Here is a thread to discuss overrated players and teams. I’ll start: Anthony Edwards. 47th in PER last year, 76th in PER this year. By the way, KAT is top 4.
Yes but for some reason, all the truly great players- Jokic, Giannis, AD- are right up there on top and the eye test confirms. No true superstar has ever been outside the Top 70.
I'll go: Allen Iverson was way overrated. I always thought he was a ball hog who dribbled too much and jacked up too many shots. His shot percentage was not great. He averaged a lot of points, but at what expense for his team?
Its threads like this that drive me nuts. Brings out horrible takes, sorry. AI was 5,10” at best and was unstoppable and a Hall of Famer. Next….
Brother HCP, you are not the only person here who knows hoops. I won't go into my bona fides, but they are enough to say that they match yours, as do those of lots of people here. Lots of smart basketball fans at S2. You may not agree that AI was overrated, but you know what? As the great Jeff Lebowski once said, "That's like, your opinion man." And I happen to think that your take is naive and unsophisticated. (and btw, AI was not 5'10.)
The thread shifted from current overrateds to past overrateds. Good, history is where my age helps. A lot of big-stat players were widely criticized as selfish when they played. Many years after retiring, their reputations increased with new generations, based solely on their stats. Off the top of my head (in other words, there were more): Chamberlain, Maravich, Moses Malone, Dominique Wilkins, Barkley. Others weren't labeled negative when they played, but weren't considered "great" until they years later became celebrities, like certain head coaches. Another example of how a reputation can reverse as the years go on: As a Blazer, Walton got a lot of criticism nationwide for his politics. By the time he got to San Diego and then Boston, he had toned it down so the media eased up. Then he became a media extrovert, and constantly praised his former political opponents, who slowly became his fans.
The contra is that some superstars are never mentioned anymore. For example in forwards, everyone mentions Erving and Bird, but not Bob Pettit or Rick Barry, who were better than Laker Elgin Baylor, often listed as best 60s small forward. Lakers are elevated a level above where they belong. Players who were much better before they became Lakers, like Chamberlain, Jabbar, and LeBron James, are always pictured in Laker uniforms.
For the record @THE HCP : Kareem: Career FG%: 55.9 Magic: Career FG%: 52.0 John Stockton: Career FG%: 51.5 Michael Jordan: Career FG%: 49.9 Larry Bird: Career FG%: 49.6 Reggie Miller: Career FG%: 47.1 Andre Miller: Career FG% 46.1 Carmelo Anthony: Career FG%: 44.7 Russell Westbrick, errrr Westbrook: Career FG%: 43.8 Allen Iverson: Career FG%: 42.5
Agreed, but on the other hand, once they built a team round him he was almost literally the only guy who could score. I mean, those Lakers went undefeated to the championship that year... EXCEPT for the "Ty Lue stepover" game. Look at who else was on that team. Who else is scoring? IMAGINE the attention Iverson was getting. Iverson's one of those players, like Rasheed, who I started off hating and he completely won me over. Heart as big as a whale. Fell off a cliff once he lost a step, mind, and a HORRIBLE influence on a generation of kids learning basketball...
Iverson was an absolute monster in his prime. He may not have been 5'10. But he was 160ish pounds. If he was in today's era I feel like he would have been even better.
You know the reason everybody is hyping Edwards: he's the Great American Hope in the midst of the foreign takeover of the NBA MVP race. Plus he's a GREAT interview and has charisma to burn (unlike the possibly more deserving Jason Tatum). He definitely has that "not afraid of anybody" thing that Jordan had, even if he's no Jordan. This year he's shooting way too many threes probably because they replaced a shooter with a guy who camps in the paint fucking up Ant's drives.
Doubt it because it's much easier to pack the paint. They still had illegal defense in Iverson's day (even if they also had handchecking, but you have to catch him to handcheck him)
Most of the bigs today aren't enforcer types though. And I feel like dude would live at the free throw line.
