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Josh Giddey.

Same as you. Like exactly those reasons for those players. KD twice. Like him pre and post warriors. Pat Bev. Hated him pre lakers

Westbrook/KD- I used to say “KD is better, but Westbrook is what makes the Thunder a contender because KD can only react and WB generates”

LeBron - “he is just an athlete - in a few years he will be washed. He will never be at the Tim Duncan level”

Booker - “he’s just a big numbers on a bad team guy”

You still have NOTHING but love for kobe? Really?

Not 180, but I did have 360 on Jason Kidd.

Lonzo especially since he’s on my team now

After the NCAA tournament (specifically the Duke game) I was absolutely certain Derrick Williams was going to be a superstar 3 level scorer. I no longer believe that to be true.

LeBron. Dislike, like, dislike, like, dislike. Sometimes I wish I could just refer to his past. Soon, I guess

Lebron, I hate that he went to the Lakers

And Kawhi after he left Spurs

His best contending years his teammates or himself got hurt

4/8 years with KD one of them was hurt going into the playoffs I think it’s pretty fair to say most nba fans think they win one if they don’t get hurt like that

Bron, he went from Pacer killer to out of the picture for us so I could appreciate him. I'm from LA too so I got a soft spot for the Lakers (especially Kobe and Shannon Brown ifykyk). So it's nice to be able to root for the king.

Inversely I went from liking AD on the Pels to really disliking him on the Lakers. I can't stand his streekyness. Be one of the best players in the league or be mid af, but either way pick one lol.

KCP, from ankle monitor KCP to champion KCP

curry used to annoy me since he was on a super team. now I know he's the 2nd GOAT and is my fav player to watch

This season, Porzingas, even though he's injured again. Still can't rely on him in fantasy

Stephen Curry. I was never a fan of him during his prime, MVP-winning years, but watching him carry a poorly constructed GSW team through the playoffs all the way to a 4th ring changed my mind about him as a player.

I still don’t have him in my Top 10, but now, I won’t even argue with anyone who does 🤷🏻‍♂️

On the negative side, I’ve done a complete 180 on Kawhi. I thought he was great with the Spurs, but watching him play (which is difficult) for the Clippers, he just lacks the drive to win that so many of his contemporaries seem to have. Supremely talented player, but definitely not one of my fave players, or a Top 15 player in 2023.

Probably Lebron. His playoff failures early on made me think he was going to top out at something like T-Mac's level. All time great player but not in the realm of people like Jordan, Magic, Bird, Hakeem, Shaq or Duncan (earlier players in this tier too probably but I didnt see them play). Even the victories with the Heat didn't change my mind on him. Just thought he got better teammates who could pick up the slack for him. Looking back that was a mistake but probably because I just hated the heat (Bulls fan). The Cleveland and LA titles (but especially the Cleveland run) changed my mind on him. Doing what he did to beat the Warriors and then hang with them in those others finals, despite already being a little past his physical prime, was amazing.

In the other direction, Vince Carter. If you had asked me in 2000 who was going to be the better player between Vince, Kobe and T-Mac, I would have said Vince. He was a better shooter than either of them, and was stronger than Kobe without giving up anything to him in athleticism (maybe was even more athletic). And in the end its not even close between him and Kobe, and wouldn't be close between him and T-Mac if McGrady hadn't declined early because of injuries.

Can I say a “former” player/now coach? Still counts right?

Steve Kerr. Those first few years he was the coach of the Warriors, I hated that team but I didn’t really care either way for Kerr. More just thought he was lucky to be handed the keys to a team with two of the best shooters of all time AND then Kevin Durant as well. Plus he was a really good player in his own right and it was cool to see him in “The Last Dance”. But the past few years when he’s been defending Draymond for all his bullshit, or arguing with refs, or accusing other teams of doing stuff his team does all the time (probably sounding very biased as a Grizz fan), it’s really turned me off the guy

The beard. He was so talented I thought he was a Lebron calibre, for the history books type star and I was convinced he was going to get chips even after leaving the rockets. I stayed faithful all the way till his run with the nets was over. I finally realised that under that beard all that’s left is one broke ugly mf

Josh Giddey

DeMar DeRozan when he joined Bulls.

James Harden. Was all about the beard but then he became a whiny prick who just quit on teams.

Kobe had the opposite effect on me than LeBron. I never liked Kobe but after awhile I had to respect him and started liking him especially because of how he finished games all or nothing LeBron I liked then I started looking at him differently after the Orlando loss in the semis and seeing him continue to shy away from big moments then the “I’m taking my talents to south beach” happened and it’s never been the same since

Kobe. Everyone in my neighborhood was either an A.I. or Kobe fan. I liked A.I. a lot, but refused to get down with anything west coast (from NC) so Kobe was automatically out. From there I carved my own path into becoming a T-Mac (and later Lebron) fan. Well that last year Kobe played, I was a disaster. It hurt to watch the end of his career; it had literally been all I had ever known. When he retired, he closed the chapter of NBA basketball that raised me...took up until the first game of that last season for me to realize. RIP Mamba

Probably a guy like Matt Bonner. I went from thinking that he was just a 3rd team all NBA guy to perennial all-star,NBA champion and Hall of Fame level player pretty quickly. He made guys around him like Timmy, Manu, and Tony look pretty decent.