I know when we think of the greatest bball players, we think of MJ and Wilt. But lets think about it deeper. wilt played in a time where he didnt have opponents weighing 260-270 pounds. he didnt have to battle a shaq, a tim duncan, even a yao ming who could give wilt a problem with his height. Bill Russell was really his only challenge, and wilt still had 3 inches on him and dominated him stats-wise. Michael Jordan is a good player but do we as fans boost his greatness just cause he is the greatest we have ever seen. there were good guards to play him, but were there the same competition for him as oscar robertson's time were guards were considered better and teams played better on the defensive end. i am not downplaying none of these two stars but when we think of the greatest bball players ever, lets considere Magic Johnson, a great passer and led his team to 5 championships on star-studded teams, Larry Bird who shined on a Celtics team full of HOFers, Oscar Robertson, who averaged a triple double for a full season and career avgs. that is almost a triple double. So after giving a real good thought on this subject, who is the greatest player in your opinion and why.
i think micahel jordan and oscar robertson are the best jordan because he was just that damn good and robertson because he avereged a triple double in a season and he was off by one rebound or assist in other seasons
You don't need to delete it. It's good for these to be redone every once and a while, it's more fun to renew it than too go search and look at an old one.
I think MJ was the greatest. He won countless scoring titles, a ton of MVPs, and he is the only player to have a career average of 30 ppg. To top it all off, he won 6 NBA championships in his career. He's what, 4th all time in scoring. He could very well be first had he not retired those first two times. Also, he almost led a very bad Wizards team to the playoffs a few years back at the age of 39. He's the best player I've ever had the opportunity to see play. I've never seen anyone who was able to dominate the game so easily. And, at times, it looked easy for him. I think he's the greatest player, hands down, no questions asked, of any era.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting thedude9990:</div><div class="quote_post">i think micahel jordan and oscar robertson are the best jordan because he was just that damn good and robertson because he avereged a triple double in a season and he was off by one rebound or assist in other seasons</div> I took a very short break from basketball this year so my knowledge may be a bit rusty, but Oscar averaged a triple over a four season span in his NBA career.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting sunsfan1357:</div><div class="quote_post">I took a very short break from basketball this year so my knowledge may be a bit rusty, but Oscar averaged a triple over a four season span in his NBA career.</div> Yeah but they wasnt keeping proper official records, so I think its only one season where it was on official record as averaging a triple-double for the entire year. In 1961, think thats how the story goes.
Welcome back to 1999. Michael Jordan is the greatest of all-time. - Greatest leader - Greatest poise - Greatest determination - Greatest playoff performer - Greatest dominator - Greatest mentality - Greatest consistent performer - Greatest statistics - Greatest achievements - Greatest success - Greatest game - Co-greatest dunker I'll stop here before I embarass even more.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Chungster:</div><div class="quote_post">Welcome back to 1999. Michael Jordan is the greatest of all-time. - Greatest leader - Greatest poise - Greatest determination - Greatest playoff performer - Greatest dominator - Greatest mentality - Greatest consistent performer - Greatest statistics - Greatest achievements - Greatest success - Greatest game - Co-greatest dunker I'll stop here before I embarass even more.</div> MJ was the GOAT but I think "statistically", Wilt and Oscar Robertson had more impressive numbers IMO..
I think Jordan is the best of all-time,he is a leader on and off the court and he had so much drive and determination,has anyone seen Jordan to the Max?The only thing I dont like was his descion to keep retiring and coming back,I understood his first retirement(loss of his father,so he wanted to play baseball cause thats what his dad always wanted him to do),but the other retirements were just bad descion making IMO.
As much as I wish I could even begin to try and discuss this topic, I just don't see any reason to try and pin "The Greatest" label on any one player. There are so many variables (to which I will give the thread author credit for acknowledging) between eras, that making any really tangible arguement for a singular player akin to the anology of peeing into the wind: It's only going to cause a mess. I prefer to look at this subject as a list, with no one occupying the top spot, but rather a group all being given thier due credit for thier contributions to the sport during thier respective times. Just my opinion.
Wilt, read his autobiography. Some of the things he did that you don't hear about are incredible (and I'm not talking about that record that has do with scoring but not during a basketball game ) Plus, averaging 50.4 points a game for a whole season, regardless of who you are playing against, is insane.
When you average 50.4 points per game in an entire season, I couldn't care less who you play against. Which was against the best players in the world at the time. What people don't understand is that during Wilts time there were always at least three people in the leauge taller than him, even in his rookie year. So if height is why he dominated, then why did the others suck so much. Because talent wasn't the same at the time, that made Wilt even greater, to be so advanced already, back then where teams rarely had private planes, the same treatment from trainers, the shoes, former legends to build their game around, new strategies................ This is why you can't compare eras. Oh yah and the shoes. If it was easy to score back in the day then lets look at other facets of the game, wilt dominated reboundingwise, but why didn't other people dominate (other than Bill Russell). When two teams other than Wilt's and Bill's played, why didn't the biggest player on the court dominate? It's not about height. How many people lead the leauge in points one year (a few years that is) and lead the league in assists another? Lets get an example of an old school player who didn't dominate height wise (if I say Oscar then people will say, oh but he was a 6'5" pg) so im going to choose Nate Archibald. He didn't have height, thats why his nickname was tiny. He was like an Iverson. In one season he lead the league in points and assists. I want someone to argue with me about that.
The "greatest" player I've seen play over an extended period of time is Michael Jordan. His long career in Chicago was electrifying and consistently great. I can't think of another player in the modern era (besides Magic Johnson, who unfortunately I've never had the pleasure of watching) who sustained such greatness with seemingly no real weakness over the span of a decade. Even Larry Bird, after 8 years or so, started wearing down due to injuries. If I had been following basketball before the 90s, perhaps my opinion would be different. But I have to go with Jordan.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting ADubb20:</div><div class="quote_post">Let me answer this question lol. The greatest player of all-time is Bill Russell.</div> From the little I know of that era, I can't agree with this. He enjoyed great team success, sure, but if you plugged in Chamberlain on those teams would the Celtics have not been as good? They were both equally good on defense, and Chamberlain was obviously superior on the offensive end.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting durvasa:</div><div class="quote_post">From the little I know of that era, I can't agree with this. He enjoyed great team success, sure, but if you plugged in Chamberlain on those teams would the Celtics have not been as good? They were both equally good on defense, and Chamberlain was obviously superior on the offensive end.</div> Everything you said is very true, but because Russell won and continously won, I think he was greater. Russell did things that weren't on the stat sheet, the little things that make you win. Hakeem Olajuwon and Mark Eaton are happy that shot blocking stats weren't kept because Wilt and Russ would'a ate em up. Yes Wilt was dominant offensively and statistically. He is also my second all-time favourite player (next to Magic). But Russel's last championship year prooved greatness. Bill was player coach, it was Bill's last year, most of those Celt's like Cousy had retired and they barely made the playoffs. However they battled to the finals and there they met Wilt's dominating Laker's, complete with a guy who is known as "The godfather of high flyers" Elgin Baylor and some guy on the NBA logo, know as "Mr. Clutch" Jerry West playing alongside Wilt. The Celtics won the championship that year with Bill Russell and John Havlicek leading the way. All of those names are great players, but in my opinion Bill Russell was the greatest.
This is too easy. The greatest player of any era is Michael Jordan. Think about what he's done for the sport of basketball... The NBA was nearly extinct by the time Jordan was drafted in 1984. After that, everything from the regular season games, to the playoffs, even the slam dunk contest all had a lethal injection of Jordan. The best rivalries included Jordan. Jordan vs. Magic, Bird, Barkley, Thomas, Hill, and Kobe...these not only brought fans to the TV, but also helped boost ticket sales. Kids couldn't get enough of Michael, either. McDonald's, Nike, Gatorade, and even Ballpark hot dogs had their run-in and success with MJ. Not convinced? Let's talk about his basketball success. The Flu game...when I have the flu, I lay in bed...but MJ goes out and scores 38, shot nearly 50%, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and a block...oh, and the game-winning shot. Or...the shot on Ehlo. Or the way he'd jump, do a 180, and slap his wrist as he tossed the ball backwards into the hoop. How about jumping from one side of the paint, faking left and right with the ball, and ending up completely on the other side of the paint with a reverse layup? What about his 50+ point games that seemed to occur every week? How about being defensive player of the year, an all-star every year of his career, all-NBA first team 7 years straight (10 all together), having the highest career scoring average of any NBA/ABA player ever with 30.1 PPG, 10 scoring titles (three more than Wilt)...the list goes on... Only player to have a triple-double in an all-star game Hit 28 game-winning shots in his career Has posted 28 career triple doubles Highest PPG for an NBA Finals series (41.0 PPG) 173 games with 40 points or more Two Olympic Gold Medals All-time playoff record for most steals Only 40 year old player to score over 40 points in a game What else is there to say about MJ? He's not 7'4"...he doesn't weigh 300+ lbs...yet he's a guard who played in an era where PG's and SG's dominated the league. Guys were drafted and predicted to be the "next Jordan" right out of college. Him and Vince Carter made the Slam Dunk contest exciting...MJ made the NBA exciting...so why even argue about who's the greatest?
I think the greatest of all-time has to be Oscar Robertson. He was as good at scoring as MJ, then he was 2 times the better passer and rebounder than MJ. So by that the Big O is the GOAT.
wilt rocks i don't give a crab about who wilt was playing against 100 points is a heck of alot of points that's 50 fieldgoals in 48 min
