this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2023
1 points (100.0% liked)

NBA - Main

12 readers
1 users here now

Game analysis, highlights and everything else that is happening in the NBA.

founded 11 months ago
MODERATORS
 

The usual suspects forming the top 9 of the greatest basketball players list in some order are

  • MJ
  • LeBron
  • Kareem
  • Wilt
  • Bill Russell
  • Magic
  • Tim Duncan
  • Larry Bird
  • Shaq

Who rounds out the top 10 list at #10? Some names that come to mind are

  • Kobe
  • Hakeem
  • Oscar
  • Steph
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] JKaro@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Magic is not in my top 10. Defense matters. He’s not top 10

[–] RVAIsTheGreatest@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Offense is valued higher than Defense overall for me...not dismissing the impact of D though at all. Eras also are a factor. This is specifically about Bill being a low leverage, mediocre efficiency even for his era offensive player. Magic wasn't a great defender but he was better on D than Bill was on O and his O makes up for it.

[–] JKaro@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Mostly joking, but I disagree with the sentiment of Magic Defense > Bill Russell Offense. Bill’s defense lead to offensive opportunities in transition, and he ran the fast break. The offense of the Celtics was also predicated on Bill Russell passing in the high post, moving the ball around and running dribble handoffs.

He’s no Shaq or Jokic on offense, but it’s not clear cut whether Magic defense vs. Bill offense, especially since Magic was a mediocre wing defender at best.

This is all my opinion anyways as a Bill Russell fan, so agree to disagree, but I think people don’t really realise how impactful his defense was, it was literally history changing the way the Celtics transformed with him on their squad

[–] RVAIsTheGreatest@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

This is all very fair. Thank you for giving me something to think about a little.