Vote:
2. LeBron James ('15-16)
If we factor in physical durability and longevity to physical talent, LeBron is probably the GOAT talent. His body and game have aged so well that there's probably more fruitful comparison to be had comparing LeBron vs LeBron than any other star with himself.
I do think LeBron at any age lacks the motor and every-game intensity edge Jordan had, to say nothing of Jordan's hand size advantage which Jordan made great use of, but it seems like in no matter what stage of LeBron's career you look, he's got an unfair set of strengths.
For me, the debate over which LeBron year settles down to the best years from his first 3 stints: '08-09, '12-13 & '15-16. (Shout outs to '11-12 & '16-17 which are both obvious candidates for his 2nd best year.)
I think it's important not to take '08-09 too lightly. Prior to that Magic series, we were all getting ready to say that LeBron was the best basketball player the world had ever seen. They get upset in that series...but anyone watching it with unbiased eyes will see that that really wasn't about LeBron doing anything wrong. They played a great opponent, and they got cold while the other team got hot. In another universe, the Cavs get to the finals that year at the very least.
I don't think LeBron has ever had another year as impactful as '08-09, and I don't think he deserves to be criticized for the upset loss...nevertheless, after '08-09, we saw LeBron get flummoxed a couple times against strong, smart defenses that in later years, he wouldn't, and defensively, he'd hit a new level in Miami.
I think LeBron was probably at the peak of his powers in Miami. He adapted to work within a scheme based on the talent around him, and he worked his ass off on defense, all while being savvier than he'd been before he left Cleveland the first time. It makes a ton of sense to pick this era of LeBron, however:
A thing we tend to brush aside nowadays as we gush about Spo's genius, is that for all the sophistication of the Heatle team approach, the 2nd stint Cavs had a more effective offense. I think the reality is that in '15-16, LeBron was playing as if in the nexus of a web he'd spun to allow him to be able to make anything happen he could think to make happen, and this made him more effective.
I think that you could argue that the Heat played how they needed to play based on how LeBron/Wade/Bosh worked together, but if you're playing less effectively in a given context than you could in another context, well, it's probably not when you were at the former where you hit your peak.
3. Steph Curry ('16-17)
Obviously I've been thinking a lot about Curry lately. Got myself in a situation where I realized there just aren't many guys I'm comfortable siding with Curry against. The reality at this point is that Curry has essentially dictated the course of the NBA since '14-15, at which time he and his team spearheaded what now can clearly be seen as a new era.
While I'm not making this list simply as a "Who would do better in the current era?" thing, in any comparison with Curry I find it impossible not to ask a similar question...and since Curry has a serious case at this for being the closest thing to an ideal player for the current era, that gives him a candidacy for #1.
In the end, he's behind Jordan & LeBron because I still have more confidence in them in any given basketball situation than I do with Curry. It's possible that in 20 years, there will be many guys doing what Curry does now, but short of the human race going through another massive improvement in diet and environment, Jordan & LeBron have bodies that are just extreme outliers for what the human race seems capable of.
As for which year I'm picking Curry, well it's tough. To me there are 5 candidates to consider: '14-15, '15-16, '16-17 & '20-21 & '21-22.
'14-15 is the year where he gets both MVP and the chip.
'15-16 sees him clearly get a lot better than before, but he plays poorly in the playoffs.
'16-17 sees him playing optimal basketball as the MVP of the greatest team in the history of basketball...but his team is less dependent on him.
'20-21 sees him come back from injury and once again becomes the best player in the world...for part of the year, on a team that can't quite make the playoffs.
'21-22 sees him lead a team to the chip again, looking like he knows all the right buttons to push when he needs to...but he spends majors chunks of the year not shooting very well.
The more I thought about this, the more '16-17 made sense. While it makes sense that if you came to certain conclusions about what Curry fundamentally could and could not do in the previous playoffs, '16-17 was basically doomed to be an experiment that didn't have the potential to yield the necessary result to elevate Curry higher, if you're someone like me who felt that Curry playing worse in the '15-16 playoffs was mostly about Curry playing worse over a particular interval, then '16-17 is something kinda close to flawless.
Now, I don't expect a lot of people will be swayed by anything here and that's okay, but I did want to point out that this idea that the Warriors stopped being great without Durant after Durant came is never what the data told us.
In 3 years, Curry played 168 games with KD, and 31 without.
In the 168 with KD, Curry had an on-court +/- of +15.7 and the Warriors had an SRS Pace of 66.3.
In the 31 without KD, Curry had an on-court +/- of +17.2 and the Warriors had an SRS Pace of 70.0.
KD's a freaking amazing player and undoubtedly helped the Warriors be better against playoff competition than they already were, but it wasn't a fluke in '18-19 when the Warriors beat the Rockets (and Blazers) without him any more than it was a fluke that the Warriors won 7 playoff series in the two years before KD arrived...any more than it was a fluke that the Warriors just won the title again.
4. Hakeem Olajuwon ('94-95)
So, between '92-93, '93-94 & '94-95, I have to acknowledge I don't see these as different players. To me this was the era where his offense reached virtuoso levels while still having a strong case for the best defensive player in the world. I went with '94-95 because to me that felt like the moment when all the guns were aimed at Hakeem, and one by one, he did his Dream Shake around them.
I've said before that I see the Russell build to be the prototype for the optimal build for a defensive player and that Olajuwon represents the best prospect along those lines since Russell. You add into that that footwork and deft offensive skill that he proved able to just keep getting better and better at it with time...and while he might have seem like a sign of things to come - with him being an international player and all- truly he's just proven to be a unicorn.
Where I have doubts here, it's not so much that I doubt him to be my choice for the classic 5 I'd pick first in today's game, but whether different types of players should be ranked ahead of him.
And to name names:
Bird, Magic, Garnett & Giannis are the ones who would come to mind.
With Bird & Magic, their case is much like Curry's. I don't have a strong feeling about the orders here to be honest - it's not clear cut to me that Curry ranks ahead of Dream, but Bird & Magic do not. But I don't dismiss the jaw-dropping stuff I've seen from Hakeem lightly.
Folks who know me know that I'm super-high on Garnett. Garnett's tricky because his offensive and defensive peak are so clearly separated, and he remains a player I ask "What if?" about a great deal despite the fact that he managed massive impact while being constrained by primitive tactics. Push comes to shove, I can't say that I think the peak effectiveness I saw from Garnett warrants placement above Olajuwon.
Giannis is the obvious elephant in the room, and someone who with time I may grow enough confidence in to move him considerably higher.
I do feel I should add: I'm not sure I'll have these 4 names ahead of Kareem, I only feel sure enough that when looking at the bigs, I like what I see from Olajuwon a bit more than Kareem.
