so ill give a warning here that this is an old man rant....
What players from the 90's and 2000s are grossly overrated by todays generation? Some even receive legendary status when I feel they were anything but. Its like the opposite of when i was growing up, old people would tell us how great players were from previous generations and a lot of us just didnt get it. Where as today, I feel like its the opposite, mainly because of highlight packages on youtube
but this has been driving me nuts, i dont participate in social media much in general, but i do read a lot of discussions that come up on feeds that I have, a lot of it is sports related, typically GOAT discussions and player rankings, and the way some players from the 90s/00s are viewed is wild to me.
anyway, so to answer my own questions, these players specifically, I think are grossly overrated by todays generation.
Jason Williams (White Chocolate) - people clamour over his highlights and talk about how criminally underrated he was in his prime. People have even said if he stayed on the Kings, they might have won a title! What almost never gets mentioned is that Rick Adelman use to bench him in the 4th quarter at times bc he couldnt stop turning the ball over. The Kings didnt become a legit contendor until they got rid of Williams and brought in Mike Bibby (who also doesnt get enough credit for his time with the Kings)
Allen Iverson - people today rank Iverson as a top 5 SG all time, and his run to the finals in 2001 and even being able to win one game against the lakers is super human because it was him and a bunch of scrubs on his team. The truth, Iverson had the 6th man of the year, the defensive player of the year, and and the coach of the year, while playing in a historically weak Eastern Conference. In this historic playoff run, he shot under 30% from the field for the entire playoffs. Yes he did have moments of brilliance but they were cancelled out by absolutely dreadful shooting displays. For me, AI will always be remembered as a me first player who was a volume scorer on teams that almost always underachieved, then had to retire bc he refused to come off the bench.
Kobe Bryant - I actually think Kobe is a top 10 player all time. But hes viewed today as a top 3, which is bananas to me. Kobe always benefitted from having the best big men in the sport on his team. Today people say he beat the Big Three Boston celtics by himself in 2010, which is crazy. The disrespect that Pau Gasol gets for his role on that team in criminal, and the HUGE role Andrew Bynum played is largely forgotten about, not to mention Lamar Odom.
anyways, end of rant. Anyone else have a player from this era who gets legend status thats undeserved? Curious what other people think, and Im sure some will have problems with my opinions, especially regarding Iverson, but its a good discussion! and my daughter is watching Cars for the 800th time so it gives me something to do
BTW, players from the 90s/00s that I believe are UNDERrated are John Stockton, Charles Barkley, and David Robinson