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I actually talked about this briefly in another thread in regards to Curry, who I consider an all time great and am confident he will go down as one. But I personally don’t consider him the luckiest. So who would you guys claim is the luckiest?

Before I give my answer, I consider an all time great to be someone who is in the top ten to top fifteen range. At one point, I felt Kareem was the luckiest, but I’m starting to think it’s actually Shaq. So who would you guys pick?

Magic

If someone says Bill Russell I'll lose my mind. Probably Steph though, darkhorse Shaq but he moved around and had more seasons where his team was mid so probably still Steph

Duncan i think is a good mention too but moreso mid - late career Duncan than early Duncan

Shaq and Kobe were lucky to have each other to be honest.

After that, then Shaq had Wade, Kobe had that 08-10 great front line.

3 x NBA champ on 3 different teams in 3 years with a career average of 3/1/1
ladies and gentleman: Patrick McCaw is your winner

Magic
Horry
Durant

Robert Horry.

Kobe first guy to pop in my mind.

TheLand13 wrote:I actually talked about this briefly in another thread in regards to Curry, who I consider an all time great and am confident he will go down as one. But I personally don’t consider him the luckiest. So who would you guys claim is the luckiest?

Before I give my answer, I consider an all time great to be someone who is in the top ten to top fifteen range. At one point, I felt Kareem was the luckiest, but I’m starting to think it’s actually Shaq. So who would you guys pick?

Jordan. In no other franchise at that time would you have beekkgn able to get such a perfect player at such a cheap price which allowed you to always field the best team. No other team could replicate that and have space for a solid lineup behind them. Pippen also was able to suppress his ego and play Robin when he had top 10 talent.

Otherwise it is Curry because Durant also fell to him in a move that could not be replicated by anybody in the league.

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Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody for the next few years until they develop into all-stars themselves.

Duncan is a good candidate. In order to join the Spurs they had to have a year where Robinson was injured for them to tank. At the same time the Spurs had to beat out other tanking teams like the Celtics to win the lottery.

You could say that the Spurs drafting success was due to hard work and being ahead of the curve on scouting but if Duncan was born in a different era then he wouldn't have benefitted from when the Spurs were ahead of the league in scouting Euro players. In that sense he was lucky to have the Spurs draft Parker and Ginobili.

OTOH, Duncan was a leader to led by example. He was one of the main reasons why the Spurs had such a strong team culture. One could argue that Duncan made his teammates better and that they were lucky to have him on their team.

If you are talking about guys that are not top 10-15 range, Westbrook comes to mind.

Tim Duncan, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neale are the first 3 names to come to mind.

ropjhk wrote:Duncan is a good candidate. In order to join the Spurs they had to have a year where Robinson was injured for them to tank. At the same time the Spurs had to beat out other tanking teams like the Celtics to win the lottery.

You could say that the Spurs drafting success was due to hard work and being ahead of the curve on scouting but if Duncan was born in a different era then he wouldn't have benefitted from when the Spurs were ahead of the league in scouting Euro players. In that sense he was lucky to have the Spurs draft Parker and Ginobili.

OTOH, Duncan was a leader to led by example. He was one of the main reasons why the Spurs had such a strong team culture. One could argue that Duncan made his teammates better and that they were lucky to have him on their team.

Duncan is not a good candidate for this thread at all. Compared to his contemporaries he played with far less top tier talent throughout his career. I love TP and Manu but they are not on the level of teammates guys like MJ/Shaq/Magic/Kareem/Kobe/LeBron/Curry got to play with.

Duncan's very best teammate was probably past his prime Robinson his first two years in the league. Tim never had a teammate as talented as Kobe or Wade or Durant or Pippen or Kareem...etc.

I think your last paragraph is on point though

Luck = a great front office to back you down, IMO.

So, Magic, Bird, Kareem, Duncan... all the usual suspects.

Funcrusher wrote:If someone says Bill Russell I'll lose my mind. Probably Steph though, darkhorse Shaq but he moved around and had more seasons where his team was mid so probably still Steph

Go ahead. Lose your mind.

The Celtics teams of that era were ridiculously stacked. For crissakes, their 6th men are in the HOF. The 1962-63 team has NINE members of the HOF.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/659039-nba-hall-of-fame-1962-1963-boston-celtics-now-have-a-record-9-hall-of-famers

It is Russell, and it is not even close.

A question - how many HOF’s did Wilt have playing with him in 1962-63? Huh?

(hint - it wasn’t NINE)

It did not matter that Wilt freaking OWNED Russell in their head-to-head matchups (and he did OWN Russell) when the other four guys on Wilt’s teams were competing against NAISMITH HALL OF FAMERS. And the Celtics even brought HOF’ers OFF THE BENCH.

Good for the Celtics to compile a team like that. They were STACKED. And as great as Wilt was, he had no shot.

Bornstellar wrote:

ropjhk wrote:Duncan is a good candidate. In order to join the Spurs they had to have a year where Robinson was injured for them to tank. At the same time the Spurs had to beat out other tanking teams like the Celtics to win the lottery.

You could say that the Spurs drafting success was due to hard work and being ahead of the curve on scouting but if Duncan was born in a different era then he wouldn't have benefitted from when the Spurs were ahead of the league in scouting Euro players. In that sense he was lucky to have the Spurs draft Parker and Ginobili.

OTOH, Duncan was a leader to led by example. He was one of the main reasons why the Spurs had such a strong team culture. One could argue that Duncan made his teammates better and that they were lucky to have him on their team.

Duncan is not a good candidate for this thread at all. Compared to his contemporaries he played with far less top tier talent throughout his career. I love TP and Manu but they are not on the level of teammates guys like MJ/Shaq/Magic/Kareem/Kobe/LeBron/Curry got to play with.

Duncan's very best teammate was probably past his prime Robinson his first two years in the league. Tim never had a teammate as talented as Kobe or Wade or Durant or Pippen or Kareem...etc.

I think your last paragraph is on point though

I'm just thinking of the circumstances that brought his teams together. Just getting drafted by the Spurs, a team who wasn't initially in the running for the Duncan sweepstakes, was a grand stroke of luck (for both sides).

The three luckiest are Bill Russell, Tim Duncan and Steph Curry.

Honorable mentions: Lebron, KD and Magic.

KD