Retro POY '81-82 (Voting Complete)

Post #1 » by **Doctor MJ** » Fri Jul 9, 2010 5:10 pm

In this thread we'll discuss and vote on the top 5 best player seasons of '81-82. Some pointers:

-Change in schedule. We will now operate by splitting the week into thirds: Mon-Wed, Wed-Fri, Fri-Mon. I will label each thread with it's deadline.

-The voting panel is not officially closed. However, if you'd like to be a part of it, contact me - more dedicated, knowledgeable voters will always be wanted.

-This includes both regular and post-season. You should be weighing both in to some degree, and should not be ranking one star over another just because of how far each got in the playoffs.

-Vote sincerely. Do not move a player down in your voting to give another player an advantage. I would encourage every voter to give some explanations while they do their voting - but particularly if you have a top 5 that deviates strongly with the norm and you haven't expressed your thoughts on it earlier in the thread. If I'm not satisfied, I may ask you for more of an explanation - and it may come to actually booting people out of the project.

Some things to start us off:

Season Summary http://www.basketball-reference.com/lea ... _1982.html
Playoff Summary http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... _1982.html
Award Voting http://www.basketball-reference.com/awa ... _1982.html

Topics
-Lakers & 76ers again
-Lakers show it's not a fluke
-Moses takes MVP with mediocre Rocket team

JordansBulls · Post #2 » by **JordansBulls** » Fri Jul 9, 2010 5:24 pm

1. Moses Malone - Won League MVP, 2nd in WS Per 48 minutes in the season, 1st in Win Shares in the season and 1st in PER in the season

2. Julius Erving - Finished 3rd in MVP voting, 3rd in Win Shares and 2nd in PER and 1st in WS Per 48 minutes on the season. Finished 1st in Win Shares in the playoffs and 1st in PER in the playoffs, 1st Team All NBA.

* Lost with HCA in the finals however.

3. Magic Johnson - Finished 8th in MVP Voting, Finished 4th in Season Win Shares, 5th in Win Shares Per 48 Minutes, Finished 2nd in Playoff Win Shares, 2nd in Playoff Win Shares Per 48 minutes and 2nd in Playoff PER. 1st Team All NBA

4. Larry Bird - Finished 2nd in MVP Voting, 1st Team All NBA and 2nd Team All Defense

5. Sidney Moncrief - Finished 7th in MVP voting, 2nd in Win Shares and 3rd in Win Shares Per 48 minutes, 2nd team All NBA and 2nd Team All Defense.

sp6r=underrated · Post #3 » by **sp6r=underrated** » Fri Jul 9, 2010 5:45 pm

Thoughts and Questions for the season

1. How do people feel about Bird and Gervin this year? Great RS but noticeable PS dropoffs.

2. This is Dr. J first great season for the project.

3. We also are in the middle of the years when it isn't clear who is LA best player.

Dr Positivity · Post #4 » by **Dr Positivity** » Fri Jul 9, 2010 5:57 pm

Very impressive Moses won MVP on a 46 W team this year. Shows how good he was considered.

Mean_Streets · Post #5 » by **Mean_Streets** » Fri Jul 9, 2010 6:45 pm

This is the year Kareem should be ranked ahead of Magic & Gervin jumps in the top 5.

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

Post #6 » by **penbeast0** » Fri Jul 9, 2010 7:08 pm

I always start MVP consideration by looking at who the powerhouse teams in the league were and who were their stars. There are four outstanding teams in the league:
(1) Lakers, (2) Celtics, (3) SIxers, (4) Bucks, plus arguably (5) the Supersonics

The Lakers had great talent all over the place, Kareem and Magic were the stars, but also Wilkes, Nixon, Cooper, etc. They get the championship and both Magic and Kareem should get MVP credit but neither really carried the team alone.

The Celtics were clearly Bird's team. Parish was the main second star with Maxwell and supersub Kevin McHale sharing 3rd honors, the guards were only average. Bird did get beat by Erving in the ECF though head to head.

The Sixers were clearly Erving's team, though they had a really solid supporting cast 8 deep (Caldwell and Bobby Jones, Cheeks and Hollins, Dawkins/Mix/Toney off the bench. Doc also gets credit for beating two of the other three top teams head to head, first Milwaukee then Boston.

The Bucks relied on Moncrief the most of any top player/team. He actually led Milwaukee in scoring, assists and rebounding! although he only got 2nd team all-defense this year. Trouble is that Sidney came up small in the playoffs, dropping in pretty much every area.

The Sonics were the other team over .600 as they still relied on their remaining stars from their 70s championship team, Jack Sikma and Gus Williams. Williams got more MVP votes as the primary scorer but I think Sikma deserved them more; he keyed their defense as well as being the second scorer and primary rebounder and the Sonics won with defense.

Two other players deserve consideration. Moses Malone and George Gervin were pretty much one man shows, scoring over 30 ppg with underwhelming teammates (San Antonio started George Johnson and Mark Olberding up front . . . both more suited to reserve roles for a good team). Moses also led the league in rebounding while Gervin led those weak Spurs to the WCF.

Overall, I'd vote:

1. Moses
2. Erving
3. Bird
3. Gervin
5. Magic

6. Kareem
7. Moncrief
8. Sikma
9. Parish
10. Gus Williams/Adrian Dantley?

Post #7 » by **TrueLAfan** » Fri Jul 9, 2010 7:45 pm

I know I'm going to be going against the grain here, but that's okay. This is a strange year. A lot of flawed players had really great years. A lot of good players had years that, on deeper reflection, weren’t that good.

1. Julius Erving. Have to do it. This was his last year at or near his peak. It’s a year where other people may have been better at different times, or in different ways. But Erving’s stats (24.4-6.9-3.9 on 54% shooting in only 34.4 mpg, with close to 2 blocks and 2 steals a game) are great. The Sixers were a good, but flawed team…you can’t miss with Bobby Jones and Mo Cheeks. Caldwell Jones could still play some D; so could Lionel Hollins. Toney and Dawkins gave instant offensive impact. Problem was, it was hard top get those player on the court at the same time. The Sixers essentially platooned everyone other than Doc; they had a lot of 25-20 mpg players. If you have that at one or two positions, you’re fine. If you’ve got it at four positions…well, it’s hard to hold everything together. The guy who held it together was Julius Erving. Lost in the finals…but averaged 25-8-3. For the leadership, the overlal play…I have to take him over Moses.

2. Magic Johnson. Deserved the Finals MVP this time (which is not even close to true in 1980). Was the ultimate Swiss Army knife player this year. Anyone who talks about Magic being a bad defender should watch should games from this year; he was terrific on that end. Part of that is because Magic wasn’t playing point; he played at SG/SF. (Say what you want, but Norm was the PG). Did everything well, and was just as good or better in the postseason.

3. Moses Malone. Great player, but better on paper. The Rockets had a good team—Elvin Hayes could still play more than a little. Robert Reid was a good swingman. Dunleavy and Murphy were a terrific bench backcourt tandem. Allen Leavell was an okay (re: average) player starting at the point. The Whopper and Major Jones were a good backup frontcourt duo. The team was weak at starting SG…but then again, the Rockets only won 46 games. (Part of this was because Elvin Hayes decided to be Elvin Hayes and sulk and complain. Dude! You’re playing next to Moses Malone. Shut the hell up!) Still, the team was underwhelming and definitely did not overachieve in the regular season. Then Moses was outplayed by Jack Sikma in the playoffs—the raw numbers don’t say so. But I do, and so did people watching at the time, including SI.

So he’s number 3 for me.

4. George Gervin. Now here’s a guy who carried a team. Johnny Moore blossomed into a good player in his second year. Mark Olberding and Lumber Corzine and George Johnson were big and good on D (less so on the other end). Mike Mitchell was a terrific rookie, although he missed a third of the season. But…look at all of that. How is that surrounding cast much, if any, better than the one surrounding Moses? The Spurs won more games, and did a lot better in the playoffs. And Gervin, although spotty, did okay in the post season as well—he averaged over 32 a game against the Lakers, though the Spurs got swept. I’m not feeling a huge difference between Moses and Gervin here. I know Gervin couldn’t play a lick of D, but Moses was not much (if at all) better than average at this point himself.

5. I’m leaving this one open for now. Here’s who I’m, thinking about

Robert Parish. Yup. I may put the Chief over Bird this year. Heresy, I know. Sue me. Bird may have been a bit better in the RS, but Parish was a 20 and 11 player with 2.5 blocks a game…in less than 32 minutes a game. And the Chief had a much better playoff run.

Larry Bird. Okay…why is Bird so low? Parish had a great year, and was better in the playoffsAnd Tiny Archibald had a great year. Had he been healthy, I think Boston would have gone to the finals (and lost to L.A.). Bird was great in the regular season, although he was a different player…Bill Fitch didn’t like Larry shooting threes(!), so that took away an important part of his arsenal. And, like I said..not so good in the playoffs.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I’m thinking that this is the last year that Kareem will be out of my top 3 for the next 12 or so years. He had one bad game in the finals, one indifferent game, and 4 good to really good games. Thing is, McAdoo was awesome all through the playoffs, and I think Kareem coasted. He still sneaks into consideration…we are tlkaing about a guy who averaged 24-9-3 with nearly 3 blocks a game.

Jack Sikma. He didn’t just come out of nowhere to outplay Moses. 19.6-12.7-3.4 during the regular season. All-D second team. During the regulaer season, I think Gus Johnson got a little more love. Afterwards, I think the sentiment swung back to Sikma. Great, underrated player.

Sidney Monciref. When Marques Johnson had his contract holdout and injuries, people thought the Bucks were done like dinner. But Lanier held himself together, and the Bucks were deep. And the Squid came into his own this year; he and Lanier led the team. But Moncrief laid a big egg in the playoffs.

ThaRegul8r · Post #8 » by **ThaRegul8r** » Fri Jul 9, 2010 7:53 pm

I just wanted to say something about Magic's 1981-82 season. Something I don't hear discussed is that in '81-82, Magic came the closest of any player in the history of the league to duplicating Oscar Robertson's 1961-62 feat of averaging a triple double in a season aside from O himself. 18.6 points, 9.6 rebounds, 9.5 assists in 78 games. Magic led the team in rebounding (9.6 to Kareem's 8.7), and something I have never seen anyone other than myself bring up about this season is the fact that Magic finished 11th in the league in rebounding.

1. Moses Malone, 14.7
2. Jack Sikma, 12.7
3. Buck Williams, 12.3
4. Mychal Thompson, 11.7
5. Maurice Lucas, 11.3
6. Larry Smith, 11.0
7. Larry Bird, 10.9
8. Robert Parish, 10.8
9. Artis Gilmore, 10.2
10. Truck Robinson, 9.7
11. Magic Johnson, 9.6

In what everyone considers as the modern era, a point guard finished just outside top ten in the league in rebounding. He also led the Lakers in rebounding in the postseason (11.3 to Kareem's 8.3), and was NBA Finals MVP, averaging 16.2 points on 53.3 percent shooting, 10.8 rebounds and 8.0 assists.

Minge · Post #9 » by **Minge** » Fri Jul 9, 2010 10:40 pm

Los Angeles 124, Philadelphia 117

Philadelphia 110, Los Angeles 94

Los Angeles 129, Philadelphia 108

Los Angeles 111, Philadelphia 101

Philadelphia 135, Los Angeles 102

Los Angeles 114, Philadelphia 104

Special: Jim Hill lockerrom interviews w/ '82 World Champions

Post #10 » by **Doctor MJ** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 12:10 am

Dr Mufasa wrote:Very impressive Moses won MVP on a 46 W team this year. Shows how good he was considered.

I want to chime in here for some context I've noticed:

One may ask how a guy on a team that bad wins the MVP. One may also be puzzled why the increase in esteem for Moses compared to the very similar '80-81 season. Seems to me like it has to be because of the Rockets '81 run to the finals where Moses very much seemed to be the best player no matter what court he was on.

Of course, they didn't have a similar run in the '82 playoffs, and in general people might ask whether Moses was just a guy putting up big numbers on non-elite teams. I think this is where it's so helpful to see what happened in subsequent seasons. The '82-83 season if obviously huge in Moses evaluation because he led one of the great teams in history - but also look at what happened to the Rockets. They fell to become one of the worst teams in history. To me, what Moses seems to be doing here is proving the normally faulty fanboy-logic correct. How often do we hear "They wouldn't win a game without him, and if he had good players around them, he lead them to the best history EVER!!!1one!" It's always proved wrong - except here.

Going to be hard for Moses not to be #1 for me this year or the next thread.

sp6r=underrated · Post #11 » by **sp6r=underrated** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 12:24 am

Wow nice pointing out the collapse of the 83 Rockets. 32 games in the W-L column and an 11 SRS drop. That is a total collapse, the likes of which rarely seen in NBA history.

Post #12 » by **TrueLAfan** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 2:36 am

mmmm...The Rockets also lost Robert Reid and Mike Dunleavy, and Elvin Hayes had age catch up to him. And Houston made no real attempt to shore up their offense when Malone was traded; the "plan" was to have Allen Leavell shoot more. He wasn't a volume scorer; his FG% dropped precipitously. I'm pretty sure Philadelphia traded a first round pick they had acquired from Cleveland, who was in the gutter at that time. At the time, I remember that everyone figured the Rockets were setting themselves up for the top pick in 1983; they wanted Ralph Sampson and another great player. they ended up getting Sampson at #1, and picking up Rodney McCray with #3. McCray was a good player, but didn't turn out to be worth the #3 pick. At the time, I remember Houston sportswriters and fans wondering why the Rockets didn't go for the local guy who played in two consecutive Final Fours with the University of Houston...the guy named Clyde Drexler.

If you're thinking, "Hey, there's no way the Rockets purposefully let their team be lousy to be sure they'd get the top picks" ... think again. They did the same thing the next year. The Rockets were 18-26 at the mid point of the season...and went 11-27 the rest of the way, ending the season with a 3-14 run. Bill Fitch, who disliked Elvin Hayes pretty intensely, mysteriously let Elvin played extended minutes in the final two months, when the Big E was totally shot as a player. The story was that Fitch wanted Elvin to get to 50,000 minutes. Right.

Not saying all of that made up anything like 32 games worth of difference...but those things add up. Sure, Moses leaving was a big part of the drop. So was losing Reid (who was good) and Dunleavy (who was a very good bench player--comparable to Steve Blake today) and having Hayes slow down (he played 25% less) and not making any real moves to improve the team.

shawngoat23 · Post #13 » by **shawngoat23** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 10:40 pm

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

HM: George Gervin, Sidney Moncrief

Warspite · Post #14 » by **Warspite** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 12:27 am

Doctor MJ wrote:
Dr Mufasa wrote:Very impressive Moses won MVP on a 46 W team this year. Shows how good he was considered.

I want to chime in here for some context I've noticed:

One may ask how a guy on a team that bad wins the MVP. One may also be puzzled why the increase in esteem for Moses compared to the very similar '80-81 season. Seems to me like it has to be because of the Rockets '81 run to the finals where Moses very much seemed to be the best player no matter what court he was on.

Of course, they didn't have a similar run in the '82 playoffs, and in general people might ask whether Moses was just a guy putting up big numbers on non-elite teams. I think this is where it's so helpful to see what happened in subsequent seasons. The '82-83 season if obviously huge in Moses evaluation because he led one of the great teams in history - but also look at what happened to the Rockets. They fell to become one of the worst teams in history. To me, what Moses seems to be doing here is proving the normally faulty fanboy-logic correct. How often do we hear "They wouldn't win a game without him, and if he had good players around them, he lead them to the best history EVER!!!1one!" It's always proved wrong - except here.

Going to be hard for Moses not to be #1 for me this year or the next thread.

Im a huge Moses fan (maybe the biggest on RealGM) but the Rockets went into full tank mode and did it so blantantly that the outcry from other owners over the Rockets 83 and 84 tank job led directly to the NBA lottery which started in 1985.

Gongxi · Post #15 » by **Gongxi** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 1:41 am

Preliminarily, I'm saying it's Moses, Magic, then Dr. J. Bird and KAJ will round out the top 5. I'll get further into it either tonight (yeah, one of those nights) or tomorrow when I'll be sitting at a desk with nothing to do for 12 hours. Either way, I'll have some substance to back up these rankings and/or adjust them.

ronnymac2 · Post #16 » by **ronnymac2** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 3:10 am

Just watched game six of the finals.

I wish I had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's facial hair.

Some observations:

Cheeks vs. Nixon is like watching Rondo vs. Rondo (except Nixon can shoot better from outside). Both point guards are lightning quick, especially end to end.

The more I watch Julius Erving, the more I am aware of his post game. He had a very good post game. He played with his back to the basket a lot actually. Passed well out of that position, too.

At the beginning of the third quarter, with his team needing a lift after being down, Julius made two of the most riveting plays I've ever seen. First he got the ball on the break with Jabbar back and did a Lebron-esque switch of the hands move. Lakers come back and Philly gets the ball and throws ahead to J, who is going towards the basket. In one move, he catches and shoots. It misses off the back rim. Despite all his momentum going foward from the previous jump-and-catch, he quickly leaps into the air to tip the ball.

I feel as though Dr. J misses a lot of easy shots at times though. More than a normal superstar. He's a great defensive force though. Those Sixer teams before Moses and after 77 were mainly defensive oriented teams with modest firepower. Julius was a big part of their defense while providing much of the offense. This year, Toney helped on offense a lot and played great in the finals.

Dawkins dunked on Mcadoo, and I swear it looked like Shawn Kemp over Bill Laimbeer. Unfortunately, like the Kemp on Laimbeer dunk, this was called an offensive foul. Still cool, though.

This Laker team looks special. It looks like a more talented version of this year's Celtics team, where they actually don't rely on one player. A defense can't key in on one guy because everybody on the court is so good. The announcers, Dick Stockton and Bill Russell, talk about how this Laker team has transformed from earlier in the year. They sucked on defense earlier, but then, young coach Pat Riley had a talk with KAJ, and Jabbar kind of instilled confidence in Riley. Riley said if he could coach Jabbar, he could coach anybody. They became better on defense and utilized a trapping scheme more often, which led to the Showtime fastbreak more often.

In the REG SEA, they had four guys score between 17 and 24 ppg. In the playoffs, KAJ, Nixon, and Wilkes averaged 20 ppg, with Magic dominating with 17/11/9/3. Mcadoo averaged 17 in 28 minutes. Cooper averaged 12. The team averaged over 31 assists per game, which was best in the playoffs.

In the finals, six players averaged between 13 and 20 ppg. Wilkes and Nixon got the most shots. In game six, LA shot over 60% in the first half and scored 66 points. They had 25 assists. Magic and KAJ only scored 15 of the 66 points.

This team probably gets underrated compared to the 85 and 87 team. They only won 57 games, but it sounds as though they were a bit like the 2001 Lakers in that they pushed it to a new gear at the end of the season. They destroyed the Western Conference, taking down the very good 46 win Suns team (fourth in defensive rating, sixth in SRS) in a sweep. Then they swept a 48 win Spurs team (third in offensive rating, seventh in SRS), led by 32ppg scorer George Gervin. Then they took down the 58 win Sixers. 12-2 isn't bad.

This game has me wondering a little bit: Is Pat Riley going to use Lebron James like he used 1982 Magic Johnson?

Not sure about voting yet.

Post #17 » by **TrueLAfan** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 3:05 pm

Warspite wrote: Im a huge Moses fan (maybe the biggest on RealGM) but the Rockets went into full tank mode and did it so blantantly that the outcry from other owners over the Rockets 83 and 84 tank job led directly to the NBA lottery which started in 1985.

Yeah, that's what I remember too. It was a pretty big deal. It isn't mentioned now...I'm sure the NBA isn't wild about publicizing how teams tanking forced them to revamp the draft structure...but it was pretty obvious.

I'm going with

5. Kareem

...and having a bit of doubt about Magic at #2, but not much. All in all, if I was choosing a player to have on my team based solely on this season, I'd want the Cap over the other contenders.

Post #18 » by **Doctor MJ** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 6:11 pm

TrueLAfan wrote:If you're thinking, "Hey, there's no way the Rockets purposefully let their team be lousy to be sure they'd get the top picks" ... think again. They did the same thing the next year.

Ah, that's right. I knew that - and yet still didn't occur to me here. Thanks for pointing that out.

Dr Positivity · Post #19 » by **Dr Positivity** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 6:53 pm

1. Moses - 31 and 15 including 7 Orbs is craz. Like if Dwight Howard was the scoring leader. Pretty efficient too, scoring at 52% with 7/10 from the FT line every game. Recognized by peers as MVP on a 46 win team over guys winning 60 is a good sign. Rockets didn't make it as far this year, but 81 and 83 proved he can do it

2. Erving - All around excellence leading a decent team to dizzying heights. More experienced than Magic/Bird at this point.

3. Magic - Rare case where a team's "Robin" is probably more valuable than their alpha dog. Almost averaged a triple double, his best defensive season, and he flipped around in the lineup alot splitting PG duty with Nixon. Did whatever the Lakers needed.

4. Kareem
5. Bird

I think these players were more complete than Gervin at this point and I'd put my trust in them a little more to build a winner around them. History has made this title more of a Magic alpha dog one than Kareem, but I don't think that's true. I still think Kareem was 'the man' on the 82 title winner even if he wasn't technically the best player. If that makes sense.

My beef with Gervin isn't that his offense is limited to scoring, it's that his d sucks. This is a really tough year to crack playing one side of the ball. So he gets 6th. Not Bird's best year statistically but the Celtics were still awesome with a worse roster than they'd have in the mid 80s and he's still Bird, so...

ronnymac2 · Post #20 » by **ronnymac2** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 7:45 pm

^^^My thoughts on the season are similar. This year didn't have a lot of peak players or completely dominant seasons. Weak in that regard.

Magic vs. Bird is interesting this season. I mean, usually it's so lopsided......

I think it can be argued that Larry was a better player, but Magic put up quite a season. A near triple-double season, 18 triple-doubles in all, collecting 700 rebounds and 700 assists in the same season (only third player to do that- O and Stilt are the others, and they did it in a faster era), and was a key cog in Riley's trap defense. The fact that he had an eight assists player on his team, along with another offensive anchor in KAJ, and still was second in the league in assists is a testament to his ability to do whatever it takes in a team concept. The fact that he grabbed 10 rebounds per game with KAJ and Rambis on the team speaks to his versatility. The guy didn't even have a position this year.

His Finals MVP, title, and post-season play nudge him ahead of Bird.

82 LA is like 10 Boston in that you can't really tell who the best player is. What is more valuable- Rondo's directing the offense/penetration, KG's intangibles/defense, Allen's ability to spread the floor/play solid man defense on the superstars, or Pierce's one vs. one capabilities? Likewise, what is more valuable- Jabbar's ability to anchor the defense and provide a halfcourt scoring option, or Magic's ability to do EVERYTHING? Who knows? My gut says KAJ was better, but the evidence, finals mvp, contemporaries, and other posters signal Magic. I'm going to pull a Broussard on this one and go with the evidence. Separation is so small that KAJ goes Bird, too.

Julius was fantastic. Dropped 29 points in game 7 in Boston. This is Jabbar's first decline year, Magic looks a lot different than in later years (82 Magic can't do what 87 Magic did, but 87 Magic could do what 82 Magic did.....82 Magic was still awesome though), and Erving got his revenge on Bird from 81. Bird struggled in the playoffs, too. Julius had a very good finals.

It's like Kobe this year against the Celtics (82 Lakers). The only thing different is that Kobe Bryant actually had more help, so they won. Regardless of the outcome, Bryant would have been the best player on the court. I think Julius deserves the same treatment this year, too.

81 Bird vs. Erving is going to be interesting. Erving was MVP that year, but Bird truly got the better of him that year in a head-to-head battle.

Moses goes number one. The only complaint is that his playoffs weren't his best, but in watching MO, I've learned that you can't judge this guy based on fg%. The dude only shot 43% in his three games, but he grabbed over nine offensive rebounds per game.

King and Dantley and English weren't good enough. They are players that need to really wow me with something, especially in the playoffs. Moncrief became a true star this year with 20/7/5. When he got the star treatment in the playoffs, his regression was brutal. He definitely learned, because in 83, he was fantastic. Isiah is just a rookie. Sikma/Parish/Gilmore are all great. Gus Williams on SEA, too. I'd take Parish over any of these guys this year, as Parish always gets underrated. He was a 20/10/2/very good defense C. He blocked four shots per game in the playoffs this year. FOUR!!! Still don't think he was better than Bird this year though.

That leaves Gervin. Bird's defense, passing, and rebounding are a lot better. A lot better. I'll take it over Gervin's scoring. Bird's scoring, even when he isn't producing as much, is never a minus for his team.

Final Ranking:

Moses Malone
Julius Erving
Magic Johnson
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Larry Bird

HM: George Gervin, Robert Parish

Pretty crazy that the two best players in 82 joined forces in 83. It's amazing how history repeats itself.