Retro POY '81-82 (Voting Complete)

[ItsMillerTime]

1. Moses Malone
2. Magic
3. Bird
4. Dr. J
5. Gervin

HM: KAJ, Gus Williams, Sidney Moncrief

[Optimism Prime]

1. Moses Malone
2. Magic Johnson
3. Julius Erving
4. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
5. Larry Bird

[Gongxi]

So yeah. Moses. 31 and 15 is amazing, although it's somewhat tempered by his underwhelming defensive presence, his Yinka Dare-esque passing. Likewise 58% TS isn't superhuman, but how many eye-popping stats does one guy need to come up with? He's already rocking the 31 and 15. He really crashed in the playoffs though: outside of the 17 rebounds, his ppg dropped substanstially (to 24) and it wasn't really because he was shooting less: he took 22 shots a game. Still, it was only three games.

Magic was actually a close second for me. I thought it would be Moses running away, and although I'm still putting him first, Magic was very close. As was Dr. J, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Magic averaged a triple double if you're rounding numbers. He didn't score the volume that Moses did (not even close), but he was a little bit more efficient and 19 ppg is nothing to scoff at anyway. He stepped up his game in the playoffs, shooting better, rebounding more, if scoring a bit less. I wouldn't feel bad about putting Magic at #1, really but...someone's gotta be second.

Classic Dr. J this year. His most efficient shooting year (59% TS) going for 24/7/4/2/2. The guy was just a very talented basketball player this year. I'm not even sure he's clearly behind Moses and Magic, but I want to say there was a small distinction this year. He's not as far behind those two as he is ahead of the next guys, though.

I initially had Bird at 4 and Abdul-Jabbar at 5, but I'm gonna switch that. When you look at them head to head there's a clear distinction.

Player 1: Regular season (77 games) 23ppg/11rpg/6apg/56% TS; playoffs (12 games)18/13/6/47% TS

Player 2: Regular season (76 games) 24ppg/9rpg/3apg/61% TS; playoffs (14 games) 20/9/4/55% TS

When you consider that Player 2 is already playing with two guys that are averaging 8+ assists each, the disparity between the two there kinda dries up. I'll take Cap at 4.

1- Moses Malone
2- Magic Johnson
3- Julius Erving
4- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
5- Larry Bird

[semi-sentient]

These are close to final. I didn't put nearly as much into this season because I was pretty swamped over the weekend, but whatever.

1. Moses Malone
2. Magic Johnson
3. Julius Erving
4. Larry Bird
5. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

[lorak]

1. Moses
2. Dr J
3. Magic
4. Bird
5. Gervin

[Sedale Threatt]

1. Moses. Right in the middle of his peak, putting up monster numbers.

2. Magic. Textbook example why he's my favorite player of all time -- Game 6 of the Finals, takes 3 shots and still dominates with 13/13/15, six steals and two blocks. What I wouldn't give to have this guy back on the Lakers, in his prime. It'd trade two Kobes for that.

3. Dr. J. Wish I had time to go back and look in the archives at the head-to-head with Bird in their series, but from everything I'm reading it sounds like Julius had the edge here. Had a better season, too, across the board. Could easily have put him second, but I just have so much respect and appreciation for the way Buck played ball that I'm going to drop him all the way down to three.

4. Bird. Great, just not as great as the other three.

5. Abdul-Jabbar. Respect to Gervin, but there's no way I'm taking a one-dimensional scorer over a still-pretty-dominant center. The dip in rebounding is about the only blemish here.

[An Unbiased Fan]

1) Moses
2) Magic
3) Erving
4) Bird
5) KAJ

[ElGee]

If Doc isn't closing this up soon and I'm too late, some 1982 articles from SI:

Long, interesting feature on Gus Williams: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm

Moses v Sikma: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm

Preview of the playoffs and why LA is favorite: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm

Interesting little article on Celtics talent. Note: Larry Bird is always injured: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm

"I think he's playing the best he's ever played," Kansas City Coach Cotton Fitzsimmons said after Erving trod upon the Kings a month ago for 30 points (12 of 15 from the field), 13 rebounds, seven assists and five steals in only 36 minutes. "Doc plays hard every minute he's out there. I can't say he's the best, because Larry Bird does the great things, too, but when it comes to being sensational he's in a class by himself. He and Bird are the Batman and Robin of the NBA."

Chronicles of Philadelphia: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm

76ers-Celtics Week 1: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm

76ers-Celtics Week 2:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm

Beginning of the Finals -- Lakers first loss in 46 days.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm

LA up 3-2 in the Finals: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm

LA wins the title behind someone named "Pat Riley." Think he played at Kentucky. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm

[Doctor MJ]

Eh, we'll let it ride one more day. C'mon fellas!

[Gongxi]

I know it was broached in the other subject, but it's kinda rude to be openly voting in the 2010 one and acting like this isn't here at all. I understand if there's not as much for us to discuss- let alone discuss as knowledgeably- but you could at least pay some lip service to voting.

Also, I think the Moses/Magic/Dr. J/Bird/KAJ ballot might be the most popular we've ever had. Four of those exact ballots on this page.

[ElGee]

I know it was broached in the other subject, but it's kinda rude to be openly voting in the 2010 one and acting like this isn't here at all. I understand if there's not as much for us to discuss- let alone discuss as knowledgeably- but you could at least pay some lip service to voting.

Also, I think the Moses/Magic/Dr. J/Bird/KAJ ballot might be the most popular we've ever had. Four of those exact ballots on this page.

Wait, so you mean all of the Dr. J lovers who aren't in the project shouldn't be coming in here and posting ballots and making unsubstantiated cracks about how it's a joke Dr. J isn't running away with No. 1?

[semi-sentient]

Do the two of you work together? Just curious.

[Gongxi]

We're actually conjoined twins.

[Optimism Prime]

We're actually conjoined twins.

Dibs on the cute one.

[Sedale Threatt]

I was way off. I envisioned something more like this.

[semi-sentient]

Damn, I just asked a simple question and this thread went south in a hurry. Then again, maybe my question was actually answered and I'm looking too much into things.

[Gongxi]

Bahhhh! I tried for something funny like that but only found those chicks or things that were borderline disturbing (I mean even more disturbing than the normal RPOY threads). I just settled on the chicks. I've been bested!

[Sedale Threatt]

Is it just me, or am I seeing three legs?

[Optimism Prime]

Is it just me, or am I seeing three legs?

Sounds like my reaction to the Oden pictures.

.....

Sorry, it's been too long since I've joked about that. I had to.

[TMACFORMVP]

Sorry for lack of voting the past couple of seasons - was busy with a move and such (not that anyone missed my opinion, but rather because I had made a commitment to vote in every year).

What concerns me about Moses is the fact that he and the Rockets lost in the first round. His efficiency dramatically dropped, but to be fair, so did his teammates, specifically Hayes. I'm not one to really blame a person for losing in the first round to a superior team (after all my moniker is what it is), but going with the theme of how I've voted, losing in the first round, being on a sub 50 win team hasn't fared well.

But he is the unquestioned best player in the regular season.

Is it enough to over-weigh the success that Erving and Magic had though? I mean Magic Johnson averaged nearly a freakin triple double. He led the league in steals, and shot nearly 54% from the floor. In the playoffs he did 17/11/9, and in the finals did 16/10/8. The only argument against him is that his team was stacked, Nixon did over 20 PPG in that finals run, and did 18/10 in the Finals. I mean, for 11 more playoff games, was Magic that much better with a superior supporting cast to rank him over the season Moses had? The flip side for that argument could be, Magic's impact offensively was the one that also "inflated," his supporting cast (though to be fair, Nixon, Kareem, Wilkes, McAdoo, and Cooper is relatively proven).

Erving on the other hand was 24/8/3 with nearly 2 steals and 2 blocks on a ridiculous near 55% from the floor. He was 22/7/5 in the playoffs, and in a losing effort did 25/8/3 in the Finals. And he definitely had a greater defensive impact than Magic, and even Moses relative to their position. But overall, I'm not sure he did enough to justify a ranking over either Magic or Moses. It's funny I'm not even mentioning Bird, but his fall off in the playoffs was something else.

I do think, like people are hurting Bird's causes because of his poor post-season, could apply to Moses as well though. But it's hard to just ignore what Moses had around him, and what he was able to accomplish statistically in the regular season.

I think at this point, I'd have Erving 3rd, Bird 4th as definite. I think I'd put Kareem 5th, and because his impact was still there defensively, and was still an elite center offensively.

For that reason though, because of lack of supporting, and Magic having another likely Top 5 player, and MORE, it would lead me to putting Moses first. I'd like a bit more time for official rankings, but in case I don't get to it, I think mine would go like this

1. Moses Malone
2. Magic Johnson
(I could conceivably change this up)
3. Julius Erving
4. Larry Bird
5. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar