ESPN NBA 75th Anniversary Team Rankings - Reactions

asero · Post #1 » by **asero** » Wed Feb 23, 2022 3:54 am

ESPN NBA 75th Anniversary Team Rankings.
Who do you think were ranked too low and too high

Too High
Too Low

01. Michael Jordan
02. LeBron James
03. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
04. Magic Johnson
05. Wilt Chamberlain
06. Bill Russell
07. Larry Bird
08. Tim Duncan
09. Oscar Robertson
10. Kobe Bryant
11. Shaquille O'Neal
12. Kevin Durant
13. Hakeem Olajuwon
14. Julius Erving
15. Moses Malone
16. Stephen Curry
17. Dirk Nowitzki
18. Giannis Antetokounmpo
19. Jerry West
20. Elgin Baylor
21. Kevin Garnett
22. Charles Barkley
23. Karl Malone
24. John Stockton
25. David Robinson
26. John Havlicek
27. Isiah Thomas
28. George Mikan
29. Chris Paul
30. Dwyane Wade
31. Allen Iverson
32. Scottie Pippen
33. Kawhi Leonard
34. Bob Cousy
35. Bob Pettit
36. Dominique Wilkins
37. Steve Nash
38. Rick Barry
39. Kevin McHale
40. Patrick Ewing
41. Walt Frazier
42. Gary Payton
43. Jason Kidd
44. Bill Walton
45. Bob McAdoo
46. Jerry Lucas
47. Ray Allen
48. Wes Unseld
49. Nate Thurmond
50. James Harden
51. Reggie Miller
52. George Gervin
53. Clyde Drexler
54. Pete Maravich
55. Earl Monroe
56. James Worthy
57. Willis Reed
58. Elvin Hayes
59. Nate Archibald
60. Sam Jones
61. Dave Cowens
62. Paul Pierce
63. Robert Parish
64. Hal Greer
65. Lenny Wilkens
66. Paul Arizin
67. Dennis Rodman
68. Russell Westbrook
69. Carmelo Anthony
70. Dolph Schayes
71. Anthony Davis
72. Billy Cunningham
73. Dave DeBusschere
74. Dave Bing
75. Damian Lillard
76. Bill Sharman

sp6r=underrated · Post #2 » by **sp6r=underrated** » Wed Feb 23, 2022 4:23 am

Durant over Dirk is quite lulzy to me. Dirk had a peak that was higher, was a better playoff performer, had a longer career. What is the case for Durant?

asero · Post #3 » by **asero** » Wed Feb 23, 2022 4:29 am

sp6r=underrated wrote:Durant over Dirk is quite lulzy to me. Dirk had a peak that was higher, was a better playoff performer, had a longer career. What is the case for Durant?

Six time NBA first team

sp6r=underrated · Post #4 » by **sp6r=underrated** » Wed Feb 23, 2022 4:37 am

asero wrote:
sp6r=underrated wrote:Durant over Dirk is quite lulzy to me. Dirk had a peak that was higher, was a better playoff performer, had a longer career. What is the case for Durant?

Six time NBA first team

Durant has 6 First teams and 3 2nds. Dirk has 4 first teams and 5 2nds. I don't see 1 as so much better than the other considering they didn't overlap. Especially when you consider Dirk's 2011 campaign would have resulted in 1st NBA and Durant 2nd which makes the All NBA teams equal.

NZB2323 · Post #5 » by **NZB2323** » Wed Feb 23, 2022 4:52 am

Kobe, Shaq, and Hakeem should be ranked ahead of Oscar Robertson. All those guys have multiple finals MVPs and Oscar has none. And unlike Curry, you can’t argue that Oscar should have won it. When the Bucks won the title in 71 Kareem averaged 27, 19, and 3 while shooting 61%, and Oscar averaged 24, 10, and 5 while shooting 52%. Not bad, but there’s a reason why Kareem won MVP and Finals MVP that year.

Oscar is an all-time great, but he isn’t greater than Hakeem, Shaq, and Kobe.

And Dwight should be higher than everyone 63-76.

asero · Post #6 » by **asero** » Wed Feb 23, 2022 5:04 am

sp6r=underrated wrote:
asero wrote:
sp6r=underrated wrote:Durant over Dirk is quite lulzy to me. Dirk had a peak that was higher, was a better playoff performer, had a longer career. What is the case for Durant?

Six time NBA first team

Durant has 6 First teams and 3 2nds. Dirk has 4 first teams and 5 2nds. I don't see 1 as so much better than the other considering they didn't overlap. Especially when you consider Dirk's 2011 campaign would have resulted in 1st NBA and Durant 2nd which makes the All NBA teams equal.

That is a big difference. 6 vs 4 is a significant difference

asero · Post #7 » by **asero** » Wed Feb 23, 2022 5:07 am

asero wrote:
sp6r=underrated wrote:
asero wrote:
Six time NBA first team

Durant has 6 First teams and 3 2nds. Dirk has 4 first teams and 5 2nds. I don't see 1 as so much better than the other considering they didn't overlap. Especially when you consider Dirk's 2011 campaign would have resulted in 1st NBA and Durant 2nd which makes the All NBA teams equal.

That is a big difference. 6 vs 4 is a significant difference
https://basketball.realgm.com/player/Kevin-Durant/Comparison/34/Dirk-Nowitzki/308

Dangit · Post #8 » by **Dangit** » Wed Feb 23, 2022 5:08 am

Amazing how Brutally underrated Pierce still is with this board ...

Whopper_Sr · Post #9 » by **Whopper_Sr** » Wed Feb 23, 2022 5:38 am

KG at 21 is blasphemous. So is CP3 at 29.

Post #10 » by **Feed Your Head** » Wed Feb 23, 2022 5:43 am

Ray being 14 spots ahead of Pierce is bad, but these lists are meant to get people riled up lol.

sp6r=underrated · Post #11 » by **sp6r=underrated** » Wed Feb 23, 2022 5:45 am

Dominique is egregiously too high. I'm floored at some of his contempories he's above.

dygaction · Post #12 » by **dygaction** » Wed Feb 23, 2022 6:01 am

I would switch Giannis and KG for now. KG at 18 and Giannis at 21 sound better at this stage, but things may change after this season. With one MVP or one FMVP, he might get to top 15 in my book this year.

HardenandWilt · Post #13 » by **HardenandWilt** » Wed Feb 23, 2022 6:03 am

harden just needs to go ahead, bute the bullet and hire an agent.. espn ranked him at 50.. lol have you seen hardens basketball reference page.. his similarity scores match legit all-time greats

Run DLC · Post #14 » by **Run DLC** » Wed Feb 23, 2022 6:12 am

Durant is too high

asero · Post #15 » by **asero** » Wed Feb 23, 2022 6:15 am

dygaction wrote:I would switch Giannis and KG for now. KG at 18 and Giannis at 21 sound better at this stage, but things may change after this season. With one MVP or one FMVP, he might get to top 15 in my book this year.

Nah, KG needed a Big 3 to win

Run DLC · Post #16 » by **Run DLC** » Wed Feb 23, 2022 6:20 am

That list has Stephen A’s fingerprints all over it. I’m surprised he didn’t put KD at #2

Dutchball97 · Post #17 » by **Dutchball97** » Wed Feb 23, 2022 6:45 am

Terrible list but some of the "corrections" here are just as bad.

Blame Rasho · Post #18 » by **Blame Rasho** » Wed Feb 23, 2022 6:54 am

The Comedian wrote:Ray being 14 spots ahead of Pierce is bad, but these lists are meant to get people riled up lol.

Ray Allen has just two all nba teams to his resume, and Pierce isn’t all that much better with just four but yeah… hard to have Allen above Pierce.

TheLand13 · Post #19 » by **TheLand13** » Wed Feb 23, 2022 7:08 am

HardenandWilt wrote:harden just needs to go ahead, bute the bullet and hire an agent.. espn ranked him at 50.. lol have you seen hardens basketball reference page.. his similarity scores match legit all-time greats

Until he has meaningful playoff performances and consistently plays defense, he should be thankful he even made the list.

Johnny Tomala · Post #20 » by **Johnny Tomala** » Wed Feb 23, 2022 8:17 am

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33343387/nba-75th-anniversary-team-biggest-questions-our-top-76-countdown

Kevin Garnett (No. 21). His team situation throughout his career obscured the fact that he had arguably the largest impact on winning of any player in the past 25 years. Garnett was one of the most dominant defensive big men in NBA history, and he was also an excellent team offense creator/floor spacer from the big man position. Across the full body of impact studies of the data ball era, spanning back to 1997, Garnett's only peer in overall positive effect on team scoring margins is LeBron James, the No. 2 player on the list.