Old-timer NBA players vote for which current player would have excelled the most in their own era

[Professor Emeritus]

LeBron, the Joker and Pop: What retired NBA players like (and don’t like) about today’s game

In our annual retired players poll, The Athletic surveyed 101 former NBA players about the state of today's game.

theathletic.com

Notice that 24.2% just said "all of them" or "greats now would have been great then", so you can pretty much add that to every score.


Which current player(s) would have excelled when you played?

(respondents could name more than one player)

ANSWER	PERCENTAGE
LeBron James	39.6%
Kevin Durant	23.1%
Steph Curry	17.6%
Giannis Antetokounmpo	16.5%
Nikola Jokić	14.3%
All of them	13.2%
Luka Dončić	12.1%
Joel Embiid	11.0%
Greats today would've been great back then	11.0%
Kyrie Irving	7.7%
Klay Thompson	5.5%
Kawhi Leonard	3.3%
Damian Lillard	2.2%
Ja Morant	2.2%
Chris Paul	2.2%
Jayson Tatum	2.2%
Multiple responses	Under 2.0%

“LeBron. He could play in any era. He takes care of his body and could take the rigors of commercial flights and long road trips.” – Anonymous player who competed both in the ABA and NBA in the 1970s and ’80s.

“The best players now would be the best players then. The best players are the best players regardless of eras.” – Tariq Abdul-Wahad, who played six seasons, from the late 1990s to early 2000s

 

[Sccit]

WHY ANONYMOUS THO?



DID THEY ASK RODMAN?

Dennis Rodman Says LeBron James Would Have Been 'Average' in the 80s and 90s | SLAM

Hall of Famer and all-around crazy person Dennis Rodman was asked to compare LeBron James to Michael Jordan. The Worm says there's no comparison between

www.slamonline.com

 

[fifth column]

LeBron, the Joker and Pop: What retired NBA players like (and don’t like) about today’s game

In our annual retired players poll, The Athletic surveyed 101 former NBA players about the state of today's game.

theathletic.com

Which current player(s) would have excelled when you played?

(respondents could name more than one player)

ANSWER	PERCENTAGE
LeBron James	39.6%
Kevin Durant	23.1%
Steph Curry	17.6%
Giannis Antetokounmpo	16.5%
Nikola Jokić	14.3%
All of them	13.2%
Luka Dončić	12.1%
Joel Embiid	11.0%
Greats today would've been great back then	11.0%
Kyrie Irving	7.7%
Klay Thompson	5.5%
Kawhi Leonard	3.3%
Damian Lillard	2.2%
Ja Morant	2.2%
Chris Paul	2.2%
Jayson Tatum	2.2%
Multiple responses	Under 2.0%

“LeBron. He could play in any era. He takes care of his body and could take the rigors of commercial flights and long road trips.” – Anonymous player who competed both in the ABA and NBA in the 1970s and ’80s.

“The best players now would be the best players then. The best players are the best players regardless of eras.” – Tariq Abdul-Wahad, who played six seasons, from the late 1990s to early 2000s

I’m sure Bron would be thrilled to stay and develop with the team that drafted him like Kobe and Mike if he was in an earlier era where that was standard

 

[get these nets]

MVP tier and then Luka and Embiid.
No surprises

 

[Professor Emeritus]

I’m sure Bron would be thrilled to stay and develop with the team that drafted him like Kobe and Mike if he was in an earlier era where that was standard

Kobe didn't stay 5 minutes with the team that drafted him. His agent purposely manipulated the draft to make sure he'd end up on the Lakers.

Arn Tellem, Kobe Bryant and the mission that delivered him to the L.A. Lakers

Detroit Pistons vice chairman and former agent Arn Tellem wrote this column ahead of Monday's memorial honoring late Kobe Bryant, his former client.

www.freep.com

Kobe, Magic and Russell all manipulated the draft or had it manipulated for them so that they'd end up on the ideal team. Duncan and Bird lucked into being drafted by teams who already had HOF stars and solid rosters. Wilt, Oscar, Kareem, Walton, Barkley, Drexler, Carter, Shaq, and Garnett all asked for or even forced trades (Wilt twice) to get to their desired destination. Hakeem tried to force a trade too but it fell through at the last second, Kobe demanded a trade at one point as well. Dr. J, Moses, Shaq, and Grant Hill signed free agent deals with new squads that were loaded or on their way to being so.

Nearly every superstar in the previous eras ended up surrounded by the elite roster they wanted one way or another. I'm sure Bron would have been just fine.

 

[FS4LFE]

Of course Bron would cook in the previous era. Only weirdos think differently. Most of the modern elite players would still have respectable careers.

 

[KidJSoul]

“The best players now would be the best players then. The best players are the best players regardless of eras.” – Tariq Abdul-Wahad, who played six seasons, from the late 1990s to early 2000s

This guy gets it

 

[KidJSoul]

Kobe didn't stay 5 minutes with the team that drafted him. His agent purposely manipulated the draft to make sure he'd end up on the Lakers.

Arn Tellem, Kobe Bryant and the mission that delivered him to the L.A. Lakers

Detroit Pistons vice chairman and former agent Arn Tellem wrote this column ahead of Monday's memorial honoring late Kobe Bryant, his former client.

www.freep.com

Kobe, Magic and Russell all manipulated the draft or had it manipulated for them so that they'd end up on the ideal team. Duncan and Bird lucked into being drafted by teams who already had HOF stars and solid rosters. Wilt, Oscar, Kareem, Walton, Barkley, Drexler, Carter, Shaq, and Garnett all asked for or even forced trades (Wilt twice) to get to their desired destination. Hakeem tried to force a trade too but it fell through at the last second, Kobe demanded a trade at one point as well. Dr. J, Moses, Shaq, and Grant Hill signed free agent deals with new squads that were loaded or on their way to being so.

Nearly every superstar in the previous eras ended up surrounded by the elite roster they wanted one way or another. I'm sure Bron would have been just fine.

Take out Bird, he wasn't drafted to a good Celtics team at all

 

[Professor Emeritus]

Take out Bird, he wasn't drafted to a good Celtics team at all

That's a myth, the Celtics team he was drafted to had a great roster his rookie year, they'd just had injuries the year before mixed with a bunch of new acquisitions.

* Tiny Archibald, a HOF point guard and best player on the roster before Bird got there, had missed an entire season with injury and took a year to recover.
* Rick Robey, a solid role player center who averaged 12-7-2, had missed most of the previous year due to injury.
* M.L. Carr, a very good veteran who had averaged 19-7-3 and 2nd-team All-Defensive for Detroit, was signed as a free agent for Bird's rookie year.
* Pete Maravich, who was getting old but still a solid scorer averaging 17-3-3 for Utah, was picked up at midseason of Bird's rookie year.
* Gerald Henderson was signed as a free agent in Bird's rookie year.

On top of that, they had All-Star and HOFer Dave Cowens, future Finals MVP Cedric Maxwell, and solid role player Rick Robey. Those three weren't good enough to do anything with the team they year before, but they were good enough when matched with SIX major new players counting Bird.


In other words, their top 2 starters and their top 4 guys off the bench either hadn't played for the team the year before or had been limited. The Celtics basically added 5 double-digit scorers. That was a great squad with 4 HOF players on it, three of which were still good enough to make the All-Star team.

And THEN they added Robert Parish and Kevin McHale the next year in what's largely considered the most lopsided trade in league history.

 

[VegetasHairline]

Those same old heads think the 82-83 Sixers would easily beat last year's Warriors.

 

[KidJSoul]

That's a myth, the Celtics team he was drafted to had a great roster his rookie year, they'd just had injuries the year before mixed with a bunch of new acquisitions.

* Tiny Archibald, a HOF point guard and best player on the roster before Bird got there, had missed the entire previous season with injury.
* Rick Robey, a solid role player center who averaged 12-7-2, had missed most of the previous year due to injury.
* M.L. Carr, a very good veteran who had averaged 19-7-3 and 2nd-team All-Defensive for Detroit, was signed as a free agent for Bird's rookie year.
* Pete Maravich, who was getting old but still a solid scorer averaging 17-3-3 for Utah, was picked up at midseason of Bird's rookie year.
* Gerald Henderson was signed as a free agent in Bird's rookie year.


In other words, their top 2 starters and their top 4 guys off the bench hadn't played for the team the year before. The Celtics basically added 5 double-digit scorers including 3 HOFers. That was a great squad.

And THEN they added Robert Parish and Kevin McHale the next year in what's largely considered the most lopsided trade in league history.

Dude, Archibald did play most of the previous year. Where you getting it from that he didn't play

And Pete maravich wasn't a big factor in the 79-80 season. He played a quarter of the games .

The other guys you brought up were role players. You're acting like they were great players averaging 20 a game

The facts are that Bird turned it around his rookie year. They won an extra 32 games. Don't tell me M.L Carr, Henderson, and Rick Robey were as important as Bird for that first year

 

[fifth column]

Kobe didn't stay 5 minutes with the team that drafted him. His agent purposely manipulated the draft to make sure he'd end up on the Lakers.

Arn Tellem, Kobe Bryant and the mission that delivered him to the L.A. Lakers

Detroit Pistons vice chairman and former agent Arn Tellem wrote this column ahead of Monday's memorial honoring late Kobe Bryant, his former client.

www.freep.com

Kobe, Magic and Russell all manipulated the draft or had it manipulated for them so that they'd end up on the ideal team. Duncan and Bird lucked into being drafted by teams who already had HOF stars and solid rosters. Wilt, Oscar, Kareem, Walton, Barkley, Drexler, Carter, Shaq, and Garnett all asked for or even forced trades (Wilt twice) to get to their desired destination. Hakeem tried to force a trade too but it fell through at the last second, Kobe demanded a trade at one point as well. Dr. J, Moses, Shaq, and Grant Hill signed free agent deals with new squads that were loaded or on their way to being so.

Nearly every superstar in the previous eras ended up surrounded by the elite roster they wanted one way or another. I'm sure Bron would have been just fine.

So he would have just forced a trade then.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

Dude, Archibald did play most of the previous year. Where you getting it from that he didn't play

And Pete maravich wasn't a big factor in the 79-80 season. He played a quarter of the games .

The other guys you brought up were role players. You're acting like they were great players averaging 20 a game

The facts are that Bird turned it around his rookie year. They won an extra 32 games. Don't tell me M.L Carr, Henderson, and Rick Robey were as important as Bird for that first year

Sorry, I fixed it before you responded. He had missed an entire year due to an Achilles tear. He came back the year before Bird got drafted but was nowhere near 100%, no one in that era ever took less than a season to work their way back from an Achilles injury. In '79 he averaged just 11 and 5 shooting 45%, but in '80 he averaged 14 and 8 shooting 48% and made his way back to the All-Star team again for the first of three straight seasons.

This was the squad for Bird's rookie season:

PG: All-Star and future HOF Tiny Archibald, giving 14 and 8
SG: Chris Ford, giving 11-3-3
SF: Future Finals MVP Cedric Maxwell, giving 17-9-3
PF: All-Star and future HOF Larry Bird, giving 21-10-5
C: All-Star and future HOF Dave Cowens, giving 14-8-3 and 2nd-team All-Defensive

M.L. Carr giving 11-4-1 with elite defense
Future HOF Pete Maravich giving 12-2-1 for the last third of the season plus playoffs
Rick Robey giving 12-7-1


How the fukk is that not a good squad? They had EIGHT guys averaging double-figures, 4 future Hall of Famers, and 3 All-Stars in THAT year. You whine about them not averaging 20ppg when the team was so loaded that Bird barely even averaged 20ppg himself.

And then the very next year they lost Dave Cowens and Pete Maravich but added fresher HOFers Robert Parish AND Kevin McHale.

 

[fifth column]

Sorry, I fixed it before you responded. He had missed an entire year due to an Achilles tear. He came back the year before Bird got drafted but was nowhere near 100%, no one in that era ever took less than a season to work their way back from an Achilles injury. In '79 he averaged just 11 and 5 shooting 45%, but in '80 he averaged 14 and 8 shooting 48% and made his way back to the All-Star team again for the first of three straight seasons.

This was the squad for Bird's rookie season:

PG: All-Star and future HOF Tiny Archibald, giving 14 and 8
SG: Chris Ford, giving 11-3-3
SF: Future Finals MVP Cedric Maxwell, giving 17-9-3
PF: All-Star and future HOF Larry Bird, giving 21-10-5
C: All-Star and future HOF Dave Cowens, giving 14-8-3 and 2nd-team All-Defensive

M.L. Carr giving 11-4-1 with elite defense
Future HOF Pete Maravich giving 12-2-1 for the last third of the season plus playoffs
Rick Robey giving 12-7-1


How the fukk is that not a good squad? They had EIGHT guys averaging double-figures, 4 future Hall of Famers, and 3 All-Stars in THAT year.

And then the very next year they lost Dave Cowens and Pete Maravich but added fresher HOFers Robert Parish AND Kevin McHale.

With this revisionist logic, why wasn’t the 2009 and 2010 Cavs that won 60+ games not good enough for Bron to stay and build with?

 

[Boonapalist]

Oh I thought player opinions didn’t matter? Or it’s different when they’re bigging up LeBron?