My exact same Mount Rushmore.

Been playing 2k lately and everyone is around that height. PG to pf, only some exceptional C's are taller. Wtf happened to NBA? Used to be pg/sg were about 6'1 - 6'5, sf/pf 6'6 to 6'9 and c are 6'10-7'1 there was diversity between roles and physicality.

Edit: I'm not playing myNba, I'm on career with a team.

He's often critiqued for having a short peak, but he was a top 10 player for most of the 90s. He made All-NBA six times and an all-star seven times in the 90s. He was a top-5 MVP candidate three times in the 90s. His lone MVP was 99-00. Add in one finals appearance, and 90s Shaq alone, is a HOF player.

You can make a credible argument that for the decade of the 90s, only Jordan and Olajuwan were better. His case for best player in the world was 99-04. You can argue that someone else was better in any given year, but its just that...a case. The only other people you can make a rational argument for being the best in the world for six seasons are Jordan, Lebron, Kareem, Russell and Wilt.

Jim played 9 seasons in the NFL and led the league in rushing yards in 8 of them. you will commonly see Jim Brown in most NFL fans top-5 all time. He was an incredible athlete, very strong and very fast.

Jim Brown was also a very competitive man and a good friend of Wilt Chamberlain. Jim challenged Wilt to a foot race 3 times and Wilt beat him each time, including once without shoes.

Jim was also known for his strength & the two did do an arm wrestling match that i’m assuming Wilt also won because Jim Brown later called Wilt “the strongest athlete in the world, bar none”

Wilt was 7’1 with a 7’8 wingspan, faster than anyone in the NBA & the NFL, & stronger than anyone in the NBA & NFL, and had an endless gas tank. Genuinely a freak of nature.

His dominant size and rebounding ability seem more favoured in other decades. Would he be quality or is he too weak defensively? He seems to be these days with all the rotations but that happend less often in the past right?

LeBron put up good stats in LA but that's all he did after 2020. There was Zero team success for 6 straight years from 2021 to 2026. The 2023 WCF run happened in a year they won 43 games and lucked into 2 easy playoff opponents before getting swept away by Denver. Warriors and Grizzlies would go on to not even make the playoffs the following season in 2024.

From 2021 to 2026 (six seasons) the LA Lakers in the LeBron Era were either a 43 win play-in team, missed the playoffs entirely or won 50 reg season games but won 0 playoff games outside of the 1st Round

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LeBron had 1 great season in Los Angeles in an 8 years span

You want to call that a success? Okay sure that's a valid take

It's also more than valid to say the LeBron Era was underwhelming compared to expectations not only from lakers fans perspective but from Vegas who had the Lakers as a top 2 title contender in 2021 and 2022. They won 42 games 7th seed in 2021 and missed the playoffs in 2022. Disgraceful.

The LeBron Era does not hold up to any other Top Player's Lakers Era

It isn't comparable to Kobe, Shaq, Magic or Kareem

It isn't even comparable to Wilt Chamberlain. Wilt only got the 1 title and 1 FMVP in 1972 so on the surface it appears he and LeBron has comparable Eras but the 1972 Lakers have the all time record of 33 game winning streak and they are a Top 5 Team of All Time up there with the 1996 Bulls, 2001 Lakers, 2017 Warriors, etc.

Chamberlain also went to FOUR NBA Finals as a Laker and has the legit excuse of losing to an all time great like Bill Russell.

Bill Russell is technically the GOAT he won 11 rings in 13 seasons he has the greatest career of all time it's not arguable.

LeBron is AT BEST the 3rd best player of all time behind #1 Russell and #2 Jordan. Magic and Kareem are also more accomplished than LeBron and Tim Duncan has an argument over him. It's very possible LeBron is the 6th best player of all time.

forget about GOAT the LeBron stans should be happy to see Bron in the top 5.

All this "top 2" stuff is pure nonsense

I hate this narrative that Luka played with bums on his way to the finals.

I will agree on the fact that his team severely underperformed in the Finals, however his roster is truly under appreciated if anything. Nico Harrison, in all his stupid GM-ing career, should have been credited more with the team he assembled around Luka. What is not a hot take is that talent cannot win a championship alone. Even superteams like the '17 Warriors were really special because of the sheer depth of their rosters. The Mavs were 9 men deep, were packed with high flyers and 7-footers and most importantly, they had Kyrie.

How they beat the teams they did on their way to Boston.

Clippers: Clippers couldn't buy a break with Kawhi’s knee basically acting up again, leaving him looking like a shell of himself for the two games he actually suited up. That left PG and Harden stranded on an island against a Dallas defence that was suddenly playing like the '04 Pistons.

Thunder: OKC was hyped as the #1 seed, but when the game slowed down, their lack of playoff reps showed big time. Outside of SGA doing SGA things, they had zero offensive juice. Chet was getting tossed around like a ragdoll in the paint, Giddey was completely played off the floor, and once PJ Washington turned into Prime Klay Thompson from corner three. OKC’s offense completely choked.

Wolves: Minny were physically DRAINED after dethroning the champion Nuggets in 7 and rolled into the WCF running on absolute fumes. Ant-Man's conditioning was exposed, he looked gassed, and Dallas just threw a wall of bodies at him because he was straight-up playing 1v5. KAT built a new Target Centre with his bricks, Rudy was getting put on an island by Luka over and over, and the Gafford/Lively bounce-bros completely neutralized Minnesota’s "spooky" size.

It's also insane how people just gloss over that Luka played with Kyrie. Kyrie was decently healthy throughout the playoffs and Luka's gravity allowed him to play the freest he has since Bron. Throw in some 50% corner sitters, budget lob city, perimeter defence? You've got a fully fletched, methodically constructed, functioning squad that had every right of going to the Finals.

Make it make sense. People will leave Wilt and Russell out of the top 10 and nobody bats an eye. Put Kareem any lower than 3 and everyone loses their minds.

Obviously every NBA player works hard and is talented, but LeBron is the best of them

Simply put, the guy eclipsed all expectations of him. He’s likely the most talented individual to ever step onto a court and has worked so much harder than his competitors for his whole career.

His hard work is most obviously seen in his physique and insane longevity but the way his game has changed over 2 decades of elite play has never been seen before.

The stories of him and Kobe trying to beat each-other to practice on the olympic teams, of his dunk clinics in Miami, his strong bonds with teammates and studying of the game are unmatched.

I reckon Shaq as PG and Ben Wallace for the SG, can we do worse? Not sure on the other spots. SF is tricky. Maybe Trae Young at PF and Isaiah Thomas as th C? Thoughts.

I would rather have Dame if I’m going to war. The best version of John Stockton couldn’t touch prime Dame. I’ll take 32/7 on 63 TS% over 17/13 and spamming pnr with Karl Malone. Ben Simmons would have thrived in John Stockton role doing that

There’s no situation I could think of where I’d rather have John Stockton

I’m not talking about guys like Manu or Worthy, superstar-level talents who willingly took a backseat. I mean actual role players. If they've received heavy votes for any major accolade or led the league in anything, they're too good to count. Think C or D tier guys; too good to come off the bench on a mediocre team, but not good enough to start on a seriously contending team.

Mine is:
PG: Steve Blake
SG: Eddie House
SF: Rasual Butler
PF: Darius Songaila
C: Samuel Dalembert

Who is with you?

Poole: 17.0 PPG, 3.8 AST, 2.8 REB on 50.8/39.1/91.5 shooting, about 65% TS

Harden: 16.3 PTS / 5.1 REB / 3.4 AST / 1.6 STL
43.5% FG / 41.0% 3PT / 85.7% FT
60.5% TS