Sports Daily: LeBron's Declaration

[poloelite]

Lebron has another section of his career he has to complete before he's ranked realistically. Until two years ago he couldn't even finish games off consistently, so let's slow down on putting him high on an all time list. After the 92 Finals MJ was pretty high, but to me it's what he did until 98 and how he sustained it that solidified his GOAT status. I mention that because Lebron has his 2nd title. I'm not saying he has to win as many Kobe and Duncan, but he must hold off Durant longer so his stay at the top is longer than 2 years.

[poloelite]

My personal top 5 is MJ, Russell, Kareem, Wilt and Magic. The next 5 is West, Bird, Dr. J, Oscar and Duncan.

[Demoncrom]

What athlete does not want to be the best that ever did it. If he didn't feel this way then I would have a problem with him. He got a way to go before he hits that mark but he certainly has the talent to do it.

[ojandpizza]

Quote: Originally Posted by ProfessaPackMan

Random but how come Tim Duncan never gets talked about being one of the top 4-5 players to have played the game? Always noticed his name never comes up in that conversation although it pops up when expanding it to Top 10 players of all time.

I think he's easily the greatest PF, out of the other 4 or so guys you can consider for that crown his game was much more complete.. So if we are listing by position I think he does crack top 5, I think most people would feel that way..

But when any player is up for grabs it becomes tougher to choose him.. You got your obvious 3 Jordan, Magic, Bird they are basically the staple for everyone's top list. Then you have Bill with the rings, Wilt and Oscar with ridiculous numbers, and Kareem.. That's already 7 guys. Then some people don't think Duncan is even the best player of his generation. Some stick him behind Kobe, Shaq, or LeBron even..

I don't like naming anybody who hasn't finished their career yet, which is why Duncan, LeBron, Kobe didn't even crack my list in the top 10 thread we had.. But I think Duncan is right up there in the conversation with any of the all time greats.. Whether he gets labeled 5th or 15th, not much separates those guys outside of personal preference.. Hard to put a number label on so many great players.

[ojandpizza]

Quote: Originally Posted by poloelite

Lebron has another section of his career he has to complete before he's ranked realistically. Until two years ago he couldn't even finish games off consistently, so let's slow down on putting him high on an all time list. After the 92 Finals MJ was pretty high, but to me it's what he did until 98 and how he sustained it that solidified his GOAT status. I mention that because Lebron has his 2nd title. I'm not saying he has to win as many Kobe and Duncan, but he must hold off Durant longer so his stay at the top is longer than 2 years.

Maybe if you consider winning rings the only way a player can be great or be "at the top".. Because LeBron has been the best player in the league at least the past 5 seasons now, I would personally say more like 7+ but just to save argument we can call it 5.. So yeah if you think he has to keep winning rings, or he's was expected to win rigs before with Mo ****ing Williams I would say your expectations are just ridiculously high..

[ojandpizza]

Quote: Originally Posted by poloelite

My personal top 5 is MJ, Russell, Kareem, Wilt and Magic. The next 5 is West, Bird, Dr. J, Oscar and Duncan.

Interesting you basically said LeBron can't be up there unless he can keep winning, while Oscar never won until he got Kareem, Wilt only took 1 ring from Russell's dominance before he finally teamed with other stars and took a backseat role to win another in LA.. Magic and Bird could never fully keep the other from winning, DR. J didn't win **** without Moses, and Duncan never full solidified his stretch of rings over Shaq and various other teams through this modern era.

[jeebs9]

Quote: Originally Posted by The 24th Letter

The 3rd part of LeBrons career should be very interesting....I'm intrigued to see what "old manl" LeBron is like...

That's basically what I'm waiting for before I really say anything.

[lilteapot]

It'll be interesting if he can adapt his game to be more refined and skillful and if his perimeter shooting improves, much like kobe had to change it up when he got older.