Greatest Player in your NBA history?

[JBcat]

 However as much as I hate to say it I'd go with Jordan.  Could have won 8 straight if he didn't take 2 years off.  

And Bird could have won 8 in the 80s if there was no Magic and vice versa.

And Russell did win 8 in a row (I think) and 11 overall with Wilt as the competition in both the East and in LA.

Jordan's Bulls teams had no strong teams to be tested against.
An old Pistons squad, an old Laker squad, Blazers, Sonics, Suns and Jazz (the only team to make it to the Finals twice against them). Not much there.

Edit: Jordan was an icon, because there was no other player to challenge him a la Bird/Magic, Wilt/Russell and no other dominant team a la Cs/Philly/Lakers in the 60s and the 80s.

He had the stage to himself because Lenny Bias died.

Well Russell wasn't my NBA history otherwise I would have picked him.     Bird would have won a few more without Magic around however he also played with multiple future HOFs.   Jordan played with only Pippen and possibly Rodman as future HOFs.  You put Bird in place of Jordan on the Bulls and I'm not sure he can win 6 out 8 years. 

[Bahku]

I just can't seem to limit this to one player, no matter how long I consider it. I can easily name my favorite player, and that would be Larry Bird, (followed by P2) ... but the best of my lifetime? It would have to be a small group:



Bill Russell

Michael Jordan

Larry Bird

Shaquille O'Neal

Wilt Chamberlain

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Magic Johnson

Bob Cousy

Tim Duncan

Oscar Robertson

(LeBron James)

(Kobe Bryant)

 

OK ... so it wasn't such a small group, but I just can't keep it to only one player. And as much as I hate the last two for personal, (and personality), reasons, I don't see how you can objectively leave them off the list, (though I'd love to). These aren't in any order, either, although there may be some Freudian stuff at work here ... if forced to limit it further, I would have to put Jordan and Russell with each a share of the top spot.

But again, Larry is easily my favorite, followed by The Truth.

[BballTim]

 However as much as I hate to say it I'd go with Jordan.  Could have won 8 straight if he didn't take 2 years off.  

And Bird could have won 8 in the 80s if there was no Magic and vice versa.

And Russell did win 8 in a row (I think) and 11 overall with Wilt as the competition in both the East and in LA.

Jordan's Bulls teams had no strong teams to be tested against.
An old Pistons squad, an old Laker squad, Blazers, Sonics, Suns and Jazz (the only team to make it to the Finals twice against them). Not much there.

Edit: Jordan was an icon, because there was no other player to challenge him a la Bird/Magic, Wilt/Russell and no other dominant team a la Cs/Philly/Lakers in the 60s and the 80s.

He had the stage to himself because Lenny Bias died.

Well Russell wasn't my NBA history otherwise I would have picked him.     Bird would have won a few more without Magic around however he also played with multiple future HOFs.   Jordan played with only Pippen and possibly Rodman as future HOFs.  You put Bird in place of Jordan on the Bulls and I'm not sure he can win 6 out 8 years. 

  The Bulls were built solely around Jordan's strengths. It's hard to predict how they would have done with a superstar who was actually interested in getting someone other than himself involved in the offense. I'm not sure the results would have been tremendously worse. OTOH they could have brought in another scorer who couldn't have really co-existed with MJ.

  What happens if you put Jordan on the Celts? Do McHale and Parrish spend all of their time outside the three point line pulling defenders out of the lane for MJ to operate? Do the Celts play as well when there's a player on the floor who's goal is to lead the league in scoring?

[ram]

NBA fan since 1965.

Young folks don't realize how athletic Russell and Wilt were. Try to imagine Dwight Howard running in the NCAA track & field championships in the 400 or 800 meters and finishing in the top 3. Then going over and winning the high jump. That was Russell and Wilt, in addition to being great ballers.

People also forget that Jordan's team could not beat the Bad Boys of Detroit for several years. They had to get old in order for the Bulls to overtake them.

Finally, people really forget how incredible Dave Cowens was for a 4 year period. And Cowens played out of position at center when he really was a 4. Bob Ryan once wrote that if the Celts had a true center and Cowens could play the 4, a number of forwards would be forced out of the league.

SO, it's for these reasons I list the top ten of all time in this order:

1. Russell
2. Wilt
3. MJ
4. Magic
5. Oscar
6. Cowens
7. Bird
8. West
9. McHale
10.Walt Frazier

[33-00-32]

RAM I like your list and your reasoning.

Favorite: Larry Legend
Best Team Player & Defensive Player: Russell
I would round out my top 5-10 with (in no particular order)
Wilt, MJ and Magic with the big O being somewhere in the mix

[PosImpos]

In the time that I've been watching and paying attention to basketball (since '08 basically), I have to say LeBron.

[greensamurai]

Are we going by rings?

If rings, then Kobe as much as it pains me to say this. Since I've been into basketball since 1999. Sure he definitely had help, but he carried a terrible, terrible Lakers team for a while. He's athletic, but more skilled then a lot of the guys in the league now, like Lebron, who I just think is a physical specimen, and could learn a lot from less athletic guys.

If not, then definitely Tim Duncan. Model of consistency. Always had some pretty nice pieces around him though, but the Spurs have been a dynasty in my time.

[xmuscularghandix]

In my lifetime (Born '87) I'd have to say that Shaq is the most dominant force i've ever seen. Guards can hold the ball and work for their own shots, big men can be denied the ball (by the opponent and their own team). Despite all of this... Shaq beat down on the league. Just like all the greats ahead of him he was taken down by father time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDv4p0p0sZY&feature=related

[mgent]

Are we going by rings?

If rings, then Kobe as much as it pains me to say this. Since I've been into basketball since 1999. Sure he definitely had help, but he carried a terrible, terrible Lakers team for a while. He's athletic, but more skilled then a lot of the guys in the league now, like Lebron, who I just think is a physical specimen, and could learn a lot from less athletic guys.

If not, then definitely Tim Duncan. Model of consistency. Always had some pretty nice pieces around him though, but the Spurs have been a dynasty in my time.

It's up to what you value as great, but even if you're just going by rings I'd still take Duncan over Kobe.  He's been on a stacked team all his life too but he never had Shaq-like help.

I'd go:
Shaq
Duncan
KG
Kobe
Dirk
AI
Lebron

All time:
MJ (if you don't take position into account)
Russell
Wilt
Kareem
Bird
Magic
Big O
Dr. J
Hakeem
Shaq

[ElChe]

Well according to a lot of guys here on this forum its definetely Kendrick Perkins. 

[Mazingerz]

^^^ I like the way you think bro.

Bird it is for me.

[Q_FBE]

No love for Kobe 

Oh well......

I'll introduce a new name here - John Havlicek with his 7 NBA championships .... I clearly remember the last three of those 1969, 1974, and 1976.....

The only player who made me run onto the court after hitting the buzzer beater to beat Phx in double OT in 1976 NBA finals game 5..... Oh wait honorable mention goes to Glen McDonald.

[pearljammer10]

Jordan without question.

[CelticG1]

In my lifetime (Born '87) I'd have to say that Shaq is the most dominant force i've ever seen. Guards can hold the ball and work for their own shots, big men can be denied the ball (by the opponent and their own team). Despite all of this... Shaq beat down on the league. Just like all the greats ahead of him he was taken down by father time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDv4p0p0sZY&feature=related

I'd probably have to go with Shaq too. I was born in 85 so I saw Jordan in his late prime but I have seen the whole body of work of other guys so it's hard to remember Jordan as much.

Shaq waas literally impossible to guard it felt like. Everytime we played him the strategy was to have 3 guys pretty much just foul him as much as they could. There was no way to stop him. When I watched him play it felt like you could just feed him in the post everytime and it was an automatic bucket. I remember he scored like 60 something on his bday and lakers were basically feeding him in the post just to jack up his points. Just throw the ball to him near the hoop and he scores.

After Shaq I'd probably go KG and Duncan tied. I think it's pretty tough to put either of them ahead of the other. Dominant in every sense of the word. There was nothing those guys couldn't or wouldn't do.

After that I'd go with Lebron. I can't stand him but he certainly is dominant.

No love for Kobe. If I were starting a team from scratch I'd take those 4 guys (and maybe more) over him

[LakersFan_33]

No such thing as "your" history - there are just facts.

1. MJ
2. Kareem abdul Jabbar
3. Magic Johnson
4. Larry Bird
5. Wilt Chamberlain
6. Bill Russell

Almost impossible to rank below Jordan. Wilt might need to be higher, considering how much he dominated; Same for Russell defensively.

Also, if you take into account NBA, College and High School dominance, I think you can make the argument for Kareem being the GOAT. I don't think anyone would argue that the "Sky-hook" was the most lethal and effective shot in NBA history.