
Originally Posted by
hometheaterguy
OK, a couple of things..
1) Magic Johnson was the greatest player I have seen with my own eyes walk onto the court... PERIOD! I watched this 6' 9" player dominate at the 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5!!! Magic Johnson could do everything and everything he did was phenomenal. Did you watch him play? Imagine if he didn't get sick!! He still had many years left in him and HIV cut his career short... God knows what his stats would have been or how many more championships he would of helped the Lakers win.
2) Yes, Jordan was a game changer. He changed the guard position and like Johnson forced teams to change their defense solely based on their games. I'm not going to go tit for tat with you on this since it is like splitting hairs then trying to split them again but for my money... Magic was #1 and Jordan 1a... What I see with James, if he stays on course, he will be 1aa.. I mean these will be the upper layer of the upper stratosphere of elite players.
Now my Dad would say that Wilt Chamberlain was the greatest player he ever saw with Magic and Jordan tied for second...
@ 1& 2
My dude, Magic had Kareem, arguably the best if not top 3 centers ever, and Worthy. Jordan had Pippen, Horace grant is not on their level. If Jordan had Kareem, Worthy, Perkins he might have had like 9 titles. Magic, in the 80's, had better teams them Michael could ever dream of having. MJ won more w less. That's one reason why I consider him to be the better player. Other than Pippen, Michael had an aging Bill Cartwright, a very good spot up shooter John Paxon and the aforementioned Grant. This formula was repeated over the course of Michael's career and he ultimately won more titles (6 to 5)than Magic.
Couple the above w Michael's astounding numbers and you can really see why many consider him the best of all time; a 30 ppg scoring average over the course of his career while shooting around 50% (unbelievable, freakish efficiency), averaging 5 reb and 5 assists while keeping to's low. His body of work is just perfection personified. He is above Magic. That is the consensus in most intelligent circles and the numbers along w how much he won are evidence of his legitimacy as the greatest. I can't believe I'm having to argue this on a NY forum. We're supposed to smart B-ball fans, lol...
OK, now for your other comments:
Paul and STAT is the best tandem you can put together... I said that Paul was a superior distributor but the games I watch with him, he is the dominate scorer..
Look at John Paxon for example or even Nash... Paxon was fundamentally sound, was a great pure shooter and next to Magic Johnson, had the best court vision I have ever seen at the 1.Who are you talking about here?? Do you mean somebody else?? He was a quarterback! He understood the game he played in, he knew the team format and he understood the floor. He made Malone the legend he became. Oh you're talking about Stockton. NM
Look, I know how good Melo is and how good Paul is, I'm just saying that their games are too similar to blend well, night in and out. This is just flat out wrong. Paul's game as a true, great pass-first PG shares nothing w Melo. Paul is a great scorer as well as a having all of the traits you want in a great PG ala Isiah Thomas. But make no mistake he's more concerned w setting up teammates than scoring. Melo is a scorer so you're not making sense. It's actually Melo and Amare that play similarly. I would rather the Knicks go after Paul, match him up with STAT and try to find very good position players to round out the roster...
That's fair. Infact this is what I was advocating for in the summer. But, now having thought about this more, I've come to the conclusion that greatness is indispensable. Greatness also finds a way to complement greatness. If two or three great players are put together they act as a pressure release valves for each other. They free each other up. The cumulative effect of the damage they can do thus is increased because their effectiveness is increased due to teams not being able to focus too much one player.
I know you are going to blast me on this but I would love the Knicks to put Odom next to STAT.. He is the type of player that would compliment STAT. He can defend, he can distribute and score.... He would not demand the ball from STAT, but help to facilitate STAT. I think we need a consistent 3 point/long range shooter flanking for the kick out... We also need solid guys... Like Fields that is just a solid, smart, well rounded player!
What will help to "bleed off" the pressure from STAT is consistent outside shooting! Yes, a team needs other players too step up when someone is having an off game. But Boston and Miami are successful because their players PERFECTLY compliment each other.. Remember when they tried to bring in Wallace? He did not blend well at all because he is a selfish egotistical player. He was great with the Piston because he WAS the man! He had great position players surrounding him and the Pistons showed you just how far a well rounded, well coached team can go!