Most overrated/underrated basketball fact/stat/achievement?

[RSCD3_]

Underrated: Hakeem Olajuwon's Quadruple double (11 blocks and 10 assists? Who does that?)
Overrated: Larry Bird's making 2nd team all defense multiple times.

Larry bird was great at providing help side defense and getting steals with his BBALL iq.

He wasn't that good of a man defender but one on one defense is just a small part of overall defense


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[Quotatious]

Larry bird was great at providing help side defense and getting steals with his BBALL iq.

He wasn't that good of a man defender but one on one defense is just a small part of overall defense

Pretty much. Actually even his man defense was decent, when he was asked to guard PFs in the post, not athletic SFs with quick first step, on the perimeter.

His help defense was extremely disruptive - phenomenal basketball IQ, instincts and hustle.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H76dsMqo3s[/youtube]


I'd say an underrated fact is that Alex English led the NBA in total points during the 80s, when the league had so many stars, many of them much more famous and revered than him. Over 21000 points, at 25.9 PPG, on 55.5% TS and 113 offensive rating, so it's not like he was a chucker.

Hakeem Olajuwon being 9th all-time in steals is an incredible, and relatively little known fact. He averaged 1.7 SPG for his career as a CENTER - that's fantastic, especially when you know that he's the all-time leader in blocks, too (obviously not counting Wilt and Russell).

Tiny Archibald leading the league in both PPG (on very good efficiency) and APG in the same season (34 points and 11.4 assists in 1972-73), as one of only two players in NBA history who did that (the other is Oscar Robertson in 1967-68, at 29.2 PPG and 9.7 APG). I mean, to be able to create so many opportunities for yourself and others, is the ultimate sign of a great offensive player (especially if you factor in the fact that his team was #1 offensive team in the NBA that year).

Tim Duncan not winning the DPOY award even once during his career automatically makes him underrated.

Dr. J not making even a single All-Defensive appearance in the NBA is a joke (and he made just one in the ABA) - I mean, he's arguably one of the greatest help defenders of all-time (at least on the perimeter) and usually averaged about 2 steals and 2 blocks per game - 1.7 career BPG for a 6'6''/6'7'' small forward is an amazing feat.

[Uncle Mxy]

Underrated: Malone's MVP. People seem to think it was just voter fatigue from MJ but Malone had better regular season numbers and the team success to go with it, despite not being better than MJ (similar to KD/LeBron this year)

What year?

[Boarder Patrol]

Underrated: Malone's MVP. People seem to think it was just voter fatigue from MJ but Malone had better regular season numbers and the team success to go with it, despite not being better than MJ (similar to KD/LeBron this year)

What year?

96-97.

Malone: 27.5, 10, 4.5 @ 60% TS and 28.9 PER. 118 ORTG, 101 DRTG, .270 WS/48.

Jordan: 29.5, 6, 4.3 @ 56.5% TS and 27.8 PER. 121 ORTG, 102 DRTG, .280 WS/48

Not debating that Malone was the better player, just that he deserved (or at least had a good case for) MVP.

[beerbrewer]

[whocurrz]

Overrated: individual rebound numbers. Good rebounders are important but I've seen good individual rebounders go down and team rebounding numbers suffer marginally. Also guys who miss multiple tip backs put up big numbers but don't really affect the game all the time as much as you would think looking at a stat sheet. Great for fantasy b ball though

Underrated: guys who box out well. Guys who grab tons of rebounds but don't box out well don't negatively affect team rebounding when off the court as much as guys who are elite at sealing off the paint being off the floor.

[kodo]

Underrated: Malone's MVP. People seem to think it was just voter fatigue from MJ but Malone had better regular season numbers and the team success to go with it, despite not being better than MJ (similar to KD/LeBron this year)

What year?

96-97.

Malone: 27.5, 10, 4.5 @ 60% TS and 28.9 PER. 118 ORTG, 101 DRTG, .270 WS/48.

Jordan: 29.5, 6, 4.3 @ 56.5% TS and 27.8 PER. 121 ORTG, 102 DRTG, .280 WS/48

Not debating that Malone was the better player, just that he deserved (or at least had a good case for) MVP.

MVP is a regular season award, Malone deserved it.

In the playoffs against tougher competition and teams playing 100% Malone dropped off that post-season to 22.9 ppg and .500 TS%, MJ in the playoffs averaged 31.1 ppg on .524 TS%.

It's not a contradiction, I think many fans thought Malone was the reg season MVP but MJ was the better player.

[Blanky53]

Can't think of overrated, but for underrated, Walt Bellamy playing 88 games in a single season.

I know this record will never be broken given how flights and scheduling have changed, but I feel like people don't appreciate how hard traveling back then was (minus the fact that they used to serve, edible, delicious food on board) for bballers, especially for centers.

[Shv3d]

overrated: Cavs 07 finals run - they had perhaps the easiest road to the Finals of any team in recent playoff history (look up their road their if you don't believe me) yet people still talk about it like it was one of the biggest accomplishments in NBA history

That could be said regardless of who made it out of the Eastern Conference that year. Those Cavs were a joke outside of LeBron, which is why them making the Finals was impressive.

[Chuck Newhouse]

Just out of interest.

Overrated: Nash's MVP
Underrated: Wilt leading the league in total assists in 1968

If you consider his MVP's over rated then Lebron is going to have 6 because he was easily the next MVP choice in both seasons.

There is an argument for him having 10 MVP's if you really look at the numbers. All 6 he didn't win after his rookie year he has been right there in the discussion.

[Chuck Newhouse]

Overrated: Points off of turnovers stat. (to many variables involved to tell the true story).

Underrated: Terence Jones

[FlopShow2013]

Overrated: Waitress
Underrated: Rondo

[boren]

Overrated: Assists
Underrated: Rebounds

[EArl]

Overrated: Advanced Stats- People rely to them on too much especially on realgm.

Underrated: Spurs- Even though they just won people still underrate them. I am usually one of those people.

[RoboJesus]

Overrated: Waitress
Underrated: Rondo

I don't know, I would personally think bartenders are overrated, getting all the sex appeal while waitresses do the dirty work. If anything waitresses are kind of underrated.

[SlowPaced]

I'll go with two legendary centers.

Overrated: Bill Russell. One of the greatest defenders of all time. A definite Top 5 center of all time. 11 rings. However, when you're talking about the company he's frequently put in (claimed to be the GOAT center by many) he just doesn't fit. He was nowhere near the offensive player Kareem, Wilt, Shaq or Hakeem was. He was the third and sometimes fourth option of the Celtic dynasty's offense.

Underrated: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. People often say Michael Jordan is the GOAT and it's not even close. I do consider MJ the goat, however, it definitely is close. Kareem has an incredible resume himself. 6 time champ. 6 time MVP. 19 time All-Star. Leading scorer in the history of the league. 4 time blocks, 1 time rebounding champ. Developed the deadliest move in NBA history. Also 3 time NCAA champion with MOP and College Player of the Year awards in every single one of them.

[LloydFree]

Underrated - Dikembe Mutombo on the AI 76's.

He was the reason that team made such noise.

Nonsense. He wasn't even on the team when they were at their best. Theo Ratliff was. And in the 2001 playoffs he was merely average. That was all AI, Eric Snow and Aaron Mckie.

[FlopShow2013]

Overrated: Waitress
Underrated: Rondo

I don't know, I would personally think bartenders are overrated, getting all the sex appeal while waitresses do the dirty work. If anything waitresses are kind of underrated.

Don't feel bad..it always happens. You think you know something very well but in the end when someone opens your eyes you realize how dumb you are. Welcome to the bright side!

[Down To Buck]

I'll go with two legendary centers.

Overrated: Bill Russell. One of the greatest defenders of all time. A definite Top 5 center of all time. 11 rings. However, when you're talking about the company he's frequently put in (claimed to be the GOAT center by many) he just doesn't fit. He was nowhere near the offensive player Kareem, Wilt, Shaq or Hakeem was. He was the third and sometimes fourth option of the Celtic dynasty's offense.

Underrated: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. People often say Michael Jordan is the GOAT and it's not even close. I do consider MJ the goat, however, it definitely is close. Kareem has an incredible resume himself. 6 time champ. 6 time MVP. 19 time All-Star. Leading scorer in the history of the league. 4 time blocks, 1 time rebounding champ. Developed the deadliest move in NBA history. Also 3 time NCAA champion with MOP and College Player of the Year awards in every single one of them.

I absolutely agree with both of these. Kareem has a great argument for being GOAT, in fact if I were the ultimate arbiter of basketball player quality (I am), I would give him the nod. I don't want to simplify the situation, but since the whole point of basketball is to put the ball in the basket, it makes sense that the guy who did that with the greatest frequency would be the GOAT.