Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
This may be the one position where there is little debate about who #1 is ( perhaps PF as well where Duncan is pretty much universally recognized). You have a few kiddies who've grown up on Kobe and determined that he's better by watching youtube footage of Jordan highlights. If you were around in the 90s during Jordan's heyday and got to watch him every night on wgn telecasts, its no question who the overall superior player is.
This may be the one position where there is little debate about who #1 is ( perhaps PF as well where Duncan is pretty much universally recognized). You have a few kiddies who've grown up on Kobe and determined that he's better by watching youtube footage of Jordan highlights. If you were around in the 90s during Jordan's heyday and got to watch him every night on wgn telecasts, its no question who the overall superior player is.
Yep!
Ah the days of listening to Johnny Redd Kerr call games. Remember the opening theme to NBA on NBC?
Thompson had everything you’d want in your shooting guard except height. Listed at six foot four, Thompson was closer to six foot two and looks noticeably shorter than his contemporaries on tape. Didn’t matter. The dude soared through the air but what really separated him was his zero-to-sixty explosiveness in traffic. Surrounded by four or five taller players, time and time again Thompson took your breath away by springing four feet to block a shot or dunk on someone’s head. He didn’t need a running start and didn’t need to bend his knees. You don’t earn the nickkname “Skywalker” unless there’s a really good reason.
The defining Thompson story: During the same afternoon as Havlicek’s final game, Thompson was battling Gervin for the 1978 scoring title. Back then, the Boston Garden’s PA announcer rattled off NBA scores during time-outs , so after giving the Nuggets-Pistons halftime score, he added, “David Thompson has 53 points,” and crowd gasped in disbelief. He ended up with 73 points, but the fact remains, Thompson was so explosive that many honestly believed he could score 100-plus points in a game.
So what happened to him?
He developed a monster coke problem in the late seventies, battled a variety of injuries and eventually blew out his knee after falling down a Studio 54 stairwell. Maybe it’s impossible to capture the magnitude of Thompson’s premature demise, but he was (a) the most underrated superstar of the past thirty-five years (b) the single biggest NBA tragedy other than Lenny Bias
Two strong statements, right? Since you bought my book, I feel obligated to back them up. During the first two postmerger seasons (’77 and ’78), Thompson averaged a 27-5-4, shot 52 percent and made consecutive first-team All-NBA’s during one of the richest talent stretches in league history. How old was Thompson when he finished third in the MVP voting and nearly brought the Nuggets to the 1978 Finals?
Twenty-three.
MJ, Kobe, Iverson, T-Mac, and Wade made the leap from twenty-three to twenty-four, but Thompson took a step backward. Why? Two words: nose candy.
I failed to find anything from 1973 to 1978 that made me think Thompson was anything other than Jordan before Jordan. He also understood something that Kobe and Jordan didn’t know right away: namely, that his team would win more if he sacrificed some of his numbers to make everyone better.
In NBA TV’s Thompson documentary, Skywalker, Issel made the following testimonial: “All of his teammates loved him because he helped you win games, and he was the type of player that made everyone on the court better, not a player who subtracted from everyone else on the team to get his stats.
The biggest difference between Thompson and Jordan: Thompson’s vice (drugs) was infinitely worse for basketball than Jordan’s vice (gambling). Had Thompson skipped coke and gambled away millions on golf every summer, we’d be looking at someone who would have altered the Western landscape and broken through with shoe commercials, mainstream marketing and everything else. Do Magic’s Lakers win five titles with Jordan before Jordan thriving in Denver and Walton’s feet holding up in Portland?
I’m going out on a limb and saying no. What a shame.
And that’s why Thompson’s abrupt career ended up being the NBA’s biggest tragedy except for Lenny Bias.
I caught Thompson during his "Disco Dust" days! Still remember the '79 All Star Game, where he did work, and was MVP! But yes, the "disco dust" and the fall at 54 did him in!
I'm not saying Andrew Toney was anywhere near Skywalker during his peak, but The Boston Strangler was as good as any shooting guard there ever was! Dude was the quintessential Celtic Killer! No one on Boston could guard him! There were two reasons why the Celts got Dennis Johnson: 1) to guard Magic; and 2) to guard Toney! Andrew was as physically strong as any 2 I've ever seen, to this day! And his first step was unmatched!
It's unfortunate that a contract dispute with Sixer owner Harold Katz, who thought Toney was playing lazy and failed to realize that Toney had a broken foot, forced Toney to retire with bitterness!
Michael Jordan
Kobe Bryant
Jerry West
George Gervin
Allen Iverson (he will be put as SG, and not in the PG thread)
Clyde Drexler
Dwayne Wade
Pete Maravich
Earl "The Pearl" Monroe
Ray Allen
Reggie Miller
Sam Jones
Hal Greer
Bill Sharman
David Thompson
Joe Dumars
Vince Carter(after thinking about it, both these raptors might have played SF at some point and I didn't include them in the SF thread, so here they are)
Tracy McGrady
Sidney Moncrief
Manu Ginobili
Mitch Richmond
Other
#1 is obvious. Only players who I saw play 1980s and beyond:
2. Kobe
3. Wade
4. Reggie Miller
5. Iverson
6. Ray Allen
7. Drexler
8. Vince Carter
9. McGrady
10. Dumars
Once you get to the bottom, it gets hairy choosing between guys who were more talented (Carter, McGrady) and guys who played team ball and won (Dumars, Ginobili). But Vince was pretty much considered the best player in the game at one point, so you have to include him on the list.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
