NBA '08 Playoff Thread

Not all that sad that Celtics won because KG and Allen have been fine players and fine persons, at least in public. Doc Rivers has been maligned as a coach but never as a person.

Leon Powe is a great local story here; grew up essentially homeless at times in a car, lost his mom in high school yet always held his head up high and was a great representative of Cal. Very happy to see him be a part of a championship team.

Lakers just dogged it last night. Lost in every single hustle category, ZERO blocked shots; TWO offensive rebounds the whole game; 17 TOs vs. only 9 for Celts and Celts had 17 steals. Seeing Gasol lose multiple rebounds by getting out hustled by Rondo was pathetic.

How does Radmanovic even have a job, especially a $36M contract? That guy just jacks up a 3 any time he gets the ball with even a sliver of daylight and he has no clue about D, as long as he can see an opponent he thinks he's playing D. There was one time on a fastbreak/transition where he was with Allen (Great Shooter Vlad!!) and he just lets Allen go to the other wing while Vlad sits in the key to double Powe(?) so what does Rondo do? Get the ball to Allen for a wide open 3. Stupid.

Very disappointed in Gasol and Odom. Lamar was exposed for what he is; a player who can be very good but who may be just a basketball punk (not person). Why is he all of a sudden aggressive and into KG's grill when he's down 35?

Better team won. Just thought the way the Lakers took down the Spurs they were the better team. Wrong. Congrats to the Celts.

 

OK, bostonbred ... you keep making intelligent, well-informed posts like this one and I might actually start liking you despite your Boston bias.
Somebody find Tom Petty, I need that drink.

 

Ok, I'll bite....

(1) Magic Johnson
(2) Dr. J
(3) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
(4) Larry Bird
(5) Wilt Chamberlain
(6) Hakeem Olajuwon
(7) Michael Jordan
(8 ) Tim Duncan
(9) Jerry West
(10) Elgin Baylor
(11) Isiah Thomas
(12) Karl Malone
(13) Oscar Robertson
(14) Shaq
(15) Earl Monroe
(16) Pete Maravich
(17) Charles Barkley
(18) Scottie Pippen
(19) Patrick Ewing
(20) David Robinson
(21) Kevin Garnett
(22) (soon) LeBron James

 

Agreed. And I'm glad those two -- and especially Paul Pierce and Scot Pollard (on IR), the Jayhawks that they are -- got their rings.

 

If you don't think Dr J is among the top 20 you're nuts.

 

As much as I love The Pearl and Pistol, neither is as good as Kobe.
Earl was the second-best guard on the last Knicks championship team...he even he'll tell you that.

 

Well that's why I named 22 -- in case someone found an issue with two of them ;D

 

Not a bad list.

But no on No. 11.

Definite no on No. 15.

No on No. 18. Come on.

No on No. 20.

 

No on 2, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22.

Kobe has won three titles. He wasn't Brian Shaw on those teams. And he's 29. Jordan won his third title at 30. So by the time Kobe's done, I'll also probably say no to No. 8. And although I hate the Celtics and their entire history, Big Bill should be on this list, and yes I do put him above Kobe.

 

Obviously this is a great argument and I think Kobe is somewhere between 10 and 20 -- but there is no way in hell he is better than Isiah Thomas -- who might be the most underrated and underappreciated player of all-time.

Zeke was special, plain and simple.

And unlike Kobe, he willed his teams to win -- he is an asshole, a terrible GM and a mediocre coach -- but dude is one of the top ten players of all time, without question.

I remember that Lakers playoff game when he had a sprained ankle and dropped like 20-something in one quarter on them. He simply would not be stopped.

 

Man, I don't see where you could rate Isiah Thomas so highly. Great playmaker with flaws, including the lack of a perimeter threat.

I'll tell you one thing ... he doesn't turn a franchise around by himself like some of the others on your list.

(Unless, of course, he's coaching them.)

 

I thought European players hwere equipped with fundamentals?
Most of them look to be fundamentally flawed defensively.