nba/coaches/65/30025.jpg http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2009/1229/nba_g_rcbufordts_65.jpg
1. Gregg Popovich/R.C. Buford, Spurs: The tag-team duo that ran the Spurs for the past decade managed to win 50 or more games every season while claiming three championships and strongly contending most of the years they didn't win it all. Sure, having Tim Duncan (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=215) helped, but stealing Tony Parker (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=1015) and Manu Ginobili (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=272) with late draft picks proved even more fruitful.
2. Joe Dumars, Pistons: Engineered the free-agent signing of the decade (Chauncey Billups (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=63) for the midlevel exception), the sign-and-trade of the decade (getting Ben Wallace (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=885) when he was losing Grant Hill (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=336)), and arguably the midseason trade of the decade (Rasheed Wallace (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=883), although many would lobby for Pau Gasol (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=996)). His team made an amazing six straight conference finals and won a championship despite lacking a superstar.
3. Jerry West, Lakers/Grizzlies: West set the table for the Lakers' three championships by nabbing Kobe Bryant (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=110) and Shaquille O'Neal (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=614), then went to Memphis and helped give the Grizzlies their one brief snippet of respectable basketball.
Worst general managers
http://a.espncdn.com/i/headshots/nba/coaches/65/30094.jpg
Thomas
1. Isiah Thomas, Knicks: The gold standard by which all future reigns of error will be judged.
2. Kevin McHale, Timberwolves: An underrated rival of Thomas who managed to screw up the prime years of one of the greatest players of all time, Kevin Garnett, with a series of awful contracts, most of which involved agent Bill Duffy.
3. Pete Babcock, Hawks: Babcock ran the Hawks for 13 years and had some success in his first decade. In the aughts? Forget it. He drafted DerMarr Johnson (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=398) sixth in 2000 and traded for Dan Dickau (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=1706) on draft night in 2002, swapped Pau Gasol for Shareef Abdur-Rahim (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=3), oversaw Lon Kruger's playoff guarantee, and basically set the stage for item No. 2 in the next section.
Worst seasons
http://a.espncdn.com/i/teamlogos/nba/med/nyk.gif
1. New York Knicks, 2005-06: The Knicks' 23-59 mark under Larry Brown wasn't the worst of the decade, but as far as negativity, mistrust and general misery go, this season cannot be topped. Brown feuded openly with management, changed lineups every hour and benched players he had pined to acquire (most notably Steve Francis (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=255)). In between, there was a sexual harassment case, the cap-crushing deals for Jerome James (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=383) and Eddy Curry (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=990), and the league's second-worst record despite its highest payroll.
2. Atlanta Hawks, 2004-05: I was there, and not a lot of people can say this: On some nights, fans in the upper deck were so lonely they could have written a country music song about it. The Hawks won a decade-low 13 games, then topped it off by passing on Chris Paul (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=2779) in the 2005 lottery.
3. Cleveland Cavaliers, 2002-03: People forget what an awful franchise this was before LeBron came. My enduring memory of this 17-win team was a late-season game in Atlanta. The pregame "warm-up" consisted entirely of Darius Miles (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=550) and Smush Parker (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=1823) practicing dunks -- not actual basketball plays. Inside, the locker room music blared so loudly that it was impossible to conduct interviews. Basically, the inmates were running the asylum.
Worst draft picks
http://assets.espn.go.com/i/headshots/nba/players/65/2171.jpg
Milicic
1. Darko Milicic, Pistons: For sheer impact, you can't top this one. Had the Pistons selected Carmelo Anthony (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=1975), Dwyane Wade (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=1987) or Chris Bosh (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=1977), they likely would have become one of the greatest teams of all time. However, they won one championship and nearly claimed a second despite getting virtually nothing from the No. 2 overall pick in 2003.
2. Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Nuggets: It's hard to imagine a top-five pick being this overmatched at the NBA level, but that's what "Skita" was after Denver took him fifth in 2002 -- two picks before Nene, four before Amare Stoudemire and five ahead of Caron Butler (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=1705). He scored 507 career points and finished with a career field goal percentage of 30.4.
3. Kwame Brown, Wizards: The top pick in 2001 was a huge disappointment for the Wizards, who could have had Pau Gasol. But at least Washington salvaged Caron Butler out of Brown in a steal of a trade with the Lakers. Coincidentally, L.A. then parlayed Brown into Gasol two years later.
Best award votes
Yes, best award votes. Before examining some of the worst decisions of the decade, let's first tip our hats to when common sense prevailed over foolishness.
http://assets.espn.go.com/i/headshots/nba/players/65/215.jpg
Duncan
1. Tim Duncan, 2002 MVP: One of the few times this decade when the voters rightly voted the best player over the best storyline. Jason Kidd created enormous momentum for his candidacy by helping resurrect the Nets, but Duncan was an abundantly superior basketball player.
2. Tony Parker, 2007 Finals MVP: Many criticized this award because Duncan was the Spurs' best player and go-to guy, but Parker was the man in the four-game sweep of Cleveland. Some argued the Cavs didn't have any good point guards, but they were looking at the wrong side of the floor. Cleveland defended point guards very well that season and had just finished making Chauncey Billups look like a rank amateur in the conference finals.
3. Bruce Bowen, 2001 second-team All-Defense: This is the only example I can find of a player getting such recognition in his first season as a regular starter. There normally is a two- to three-year lag with the All-Defense team such that deserving players are bypassed in favor of those who were good a couple of seasons before, but this vote was a glaring exception. Bowen had never played more than 1,500 minutes in a season before 2000-01, and his Miami team wasn't even that good (50-32), but the coaches noticed him.
Worst award votes
And now, let us mark those occasions when common sense didn't prevail.
http://assets.espn.go.com/i/headshots/nba/players/65/3016.jpg
Morrrison
1. Adam Morrison, November 2006 rookie of the month: I realize rookie of the month is a minor award, but as far as mistakes go, this will never be topped. Usually, bad award votes happen because the player who won was only the fifth- or sixth-most deserving player instead of the most deserving. In this case, Morrison was quite possibly the worst rookie in the NBA that season, yet was honored as being the best in November. You can't screw it up worse than that. Although this was not a star-studded rookie crop (in addition to Morrison, Shelden Williams (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=3040), Patrick O'Bryant (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=3019), Mouhamed Sene (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=3029), Fran Vazquez, Hilton Armstrong (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=2984) and Cedric Simmons (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=3030) all went in the top 15), nearly anyone else would have been a better choice.
2. Steve Nash, 2006 MVP: I've already written mountains about this one, so here's all I'll add today: Chauncey Billups played the same position, won 10 more games, had an identical player efficiency rating and made the All-Defense team. He came in fifth, and that was about fair. In addition to Billups, LeBron James (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=1966), Dwyane Wade, Dirk Nowitzki (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=609) and Kobe Bryant all were demonstrably better.
3. Amare Stoudemire, 2003 rookie of the year: Looking back on this, I'm even more appalled than I was at the time. Stoudemire's Suns were a surprise story, and his game was more entertaining than Yao Ming (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=1722)'s, but performance-wise, they weren't even close -- Yao had the same averages in fewer minutes, shot better and blocked nearly twice as many shots. Yao routed Stoudemire when it came to PER, 20.20 to 15.83.
Worst developments
1. AAU ball: The U.S. still produces more talented players than any other country. Sadly, most of the best ones don't have a clue how to play until they head off to the college game at age 18. What happens until that time is a travesty, as our best talents seem to receive the least coaching while competing in AAU tournaments that mostly amount to glorified street-ball tournaments.
2. Expansion of the world championships: The world championships should be a great tournament, the World Cup of basketball. Instead, it is unrelentingly awful until the final three games, by which time all the fans are so anesthetized from 118-54 blowouts that they can hardly be bothered to care.
Somehow, FIBA thought the way to make things more interesting would be to get more countries involved, so it expanded this year's field to 24 teams. This just makes a mockery of what should be a great event. There are, at most, 10 countries that are actually good at basketball; the rest are fillers. This is why the Olympics' 12-team format is perfect and FIBA's tournament is a mess.
3. NBA's abandonment of the Pacific Northwest: Admittedly, this is a cause that's nearer and dearer to my heart. But the Grizzlies and Sonics both had enough fan support to continue as viable franchises; the departures of both were largely management failures.
Best developments
1. De-Riley-ization of the game: In a response to the increasingly rough tactics of the 1990s, personified by the brutish style Pat Riley's teams employed in New York and Miami, the league enforced handchecking rules and made other modifications to open up the floor. The result was a much-more-entertaining style of play and a rebound for the post-Jordan NBA in the second half of the decade. Ironically, Riley stumbled upon the one player best suited for the new rules (Dwyane Wade) and won a championship with him in 2006.
2. Stars who get it: In contrast to the mostly me-first generation that came into the early-to-mid '90s, this generation's most talented players have been much better for the game. LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Dwight Howard (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=2384), Pau Gasol, Chris Paul, Chris Bosh, Brandon Roy (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=3027) and Yao Ming were the best players drafted from 2001 to 2006, and there isn't a bad apple in the bunch.
3. Jerry Colangelo's one-man cure: He revitalized the U.S. national team, and with any luck, he'll do the same with the Basketball Hall of Fame by shining some light on the murky voting process and eliminating its blatant bias toward college coaches and away from NBA players.
Most overrated players
http://assets.espn.go.com/i/headshots/nba/players/65/881.jpg
Walker
1. Antoine Walker: Walker made All-Star teams in 2002 and 2003 while shooting 39.4 and 38.8 percent, respectively. That accomplishment alone should put him first on the list. He was invited to the league's 3-point contest in 2002 despite a career mark in the low 30s; if the goal had been quantity of attempts instead of makes, he might have had a better shot at winning. Somehow, he still got a six-year, $54 million contract in 2005. But he did help in Miami's run to the 2006 title by shooting a career-high 43.5 percent.
2. Michael Olowokandi: Everyone pretends this never happened, but Olowokandi is probably the most overrated free agent in history. When he was a restricted free agent in the summer of 2002, the Clippers offered him $50 million to stay and were roundly criticized for being too cheap to offer him more. Kandi Man took the qualifier because he was so sure he'd make more money the next summer. Remember, this was coming off a season when he shot 43.3 percent and averaged 11.1 points per game. A year later, Kevin McHale took the bait (of course) and signed him for three years, $16 million, and that was still about five times what he was worth.
3. Latrell Sprewell: Regarded as a superstar because he played in New York and had such a charismatic on-the-court persona, Sprewell made the 2001 All-Star team despite scant evidence he belonged (16.3 points, 43.0 percent shooting, 15.1 PER); I believe this to be the lowest PER by a player who made the squad. He was a decent starting shooting guard in this decade, but nothing more.
Most underrated players
http://assets.espn.go.com/i/headshots/nba/players/65/91.jpg
Brand
1. Elton Brand: Although he's ending the decade on a down note, he's the most unappreciated star of the past 10 years as a whole. His unspectacular style won him few fans and fewer sponsors, but Brand nonetheless had eight All-Star-caliber seasons, even though he made the team only twice -- once as a sub after being passed over for Wally Szczerbiak (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=831) in the original voting. His shared rookie of the year award with Steve Francis was another unconscionable oversight.
2. Shawn Marion: The prototypical underrated player because he rarely had the ball in his hands except when finishing and shot a high percentage with few turnovers. In 2006, Marion led the Suns in games, minutes, points, rebounds, shooting percentage, blocks and steals, and was by acclamation the team's best defender. His teammate won the MVP, and Marion got one fifth-place vote.
3. Andre Miller: Never quite good enough to be an All-Star, Miller was nonetheless one of the 10 best point guards of the past decade and probably will go down as the best alley-oop passer ever. Splitting his time among various mediocre teams, he never stayed long enough to generate the kind of appreciation that a Richard Hamilton (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=294) gets in Detroit or a Derek Fisher (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=246) gets in L.A., and that has hurt his renown, too.
JoeTait75
12-30-2009, 01:09 PM
3. Cleveland Cavaliers, 2002-03: People forget what an awful franchise this was before LeBron came. My enduring memory of this 17-win team was a late-season game in Atlanta. The pregame "warm-up" consisted entirely of Darius Miles and Smush Parker practicing dunks -- not actual basketball plays. Inside, the locker room music blared so loudly that it was impossible to conduct interviews. Basically, the inmates were running the asylum.
John Lucas. Ricky Davis and Darius Miles as the "franchise players." IIRC, two of the three major area newspapers had stopped sending beat writers to cover road games. You want to talk about moribund...
Also, who the hell has ever overrated Michael Olawakandi?
EDIT- Thanks for posting this, Lars.
endrity
12-30-2009, 03:14 PM
Thanks Lars!
I agree with Hollinger, and especially two things really get me riled up. The 2006 MVP, which most people still believe Nash deserved even more than 2005 because he kept the Suns competitive without Stoudemire. Even if we forget that Diaw had an amazing season supplying most of Stoudemire's production, it's still a flawed logic. We never give out MVPs for players that are doing well in bad or average teams. We don't reward bad manager-iship or bad teammates. Not only you have to produce at an elite level individually, you have to do so in a winning team, as winning is the ultimate value in the game. I will never understand that decision.
Second Stat over Yao, and how much ridicule the people who thought otherwise took.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions Inc. All rights reserved.