Who are your FIVE greatest basketball players of all time?

[Sope Creek]

Laugh if you will. He’s the one player I trust to hit a needed shot.

Not on a golf course . . . .

 

[GeorgeStrait IU]

Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Pistol Pete Maravich...then the other two.

That perimiter would suck













#sarcasm

 

[13thman]

Laugh if you will. He’s the one player I trust to hit a needed shot.

Over Robert Horry? tic

 

[GeorgeStrait IU]

Over Robert Horry? tic

Speaking of… He sure won plenty in his career!

 

[Sope Creek]

Speaking of… He sure won plenty in his career!

Another guy who changed the game . . . a big man with an unguardable outside shot. Who'd a thunk that?

Reminded me a bit of Jim McDaniels . . . .

 

[jimmygoiu]

Wilt, Big O, Magic, Jordan, Kareem.

 

[Baller23Boogie]

Kareem, Jordan, Wilt, LeBron and Magic.

 

[Sope Creek]

Wilt, Big O, Magic, Jordan, Kareem.

That's pretty darned good. Hard to leave Bill Russell of any team . . . hard to leave any of those guys off . . . .

 

[IU FAN IN W. NC]

In no order:
Magic Johnson
Michael Jordan
Larry Bird
Bill Russell
Tim Duncan

Easily Wilt the Stilt. Google his career. Amazing stuff

 

[Chicago-bound Hoosier]

One of the things that is overlooked...is, those old players like Maravich, played without a 3 point shot for much of their careers, including college. Maravich averaged in the 40s if I remember correctly...as a guard in college. Those stats would be ridiculous with the 3 point shot. Besides..the guy was a magician with a basketball in his hands. He is clearly on my all time top five list. His ball fakes and passes were revolutionary...on top of his amazing scoring stats. Guys that played in college during the Pistol Pete era, like Rick "The Rocket" Mount...were so greatly overshadowed, it is, and was, hard to appreciate how great they were themselves.

I read that Dale Brown (former LSU coach and close friend of Bob Knight-sarcasm) had his crew analyze all of Pistol's games via old film, and estimated that, with the 3 pt shot, Pete would have averaged around 57 points a game--for his NCAA career. And that's without the shot clock. Those are video game-type numbers.

His style rubbed some the wrong way because there was so little showmanship in bball back them. His passing skills looked like hot-dogging to many at the time.

Another guy whose body gave out on him as he got deeper into his career (his love for the bottle didn't help either).

 

[Sope Creek]

Easily Wilt the Stilt. Google his career. Amazing stuff

Where you at? We're looking at Cullowhee a bit . . . .

 

[irishcatman]

I can't take anyone seriously that would construct a list of the 5 greatest basketball players of all time and put LeFlop James on and leave Larry Bird out....that's just foolish and not to be taken seriously...

 

[CG Paul]

Michael
Lebron
Kobe
Bird
Kareem
Magic

can’t cut it to five

That’s easy, remove Lebron.

 

[CG Paul]

In no order:
Magic Johnson
Michael Jordan
Larry Bird
Bill Russell
Tim Duncan

Agree with your first three, all day, every day.

The last two certainly work, and I can’t argue against them. However, I could go with Kobe and Kareem.

 

[rocketo]

In no order:
Magic Johnson
Michael Jordan
Larry Bird
Bill Russell
Tim Duncan

Jordan
Bird
Magic

Then…
Shaq
Kobe

So many to choose from, tough to nail it down to 5. Top 3 are easy IMO. This isn’t just a stats conversation, but total package. I don’t have James listed because he is a terrible example of leadership. Amazing physical skills, and just dominant from that perspective, but to ignore the other factors is a mistake and a big part of striving to be the GOAT. Those top 3 are the whole package.

 

[Harpo Marxist]

I read that Dale Brown (former LSU coach and close friend of Bob Knight-sarcasm) had his crew analyze all of Pistol's games via old film, and estimated that, with the 3 pt shot, Pete would have averaged around 57 points a game--for his NCAA career. And that's without the shot clock. Those are video game-type numbers.

His style rubbed some the wrong way because there was so little showmanship in bball back them. His passing skills looked like hot-dogging to many at the time.

Another guy whose body gave out on him as he got deeper into his career (his love for the bottle didn't help either).

true enough...not to be overlooked is that The Pistol also had a bad ticker and didn't know it. He was aging ahead of schedule...so there's that too.

 

[Sope Creek]

true enough...not to be overlooked is that The Pistol also had a bad ticker and didn't know it. He was aging ahead of schedule...so there's that too.

When that dude was in jr. hi and high school, he carried a basketball with him at all times . . . dribbled it while at the movie theater . . .

. . . if I'd done that, sometime after the cartoon was over some guy in the front row would have gotten up and asked "who lost the basketball"? And then he'd have held it up for everybody to see . . . don't know if I'd have claimed it.