re: Rank the top 5 NBA players right now

quote:

---

Kobe is proving he is not in the top 5- he cannot will his team to win the way MJ could

---

Kobe, at 32, is in his 15th season has a 4 time all-star on his team who hasn't shown up at all.

Jordan, at 32, was in his 11th season and had 2 other Hall of famer's and perenial all-stars who are also considered two of the best defensive players of all time on his team in Pippen (arguably one of the best all-around players of all time, the first point forward who ran the offense and defense and 6 time champion) and Rodman (arguably the best rebounder of all-time and a 5 time champion), Europe's best player at the time and 6th man of the year (who became a 19/7/5 guy post 30 after Jordan) in Kukoc (3 time champion), a career 20 ppg scorer and a great defensive player in his prime coming of the bench in Ron Harper (5 time champion who people ALWAYS forget about), and the NBA's best 3 point shooter in Steve Kerr (5 time champion). And everyone of these guys brought it every game. Three of these teammates alone had 6 championships under their belts outside of these Bulls (compared to Kobe's teammates who have ZERO outside the Lakers) and these players had 24 championships total when their careers were over. That team was also stacked and dominated in an immediate post expansion era. It would have been alot easier to "will" that team to win. Kinda like Pete Myers almost "willed" the 93-94 Bulls to the finals.

quote:

---

Kobe has a more talented team now than MJ ever had.

---

Wow. You are more delusional than I thought, completely ignoring the obvious. Harper was 31 when he came to the Bulls, averaging 20.1 ppg the year before and was a great defensive player. He was still very good coming off the bench with the Lakers during their championship run at age 37.

My bad, Kukoc wasn't an all-star, I was thinking he was voted in 1998-1999 (19/7/5 that year), was close but didn't get in ala Lamar Odom. Side note: I find it funny how all of Jordan's best teammates seemed to have career years when not playing with Jordan and the flip-side is true for Kobe.

I'm delusional, yet you continue to make random things up. Kukoc was an all-star, Rasheed Wallace was close to winning rookie of the year when Detroit signed him in 08.

Happy mothers day

1. Lebron
2. Kobe
3. Wade
4. Howard
5. Dirk
6. Durant
7. Paul
8. Rose
9. Melo
10. Williams

I realize this is a top 10, but I wanted to show where I had Durant and Rose on the list. Maybe I rank Rose too low and Kobe too high, but it is simply a matter of opinion.

This list has been constant throughout the playoffs for me, and I do not see any reason to change it based on a few games. People are dropping Kobe because his team is losing, which is fricking retarded. Overall, he is playing pretty decent, but the Lakers defensive rotations have gone to shite. Rose is getting hurt a lot by his very low shooting percentage in the postseason and probably too much so. Dirk has always been this good and I am shocked it takes so long for so many people to realize. If anyone has put Dirk ahead of Kobe just based on the last three games, then you are nothing more than a casual fan, in my opinion. You either think Dirk is better or Kobe is better before this series (save for the rare, rare person who had them tied on the list and used this series as a tiebreaker), one way or the other. The reason I still favor Kobe is because a lot of shots are poor shot selection due to his team's offense stalling. When the triangle offense on that possession fails, then Kobe ends up with the ball at the end of the shot clock forced to throw up a shitty shot. This in turn, negatively affects his shooting percentage. Essentially, when the Lakers cannot get it into the low post, then Kobe is expected to bail them out. He shoots 45% on a pretty tough shot selection. However, he forces up too many wayward shots and he will likely never fix that issue, but a difficult shot selection and his team's current failure against the Mavs are causing people to undervalue Kobe and overvalue Dirk, and I love both players. This excludes those previously mentioned the fickleness of the board, such as BB03 and shel311 who already have expressed their valued opinions on the matter.

By the way, the Lakers will lose big today and then this will further confirm my points. I can only hope that people realize that the Lakers merely pack it in, largely due to the poor play of their second best player.

1) Lebron
2) Wade
3) Dirk
4) Rose
5) Durant

Howard
Durant
Lebron
Rose
Dirk