Fair and good points. I think when you're comparing guys who all definitely won rings and definitely hold records, you have to go by how the game changed in reaction to them. In this regard, I'd put LeBron ahead of Magic, mostly because (imho obvs) LeBron has done more to destroy the traditional positions in the game than Magic did (which is how I view Magic changing the game).
If by "in the last 40 years" we're saying players drafted in the past 40 years as opposed to those who played in the past 40 (thus excluding Magic, Bird, and Kareem), then I'd say Jordan/Lebron/Duncan...and then Curry is in the next tier with Shaq/Kobe/Hakeem. So sure, arguably top 5 drafted in the past 40 years. Edit: didn't even think to include Durant, and now I kinda feel bad about that.
Yeah I did mean drafted; I personally wouldn't put Duncan in the top their simply because Shaq altered the game more than Duncan did, despite both of them being amazing players in their own styles. Why feel bad about Durant? He's barely Top 10 lol If he'd been drafted by Portland, he'd probably not even be Top 20.
If your criteria is how much a player changed the game, then sure. But if you're just looking at career accomplishments, Durant and Curry are basically on the same level. Player Comparison: Stephen Curry vs. Kevin Durant | Stathead.com BTW, am I the only one who for some reason didn't realize that Curry is older than Durant, though having entered the NBA 2 years later?
This is why it’s so interesting to me because people compared LeBron to Magic when he was coming out. His size and playmaking. Plus, Magic was a huge catalyst for showtime, which changed the league. LeBron is just a freak. The fact that he’s still this good at his age is nuts. Blows me away.
Steph is the greatest shooter of all time but he's not even a good defender, let along a great defedner like everyone else on the list of MJ, LeBron, Magic, Wilt, Kobe, Bird, Kareem, Russell, Hakeem, Duncan, KD, the big O, Dr. J and Moses Malone. Those guys were all phenominal defenders along with dominant offensive players. I think Shaq was not only better than Steph overall but he was a better defender too even though he wasn't one of the best of his generation. ESPN ranked Steph 16th... right now... in his heyday. Believe me when I say that he'll sink lower than that after his career is over.
Why's that? Its all the about the three ball now and it exploded with Curry, look at 4 & 5's now that stretch the court with three point shooting. Go to a park or gym and watch youngsters shooting three's rather than working on their handle or defense.
Pistol was looked as an exhibitionist with his ball handling and other unreal skills. And yeah it started guys passing behind their back and such, but Curry with the multitude of threes and the Warriors run has impacted the game the way its played today in a huge way. Just count how many threes are shot per team in a year and who's shooting. You got bigs hangin around stretching the court with threes. Summer league was a threefest two as compared the way the game used to be.
Somone once posted how many points Jerry West would've actually scored had there been a 3 pt line in his day...it would've added thousands of points to his scoring stats.
Not really. West made 9016 field goals (on 19032 attempts). Given the dearth of the usage of the 3 point shot when it was introduced, it's unlikely that he would have taken more than a couple thousand over his career--for comparison, fewer than 10% of Larry Bird's field goal attempts were 3's. Logically, it's unlikely that the existence of the 3 point shot would have added much more than 1000 points to West's total.
