So Olajuwon wouldn't have come over to Portland from the University of Houston until he was in his 30s? The NCAA would probably have helped expedite the process for Portland.
Watch an NBA game from Magic Johnson's heyday. There was almost no contact allowed. The Pistons of Daly and the Knicks of Riley completely changed the game. Even with the "new" rules, the game is much more physical now than it was 20-30 years ago, IMO. Watching some of those old games is like watching a pick-up game at the gym, but with much better shooters. Michael Cooper was considered an elite defender, and he weighed 170 lbs. soaking wet.
I think it will be interesting in fix or six years to look back and compare numbers from Durant's ten years in the league to some of those other players ten years in the league.
Suppose Greg spontaneously combusts tomorrow: even then he's a bust like Len Bias was a bust. (In case it's not obvious, I think it's silly to label Len Bias a bust.)
As a Blazer center, would that have surprised you? Dumb debate, anyhow. I assume you know what I meant, though.
Well, in terms of NBA scoring leaders, Durant is on the low end in the past 40 years, even including his 30 ppg season. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_National_Basketball_Association_season_scoring_leaders Durant's 27.7 ppg this year is the second-lowest since George Gervin in 1977. The game is much tougher these days in terms of scoring, IMO.
tracy mcgradys 19-22 years > durants 19-22 years and lets see if durant can put up 32 ppg with a 30.2 PER and lead the league in ws/48 next year in his age 23 season
Excuse me??? A "bust" is someone who never plays up to his potential, not someone who dies before he even gets a chance to play. Len Bias does not belong on any list of this kind.
I think the idea that he would not have come to Portland in his prime, due to some superstition, is just silly. He would have joined the Blazers, promptly shattered his leg in ten places and never recorded a point or block in the NBA. Science. What do you expect? It's clown town around here.
McGrady was a talent on the level of Kobe...he just didn't have the durability. But that wasn't clear in his first few seasons, so you never know. Durant appears to be a Hall of Fame talent, but many things can happen to derail a career. What if he falls in with gangs and gets hooked on the weed?
More like a tragic idiot. He (Bias) would need an extension ladder to reach "bust" status. Sorry if that sounds cold - but the older I get, the less patience I have for people who have it all and decide to just piss it away. Oden, OTOH is a bust. The reason he was a failure doesn't interest me because it makes no difference to the team's W/L record.
I think we have a fundamental disconnect between posters over what constitutes a "bust." If you define it as "contributing no value to the team because you simply weren't good enough" then Bias doesn't qualify (and neither does Oden). If you define it as "a draft pick that resulted in little to no value to the team" then Bias could be argued as the ultimate bust (never played a minute for the team that selected him) and Oden has been a bust so far. I think people who are reacting badly to Bias being called a "bust" are imputing a blame element to the label...and blaming a guy who died seems cold. If you simply define busts in terms of value received by the team, it's not cold at all. It's just reality.
Exactly. Anyone who read this thread should know that it seems to me that the original chart seems to use two criteria: 1. Production relative to perceived potential, and 2. Opportunity cost of players that the team could have drafted, instead. Oden being number one based on these criteria seems silly to me, and I pointed out that Bowie has him beaten (quite soundly) on the second one and Bias has him beaten on the first. Further, I asserted that EVEN IF Oden never played another NBA minute, that would remain to be the case. I don't blame Bias for dying (although he did more to deserve it than Oden has done to deserve his injuries, as far as I can tell), but it's not about assigning blame when someone is called a bust. It is what it is. We don't need to think it means there's blame to assign. (Except in the case of Bowie. Jordan was the obvious pick. ) Ed O.
I don't think it's cold to label someone a bust when they basically took their own life. This guy wasn't killed crossing a street or choking on a piece of steak... the guy died from a drug overdose. I'm sorry if I don't have any sympathy for someone that dumb. I think it's tragic that the guy died so young, and that his family had to endure his death, but people who are too dumb to stay away from dangerous substances deserve to be called a bust. I think the label fits him just fine.
You could classify busts by whom to blame. Scouts: Overrated LaRue Martin. Drafted many others too high. Trainers and doctors: Ruined Bill Walton and didn't anticipated injuries of many players. The evil system: Killed Len Bias. Keeps drug dosages unregulated and thus unpredictable.
I don't think it's stupid, but he obviously has to absorb some of the responsibility. I can understand a kid pushed into that culture and lifestyle not understanding what an immense risk he's taking. People routinely take risks that they don't realize the enormity of, not because they're stupid but because the human mind is often a pretty poor risk calculator. If you see lots of people doing it around you with no ill effects, it's pretty natural for your instinctive sense of the risk involved to go way down, even if that doesn't match the real risk. So, no, I don't think he's stupid and I think it might be a little cold to say "Fuck him, he blew his chance so he deserves no sympathy" (not that you are necessarily saying that), but I'm okay with labeling him a bust from a drafting standpoint.
