Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Let's Talk Some B-Ball

Hmmmm. Maybe the Mav's 1st round loss to New Orleans wasn't such an embarrassment after all. They have looked pretty impressive in going up 2-0 on the Spurs.

I read an email this morning that I thought was cute. A family who are friends of ours serving as missionaries in New Zealand sent out their update. In it, Troy (the daddy) mentioned that his teenaged son (a Spurs' fan) asked if Tony Parker was the greatest basketball player ever. Troy said it made him feel old to tell his son about Michael Jordan, and have him not know who he was talking about.

So, it got me to thinking: Who would make your list of the greatest basketball players ever? And if anyone puts Dirk (I like him, really), I will edit your response:) And PLEASE -- no Shaq. Throw any 500 pound man out there and he is going to disrupt play -- especially when the refs let him get away with anything.

The two that come to my mind: Magic Johnson (absolutely grace in motion) and Michael Jordan (no doubt about it -- the BEST ever). I would like to put Wilt Chamberlain in there, but don't know that he wasn't simply the Shaq of his day. If you look at old film, he looks a head taller than anyone else on the court. But the dude did score 100 points in a single game. And his average for that year was over 50, I think.

Others I have truly enjoyed watching through the years -- especially in their primes: Larry Bird, Dr. J, Jason Kidd, Hakeem.

I don't know if my sons are going to reply to this or not, but I can tell you who their favorite is: John Stockton.
NOT!

9 comments:

Unknown said...

You mentioned who I think are the five greatest:

Michael Jordan (without question)
Magic Johnson
Larry Bird
Wilt Chamberlain
Dr. J

Not the greatest player, but by far my favorite--David Robinson

Rick Ross said...

Kyle, I agree that if we were talking about best people in B-Ball, the Admiral would have to be at the top (no pun intended).

Anonymous said...

My heroes!
Dennis Rodman
Isiah Thomas
Bill Lambeer
Rasheed Wallace
Latrell Sprewell

Real list:
Jordan
Marovich(sp?)
Bryant (I hate admitting it)
Bird
James (verdict still out)

Jonathan said...

John brings up a good point. We will exclude current players since the verdict is out, but Kobe and Lebron (barring injury) will be. I also agree that if we exclude Shaq because of his size, Wilt and Bill Russell and possibly Kareem need to be excluded as well. Magic helped revolutionize the guard position showing size can do that as well, but we won't exclude him. I say all this to say, give me the '92 Dream Team. Could their be a better cast of players. Specifically the starting 5.

PG - Magic ('nough said)
SG - MJ (once again 'nough said)
F - Lary Bird (wow)
F - Charles(round mound of rebound)
C - Patrick Ewing
David Robinson
John Stockton (inspite of myself)
Chris Mullin
Karl Malone
Scottie Pippen (thanks MJ)
Clyde Drexler
Christian Laettner (insert laugh here)

let me also remind everyone of their scores during this tournament.

Angola 116 - 48
Croatia 103 - 70
Germany 111 - 68
Brazil 127 - 83
Spain 122 - 81
Pureto Rico 115 - 77
Lituania 127 - 76
Croatia 117 - 85

Rick Ross said...

I'm still waiting for someone to put Shawn Bradley.

I, too, nearly put Kobe and Lebron. I don't care for Kobe, but I would love to have him on the Mavs.

Jeff said...

Shawn Bradley.

Jeff said...

Oops...hit send too fast.

Shawn Bradley is not on the list.

Jordan is the best I've ever seen.
Dr. J was who I wanted to be growing up (before I wanted to be like Mike).
Larry Bird and Magic go hand in hand.
I think Kobe would make the list if he quit playing today so I'll list him but I still don't really like him.
No one has mentioned Darrell Dawkins (I misspelled his first name but he's better known as Chocolate Thunder).

Josh Ross said...

I will say this about Dirk--hands down he is the best shooting big man--EVER!

TOP 5:
-MJ (Magic)
-MJ (Air-ness)
-Shaq (got to go with him)
-Dr.J
-Probably Bird

Potential:
Bryant
Chris Paul
Dwight Howard
Lebron James

Josh Ross said...

No love on the blog for the youngest g-son yesterday. Sraight playa-hat'n! He was very disappointed.