|
Why Lebron James is the next and final Michael JordanFor two decades Michael Jordan sat alone at his table (undoubtedly enjoying this fact as only MJ-the-competitor could), and the empty chair with ‘next’ placed on it had remained vacant. Countless players had either been thrust forward to claim the seat or eagerly tried to attain it, yet all were found unworthy. The outlier in Michael Jordan was exactly that, an outlier… until Lebron James, in his 16th season of professional basketball, warily stepped forward, removed the ‘next’ place-holder card, and took a seat. |
Part II - Final
Ever since November 1, 1947, when Ossie Schectman (white guy name alert) of the New York Knickerbockers scored the first points in NBA history (then called the BAA), only two players have separated themselves as outliers. And I’m not talking about outliers such as Manute Bol and Georghe Mureshan (height), Robert Parish (games played), Popeye Jones (most likely to be confused for an alien), Sam Cassel (biggest testicles), or Kevin Garnett (most likely to call an opponent a cancer-patient during a game). I’m talking about a player’s Transcendent Qualities (TQs) and, most importantly, Enduring Qualities (EQs) being so superior to their peers, that they become historically and generationally incomparable. Michael Jordan was the original – a player whose insurmountable EQs not only outshone his peers and the generations of players before and after his time, but whose singular dominance created the figurehead symbol of Michael Jordan. Lebron James was next – a player who, while at 17 years of age was proclaimed as ‘The Chosen One’ by Sports Illustrated, not only outshone the hype and his peers (like Jordan before him), but solidified his EQs through NBA Championships, MVPs, Franchise-altering career decisions, revolutionising player-empowerment, and Tier 1 peak-performance longevity. Given these two outliers and the significance of their place in the 70-plus years of professional basketball, the question then becomes… who, or what, is next?
A potential round-table discussion of this statement could go as follows:
Following the thoughtful basketball discussion shared between Person A and Person C, and artfully ignoring Person B (whilst perhaps taking a glance at Zion’s mixtape), one could rationalise that another outlier will eventually present themselves, like Lebron to Michael, to claim the title of next. Working against this theory, however, is that in the cases of both Michael Jordan and Lebron James, the pair experienced a perfect-storm of external circumstances to further establish themselves with EQs superior to their generations’ opponents.
Sidenote: While these circumstances in no way draw away from the individual greatness of both Michael Jordan and Lebron James, they provide a means for their greatness to become magnified – unlike in other eras of NBA history.
A potential round-table discussion of this statement could go as follows:
- Person A: ‘Michael Jordan was the greatest basketball player to ever live. After reading Part I of this piece, I begrudgingly acknowledge that Lebron James is next. As for after Lebron? It took 50-years to find Michael, another 20 to find Lebron…
- Person B (manically raising his voice): ‘You forgot about Kobe! He has 5 rings and Lebron only has 3! How is this even a question? Kobe is the GOAT! The EQs this writer assigned to Kobe are a travesty. Kobe didn’t need Shaq to win those first 3 rings! His sexual assault case was settled before it went to trial! He got 15 rebounds in game 7 of the NBA Finals against the Celtics! He even scored 60 points in his final NBA game!’
- Person C: ‘That’s an interesting perspective, Person A. However, due to the rarity of such outliers occurring, what if we were to consider that Lebron James is not only the next Michael Jordan, but the FINAL Michael Jordan. (Conveniently the premise to this piece.)
- Person D: ‘Dude! Have you seen Zion’s mixtape!?!?’
- Person B: ‘Kobe’s mixtape is better!’
Following the thoughtful basketball discussion shared between Person A and Person C, and artfully ignoring Person B (whilst perhaps taking a glance at Zion’s mixtape), one could rationalise that another outlier will eventually present themselves, like Lebron to Michael, to claim the title of next. Working against this theory, however, is that in the cases of both Michael Jordan and Lebron James, the pair experienced a perfect-storm of external circumstances to further establish themselves with EQs superior to their generations’ opponents.
Sidenote: While these circumstances in no way draw away from the individual greatness of both Michael Jordan and Lebron James, they provide a means for their greatness to become magnified – unlike in other eras of NBA history.
Michael Jordan - Circumstances 1990-1998
- Peaked during Tier 1 talent drought of 1990s.
- Peaked during the popularity-boom of the NBA.
- Had an under-appreciated and subservient all-time superstar teammate.
- Had an all-time great coach/Zen-master and offensive system designed to win games through teamwork (i.e. not through the accumulation of individual statistics).
- Through MJ’s established reign over the basketball world, his main competitors were veterans (Olajuwon, Barkley, Stockton, Malone), the younger generation of stars were paid too much too soon or injured (A.Hardaway/G.Hill) and thus never reached their potential, and the league expanded too rapidly and therefore diluted the talent pool and number of upper-echelon teams to offer a worthy challenge.
- Peaked during the popularity-boom of the NBA.
- Case for Jordan: the popularity links directly to Jordan’s greatness.
- Case against Jordan: based off the Celtics/Lakers, Bird/Magic rivalry, the game was going to be loved and receive the global popularity boom regardless of whether MJ was in the league or not. He just happened to be the singular Tier 1 player to receive the exponential growth in popularity.
- Had an under-appreciated and subservient all-time superstar teammate.
- Scottie Pippen could do everything on the basketball court and demanded little in return… unless it was the last shot whilst MJ was suspended by the league for gambling playing baseball. Whilst Scottie’s skill level was appreciated, the true value of his all-around game and defensive impact was not widely recognised by a 1990s media/fan-base, who typically measured a player by what appeared in the box score – which in turn allowed the spotlight and spoils of victory to rest upon Michael’s, still deserving, shoulders.
- Had an all-time great coach/Zen-master and offensive system designed to win games through teamwork (i.e. not through the accumulation of individual statistics).
- Phil Jackson (effectively a Lion-tamer) and Tex Winter’s Triangle Offense (effectively an offense that is predicated on ball movement) allowed Jordan to win championships and not simply be known as the ‘selfish, gun-slinger who could score points and alienate teammates, but not win championships’. For instance; if Phil Jackson hadn’t provided the perfect environment for Jordan to win championships, how would Michael be remembered? Perhaps, like the 05-07 Kobe who averaged 28, 35 and 32 ppg in consecutive seasons and whose team went 121-125? In other words, a super-talented and super-competitive asshole who misguidedly thought ‘wanting it more’ and ‘scoring more’ meant winning more?
Lebron James - Circumstances 2009-2018
- Played in the weaker Eastern Conference during his prime.
- Formed the first ‘super team’ to win two rings with Wade/Bosh.
- Peaked during the Internet, Twitter, and fan/media accessibility era.
- Had his physical-prime coincide with the rise and value in medical-science to enhance endurance and recovery.
- Since the 2011 season and the deterioration of the KG, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen ‘Big Three’ (not to mention Ray Allen stabbing the Celtics in the back/joining the Heat), Lebron’s biggest threats in the East were… who, exactly?
- (a) Indiana Pacers? (Led by blow-in-your-ear Lance Stephenson, Young Paul George, and ‘Mr Verticality’ himself, Roy Hibbert – now ironically known as Mr-Unemployed Roy Hibbert).
- Derrick-Rose-Bulls? (A legitimate threat until Derrick Rose blew out his ACL and made everyone forget he was the league’s youngest-ever MVP).
- Atlanta Hawks? (Who, in their singular 60-win season, had 6 players average over 10ppg but no one over 17ppg – i.e. lots of good, zero great.)
- Toronto Raptors? (Whose team uniform when playing against Lebron simply had player numbers with a picture of ‘The Gimp’ from Pulp Fiction on it.
- Formed the first ‘super team’ to win two rings with Wade/Bosh.
- By dumping Cleveland on National Television and joining Wade and Bosh to win his first and second of three championships, Lebron shifted the dynamics of the NBA. Through manipulating the payroll to accommodate three max contracts, the Heat were the first to inorganically attain a championship. Despite ruffling feathers/pissing off NBA fans everywhere, not only did Lebron eliminate Wade and Bosh as potential threats (and later, the Celtics, through luring away Ray Allen), players saw the value and effect of ‘teaming up’ (i.e. winning championships). But what if Lebron hadn’t become one of the Heatles/Super-Friends and ESPN never had to create the ‘Heat-Index’? What if the Heat had room for only two max contracts? Would Lebron have won these two rings? Would he have grown to be the player he now is considered to be without the Riley-effect? Would Super-Teams even be something that players aspire to be a part of? Or, would he have simply remained the ‘best player to never win a championship?’ – and thereby have no chance at establishing himself as the next Michael Jordan?
- Peaked during the Internet, Twitter, and fan/media accessibility era.
- Akin to the 90s growth in popularity, when Jordan was showcased to the world as the lone Tier 1 ruler of the NBA, the growth in internet capabilities, social media, player-accessibility, and media coverage throughout Lebron’s prime created a similar upshot to exponentially grow the game and magnify Lebron’s profile as the clearly-defined best player in the world.
- Had his physical-prime coincide with the rise and value in medical-science to enhance endurance and recovery.
- Larry Bird ‘stopped drinking beer’ over the summer. Michael Jordan ‘lifted weights’ to combat the physically-overbearing Detroit Pistons. Lebron James… ‘spends $1,500,000 per year on his body and uses cryotherapy, hyperbaric chambers, NormaTec leg boots, personal chefs, trainers and utilises a strict routine and diet’ (according to Maverick Carter). The extended prime Lebron has been able to enjoy in comparison to prior generations can be effectively exhibited through total games played.
In essence, if Lebron played in any prior generation throughout NBA history, he, at 1,416 total games played, would have already reached his apex (for a shorter period) and presently be experiencing the post-apex decline, or… retired, and therefore sitting next to Rachel Nichols on ‘The Jump’.
Having provided these circumstances, I’m going to reintroduce our roundtable-discussion participants to provide a Devil’s Advocate Q and A (except for Person B – he’s off defacing a mural someone painted of Lebron James wearing a Lakers uniform, after which he’s going on Twitter to write ‘ALL-CAPS messages to strangers about Kobe’s ‘GOAT status’ – and, naturally, all tweets will end with the hashtags #Truth #Fact #EndOfStory).
Devil's Advocate Q&A
Person A: You said that MJ peaked during the Tier 1 player drought of the 1990s. Why couldn’t there just be another talent drought in the future for one player to shine above the rest?
Answer: For starters, basketball is no longer drawing its players from the United States, but the world at large. Secondly, with the growing “evidence” that football causes significant brain-injuries, parents will direct their children to other sports - the most popular of which is basketball (Sidenote: Roger Goodell’s lawyers told me I had to have the word ‘evidence’ in both italics and inverted commas). And finally thirdly, with improved medical science, the Grant Hills and Penny Hardaways of the world won’t have their careers ended or apexes limited due to injury.
Person C: You said that both MJ and Lebron had their careers peak during popularity-booms. Why couldn’t there just be another popularity boom in the future?
Answer: MJ peaked when basketball became popular and players became visible to the world. Lebron peaked when the internet and accessibility era allowed the players to not only be visible to the world, but allowed the world to intimately know them off the court as well as on the court. For example: 46,500,000 people follow Lebron’s Instagram account. 42,000,000 people follow him on Twitter (give or take the odd 100,000 porn-bots). Accessibility is now the norm for fans to connect and interact with players. Now, could there be some future technology that allows us to go beyond what we currently have? Possibly. All I know is that I can go anywhere in the world, have an internet connection, and STILL be able to watch every NBA game through League Pass and know all about which NBA player is dating a Kardashian, why Skip Bayless still thinks Lebron doesn’t have the ‘clutch-gene’, and why Boban (Marjanovic) has a fighting chance in John Wick 3.
Person D: You said MJ benefited from having an under-appreciated and subservient all-time superstar teammate in Scottie Pippen. Couldn’t this happen again?
Answer: No. Thanks to analytics and NBA league pass, the media and fans are too knowledgeable for a player with Scottie’s impact on the game to play without the deserved appreciation or recognition. Despite the fact that there will always be talking-heads shouting opinions at each other on television screens and overlooking the Marc Gasols and Mike Conleys of the world (sorry, Memphis, but I guess you already know this to be true), there will always be a Zach Lowe, Ryen Russillo or Jackie MacMullen to speak the truth and shine a light on what is truly important and the truth behind why a team succeeds.
Person A: You mentioned Lebron forming a ‘super team’ as a member of the ‘Heatles’ as a circumstance he benefited from. Why couldn’t this happen again with a player?
Answer: It has happened again. We just had Kevin Durant join the 73-9 Warriors and own the NBA. We just had Jimmy Butler pour gasoline and drop matches on two franchises in search of a ‘super team’ of his own. We just had Devin Booker state that he wants to be on a ‘super team’ (Note: through 4 seasons he is averaging 20ppg with a win/loss record of 79-212). We just had Anthony Davis join Klutch Sports/Lebron James’ Agency to then join the Lakers. The circumstance Lebron benefited from (and created for himself), was that he was the first player to maximise player empowerment, create a ‘super team’, and win multiple championships to impact his Enduring Qualities. As the first, Lebron was the exception, Durant joining the Warriors made it the norm. The fact that it is now considered the norm for the game’s elite players to want to play together, the EQs a player gains from winning a championship as a part of a ‘super team’ no longer carries the same weight as championships from years past. Look at KD, for instance. He has won two championships and two Finals MVPs in his two seasons with the Warriors. Do we hold those championships in the same esteem that Lebron garnered with his two rings in Miami? (I would say the majority of people would say, ‘no’.) What if Durant makes it three championships and three Finals MVPs in three seasons? Do we hold him in the same reverential regard as Jordan, when he claimed his first three-peat? No. Why? Because MJ was the team-Alpha, team-leader and team-everything. What is KD? He’s one part of Steph, Durant, Klay and Dray (and, now, DeMarcus). The simple fact is: Super-Teams win Championships, not build ‘next Michael Jordan’ Enduring Qualities.
Person C: I appreciate all of what you have said. Now give me the ’30-second spiel’ or ‘elevator pitch’ to convince me.
Answer: You read Part I of this piece about Jordan being the singular Tier 1 player in the 90s and Lebron being the singular Tier 1 player in the second post-MJ decade, right?
Person C: Right.
Answer: You read and understand how a players Transcendent Qualities shape their Enduring Qualities?
Person C: (executes accepting head-nod).
Answer: Well, the league is now too talented for a player to clearly define themselves as the singular Tier 1 outlier of their generation. Take this season, of 2019, for example: the league is deeper with Tier 1 players than ever before. The resulting impact of this top-heavy hierarchy is that the undertaking of becoming an identifiable outlier, in terms of creating Transcendent and Enduring Qualities superior to one’s generation (i.e. attain next Michael Jordan-status), is virtually impossible. To showcase this, and highlight the evolution of the NBA-player hierarchy, consider the tiered rank of today’s NBA (March 2019) against prior generations of NBA history:
Answer: For starters, basketball is no longer drawing its players from the United States, but the world at large. Secondly, with the growing “evidence” that football causes significant brain-injuries, parents will direct their children to other sports - the most popular of which is basketball (Sidenote: Roger Goodell’s lawyers told me I had to have the word ‘evidence’ in both italics and inverted commas). And finally thirdly, with improved medical science, the Grant Hills and Penny Hardaways of the world won’t have their careers ended or apexes limited due to injury.
Person C: You said that both MJ and Lebron had their careers peak during popularity-booms. Why couldn’t there just be another popularity boom in the future?
Answer: MJ peaked when basketball became popular and players became visible to the world. Lebron peaked when the internet and accessibility era allowed the players to not only be visible to the world, but allowed the world to intimately know them off the court as well as on the court. For example: 46,500,000 people follow Lebron’s Instagram account. 42,000,000 people follow him on Twitter (give or take the odd 100,000 porn-bots). Accessibility is now the norm for fans to connect and interact with players. Now, could there be some future technology that allows us to go beyond what we currently have? Possibly. All I know is that I can go anywhere in the world, have an internet connection, and STILL be able to watch every NBA game through League Pass and know all about which NBA player is dating a Kardashian, why Skip Bayless still thinks Lebron doesn’t have the ‘clutch-gene’, and why Boban (Marjanovic) has a fighting chance in John Wick 3.
Person D: You said MJ benefited from having an under-appreciated and subservient all-time superstar teammate in Scottie Pippen. Couldn’t this happen again?
Answer: No. Thanks to analytics and NBA league pass, the media and fans are too knowledgeable for a player with Scottie’s impact on the game to play without the deserved appreciation or recognition. Despite the fact that there will always be talking-heads shouting opinions at each other on television screens and overlooking the Marc Gasols and Mike Conleys of the world (sorry, Memphis, but I guess you already know this to be true), there will always be a Zach Lowe, Ryen Russillo or Jackie MacMullen to speak the truth and shine a light on what is truly important and the truth behind why a team succeeds.
Person A: You mentioned Lebron forming a ‘super team’ as a member of the ‘Heatles’ as a circumstance he benefited from. Why couldn’t this happen again with a player?
Answer: It has happened again. We just had Kevin Durant join the 73-9 Warriors and own the NBA. We just had Jimmy Butler pour gasoline and drop matches on two franchises in search of a ‘super team’ of his own. We just had Devin Booker state that he wants to be on a ‘super team’ (Note: through 4 seasons he is averaging 20ppg with a win/loss record of 79-212). We just had Anthony Davis join Klutch Sports/Lebron James’ Agency to then join the Lakers. The circumstance Lebron benefited from (and created for himself), was that he was the first player to maximise player empowerment, create a ‘super team’, and win multiple championships to impact his Enduring Qualities. As the first, Lebron was the exception, Durant joining the Warriors made it the norm. The fact that it is now considered the norm for the game’s elite players to want to play together, the EQs a player gains from winning a championship as a part of a ‘super team’ no longer carries the same weight as championships from years past. Look at KD, for instance. He has won two championships and two Finals MVPs in his two seasons with the Warriors. Do we hold those championships in the same esteem that Lebron garnered with his two rings in Miami? (I would say the majority of people would say, ‘no’.) What if Durant makes it three championships and three Finals MVPs in three seasons? Do we hold him in the same reverential regard as Jordan, when he claimed his first three-peat? No. Why? Because MJ was the team-Alpha, team-leader and team-everything. What is KD? He’s one part of Steph, Durant, Klay and Dray (and, now, DeMarcus). The simple fact is: Super-Teams win Championships, not build ‘next Michael Jordan’ Enduring Qualities.
Person C: I appreciate all of what you have said. Now give me the ’30-second spiel’ or ‘elevator pitch’ to convince me.
Answer: You read Part I of this piece about Jordan being the singular Tier 1 player in the 90s and Lebron being the singular Tier 1 player in the second post-MJ decade, right?
Person C: Right.
Answer: You read and understand how a players Transcendent Qualities shape their Enduring Qualities?
Person C: (executes accepting head-nod).
Answer: Well, the league is now too talented for a player to clearly define themselves as the singular Tier 1 outlier of their generation. Take this season, of 2019, for example: the league is deeper with Tier 1 players than ever before. The resulting impact of this top-heavy hierarchy is that the undertaking of becoming an identifiable outlier, in terms of creating Transcendent and Enduring Qualities superior to one’s generation (i.e. attain next Michael Jordan-status), is virtually impossible. To showcase this, and highlight the evolution of the NBA-player hierarchy, consider the tiered rank of today’s NBA (March 2019) against prior generations of NBA history:
* And I didn’t mention other potentially-worthy T2 candidates and T3 candidates such as Karl-Anthony Towns, Ben Simmons, Nikola Jokic, Victor Oladipo, Chris Paul, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, De Marcus Cousins, DeMar Derozan, LeMarcus Aldridge, Kemba Walker, Blake Griffin, Luca Doncic, Jayson Tatum, Kyle Lowry, Bradley Beal, Al Horford and the name of your favourite player I accidentally overlooked (I think I just heard ESPNs Zach Lowe shout Pascal Siakam’s name from across the Pacific Ocean).
Unlike generations past, no longer is there a singular threat to one establishing a dominant reign over a decade. The truly elite are many in number and increasingly unique in their skillset^. Moving forward, the immense nature of being able to establish oneself as an identifiable outlier will only serve to heighten in difficulty. As for why this is the case? In contrast to years past, basketball no longer resides in the shadows of football (whose decline in participation rates in youth-football appear to go hand-in-hand with the ‘how-did-no-one-realise-this-sooner-fact’ that repeated hits to the head are bad for your long-term brain function) and baseball (yes, for those under the age of twenty-five, baseball used to be more than just a local-market sport). With the benefits of career longevity, commercial recognition, higher guaranteed salaries, and not getting CTE, the sport of basketball now finds itself as the most appealing endeavour for American-athletes to aspire towards.
Adding further depth and diversity to the NBA player hierarchy is the sudden influx of impactful top-tier talent from across the world. While the NBA has been previously graced with the international influence of numerous All-stars, consider the next generation of under-twenty-five-superstars plying their trade in the NBA. In order, the list could arguably go as follows: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic, Luca Doncic, Karl-Anthony Towns, Ben Simmons, Jayson Tatum, Kristaps Porzingis, Donovan Mitchell, and Jamal Murray. What stands out, other than the fact that Hubie Brown would require a United-Nations-translator to accurately colour-commentate a game, is the fact that I just named ten players, seven of which were born outside the United States.
Given these factors, the reason that we will never have another Michael Jordan and that Lebron James is the next and FINAL Michael Jordan, isn’t that there won’t be a future-player to someday match the equivalence of their basketball greatness, it is that the players of today, and generations to come, are too great in diversity and number. Through Transcendent and Enduring Qualities and Circumstances perfectly suited to isolate oneself as an outlier, Michael Jordan and Lebron James were able to become exactly that – outliers. In today’s NBA, and unlike ever before, the game of basketball is able to stand on its own - no longer requiring the sole influence of an ‘His Airness’ or ‘The Chosen One’ to shoulder the weight of the league. For where the league was once thought to require ‘one’, it now has ‘many’. And it is these ‘many’, in their collective number and talent, who will ensure that Lebron James is, and will be forever considered, the next and FINAL Michael Jordan.
Person B (returning from standing outside the Kobe Inc. headquarters whilst holding a hand-painted sign saying ‘Mamba Mentality’): Did I miss anything?
Adding further depth and diversity to the NBA player hierarchy is the sudden influx of impactful top-tier talent from across the world. While the NBA has been previously graced with the international influence of numerous All-stars, consider the next generation of under-twenty-five-superstars plying their trade in the NBA. In order, the list could arguably go as follows: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic, Luca Doncic, Karl-Anthony Towns, Ben Simmons, Jayson Tatum, Kristaps Porzingis, Donovan Mitchell, and Jamal Murray. What stands out, other than the fact that Hubie Brown would require a United-Nations-translator to accurately colour-commentate a game, is the fact that I just named ten players, seven of which were born outside the United States.
Given these factors, the reason that we will never have another Michael Jordan and that Lebron James is the next and FINAL Michael Jordan, isn’t that there won’t be a future-player to someday match the equivalence of their basketball greatness, it is that the players of today, and generations to come, are too great in diversity and number. Through Transcendent and Enduring Qualities and Circumstances perfectly suited to isolate oneself as an outlier, Michael Jordan and Lebron James were able to become exactly that – outliers. In today’s NBA, and unlike ever before, the game of basketball is able to stand on its own - no longer requiring the sole influence of an ‘His Airness’ or ‘The Chosen One’ to shoulder the weight of the league. For where the league was once thought to require ‘one’, it now has ‘many’. And it is these ‘many’, in their collective number and talent, who will ensure that Lebron James is, and will be forever considered, the next and FINAL Michael Jordan.
Person B (returning from standing outside the Kobe Inc. headquarters whilst holding a hand-painted sign saying ‘Mamba Mentality’): Did I miss anything?
For two decades Michael Jordan sat alone at his table (undoubtedly enjoying this fact as only MJ-the-competitor could), and the empty chair with ‘next’ placed on it had remained vacant. Countless players had either been thrust forward to claim the seat or eagerly tried to attain it, yet all were found unworthy. The outlier in Michael Jordan was exactly that, an outlier… until Lebron James, in his 16th season of professional basketball, warily stepped forward, removed the ‘next’ place-holder card, and took a seat - the FINAL seat...
^ Take a look at the range of TQs evident in the 2019 Tier 1 category. If you were playing an early year edition of NBA2k and found yourself up against a seven-foot sniper with a point-guard-like handle (Durant) or a player who could cross half-court and immediately pull up to routinely hit a shot from 40-feet (Curry), you would instantly think someone had gotten a little carried away with the ratings on the ‘Create-A-Player’ feature.
Tier 1 - 2019
Lebron JamesTQs:
- Offensive Savant – scoring, rebounding, ball-handling, and playmaking. - Unrivalled combination of size, strength, speed, agility, quickness, and health. - Makes everyone around him better. Kevin DurantTQs:
- 7-footer with limitless range. - 7-footer with guard-like handle. - Unstoppable All-Time scorer. - Can get to and score from anywhere on the court. James HardenTQs:
- Unguardable step-back 3-point shot. - Superior handle. - Draws ‘fouls’ to reach the free-throw line at will. - Gets away with travelling. - High-level passer/playmaker/creator. Anthony DavisTQs:
- Unguardable scorer from inside and out. - 7-footer with guard-like handle. - Strong defensive presence. - Desire to play for the Lakers. |
Stephen CurryTQs:
- Greatest shooter of all time. - Stretches the floor on offense like no one in NBA history. - Superior handle. Giannis AntetokounmpoTQs:
- Can score at will in the restricted area. - Ability to run the floor as a 6’11 creator and finisher. - Can pick up his dribble inside the 3-pt line and score around the basket. Kawhi LeonardTQs:
- Best wing defensive player of his generation. - Can get to and score from anywhere on the court. |