He's not better than Magic, get out of here with that. For sure better than Kareem and Durant though.
Imho, he already passed Magic and Bird.
Jordan
Wilt
Lebron
Duncan
Kareem
Shaq
Curry
Bird
Magic
Russell/Durant
What say you?
He's not better than Magic, get out of here with that. For sure better than Kareem and Durant though.
I don't like to compare Curry to Magic, 2 different profiles tbh
They can't guard each other either
No way I'm picking Durant over Olajuwon, probably not over Kobe either.
How is Magic that untouchably great, seriously? He couldn't shoot nor defend. If he hadn't been drafted into one of the most stacked teams of all-time, he wouldn't even be considered top 10.
You're overrating the out of Abdul-Jabbar. That was a team that would win 40-47 games every year until Magic got there. You're making it sound like Durant joining the 73 win Warriors. Magic was the Lakers. He was their break and he's the best ever at leading one.
Rating Magic and Laker Kareem will always be a never ending debate
You can make arguments for and against both
It's also hard to tell if Worthy was overrated or underrated
Might be, I'm ranking based solely on stats/accolades/metrics. I didn't get to see them play enough season after season to make an opinion based solely on eye test. I'm just ranking Kareem ahead of Magic because he did win a championship of his own. He also measures as a much more complete player on both sides of the floor.
Here's an argument:
Kareem leading the Lakers without Magic:
1975-76: 40-42, missed playoffs
1976-77: 53-29, made WCF got swept by Walton
1977-78: 45-37, lost to Seattle in the first round
1978-79: 47-35, lost to Seattle in the second round
Magic leading the Lakers without Kareem:
1989-90: 63-19, lost to Phoenix in the second round
1990-91: 58-24, lost to Chicago in the Finals
Bird is also a player that by any objective metric was better than Magic but usually gets ranked lower because his teams won 3 rings instead of the 5 Magic's teams won.
Bird could pretty much do anything that Magic did but with much better shooting and defense.
Under that premise:
Kareem leading the Bucks without Magic
truth tbh
I can't look past Kareem not being able to consistently lead his team to 50 win seasons without Magic or Oscar. The year Robertson retired he led the Bucks to 38 wins in the weakest era in NBA history when a lot of top talent like Julius Erving, George Gervin, Moses Malone, etc was in the ABA. Not like he was on an island in Milwaukee either considering he had Bob Dandridge on the team too. Then forced the trade to LA and led them to 40 wins. At least he missed 17 games in '75 when he led the Bucks to 38 wins, but he played 82 games in '76 leading the Lakers to 40 wins despite still having a pretty solid Gail Goodrich next to him. 77 he led them to 53 wins but got his teeth kicked in by Walton in the playoffs. 78 and 79 very disappointing seasons losing to kind of meh Seattle team early in the playoffs both years. While having Jamaal Wilkes and Norm Nixon next to him both years and Adrian Dantley too in 79. Got beat by Moses Malone when he was a one man team on the Rockets in 81 when the idiot coach Westhead decided to slow the offense down and run it through Kareem. If Larry Bird or Magic Johnson or Tim Duncan or Shaquille O'Neal are playing most of the season they're taking you to 50 wins, can't say that for Kareem.
Worthy seemed to get adequate praise.
I always felt like Byron Scott was underrated on that team.
He had Oscar. Led those Bucks to 38 wins and then forced a trade the year Oscar retired.
I like your top 5 a lot.
6-10
6.) Bird
7.) Russell
8.) Magic
9.) Curry
10.) Shaq
Bird couldn't run a break like Magic, so didn't get his team as many easy points. Magic is the best passer the league has ever seen, as great a passer as Bird was. And please don't put Bird and defense in the same sentence. I think they're pretty close overall though. And Bird did get ed having to go through Philly / Milwaukee / Detroit every year while LA got a free pass to the Finals in the 80s unless Kareem wanted to the bed against Houston centers.
This.
Magic was a true point with great handles and vision, the likes of which has yet to be matched since he retired, tbh. Watching the no look passes and threading of the needle was beautiful.
I have Bird higher on my list because of his scoring ability and clutch gene, but he was not the passer Magic was.
MJ, Kareem
Bill, Bird, Magic, Duncan, Lebron
Wilt, Hakeem, Shaq, Kobe, Curry
When Lebron breaks many of Kareem's records. I think Kareem's legacy takes a significant hit.
I don't have a list in mind and don't feel like sitting down and doing a ranking, but taking more of a guestimation approach, I think Steph could probably rank somewhere in the 20-30 range all time.
He is without a doubt in my mind the greatest shooter in NBA history. That alone carries a significant amount of weight. Yet that by itself doesn't raise his entire game to top 10 levels imo.
"Greatest" is a term that can be interpreted different ways.
If we rank players who made an impact on or influenced changing the game, I'd put Curry up there with the likes of Jordan and Wilt and Magic and Iverson. I think Curry has had a profound impact on the evolution of the game.
Idk that I'd rank him nearly as high on an all time list because of that and his shooting ability.
At Curry ahead of Johnson, Bird, Durant, etc. because of the agenda driven national media brainwashing casuals into thinking their latest unprecedented opponent injury luck championship (no Murray, Porter Jr., Hardaway Jr., R. Williams and Smart hurt) somehow makes him any greater than he was.
He sucked last season, but he's still the highest paid player on the team and would have been a key rotation player (unlike Wiseman, who wasn't going to crack the Warriors playoff rotation).
Curry is somewhere in the 12-13 range tbh.
Jordan
Lebron
Kareem
Magic
Duncan
Bird
Russell
Wilt
Shaq
Hakeem
Kirby
Oscar
Moses
Curry
Dirk
Dominos
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