Who Is The GOAT? | An Original Documentary FULL

Coming up to the couch, it's Brian who led the league last season in broken screens, but with his new sports case it looks like that won't be the case. Brian basketball is one of the biggest sports in the world since basketball was created by dr james naismith his game would spark years and years of incredible competition, legendary stories and the game would be an outlet for some of the best athletes the world have ever seen. Basketball is unlike any sport in that, although it is a team game, the superstar level players actually run the program. This huge focus on the individual player has led to a huge debate - a debate over who is the best player. all time not who is the best player of the 80s or 90s not who is the best of all time this

documentary

does not answer that question, however, it will expose the career of each player as it happened in the case of each player by

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shot here final seconds james was right there are nine candidates for greatest of all time bill russell wilt chamberlain kareem abdul-jabbar magic johnson larry bird michael jordan kobe bryant tim duncan and lebron james here we're going to go in chronological order, like this which we'll start with 11-time champion bill russell, so russell's story begins in high school even though his imposing snacker didn't stand out much in During his first two years of high school due to his lack of offensive ability, he was difficult for his coaches to put him on the field.

He saw so few minutes that he actually shared a jersey with a fellow benchwarmer, but after developing his defensive game even further to a point where he was elite, he would shine in his final two years of high school, but due to his race he was not Recruited to top basketball colleges, so after graduating, Russell would travel with an exhibition team and it was with that exhibition team that he was finally able to show off his defensive prowess in one of the games. A scout from the University of San Francisco was in the stands. The scout saw potential in Russell, who at the time was 6-8 and very athletic with a vertical 4 feet above the rim, so Russell was offered a scholarship his sophomore year.

Russell led his team to the NCAA Championship and received the MVP with an average of 21.4 points and 21.5 rebounds. He would win the championship once again later in his career with San Francisco. Dons Russell was taken second overall by the Saint Louis Hawks in the 1956 draft, the tenth draft in NBA history, but since it was 1956 and racial tensions were at an all-time high, the Hawks who had a team exclusively white they traded russell to the boston celtics in exchange for the seventh pick, ed mccully and cliff hagen, who would become hall of fame players, interestingly, the roychester royals were planning to select russell with the first overall pick and Celtics coach and general manager Red Auerbach convinced Celtics owner Walter Brown to guarantee Roychester owner Les Harrison a series of shows put on by the Iscapades, a skating show that reached the top of its popularity in the mid-1950s.

The owner of the Celtics was a co-owner of this franchise, so he offered to offer shows to Rochester in exchange for royalty. passing on bill russell with the first pick so the royals passed on to bill russell in exchange for a couple of skating shows one of the strangest trades in nba history the royals took psy green who would average 9.2 points for his career and the celtics would end up leaving this draft with three hall of famers, tom heinsohn who was taken with the territorial selection, casey jones with the 13th pick and of course bill russell, these three players would set the stage for the Boston Celtics teams of the '50s and '60s, and that was it.

It didn't take long for Bill Russell to take his team to the top. Russell spent until December playing in the Olympics, so he would only play in 48 games in his rookie season, but he would average a league-high 15 points and 19 rebounds and lead the Celtics to the NBA Finals. where they would face, ironically, the team that traded him, the Saint Louis Hawkes, Russell would average 13 points and 23 rebounds in the series and score 19 points and 32 rebounds in game seven, leading the Celtics to a two-point victory. It's no secret that the reason many would consider Bill Russell the greatest of all time is the fact that he has more rings than fingers after his rookie season.

Russell would average 17 points and 23 rebounds per game and win the MVP in just his second season, the boss and the Celtics would lose a close six-game battle against the Saint Louis Hawks in the 1958 NBA Finals, the next season Russell would return leading the Boston Celtics to the NBA championship with a league-high average of 23 rebounds. in addition to 17 points in this final series the celtics swept the minneapolis lakers with russell averaging 29 and a half rebounds per game this championship would be preceded by seven more consecutive championships in 1960 bill russell and the celtics would once again defeat the team that he and the saint louis hawks this time in seven games the celtics would go on to win in 61 62 63 64 65 and 66 beating the hawks in five games in 1961 the lakers in 7 games the lakers again in six games the san francisco warriors led by will chamberlain in four games the lakers in five games in 1965 and the lakers in 7 and 66. absolute dominance throughout that eight-year span during those seven years russell would win four mvps averaged 16 points 24 rebounds during the regular season and averaged 18 points and 26 rebounds as well as nearly five assists for the playoffs and after losing to the Wilt Chamberlain-led Sixers in 1967, the Celtics would win the championship again in 1968 and again in 1969, leaving Russell with a total of eleven championships in his carrer. and five mvps, so mastery is coaching the Celtics, uh, you know, I was just kidding.

Howard didn't think about it, so he asked me if you were really a friend of mine or just an actor. Well, what did you tell him? I told him you were. an obscure actor oh, after all those calls i've dialed in seattle, did you directly hesitate? Of course, I bet Howard doesn't make half as many calls to his friends, good friends, good friends are forever, so keep in touch long distance. The best thing after being there, one of the unfortunate parts of playing in the early days of the NBA is that many of the awards that exist today did not exist back then, for example, the 1969 season was the first season of All NBA Defensive Teams It was Russell's last season in the NBA, but he would still be selected to the NBA All-Defensive First Team, so it's safe to assume Russell would have made the All-Defensive First Team every year. of his career.

Defensive player of the year also didn't exist until 1982, so we can safely assume that Russell would have won at least four defensive player of the year awards because Russell was considered the best defender in the league for almost his entire career and eventually the Finals MVP did not exist until 1969, when the first finals were held. The mvp was given to jerry west despite losing to the bill russell celtics, so we will assume that russell would have won 7 of the 11 possible final mvps, which would leave russell with a total of 11 championships in his career, five mvps, seven final mvps, four defensive.

Player of the Year Awards 11 All-NBA First Team Selections 13 All-Defensive First Team Selections 11 All-Star Game Appearances and 4 Rebounding Titles In terms of numbers, he has career averages of 15.1 points, 22 and a half rebounds, 4 .3 assists and 54 field goal percentages now once again. russell's period kept him in the numbers the nba did not record rebounds until 1973 four years after bill's retirement in his prime it was speculated that bill russell averaged up to 8 blocks per game with a career high of 17 blocks russell says he averaged up to 15 per game in college, so let's say Russell averaged six blocks per game for his career in 963 games, he would have totaled 4,815 blocks in his career, which is just under a thousand more blocks than Hakeem Elijahuan, who is first of all the times.

That would make Russell first all-time in blocks, second all-time in rebounds, and 149th all-time in points. Russell's case for the

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begins with him being the winningest player not only in basketball history but also in sports history. 11 championships in 13 years, he being practically the best player of all the teams he was part of until his last two championships. He was also considered one of the greatest defenders of all time. One of the first greats who could really do it all on the defensive end because of his athleticism and speed. He could truly defend anyone on the court and was potentially the best shot blocker of all time.

As for the criticism against Russell for being the goat, he was not perfect, although he was an 11-time champion. In particular, he had very good teammates with whom he played nine. Hall of Famer throughout his career by being on a team that had five Hall of Famers, including himself, Russell is also believed to have played in a weaker era of basketball with less talent and fewer teams, which led for teams to have a higher concentration of talent, but basketball was still relatively new and not as popular a sport at the time, so top athletes often chose different sports to play, so the level of competition It couldn't rival that of the '70s, '80s and so on, and despite the immense talent the Celtics could have had.

If they had been much more dominant, winning multiple championships by a couple of points or a couple of lucky plays, they could have easily lost to the Lakers in a couple of Finals and when the Celtics finally had competition comparable to the 1967 Sixers, they would lose in the end. conference finals, so while Russell dominated his competition for almost his entire career, he potentially did so against weak competition. Russell was also, despite his defensive dominance, a fairly mediocre offensive player. He never averaged more than 19 points per game, while all the other candidates averaged between 20 and 30. points per game a couple of times in their careers with less production, you would expect greater efficiency, but Russell shot 44 in his career, which He's the worst of the nine candidates, so despite averaging the fewest points per game of the nine candidates, he also shot. the worst percentage now when it comes to bill russell you don't have to turn too many pages in the basketball book to see the name of wilt chamberlain when the name of bill russell is mentioned the name of wilt chamberlain is not far behind and the The contrast of these two players is really the contrast of what makes a great basketball player win versus individual statistics and Wilt Chamberlain certainly had some absurd statistics, so Wilt The Stilt began his basketball career at Overbrook High School where Unlike his counterpart and Russell, Wilt was immediately a standout athlete starting on the varsity for three years and scoring a total of 2,200 points in his high school career and coming off of many big performances.

He scored 71, 74 and 90 points in three different games in his high school career, he averaged 44 points his senior year and in his 90 point performance he scored 60 of those points in just 12 minutes, a quarter minute scored 60 points , standing nearly seven feet tall in high school, was able to dominate his opponents inside for easy buckets. He received the nickname Stilts from a local writer who covered high school athletics; his success in high school led to him receiving multiple scholarship offers from big schools. He finally established himself at Kansas in Will's first season, he averaged a staggering 30 points and 19 rebounds.

He would lead his team to the NCAA Championship game, where they would lose to UNC, but despite losing, he still won the Most Outstanding Player of the Tournament award. Will Chamberlain's sophomore college season wasn't much fun for him after making the championship game three times each. The Kansas Face team would adopt the same strategy after his junior year. Wilt no longer wanted to play college baseball, but at the time the NBA did not allow players to join the NBA until after their graduating class had been completed, so Wilt opted to play with Harlem. Globetrotters after one year with the Globetrotters Wilt would be drafted with a territorial pick to the Philadelphia Warriors in 1959, where he would receive the largest contract in the NBA at the time in his rookie season, which at the time was only 30,000 a year. in Chamberlain.

In his debut as a rookie he would score 44 points and 23 rebounds and during the season he would average 37 points and 27 rebounds and was namedNBA MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same season, the first of two players in NBA history to do that. but after losing to the Celtics in the division finals, he actually considered retiring due to the feeling that he was treated unfairly compared to other more human-sized players, he would return even if his already enormous salary by the standards of those times was doubled to 60. thousand dollars a year he would average 38 and 27 in his second season that season he would become the first player to score 3,000 points in a single season but unfortunately Wilt's excellent play did not contribute much to winning in his second season Philadelphia being swept for the nationals and in his third season despite averaging 50 points and 26 rebounds, showing off his infamous 100-point game and averaging more minutes than there are in a regulation basketball game, being the only player in NBA history in scoring 4,000 points in a single season, the Warriors still lost in six games to the Boston Celtics. 50 points and 48 and a half minutes were still not enough.

The Philadelphia Warriors would be moved to San Francisco and then a few years later he would be in San Francisco after years of disappointment with the team. Despite individual success, Wilt would be returned to Philadelphia to the newly added 76ers who had just replaced the Philadelphia Warriors, this roster was loaded with future Hall of Famer Hal Greer, multi-time all-star Chat Walker, the team would win to the Cincinnati Royals led by Oscar Robertson and of course, facing Bill Russell's Celtics. This would be the fourth time that our two government candidates would meet in the playoffs, the series would reach seven and the final game would be on the Celtics' home court.

Both candidates would have incredible performances. Wilt would score 32 and 30 and Russell would score 16, 27 and 8. In the last minute of the game, Wilt would bat. two free throws, in addition to getting an open dunk on Russell, cutting the Celtics' lead to one. Russell would throw an incoming pass from the side of the backboard, giving the Sixers possession. The Sixers would have a chance to win the game. and Grier is putting the ball on a play, he takes it out with the game in his grasp the Sixers would lose and Wilt would now be Owen IV against Russell in the playoffs after that series officially got the loser tag the following season.

They would win the MVP and the Sixers would lose to the Celtics again in the playoffs. After this Celtics loss, many of Wilt's teammates criticized him. Wilt routinely skipped practices and was almost a separate entity from the team, leading to chemistry issues that he didn't help against the Celtics. Sixers management also fired the Sixers head coach, who let Wilt get away with this behavior. Don Shays in favor of Alex Hannah. Alex didn't let Wilt get his way and insisted that he step back. In his scoring role, he opted for Wilt to be more of a playmaker like his counterpart, Bill Russell.

He takes fewer shots and focuses on defense. Wilt protested this many times to the point where it seemed like he would fight with Coach Hannah, but Hannah, who is a six. seven two hundred and nine pounds the former player never backed down from the seven one two hundred and eighty pounds wilt chamberlain this led to wilt having immense respect for hannem so he gave in to his game plan wilt averaged a career low at the time 21.1 points per game, but he also averaged 24.2 rebounds and a then-career high 7.8 assists and shot a record 68 field goals, while his point production was much lower.

His incredible efficiency made this one of Wilt's most impressive seasons and because of his success in winning. his third mvp award along with his teammates improving with the new style of play the sixers and chamberlain finally defeated the celtics they would face wilt's former team in the san francisco warriors in the finals the sixers would win in six games believe it or not Wilt alone averaged 17 points per game during the series but also contributed 28.5 rebounds per game and 6.8 assists the next year the Sixers would execute the same game plan Wilts would be the only center in NBA history to lead the league in total assists averaging 8.6 per game and totaling 702 due to this wither, he would win his fourth and final MVP award, but unfortunately in their matchup against the Celtics, the Sixers were battling injuries.

They still managed to take a 3-1 lead, but they would become the first team in NBA history to blow a 3-1 lead. Wilt returned to his selfish ways and complained about his touches, this caused more confusion in the team and this, along with personal reasons, led to the resignation of coach Hannah, then Wilt would be transferred to the Lakers. Wilt had requested this exchange, but the reason has been much disputed a disagreement with ownership over a legal dispute unlisted personal reasons he will feel like he is no longer from Philadelphia even he wanted a chance to date white women was on the list Because that wasn't accepted in Philadelphia but it was in The whatever reason Wilt was traded to the Lakers for Darrell Imhoff, Jerry Chambers and Archie Clark, Wilt was joining a team that included members of the Hall of Fame. fame jerry west and elgin baylor along with a host of talented role players, wiltstar in los angeles was not without the drama it had. confusion with the Lakers' owners and head coach, who in his opinion served the offense too much toward West and Baylor and not enough for himself.

The Lakers still made it to the finals despite Wilt's struggles to fit in. Wilt would have to compete once again with his rival Bill. russell wilt would struggle in this series only averaging 11.7 points per game on 50 shots at the end of game 7 after wilt led a comeback he would severely sprain his knee on a rebound he would join sam jones rebounding who comes out and chamberlain gets 5 55 to go and Chamberlain hurt his leg on the play Baylor fought with the rebound 103 to 94. Chamberlain can't move Chris, he's down there holding that knee, he really sprained that knee on the last rebound , but got the rebound and quickly called a timeout, he would have to sit out the rest of the game and the Celtics would win game seven by two points.

A brutal loss for Wilt and the Lakers. The fact that he sat was controversial because many did not see the injury as serious enough to sit him for the final minutes which led to the Lakers management firing the head coach. Wilt would be injured in the 1969-70 season after a good start under new Lakers head coach Joe Mullaney would not play again until the In the final three games of the season, the Lakers still reached the finals to face the New York Knicks led by Willis Reed and Walt Frazier. The series would be tied 3-3 with Willis Reed going down with a serious injury in Game 6.

The Lakers seem guaranteed to win with Willis out, but in one of the most inspiring moments in NBA history at the end of game seven Willis would play limping on the court, only scoring four points but playing 27 minutes despite being seriously injured, this inspired his teammates to beat the Lakers. for two years in a row the lakers stifled the series the next season the lakers would bring back gail goodrich and free agency that would face the bucks and the playoffs but with elgin baylor out with a torn Achilles tendon and jerry west out for a knee injury, the lakers would lose to the milwaukee bucks led by luau league mvp cinder or kareem abdul-jabbar as we know him now the lakers would hire former celtics guard bill sharmand, who had played with bill russell, he would insist that he focus on defense and being a good teammate and less on scoring similar to what happened with alex hannam learning the same lesson twice with this mentality the lakers after facing kareem would again win with wilt equaling to the superstar 11 years younger play after play the lakers would once again face the knicks they won the final with an mvp of 19 and 23.

In the last year of his career, Wilt came out with an average of 13 and 18 and surpassed his own season-high field goal percentage of 72.7 percent. In the last finals of his career, the Lakers would lose 4-1 to the Knicks. Wilt would sign with an ABA team to be a player coach, but he would be sued by the Lakers because he still had a contract with them. He would be forced to become a coach and after one year with the san diego conquistadors he retired when seven foot one inch will chamberlain tried to get into a volkswagen people said it couldn't be done oh man it couldn't of course there's plenty of room to Bill Cunningham. but then he's only six foot six, just like Bill Russell, some of Wilt's stats were limited by the era he played on all defensive teams until later in his career, blocks weren't recorded, there was no award finals MVP in the first championship of his career and although there was no defensive player of the year award, I don't think wilt would have won as many as russell, which, as we speculated earlier, for bill we will say that wilt wins two awards for the defensive player of the year and as For blocks, it has been speculated that Wilt and Russell averaged roughly the same number of blocks, which was six per game during their career, so like Russell, we will multiply the number of games they will play by six blocks, which would put Wil in first place all-time. on the all-time blocks list with a whopping 6,270 career blocks, he would also have many more defensive picks because the award was born in 1971 because there is only one spot on the first team for a center that we will give to the second team . honors because we gave Russell first team because he for the most part is considered a better defender.

This would give Wilt 10 second-team defensive selections along with two more first-team picks he would have earned after Russell's retirement. Wilt's case for the goat certainly lies in his numbers. He has the fewest championships of the nine candidates, but without a doubt the most impressive individual statistic is sixth all-time in scoring by one of the seven players in the 30,000-point club. He is first all-time in rebounds with a lead of 2,300 rebounds. Bill Russell Wilt's dominance on the offensive end led to him achieving the greatest scoring performance in NBA history with 100 points against the New York Knicks in 1962.

He also has six of the top 10 scoring performances in NBA history and scored more than 60 points. 32 times in his career offensively, Wilt was arguably the most unstoppable force the league has ever seen, plus his dominance on the glass and shot blocking would have put him at number one all-time. He won four MVPs in his career. He won Finals MVP once. led the league in scoring seven times rebounds 11 times assists once was the only center to lead the league in assists was all-NBA first team seven times, will be all-NBA second team three times, all-defensive first team four times and the entire defensive second team. team 10 times his dominance along with his ridiculous scoring productions is the main reason why many would call him the goat with the dominance was like a double edged sword while his scoring made him great individually the only time he won in his career It was when he sacrificed his offensive game in 1967 and 1972, Wilt won by reducing his offensive role, so Wilt's dominance could be seen as a detriment to his teams, so while Wilt was excellent individually, his numbers don't seem to correlate. with winning at least at the highest level. he won two rings but lost in the finals four times and lost to Bill Russell in the conference finals several times.

He won and he doesn't have the excuse of not having helped. He played with many hall of fame level players like hal greer, billy cunningham, paul arsen, nate thurman, elgin baylor and jerry west, he wasn't as helpful as bill russell, but he certainly was. He didn't stay in the scrubs, so in short, his talent was incredible, but he struggled to win on the biggest stage with that talent when the league was looking for a new star as the Wilt and Russell era came to an end, a new player emerged as the next superstar. of the nba that player was kareem abdul-jabbar there is no word that can better sum up lou alcindor's high school career than the word dominance lou was 6'8 and he dunked the ball at the age of 13. so naturally in high school he dominated led power memorial academy to three consecutive new york city catholic championships a 71 game winning streak and an overall record of 79-2 power would also win the national high school championship In Lual's junior season Cinder Alcindor would play college baseball at UCLA after playing on the freshman team in the college debut ofLiu, would drop a UCLA record 56 points, making an early statement of how dominant he would be, would win player of the year twice, was a three-time first-team All-American, won three championships.

NCAA Most Outstanding Player in all three tournaments and would be the first Naismith College Player of the Year in 1969. He was so dominant in college that he would be the reason dunks would be banned after the '67 season, a ban that would continue. . For a decade the Milwaukee Bucks would win a lottery with the Phoenix Suns for the first overall pick and draft Alcindor in his rookie year. Lou would average 29 and 14, being second in the league in scoring behind Jerry West and his 31.2 points per game. the Bucks would also improve by 29 wins, he would obviously win the rookie of the year award and lead the Bucks to the second round of the playoffs with playoff averages of 35 and 17 with 57 shots in the offseason, the Bucks would acquire Oscar Robertson In return.

For Flynn Robinson, who had just made his first All-Star appearance, and Charlie Paulk, this addition would be instrumental in helping the Bucks become a powerhouse, winning 66 games, a record at the time, a 20-game winning streak. games, Alcindor would win his first MVP award with With season averages of 32 points, which was the best in the league, as well as 16 rebounds, the Bucks would go 12-2 in the playoffs, including a sweep in the finals, and Lew Of course, he would be the MVP of the final with an average of 27 and 19 in 60 shots. and after winning the 71st championship, Lou would be renamed kareem abdul-jabbar, kareem would win his second mvp averaging the best of his career 35, 17 and 5 with 57 shots, absurd statistics, but this would be the beginning of a trending in milwaukee, kareem would play. phenomenally, but the Bucks wouldn't have much success losing in the Western Conference Finals because back then the Bucks were a Western Conference team at 73.

Kareem would go 30, 16 and 5, but they would lose to the Warriors in the first round and then. He would lose to the Boston Celtics in a crushing seven game series in 1974 after winning his third MVP and in the 74-75 season with Kareem missing almost 20 games and Oscar Robertson retiring the Bucks didn't even make the playoffs because of this. lack of success on the team and also the feeling that milwaukee did not fit his cultural needs, since he grew up in New York, he wanted to play in a big city, so he asked to be traded to the Knicks or the Lakers, so he would fulfill his wish. heading to the lakers for elmore smith, who was a double-double center brian winters who would go on to be a two-time all-star with milwaukee dave myers and junior bridgeman who would average 14 points per game during his 9 seasons with milwaukee his career with the los Ángeles would have a great individual start.

Kareem averaged a league-best 28 points per game, 17 rebounds, 5 assists and 4.1 blocks per game, he would win his fourth MVP; However, due to the old divisional rules, despite having the fourth best record in the West, he would not miss the playoffs, he would win his fifth MVP in the following season, against whom the Lakers would face the Portland Pioneers in the conference finals. kareem would battle bill walton from the bottom and kareem definitely won the singles battle but walton had significantly better help and the lakers would lose in a sweep over the next two years the lakers would lose to the sonics twice in the playoffs but in 1979 the lakers would get the first overall pick and would use it to select magic irvin johnson kareem finally had some help in the kareem would average 25 11 and three and a half blocks on a career-best 60 shot, which high efficiency could be attributed to who had a point guard who knew how to set him up, this performance along with the Lakers winning 60 games led to Kareem winning his record sixth MVP, the addition of magic wasn't the only improvement on the team.

Norman Nixon averaged 17. -9 Jamal Wilkes averaged 20 points per game and Michael Cooper developed even more as a defender the Lakers would reach the NBA Finals Kareem would average 33 14 and four and a half blocks against the Sixers but the MVP of the Finals it would be for magic johnson who after kareem fell in game 5 would close the series in game 6 with 42 15 and 7. and from that moment kareem would average 27 and 2 for the rest of his career the lakers would win the final 85 karim averaged 26 9 and 5 in that series in game 5, Kareem would score 36 points to go up 3-2 and would score 29 in game 6, leading to him winning his second Finals MVP in 1987.

The Lakers would beat the Celtics in six games. Magic would win the finals. mvp in 1988 the lakers would beat the detroit pistons in seven games and james worthy would win the finals mvp kareem at age 40 he only averaged 13 points and four rebounds and in 1989 kareem would play his last season at age 41 with an average of 10- 3 and 1 and would play his last game in Game 4 of the Finals 89, a series in which the Lakers would lose in a sweep. Kareem had seven points, three rebounds and two blocks, making two of eight shots. In basketball it is better to be bigger. or smaller like us, just like us, up kareem might have the most complete resume of any player in NBA history.

He is a six-time champion, six-time MVP, two-time Finals MVP, ten-time All-NBA first team player, five-time second team player. times all-defensive, first team five times and second team six times, won the rookie of the year award and was a 19-time All-Star, his first score of all time, is third in rebounds and blocks in Kareem's first four seasons that the league did not record. blocks, if he had averaged 3.5 blocks during those years, that would be an additional 1,123 blocks, giving him 4,312 career blocks, which would put him in first place all-time, but in third place when the numbers are added.

Russell and Wilt's hypothetical blockade. Kareem's biggest case for the goat has to be the fact that his name is scattered all over the place being first all-time and scoring top three in rebounds top three in blocks holding the record for mvps and is tied for second most rings of any of the nine candidates Kareem was the best player in the league for a decade and his numbers more than proved it, but many would say that these achievements, especially his place on everyone's lists the times, has a lot to do with its ridiculous longevity. Kareem only averaged 24.6 points in his career, that's nothing crazy.

Damian Lillard and Russell Westbrook. They averaged just one fewer point per game in their careers and are certainly not on the level of the all-time leading scorer. kareem played the second most games in nba history, second only to robert parish who only played 51 more games and is first in minutes by almost 3,000 minutes if kareem had retired at a normal age, say 36 years old , would have retired with 31,527 points, which is certainly impressive, but would take him from first to sixth all-time in scoring, as well as dropping from third to seventh and rebounds, however, the counterpoint to that would be very impressive for a player in the 80's where sports medicine clearly wasn't at its peak to play as much as kareem, maybe he didn't score 40 every night, but was able to play as long as he did is certainly impressive and could be seen as a example of why he is potentially the best, so kareem's numbers are all over the time charts, he won six mvps, a record, but those numbers have a lot to do with it. with kareem playing an absurd amount of time as the big man era of the 70s ended a new pair of rivals entered the league, magic johnson and larry bird and since we just finished kareem's overview it's only fair that we begin With Kareem's best teammate, Magic Johnson in his freshman year of college, Johnson went to a predominantly white school where Ervin struggled to earn the respect of his white teammates.

He was often ignored by these teammates and never passed the ball to him, but johnson would eventually earn the respect of his white teammates and in his sophomore year would earn the nickname magic in a triple-double performance in which magic recorded 36 points, 18 rebounds and 16 assists in his final high school season as a senior Johnson led Everett to a 27-1 record and a state championship. He became known as the best high school player in Michigan and was named a McDonald's All-American despite being recruited by many top college teams. Magic decided to stay in Michigan and attend Michigan State University because the head coach would allow the 6'9 Johnson to play.

Point guard Johnson averaged 17, 8 and 7 as a freshman and led the Spartans to a 25-5 record, they would reach the Elite Eight and lose to the champion Kentucky Wildcats in Johnson's second season, the Spartans would qualify for the ncaa tournament and they would face each other. indiana state, led by larry bird, this matchup would become the most watched college basketball game of all time and johnson would win in the first game of their long rivalry winning the tournament's most outstanding player award, johnson would later declare for the nba draft. where he would be selected first overall by the los angeles lakers now, unlike most players who go number one overall, johnson was selected in an incredible situation with the pick he used to make magic

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ly belonged to the jazz that the The Lakers were actually a talented team with the best player in the NBA at the time, Karim de Duljabar on the roster, as well as Jamal Wilkes, who averaged 20 per game, and Norm Nixon, who He averaged 17 points and eight assists.

Johnson would lose to the Rookie of the Year award for none other than Larry Bird, but he would make the All-Rookie First Team and be named an All-Star with averages of 18 points, 7.7 rebounds and 7.3 assists. The Lakers won 60 games in the regular season and would reach the NBA. finals where they would face the sixers led by julius irving after going up 3-2 kareem missed the sixth game due to an ankle injury, so lakers coach paul westhead decided to place magic johnson in the center. magic would score 42 points, 15 rebounds, seven assists and three steals. and led the Lakers to a sixth game and series victory.

Thanks to that game, Johnson would become the only rookie in NBA history to win the finals. The second season of MVP Magic wasn't as glamorous. He missed 45 games with a left knee injury and then returned. Just in time for the 81 playoffs, where he fit in awkwardly and as a result, the 54 Win Lakers were upset because the 40 Win Rockets lost 2-1 in the first round after Johnson hit a last-second shot in the third game. . Season Magic became one of the NBA's most unloved players after signing the NBA's largest contract at the time, Johnson would later demand a trade due to a dispute with head coach Paul Westhead.

This dispute was due to Westhead having a slower paced offense that went against Johnson's fast-paced style, Lakers owner Jerry Buss decided to fire Westhead rather than trade Johnson, for a player to fire a coach is more common and accepted in the modern NBA, but in the '80s it wasn't as magical across the league, even in Despite all the controversy, Johnson nearly averaged a triple double averaging 18.6 points, 9, 6 rebounds and 9.5 assists, as well as a league-high 2.7 steals, and became the third player in NBA history to score 700 points, 700 rebounds and 700 assists in the same season. The Lakers would reach the finals once again to face the Sixers and Johnson would win his second MVP of the finals after achieving a triple double with 13, 13 and 13.

The Lakers would reach the finals again, but teammate of johnson, norm nixon james dignified and bob mcadoo were all injured and faced the sixers who added moses malone, the lakers would lose in a sweep after lakers general manager jerry west traded norm nixon, lo which allowed Johnson to no longer have to share ball handling duties, allowing Magic to average a league-high. and a career-high 13 assists, along with 17 points and 7 rebounds, the Lakers reached the finals again this time to face the Bird Celtics for the first time in the finals. The Lakers won the first game but would narrowly lose the second after Magic failed to make it. he scored a shot before the last play sounded in the fourth game the ball was stolen and he missed two free throws in the last minute of the game with three seconds left he lost the first one obviously for the game the lakers 14 points in the second period johnson fails they both heard the rebound and had the ball stolen at the end of game 7 again, dennis johnson will face cooper again and this time the failure of this series would result in him being nicknamed tragic johnson, the lakers led by magic would face off to the Celtics again in the first game, the Lakers would allow a final record of 148 points,so it was a bad start, but Kareem, 38, scored 30 and 17 in the second game.

Kareem also had 36 in the fifth game. The Lakers would win in six games due to his great performances. Kareem would win Finals MVP over Magic the next season. Kareem couldn't handle 23-year-old Hakeem Elijahuan at the spot in the Western Conference Finals, so they would lose the next season. Magic stepped up his game averaging 23.9 points and a career-high 12 points. assists, this led him to win the MVP. The Lakers faced the Celtics once again in game four. Magic would put its iconic winning hook. Scott is in the ballgame now with five seconds left. The Lakers would win the championship.

Magic won the finals. mvp with averages of 26 points, 13 assists, eight rebounds and 2.3 steals and he did it in 54 shots and with that winning game he removed the nickname of tragic johnson. The next season the Lakers would win a championship again by beating the bad boy pistons but James Worth He would take the finals MVP due to his 36 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists in game 7. This would be Johnson's fifth and last championship. Magic would win MVP and lose to the Bad Boy Pistons in the next season's finals after Kareem retired Johnson. won his third MVP after the season after they lost to the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls before the 91-92 season in a physical magic discovered that he had contracted the HIV virus and then called a press conference and shocked the world of basketball because of the HIV virus that I have contracted, I will have to retire from the Lakers, today despite retiring, Magic was voted as an All-Star for the '92 season and would play and win MVP with 25 points, 9 assists and 5 rebounds .

He also played with the dream team. He would return to the Lakers in the 95-96 season coming off the bench for 32 games as a power forward averaging 14, 7 and 6 at age 36 and then officially retire after the 96 season, I heard Converse made a pair of bird shoes for last year's MVP, yeah well they made a pair of magic shoes for this year's MVP, okay magic show me what you got magic shoe virtue pick your Converse weapon the magic is for most people. the greatest passer of all time averaged 11.2 assists per game during his career is fifth all time in assists despite retiring prematurely if he had not retired if he averaged 10.5 assists during the four years he was retired with hiv playing 75 games each season would move up to second place all-time with 13,291 total assists and if he had averaged 18 points per game over those four years, he would have a total of 23,107 career points, which would move him up from 80th of all times to 30th all time and would rise. from 21 to 8 in robos magic won 5 championships was finals mvp in three of those championships a mvp three times was all nba first team nine times second team once and was a 12 time all-star winning two all-star mvps Magic's case for The Goat definitely has to be his ability to score and pass at elite levels, passing better than anyone besides maybe Jon Stockton, and being a good, if not amazing, scorer, he also averaged 7 rebounds per game and nearly averaged a triple-double in 92.

Magic was a very versatile player and that versatility led the Lakers to five championships, but some would say that being a six-nine playing point guard gave Magic a significantly unfair advantage, even if He wasn't being guarded by a point guard, which meant the opponent's point guard was guarding the Lakers' shooting guard or small forward, so it wasn't a coincidence that Magic could get an assist of his size was definitely a big factor in why. he was so versatile, but at the same time it's not magic's fault for using his height to his advantage. Magic also had an incredible supporting cast, he is the only player in this group who was a teammate of another Terry candidate, in addition to being a teammate of that candidate, which was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who had the leader of all-time entries on your list.

It definitely helped, he also had James Worth as a teammate, who was a great scorer for the Lakers and a Hall of Famer. Magic also lost on two Finals MVPs and underperformed terribly against the Celtics in the Finals, even if he redeemed himself, that epic collapse remains a significant stain on his career, which is why Magic was a great passer, player versatile and a winner, but the victory he experienced as a player could largely be attributed to the amount of help he received throughout his career when the name Magic Johnson was said out loud. Larry Bird doesn't fall far when a freshman in high school broke his foot and missed most of the season, but he would.

He still routinely practiced with the team making throws while using crutches at the same time, making him which was a striking example of how dedicated a bird was to the game. The bird would sneak to the gym between classes and stay after school to be shot. Larry spent every free moment he had on a basketball court, even limiting his sleep time so he could practice more. He was the team's best rebounder and passer, he would significantly improve his game in his senior year, averaging 31 points and 21 rebounds. Byrd received a scholarship to play college baseball for his hometown Indiana Hoosiers and then dropped out after struggling to adjust to the vastly different college environment, but would eventually enroll at Indiana State.

He would have an incredible three year career with the Sycamores averaging 30, 13 and 5 in his three years. They would go 33-0 in their junior season, leading them to the 1979 NCAA championship game to play the Magic Johnson's Spartans, where Bird would struggle to shoot 33 field goals and the Sycamores would lose. Bird was drafted in 1978 even though he would play for Indiana State in the 1978-79 season, there were no rules in place at the time that said you couldn't draft players who weren't yet coming to the NBA, so the Celtics drafted Birds sixth overall with the intention of signing him once he finished college.

After this draft, a rule called the collegiate bird rule was implemented that would prevent this from happening. again in his rookie season, bird would completely transform the boston celtics in the season before drafting him, the mares would win only 32 games with bird, they would have the best record in the east with 61 wins, a 29 game improvement, birdwood averaged 21 , 10 and four and a half assist shooting 47 field goals and 40 three-pointers would win the rookie of the year award, but the Celtics would lose to the Sixers in the conference finals in the offseason the Celtics would acquire two Hall of Fame greats Fame the Celtics owned the first pick. in the draft that they obtained in a trade from the pistons and they traded that selection to the Warriors for center Robert Parish and the third overall pick that they used to select forward Kevin mchale, one of the biggest heists in NBA history, the bird would average 21 11 5 and a half assists two steals and a block robert parish would average 19 10 and two and a half blocks the celtics won 62 games they would face these sixers in the conference finals once again the celtics would find themselves down 3-1 but The Celtics would win the next three games to reach Larry's first Finals, he would average 27, 13 and 5 in the Conference Finals, but in the NBA Finals, Bird would have a very difficult time throwing the ball, throwing only 41 with an average of 15 points per game, but to compensate. who averaged 15 rebounds, seven assists and two and a half steals, the Celtics would beat the Houston Rockets 4-2, but due to their shooting problems, the MVP of the final would go to Cedric Maxwell, who averaged 19 and 10 on 57 shots the next season. 23 11 6 and 2 with 50 shots and would be second in the MVP voting, but the Celtics in their third matchup against the Sixers would lose in seven games, they would lose in the second round the next year, but in Bird's fifth season they would win.

His first MVP averaged 24 points 10 rebounds six and a half assists two steals and a block shots 50 from the field the celtics would advance to the finals facing magic johnson's leading lakers the rivalry between him and magic reached the championship stage once more this time in the nba magic would average 18, 8 and 13 and a half assists but bird would equal him with 27 14 and 3 and a half assists the celtics would win in seven games and bird would win the mvp of the final next season bird would improve his game even Additionally, adding 29 10 and six and a half assists shooting 52 from the field 43 from three and was only two percent shooting at 50 40 90 shooting 88 from the free throw line, he would win his second consecutive MVP and the Los Celtics would face the Lakers for the second consecutive season, however, the result would not be the same, as the Lakers would win in six games.

Bird would win his third consecutive MVP, making him one of three players to do this while averaging 26.7 assists and despite being moved. the forward would average almost 10 rebounds he was only .4 off shots 50 40 90 in both field goal and free throw percentage the Celtics only lost one game in the first three rounds and would face the Hakeem Ralph Sampson Houston Rockets bird would average 24 points nine and a half rebounds nine and a half assists and 2.7 steals the celtics would beat the houston rockets in six games and the 86 celtics would go on to be considered one of the best teams of all time the celtics reached the finals again the following season, but they had to fight against the Bucks and the Pistons and the Lakers they played in the finals got there easily.

Boston was defeated and the Lakers dominated. The Celtics lost in six games the next season. the best statistical year of his career 30 points per game nine rebounds and six assists on shots 50 40 90 but the Celtics would lose to the Pistons in the conference finals the next season Bird would be out due to back problems he would only play six games and during The next three seasons his career would fade due to a back injury he suffered in the off-season a few years earlier, shoveling gravel caused chronic back problems that significantly shortened his career. He would play the last game of his career in the seventh game against the Cleveland Cavaliers in '92.

In the playoffs he would score 12 points, five rebounds and four assists and then he would retire the converted weapon, that is the shot, that is magical, he would do that to what he was born, maybe that's it, but that's not all Isaiah played like he was 10 feet tall for the kind of moves that never miss the gun is kevin mchale's choice the same is true for mark mcguire when i use guns I'm on fire what guns can do for king well I can do almost anything you know what you did for me what I left with the MVP, the talking gun, the number one weapon in the NBA, Larry Bird was nicknamed Larry Legend for a reason, the reason was that the guy was just legendary, while his numbers may not stand out against some of the other candidates, although they do.

They're definitely impressive and he's only a three-time champion, which isn't much compared to other candidates, but he's arguably the most legendary player. Bird has so many iconic and simply legendary moments from his career. Bird had an eye for drama as he was known for his trash talk, one of the things that led to Julius Irving iconically punching and strangling Bird was Larry talking trash to him as the game went on. Bird counted how many points he had versus how many Irving had at the end. of the third bird he had 42 and irving had six halfway through the fourth bird he told irving to back off which led to the altercation he also went into the locker room of the three point contest said I hope everyone is talking about who's coming Secondly, and during The next two contests, he would shoot in his warmups and win both contests, winning three in a row easily.

He would often tell his opponents what move he was about to make and then proceed to do it. He played a complete game on the left. handed scored 22 points left handed broke kevin mchale's celtic scoring record nine days after mchale broke the record by scoring so impressively that he finally had the opposing team cheering for him because of how incredible he was those are just a few of the many moments legends that bird is also one of the best players in history, the man had ice in his veins and he knew it. Bird was a three-time champion, three-time MVP, won those back-to-back Finals, MVP twice, first team all-NBA nine times, second team twice, all-defensive. second team, three-time rookie of the year and 12-time MVP All-Star winner, one time for Bird, he was a great scorer, great rebounder and great passer, similar to magic, he was very versatile, his passes often went unnoticed due how good they are.

In one score, he was a bird, won a good number of individual awards and was a three-time champion, but those awards were notThey compare so well to many other candidates and Byrd had the advantage of playing with one of the top six men and post in the league. players kevin mchale and one of the best defensive centers in Robert Parish, as well as some other great teammates, so Bird definitely had his fair share of greatness, but the scale seems smaller than most other candidates when The era of charging magic has arrived. in closing, the league needed a new face and that face was michael jordan jordan oh he's looking to bring it in, he's on the right track, mj started his basketball career playing high school baseball at emsley, a laney high school, Jordan tried out for the varsity his sophomore season, but because he was only 5-11 he was forced to stay on jv motivated to improve and having grown four inches over the summer, Jordan made the varsity and averaged 25 points per game during his junior and senior seasons.

He received many scholarship offers for his high school play and eventually settled on the University of North Carolina as a freshman for the Tar Heels. Jordan averaged 13.4 points on 53.4 shooting, won freshman of the year, and won an NCAA championship after hitting a game-winning mid-range shot. Distance jumper against Patrick Ewing led Georgetown Hoyas. This iconic shot would be the turning point in Jordan's career, where he caught the world's attention as basketball's next big thing. He averaged 20 points and five rebounds in his sophomore and junior seasons, shooting 54 field goals. He won the Naysmith and Wood College Player of the Year awards and would skip his senior season to declare for the NBA draft, where the Chicago Bulls chose him third overall with Hakeem Elijahwan and Bust Sam Bowie passing him by.

Jordan was one of the best rookies of all time in his first season with the Bulls, averaging 28 points, six and a half rebounds, six assists and two and a half steals on 51 and a half percent shooting. He was a star and led the Bulls to their first playoff appearance in four years despite a losing record, but they lost to the defensive juggernaut Milwaukee Bucks in the first round in his second season. Mj would suffer the only major injury of his career. He broke his foot in the third game of the season that he would miss. 64 games in, Bulls management tried to convince mj to sit out the rest of the season so the team would get a high draft pick, but mj accused him of trying to fail and let him play for the remaining 15 games it's from the season. and jordan struggled averaging only 22 points per game, shooting 45 from the field and the bulls narrowly made the playoffs with the fifth worst record to make the playoffs in nba history with a record of 30 and 52, the bulls would face the often considered 87 celtics.

One of the greatest teams of all time and Jordan would score 63 points against the Celtics in game two, but the Bulls would still lose in a sweep the next season. Jordan would become the only point guard to score 3,000 points in a season and would be only the second player to do so. he once did it behind will chamberlain he averaged an absurd 37 points per game along with five rebounds four and a half assists three steals and one and a half blocks on 58 field goals jordan did this on a team whose second best player was charles oakley who was averaging a double-double on Jordan's worst field goal percentage despite being a big man Jordan was on a really bad team but he was so dominant that that team was in the 500s but a team built entirely around a single player wouldn't would beat another team with a lot of depth, which is why the Boston Celtics swept the Bulls once again.

This pattern would carry over to mj. He had more seasons of incredible individual achievement followed by disappointment in the playoffs due to a lack of help on his roster in the In the 87-88 season, he scored 35 points, five and a half rebounds, six assists, 3.2 steals and a block and a half in 53 shots. MJ would win his first MVP and also take home defensive player of the year, making him one of five. guards to win defensive player of the year and making him one of four players to win both MVP and defensive player of the year in his career.

The Bulls who won 50 games that year thanks to Jordan's performance would beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round. but they would lose to the Detroit Pistons in the second round. The Pistons who had built a defensive game plan around mj called Jordan's rules. That plan was to practically tear him down. Pick George lost all the outfield. He now he looks at the triple team. while sally and rodman collapsed on the tour, damn rodman and jordan, this time the pattern continued during the next season, mj scored 33, 8 and 8 in 54, shooting, the bulls would reach the eastern conference finals beating the cavaliers in an infamous series that the sellers have jordan george with two seconds left picks it up and starts at the buzzer michael jordan won it for chicago and beat the knicks, but jordan and the bulls would fall again to the detroit pistons next season was the first year jordan had any real help scottie pippen, who the bulls had traded for in the 87 draft, was developing very well and made the first all star game appearance of his career with a 16.75 average. and two and a half steals and 1.2 blocks on 48 shots and Horace Grant, whom the Bulls also selected.

In 87 he averaged 13 and 8 and a half rebounds on 55 shots and the Bulls brought in head coach Phil Jackson who introduced the triangle offense which the Bulls would see a lot of success with the Bulls were the best they had won in 55 games. won the scoring title for the fifth straight year and the bulls made it to the eastern conference finals again to face none other than the detroit pistons but would lose in a seven game series losing to the pistons for the third straight season with all of this loss in the playoffs and the league was still very big man oriented, many didn't.

I think you can win with a guard, i.e. Jordan as your best player, but Jordan and the Bulls showed that everything was wrong in the season 91. Jordan won his second MVP. The Bulls won 61 games. The Bulls beat the Knicks and Sixers in the first two rounds. playoffs they advanced to the eastern conference finals to face the pistons for the last time and the bulls dominated beating the pistons in a sweep jordan averaged 35 7 2 and a half steals and two blocks on 54 shots scotty also dominated with 22 8 5 3 and 2 The Pistons walked off the court in Game 4 before the game ended without shaking hands with any Bulls player.

Jordan had overcome this obstacle in his career. The Bulls would face the Magic Johnson Lakers in the finals and while they didn't. i don't have kareem anymore they were still a very good team the magic was still in its prime he averaged 19 8 and 12 for the series and vladi divac sam perkins and james worthy all averaged high teens in points for the series the series was just 5 games but many of the games were quite close Jordan averaged 31 points six and a half rebounds and 11 and a half assists 2.8 steals and 1.4 blocks on 56 shots absolutely filling the stat sheet Jordan would win his first championship and mp finals this was the beginning from the first repeat the next season mj averaged 36 and 6 scottie pippen further stepped up his game with an average of 21 8 7 2 and 1 and the bulls reached the finals to face the portland pioneers who were led by clyde drexler and terry porter before the final began.

The media started telling a story about Clyde being a better player than MJ simply because he was a far superior three point shooter because the rivalry between Magic and Bird disappeared and Magic retired due to HIV and Bird had injury problems that the media wanted to create. a new rivalry between mj and clyde, but mj would quickly destroy any idea of ​​a rivalry and destroy criticism of his three point shot by saying that the reason clyde is a better three point shooter is because he chooses not to be a better shooter . and he backed up that talk in the first game where Jordan scored an NBA Finals record 35 points in the first half.

MJ did this by smashing an NBA Finals record with six three-pointers in the first half. He would average 36 for the series with 53 shots with Clyde. Only averaging 25 per game on 40 shots, the Bulls won in six games and of course MJ walked away with the Finals MVP the next season. MJ would not repeat as MVP and the award went to Charles Barkley, which was unfortunate for Charles because Jordan used this as motivation. so when the bulls faced barkley's sons in the nba finals, they beat them in a six game series in which jordan would average 41 points, eight and a half rebounds and six assists and walk away with the vp finals , but during the 1993 playoffs a controversy arose where the night before a game against the knicks in the conference finals, jordan was seen in atlantic city in the middle of the night playing and after that many stories emerged about his gambling debts After this controversy carried over into the offseason, Michael Jordan decided to retire at the age of 29.

MJ cited his lack of desire to continue playing basketball as the reason he retired and later said that it was the death of his father that made him want to stop playing basketball to pursue baseball. His father wanted Jordan to be a baseball player and MJ hoped to fulfill his father's wish, but the timing of this retirement with this huge controversy sparked a massive conspiracy that the league suspended MJ but disguised it as a retirement. . The main point of emphasis of this conspiracy is this line that mj said. at his retirement press conference five years later if that drive comes back if the bulls have me if david stern left me back in the league can I come back if dave is coming back into the league can I come back no matter why he retired he retired I would play baseball for a year and about halfway through the 1994-95 season, Scottie Pippen invited Michael to a team practice and the Bulls who were struggling that season at age 31 and 31 convinced mj to return to basketball and mj announced his return.

With a two word press release, I'm back, things were not storybook for his initial return, however, MJ only averaged 27 points on 41 shots in his 17 games that season and Scottie Pippen, who had been the primary scoring option for a year and Half now had to adjust to being returned to his role as Robin after being the man for over a year due to some adjustment struggles as the Bulls lost to the Orlando Magic led by the young duo of Shaquille O'Neal and Penny Hardaway in a six game series the only playoff series Jordan would lose after beating the Pistons but that bit of failure that initially came with that series was more motivation for me who he trained like crazy in the offseason of '95 the bulls added defensive and rebounding strength dennis rodman in the off season and the bulls started the season 41-3 and finished the season with a then nba record of 72-10 jordan won his eighth scoring title with an average of 30 points per game, a career-high from three 43 conceded, the three-point line was shortened for that season and would win his fourth MVP award the Bulls would only lose three games during the playoffs beating the Sonics in the finals in six games with Jordan winning the finals MVP next season the Bulls would win 69 games mj would lose the mvp award to carl malone and just like in the case of barkley stealing an mvp from jordan turned out to be a curse In the finals as Jordan and the Bulls would win in six games, this series had some particularly iconic Jordan moments, including a game winner. in the first game and in the iconic flu game where Jordan played with flu-like symptoms, he scored 38 points and made the game deciding 3.

He would win his fifth Finals MVP and in Jordan's final season as a Bull , the team would win 62 games. Jordan would win yet another scoring title by averaging 29 points per game at the age of 34. He would win his fifth and final MVP and reach the finals to face the Utah Jazz once again, beating them in six games and taking the winner at the end of the sixth game. 17 seconds from game seven or championship number six, winning his sixth ring, sixth MVP of the final, leaving with an iconic shot, being the last moment of his career, a storybook ending, but Jordan decided to ruin that ending of a storybook adding some rather mediocre and unnecessary chapters.

The end became a Washington Wizard after a few years as part owner and president of basketball operations for the Wizards. Jordan being so close to the game gave him back the desire to play, so Michael Jordan at the age of 38 decided to return to basketball to play. For the Wizards in his first year he averaged 23.6 rebounds and five assists while shooting 41 from the field. The Wizards would miss the playoffs.and in his last season jordan aged 39 to 40 would average 20 points per game on 45 shots finally retire for real at the end of the 2003 season what's in the bag look at fries big mac play with you you and me for my big mac the first to fail look at the winner eat don't kill me get in there from the ground outside the marker from the edgeless edge board over the second beam from the floor through the window from the wall nothing but him over the river from the poster through window from wall nothing but red michael jordan may have the most impressive resume of any candidate six championships six finals mvps five regular season mvps was on the NBA first team 10 times and the second team He was once on the All-Defensive First Team nine times a Defensive Player of the Year being one of four point guards to do so, won the Rookie of the Year Award and was a 14-time All-Star and won the All-Star MVP three times.

MJ was one of the most lethal scorers to ever play the game. His incredible athleticism allowed him to get to the basket at will and his mid-range game was one of the best of all time outside of the pull-up or out of the post. MJ could make any type of mid-range jump shot he wanted. gave and as a result won 10 scoring titles and is fifth all-time in defensive scoring michael won defensive Player of the Year as a point guard, is second all-time in blocks among point guards behind Dwyane Wade and is third in steals, but those are the rankings he has having retired twice with adjusted conservative numbers, if he had not retired, Jordan would be the first of all time in scoring with more than 40,000 points, 57th of all time in rebounds, making him second among point guards behind Jason Kidd.

He would move up to second place in steals and move up to 74th all-time in blocks, making him the only point guard at the top. 100. So these numbers are worth considering just as the Wilt and Russell block numbers are worth considering. Jordan's case for the goat has to be the great combination of championships and individual accomplishments he has. Most candidates have a lot of one or the other. Wilt doesn't win many rings, but his individual achievements, both in terms of awards and statistically, are phenomenal, while Russell has the most rings of all time, but his individual numbers and accolades aren't as impressive.

Furthermore, he also has all the individual accolades. like six rings, he also never lost on the biggest stage six out of six in the nba finals, he also never played in a game seven in the finals, the key factor of mj and his killer mentality is also one of the biggest arguments used In the case of Jordan for the goat, MJ was ultra competitive, he was known for wanting to not only beat his opponent but also destroy him. This competitive spirit led MJ to work harder than anyone else, which is why he won so much. MJ won on the biggest stage without fail and racked up other awards too, except on the other hand jordan didn't win much until scottie pippen came along and he didn't win until the pistons and celtics declined he wasn't winning on the biggest stage until there was also the argument that he had weak competition while jordan played with pippin and rodman for three years, both hall of famers, he never faced more than two major hall of famers. fame in the final, james dignified and magic johnson in 91 only clyde drexler in 92. only charles barkley in 93 gary payton and sean kemp in 96 and jon stockton and carl malone and many of those players are not exactly the cream of the crop Hall of Fame players aside from Magic, none are commonly considered among the top 10 players of all time and many weren't even the best. 5 players in the league when they faced jordan in the finals and mj's perfect record in the finals may not have been so perfect if he hadn't retired.

Hakeem always gave the Bulls problems because they never had a center that could come close to stopping him. the argument that he didn't have much competition at his position clyde drexler reggie miller joe dumars and mitch richmond are the top four shooting guards of the 90s below mj clyde being the only real superstar at jordan's position so mj had great collection of individual players and team achievements, but there are questions about the competition in which jordan achieved those things in jordan's last few seasons in chicago there were a lot of rumors around the league about a kid from philadelphia who could be the second coming of mj that kid from philadelphia was none other than kobe bryant three we're tired in the 95-96 season while jordan and the bulls were busy making history winning 72 games there were a lot of rumors coming from philadelphia lower marion high school dominated high school baseball led by senior guard Kobe Bryant Bryant led Lower Marion to its first state championship in 53 years by averaging 30.8 points, 12 rebounds, 6.5 assists, 4 steals and 3.8 blocks during the season.

Kobe received national attention for his performance and received several awards. He was named a Naysmith High School player. of the year, the Gatorade National Player of the Year, was a McDonald's All-American and was a USA Today First Team player. After bringing brandy to his senior prom, he decided to skip college and go straight to the NBA, well, I have decided to skip college and take my talents to the NBA. Kobe was selected by the Charlotte Hornets with the 13th overall pick, but Bryant had no interest in playing for Charlotte. He threatened to not select him, saying he would play in Italy, but Charlotte selected him. with the intention of trading him to the lakers for center vladi divac the lakers moved vlade to free up space to sign shaquille o'neal a player who could have easily been in this

documentary

and thus began what many people would call the greatest duo of NBA history, but it would take some time for this duo to succeed.

Kobe wasn't a Day 1 star like many other Goat candidates, but that was the downside of coming straight out of high school. Kobe took some time to adjust to the NBA at 18 years old. In his rookie season he averaged only 7.6 points and a field goal percentage of 41.7, but that wasn't just 15 minutes per game off the bench, the Lakers had one of the best players in the league in their team and Shaq, so they were trying to win. so giving minutes to an 18 year old was not his top priority, but Kobe participated and won the 1997 dunk contest. The player will attempt two dunks here on a rotating basis, so Kobe will do it and then the others two too.

I'll do it again in his second year, Kobe found himself with a more defined role on the team with coach Dell Harris giving Kobe more minutes and using him as a sixth man and Kobe could have easily won the sixth man of the year award. season averaging 15 points per game off the bench and being voted an All-Star not really deserved because he went from being a fan favorite, but still an All-Star the next season Kobe was finally given a starting position with an average of almost 20 per game. However, his fourth season was the true beginning of Bryant's career and the beginning of the Lakers' incredible success.

Kobe had career-best averages of 22 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.9 assists with a field goal percentage of 46.8, but most importantly, the Lakers were the best they had been after magic This was due to Kobe's improvement by hiring Phil Jackson as the new head coach and MVP of Shaq's season 29.7 points and 13.6 rebounds on 57 field goal percentage the Lakers won 67 games and reached the finals of the nba to face the indiana pacers led by reggie miller kobe struggled a lot in this series his season average of 22 points per game fell to 15 and his field goal percentage fell to 10 but kobe was injured throughout the series after Jalen Rose intentionally hurt him, but Kobe had a major contribution to this series while he was down for the series in game 4 Shaq fouled out in overtime Pacers were in prime position to tie the series 2 - 2 and considering how badly the Lakers were blown out in Game 5, this game very well could have won the series for the Pacers, but Brian didn't let that happen with two minutes left.

Kobe Bryant, 21, closed the scoring. six points on two tough jumpers over their defender and a two pointer that was just inside the line gives them a chance to take the lead and you know Toby is going to go to work again here he is on Jackson, how good is he? this? Kid and Brian Shaw's game-clinching call Miss Shaw running with one hand followed by Kobe Bryant finishing with 28 for the game, but Shaq would obviously still win Finals MVP with averages of 38 and 17. Next year, Kobe he took a step forward. his game to another level, going from star to superstar playing with one of the most dominant offensive players in the NBA, Kobe still managed to average 28 per game along with him, along with 6 rebounds and 5 assists, the Lakers won 56 games and finished 15. 1 in the playoffs, only lost one game to an angry Allen Iverson and the Lakers would complete the 3p in 2002, the Lakers would once again easily reach the finals and play the nets they won in a sweep, but two of those games They were closer.

Than you would think Shaq won the Finals MVP once again and it was all downhill from there after the Lakers won their third consecutive championship. This is when the narrative of Kobe being carried by Shaq began. Kobe came into the league with expectations of being next. mj being shaq's sidekick wasn't the role people expected him to play while kobe was winning, he didn't do it as the guy, so the narrative began. Kobe didn't agree with this, he also didn't agree with Shaq's laziness, Kobe is known for his impeccable work ethic and for asking a lot of his teammates Shaq was more casual he relied on his incredible size to dominate on the court basketball player saw his size as all he needed bryant was not happy about this and was constantly on Shaq's ass about it this fight led to the Lakers losing to the Spurs in the 2003 playoffs.

The Lakers would sign Carl Malone and Gary Payton in a desperate attempt to get the team back into contention. Kobe would go through a court case in Denver where Shaq gave. kobe ​​without support the lakers would reach the finals again despite their differences but would lose to a much less talented pistons team but also a much more cohesive pistons team where the players did not hate each other for reasons of money and his problem with Kobe Shack would demand a trade and he would be sent to Miami for Quran Butler and Lamar Odom. This would begin a period of years where Kobe would see a lot of individual success, but the Lakers would see no success for three seasons (2004 to 2007).

Kobe would average 31.8. combined points across those three seasons, as well as 5.6 rebounds and 5.3 assists, and despite his crazy usage, he still shot a very respectable 45 from the field and a three-point percentage of 34.4 percent. percent in his second season without control. Kobe would average an absurd 35.4 percentage points. In the game, this was all for naught, as the Lakers would miss the playoffs in 2005, lose after winning 3-1 to the Suns in the first round in 2006, and b knights were swept by the Suns in the first round in 2007. , but this really wasn't the case. Kobe's fault after Shaq was traded, many of the Lakers players retired or left in free agency.

Koran Butler was not yet at an all-star level and would leave after one season with the Lakers only averaging 15 per game and the Lakers saw players. like smush parker luke walton and kwame brown consistently in their starting lineups to be forceful kobe had no help no player no matter how big it was to win something with what he had that's why kobe would demand a trade after losing to the suns in 2007. You're still under contract with them, are you saying here on this show that you want to be traded? Yes, I would like to be traded.

Yes. There are no buts about it. It's not a situation where you know what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, I know you said earlier that you'd like Jerry West back. Are you now emphatically saying, regardless of what they've done, that you want to get out of Los Angeles? Yes, I like to be coached and it is as difficult as it is to say that. It is difficult to reach that conclusion. You know there is no other, there is no other, there is no other alternative, but despite some great offers, the Lakers would not trade Kobe.

He would begin the 2007-2008 season, putting the Lakers on pace for 50 wins. they would get pau gasol on top of that, they would just have to give up powe's brother mark, who was a second round pick, kwame brown, two uniforms and two first round picks, the lakers would win 57 games, kobethey would win the first and only mvp beat the spurs 4 -1 in the conference finals but they would lose to the boston celtics in the finals. Kobe would average 25 5-and-5s for the series, but shot a very poor field goal percentage of only 40 percent. This loss was what Kobe would call his darkest moment. as a player, but kobe and the lakers recovered, they reached the finals once again, but unfortunately they did not face the celtics, instead, dwight howard led the orlando magic, but fortunately for the lakers, this team was quite inexperienced and the lakers could.

To beat them in five games, Kobe would win the Finals MVP with an average of 32 points and seven assists per game. Kobe was finally going to get his chance with the Celtics the next season, although the Lakers would defeat the Celtics twice in seven games. Kobe won the MVP of the final with an average of 28.6 points, eight rebounds and 3.9 assists. He shot 40 field goals, but everyone on both teams had problems from the field. The Lakers as a whole shot only 41. With these two championships, Kobe had shown that he could win without shaq and took revenge on the celtics this would be the peak of bryant's career next season the lakers would be swept in the playoffs by the dallas mavericks the lakers would trade for chris paul but the trade would be quickly vetoed by the league then they would trade for dwight howard lo which unfortunately was not vetoed by the league.

Kobe would end the 2013 season with a torn Achilles tendon and with this look on his face he knew it. Everyone on the field and in the stands knew it and everyone at home knew it. This was the last time we would do it. See Kobe as an elite player, he played two more seasons and retired in 2016. Jalen, oh no, hello Cole, how are you? How is retirement treating you? He's a great man, he's great, you know, writing a little, investing a little, he's good, so I don't know. If you saw that on Twitter about your statute, no you don't pay attention to that stuff, yeah I thought I don't drink mr brat either, yeah I'll have a vodka martini, how many hours would you like? 81.

Not really. man, I'm just playing two jokes on him, he gets it. Kobe won five championships in his career, one MVP and two Finals MVPs. He made the NBA first team 11 times, second team twice and third team twice. It was all defensive first team nine. times and second team three times and was an 18 time All Star Game MVP four time All Star winner like Jordan he was a phenomenal scorer and perimeter defender and Kobe had the killer instinct that I would rate as the mamba mentality that mj had. He was also arguably the hardest working player in NBA history.

Jordan certainly worked hard, but he also partied and played hard. Kobe was all business. Basketball was his sole focus and it could be argued that Kobe earned his success more than any other player. A guy like Wilt was known for being lazy off the court, but he was lucky enough to be six feet tall. Kobe was average height by NBA standards, but he worked hard to become one of the deadliest scorers in the NBA. league has ever seen. In addition to being one of the best defenders to ever see a leak, it can also be argued that Kobe was robbed of an MVP or two in the 2006 and 2007 season, where Kobe averaged 35 and 32 points, the MVP went to Steve Nash and Dirk.

Nowitzki and in the 2003 season, Kobe averaged 37, 6 and 2 with good efficiency, but lost to Tim Duncan because Bryant had more help, but Kobe definitely had arguments for those three mvps in which he fell short, while Kobe has five rings, there are a There are many questions about the legitimacy of them, although no one can take away his last two rings, many believe that Kobe was taken by Shaq or at least feel that not being the best player on his team for three rings reduces the value of they. His legacy, the counterpoint to that, would be that any player alongside Shaq in the early 2000s wouldn't have been the best player on the team, or at least wouldn't have been the MVP of the Finals.

Shaq in the 2000s constantly faced centers who couldn't come close to handling him in the post. Shaq was such a dominant force that there was no stopping him, even Dikembe Mutumba was dominated from below because although he was a great shot blocker, he didn't have the strength or stamina to contain him. Inside, offensively, giving the ball to Shaq in the early 2000s was the best play in basketball, a better play than a Kobe isolation or even a Jordan isolation, a Lebron pick and roll or a Larry three-pointer Bird. The point is to win the Finals MVP with Shaq.

It was nearly impossible for Bryant to perform at Finals MVP levels in two of those three championships since he was injured in 2000. He averaged 25, 8, and 6 in 2001 and 27, 6, and 5 on 51 shots in 2002. Those are Finals MVP level stats. He went on to average 33 16 five assists and four and a half blocks in 2001 and 26 12 and 3 in 2002 there was no finals MVP winner for kobe playing alongside shaq but at the same time that also means kobe was playing with the best player in the league for three years, so he's certainly a better help than anyone else on this list, so Kobe was one of the hardest workers of all time, one of the best scorers in history, but he He fell short on the MVP scale many times and was not the best player in three of his five championships.

During Kobe's NBA reign there was only one player who was also consistently in the conversation for the best NBA player over Kobe. and that player was tim duncan tim duncan had a very interesting start to his basketball career. He didn't follow the traditional path,

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ly starting his career as an athlete trying to become an Olympic swimmer, but after Hurricane Hugo destroyed the only Olympic-sized pool on Saint Crocs, which was the virgin island where Duncan lived, Tim had two practices. of swimming in the ocean, but he wasn't a big fan of that because the conditions of a beach are not the same as an Olympic pool and two of Duncan were very afraid of sharks, so this led to Duncan losing his passion for swimming and changing. basketball, he played in his high school and really struggled a lot at first, although he was very tall, he learned to play much later than most, but after a few seasons he started in his senior year averaging 25 per game which he did not was.

He was recruited by big schools like Duke or Kentucky, but got a scholarship with Wake Forest. Duncan's lack of flash, but he established incredible reliability early on with Wake Forest and had a great freshman campaign, but it was in his sophomore season where Duncan would establish himself as a top-tier prospect led the Deacons to an ACC championship Duncan that season he averaged 17 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks he was all ACC first team and defensive player of the year in his junior season he averaged 19 and 12 he was once again defensive player of the year as well as player of the year of the ACC, the Deacons won the ACC title, but in the Sweet 16, Duncan came down with the flu and they lost a final four game.

In his senior year, he averaged 21 points, 15 rebounds and 3.3 blocks. 60 in shooting, he won the John Wooden Award and was the Naismith College Player of the Year, yet the Deacons failed to win their third consecutive ACC title. The San Antonio Spurs would select Tim Duncan first overall in the 1997 draft, just as Magic Johnson Duncan was drafted. an exceptionally great situation with magic the lakers looked for a great pick from a trade made years before selecting magic for the spurs david robinson their superstar center suffered an injury that kept them out for the entire season so the team was really bad for 96-97 and ended with the first pick, Duncan, joining the admiral, creating the twin towers, having two big athletic defensive superstars down meant the paint was blocked for Duncan, as a rookie averaged 21 points, 12 rebounds in two and a half blocks.

He was an NBA First Team All-Star and made the NBA All-Defensive Second Team and won Rookie of the Year. The Spurs would reach the second round of the playoffs losing to Carl Malone, Jon Stockton Jazz in his second year. During the season, Duncan would put up similar statistics to his rookie year, but would establish himself as the team's best player. The Spurs would have much more success with this change. The Spurs would make it to the NBA Finals and would certainly face a pretty easy opponent. They faced the eighth seeded Knicks, the only HC to reach the NBA Finals, a team led by Latrell Spreewell and Alan Houston, the Spurs would win in five games with Duncan averaging 27 14 and two blocks on 54 shots. winning the finals mvp in only his second season.

In his third year, Duncan increased his averages a little but was injured before the postseason and did not play in the playoffs. The next year he maintained similar averages. He was all first team in the NBA and first team in defense, but the spurs would lose to Kobe. . and Shaq Lakers in an offseason sweep, restricted free agency had not yet been implemented during the collective bargaining agreement and Duncan seriously considered signing with the Orlando Magic, who had outlined a plan and free agency to add Tracy McGrady, Grant Hill and Duncan, the Spurs really lacked talent, plus for Duncan, since Robinson was 36 years old, the Magic were offering a chance to dominate a weak Eastern Conference and be a legitimate competitor with the Lakers who looked unbeatable in the Western Conference Duncan He was very close to signing and even told Greg Popovich that he would sign with the Magic but due to small details like Magic coach Doc Rivers telling Duncan he couldn't have his family on the team plane Duncan decided to stay with the Spurs for his fifth The year would be the best statistical year of his career.

He averaged 25 and a half points, 13 rebounds, four assists and two and a half blocks. He would win his first MVP, but when he faced the Lakers again, the Spurs would lose in five games. David Robertson was aging and couldn't handle Shaq in the post, and Tony Parker couldn't be a big contributor, but Duncan being a rookie was enough. By his account, he would win MVP consecutively in season 0203 with an average of 23, 13, four assists and three blocks on 51 shots. The Spurs would win 60 games even though Duncan had little help. Tony Parker was a 15 point per game scorer.

Manu was a rookie david robinson was playing his last year steven jackson was very inefficient and bruce bowen was pretty much a three and d guy duncan was carrying a lot for this team despite the success of the regular season duncan and the spurs would have to overcome the obstacle that was the lakers again, duncan would find himself carrying the load, he led the team in points, rebounds, assists and was third and field goal percentage despite taking 40 more shots than the next in line, too He was often the guy who had to guard Shaq, he averaged 28 12 and 5 on 53 shots and the Spurs would beat the Kobe Shack Lakers in six games.

Duncan closed game six with 37 points and 16 rebounds. Duncan single-handedly defeated one of the greatest duos in history. With or without meat, it was one of the most impressive feats of In his career the spurs would beat the mavericks in the conference finals in a series where duncan would average 28 points 17 rebounds 5 assists and 3 blocks and in the final he would face the new jersey nets duncan would average 24 17 five assists and five blocks and in the sixth game he would almost achieve a quadruple double with 21 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists and eight blocks. David Robinson also scored 17 rebounds in his last game.

Duncan would be named Finals MVP the next year. The Spurs would lose to the Lakers in a tough series in which the Lakers would turn the tide in game 5. Duncan made an impossible shot to take the lead. Duncan gets a double shackle and escapes. Incredible, but Derek Fisher would make an impossible shot with 0.4 seconds left. take it to Fisher Fisher scores at the buzzer now, this shot was virtually impossible for Fischer to make in point four seconds, but the league allowed it even though the Spurs filed an appeal. Duncan would drop a bit statistically on the season to 0.405, but Tony Parker. and manu ginobili would average 16 points per game with parker averaging six assists per game and bruce bowen was still blocking the defense and shooting 40 from three the spurs reached the finals with a more polished team and would beat the team that previously beat the lakers in the final the detroit pistons in a seven game series duncan averaged 20 14 and 2 and ginobili contributed 19 6 and 4 for the series duncan shot poorly from the field being guarded by ben wallace a four time defensive player of the year, but still won the Finals MVP in the following postseason, the Mavericks beat the Spurs in seven games and only won the seventh game by eight points.

Dirk and Duncan had an incredible battle. Duncan averaged 32-12 and two and a half blocks and Dirk averaged 27-13 but Dirk finally had more help on his team in 2007 the spurs only lost 4 games during the entire playoffs sweeping the lebron'scavaliers in the final but duncan would not be named mvp of the final since it went to tony parker who averaged 24 and a half points with 57 shots but after this duncan and the spurs would go through six years of disappointment in the playoffs losing 4-1 to the lakers in the conference finals losing 4-1 against the mavs 4-2 against the mavs 4-2 against the grizzlies 4-2 against the okc thunder and in 2013 the spurs would reach the nba finals, but as we know , the spurs practically won the series in game 6, but ray allen would make potentially the greatest shot in basketball history, james catches shots. up all three rebound a goal towards Adam his three drivers with five seconds left after this crushing defeat the spurs were motivated to come back and get revenge at this point the spurs were no longer a team built around duncan but were a team with No there were clear better players who knew their role and played it well and potentially had the most ball movement of any team.

The Spurs started the playoffs off rough, barely beating the eighth-seeded Mavericks in seven games, but, gentlemen, they swept the Blazers in the second. round and beat okc in six games where duncan averaged 18 and 10. in the final duncan would average 15 and 10 and the spurs would mistreat the Miami Heat dwyane wade was on his last legs or more accurately on his last knees and lebron was practically in the his and it didn't help that 22 year old Kawhi Leonard stepped up his game, played great defense and averaged 18 points and six rebounds on 61 shots with those numbers, Kawhi of course won Finals MVP over Temp Duncan but Duncan earned his fifth and final championship.

Duncan would play two more seasons without incident and retire at the age of 39. You are excited? Greatness Week is back at Foot Locker. A week of the sickest releases. Everyone is excited. Man, that's exciting. I have to call tim tim duncan me tim greatness week is back at foot locker no way that's crazy i'm bouncing off the wall never kiss this anxiety i can't contain myself i just knocked over a plant celebrating tim duncan was a book text team player and winner of five championships in three different decades, winning them in different roles in 99, he was a young superstar in the making surrounded by veteran talent in 2003 and 2005, now he was the veteran star player leading a team of youngsters in 2007, he was still the best player on the team, but he was more than happy to share the spotlight with parker and manu and in 2014 he was the old veteran player who still contributed on the court, but more than anything, he was just an incredible leader, Tim Duncan, more than anyone else. another candidate besides maybe bill russell didn't care what he had to do all he cared about was winning if he had to give up his role in the offense he was happy to do it if that was what it took to win if I had to do it. be a dominant player in lock down defense, he would do that for you Tim Duncan was a selfless winner, although it wasn't important to him because of his individual accolades, he was a two time MVP, three time Finals MVP, he made it to 10 All-nba first. teams with the second team three times and the third team twice, all-defensive first team eight times and the second team seven times, won the rookie of the year award and was a 15-time All-Star Game winning MVP, once won in every stage of his career and sacrificed some of his Statistics along the way are Duncan's biggest case for the goat, after all, basketball is a team sport and, besides Russell, no other player at Duncan's level he was so selfless, but on the other hand, some would argue that to be truly great you need to win without sacrificing. your individual greatness and it's not a great sign that one of the ways the spurs continued to dominate was by giving duncan less of a role in the offense and because of these sacrifices duncan often caused his stats to not shine at the level of most candidates, so while Duncan was impressive as a winner, his stats are poor due to the sacrifices he made in comparison and many other greats winning the same while maintaining their individual accolades.

Kobe and Duncan were in their prime, a new name appeared. the mix between that period that name was lebron james as a freshman at saint vincent st mary lebron averaged 21 points and six rebounds when he was 14 years old the irish wrestler would go 27-0 and win a state title in his second season he average 25 7 and 6 and lebron became such a national sensation that saint vincent st mary had to play home games at the university of akron to meet the demand for tickets lebron would be named mr ohio basketball the irish would finish 26-1 and would repeat as state champions in their youth the story of the greatest high school player ever spread even further would appear in Slam magazine beyond the cover of Sports Illustrated averaged 29.8 rebounds and six assists was named Ohio Mr Basketball for the second year in a row USA Today's First Team All USA and would be the first junior to be named Gatorade National Player of the Year.

Despite his individual success, the Irish would lose four games this season and lose the Division 2 championship as his legends spread in his senior year. and Irish wrestlers would travel across the country to play against nationally ranked teams. James averaged 31.6 points, 9.6 rebounds and 4.6 assists for the third consecutive year. He was named Ohio Mr Basketball and the Irish would win their third division title in four years and LeBron would then declare for the NBA draft where, like in a storybook, he would be selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers and LeBron would become the local hero . This would be both a blessing and the worst thing that could happen to LeBron. his first tent in cleveland would be a no-stop rushing job for james in his rookie year lebron defended the hype he received in high school many players fall into mediocrity with less enthusiasm lebron rose to the challenge, although he certainly He had some problems as a rookie, was quite inefficient and averaged too many turnovers, but the good of his rookie year far outweighed the bad.

He averaged 20.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists with a field goal percentage of 41.7 percent. The Cavs would miss the playoffs and he wouldn't be named an All-Star, but he would win as a rookie. of the year over carmelo anthony in his second season, lebron would flourish even further and be named an all-star, but in his third season, lebron scored a career-high 31.4 points per game, along with seven rebounds and 6, 6 assists. Lebron was second in MVP. voting behind steve nash the cavaliers would make the playoffs for the first time since 98 but would lose to the detroit pistons in the second round next season the cavs would win 50 games they would be the second seat in the east against the pistons in the conference finals and In an incredible performance, LeBron would score 48 9-7 in game 5.

He scored 29 of 30 of Cleveland's final points and scored the game-winning layup five seconds with 2.2 left, the Cavaliers lead 109 107 and the Pistons ask time 48 points for lebron james has scored the last 25 points for cleveland 29 of the last 30. In his fourth season in the league with little to no help on his team, lebron had reached the nba finals but was facing the giant san antonio spurs led by tim duncan the cavs had zero chance and would lose in a sweep. This playoff run that LeBron went on would basically sum up the entirety of his time in the individual success of the Cavaliers which unfortunately led to him losing in the playoffs due to the lack of talent on his side, he did not have the advantage of being drafted in a team with kareem or shaq or ending up with a guy like scottie pippen or tony parker and ginobili lebron never had another guy by his side in his first time in cleveland. and the addition of the three big bosses of the Celtics and the Dwight Howard Orlando Magic didn't exactly help, so from 2007 to 2010 Lebron dominated winning two MVP awards in 2009 and 2010, but again due to a lack of help, the Cavs They didn't win. a lot and in the second round of the 2010 playoffs against the Boston Celtics, Lebron essentially gave up on the team when he realized that he was once again in an uphill battle where, despite his incredible play , he would inevitably lose.

Lebron would go live on television and announce. the next chapter of his career the answer to the question everyone wants to know lebron what is your decision um this fall man it's very difficult and this fall I'm taking my talents to South Beach and I joined Miami Lebron joined Dwyane Wade and chris bosh in Miami to force the big three of Miami but before entering the court he immediately shot himself in the foot by being part of this party where they celebrated as if they had already won and at this party he said this to win championships. not a single championship lebron tells us that not two nor three nor four not five nor six nor seven the era of the big three in miami would have a difficult start lebron wade and bosh struggled to fit in initially lebron also struggled mightily with the criticism that he He approached his decision because the move he made at that time was unprecedented.

Lebron would decide to accept this villain role that the NBA fan base had assigned him and the Miami Heat would be the second seat in the east behind Derrick Rose's Bulls. They would beat those pins with Lebron effectively shutting down Rose and head to the NBA Finals to face the underdog Dallas Mavericks who were led by Dirk Nowitzki. This series would be the biggest stain on Lebron's legacy and his case for the goat. Lebron averaged a measly 17.8. points 7.2 rebounds 6.8 assists and 4 turnovers on 47 shots isn't a terrible statistic for an average player, but for a superstar who most would have considered the best player in the league it was unfortunate that LeBron was even surpassed by jason terry, the sixth man in the mavericks who averaged 18 points with a field goal percentage of 49.4 not only was lebron surpassed by terry but after closing derrick rose somehow he was the reason many times for the that terry constantly scored being burned by a six man to make matters worse lebron would hold on for eight points on 27 shots in the fourth game where the series could have gone up 3-1 the series would be the lowest point in lebron's career all the criticism that couldn't win in cleveland only got worse when he couldn't win with two star teammates versus a team with only one star lebron would come into the 2011-12 season with only one goal, to prove everyone wrong, the first step was to no longer try being the villain, lebron was so focused on being the bad guy that he was no longer the bad guy by being himself, he regained his sense of joy playing like he used to, he would win his third MVP with averages of 27.1 points, 7.9 rebounds, 6, 2 assists and 1.9 steals on 53 shots in the second round against the Pacers.

Chris Bosh suffered an abdominal injury that made it a challenge for the top heavy team to beat the aging Boston Celtics in Game 5. Paul Pierce would hit a game-winning three-pointer before LeBron's eyes to go up 2-2 Pierce by three. Good thing Paul Pierce from downtown then Boston leads by four. once again lebron found himself in a situation where he was going to lose to an underdog team, but this time lebron responded in game 6, scoring 45 points, 15 rebounds and 5 assists on 73.1 shooting, the heat would end the series in game seven and head to the finals to face the young Okc Thunder.

If the Heat won in five games. Lebron would win his first championship. He would win the Finals MVP with 28.6 points, 10.3 rebounds and 7.4 assists on 47 shots. He would finally achieve his goal of being a champion Lebron would only capitalize on this in the 2012-13 season. This is the season that most would agree was Lebron's best. He would average 26.8 points, eight rebounds, 7.3 assists, 1.7 steals, almost a block, 40 from 3, the highest of his career, and the second best of his career. field goal percentage of 56.5 percent would win his fourth MVP would take his team to the finals to face the san antonio spurs in game six the spurs were up 3-2 in the fourth quarter the heat was down by 10 and seemed as if the spurs would take the championship, but lebron would once again respond with 16 points in the fourth quarter on 70 shots and two assists, but it would be ray allen who saved the game with a step back to the three points. chris bosh's offensive rebound line that came from lebron james' mistake catches all three rebounds from a goal towards allen with five seconds left in overtime lebron would make sure the heat ended with two points and two assists which doesn't seem like much, but the heat only scored eight total points in overtime, so it was six of eight points in game seven, lebron would lose 27, 12 and four winning the series for the heat and winning the finals mvp the next season.

The Heat would have injury problems The Heat would lose to the Spurs in the finals and LeBron made his second decision this time by returning to Cleveland to team up with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love after theCavs traded Andrew Wiggins for him, just as the Cavs had problems in Miami. first, but after trading for some role players and finding their chemistry, he realized that the cavaliers established themselves as the best team in the east even though the atlanta hawks had a better record, most would have agreed on that the cavs were going to the final and the cavs showed it. that by beating them in the conference finals in the sweep they would face the warriors in the final but unfortunately they did not have kevin love thanks to kelly olynyk dislocating her shoulder and kyrie irving falling again with an injury that previously bothered her in the second round. against the bulls, so lebron was essentially alone against the warriors, with timothy mozgov being the second best player on the cavs. lebron scored 35, 13 and 9, but because of all the defensive pressure on him, he only shot 39.8 from the field, the warriors. won in six games but next year lebron would have the chance to get revenge kyrie and kevin love were completely healthy for the series but this was not the same warriors team the dubs finished 73-9 breaking the record for wins in a season that was Stephen Curry, the first unanimous MVP in NBA history, and Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, with another season as star players, improved immensely.

This was a giant team, but the Cavs were healthy and there would be no more excuses to lose. The series would not begin in Cleveland's A. favor, the Warriors would infamously go up 3-1. It looked like Lebron would lose again in the finals and would have a record of two and five in the finals. It's not a great look, but in game four, Lebron and Kyrie Irving scored 41 points. He also had 16 rebounds and 7 assists and beat the Warriors 112 to 97. In game six, the Warriors once again failed to close out the Cavaliers. Lebron once again turned in 41 with eight rebounds and 11 assists on 59 shots.

The Cavs won. the Warriors by 14. After this game, the idea of ​​a comeback was there, no team had blown a 3-1 lead in the finals, just as no team had won 73 games or had a unanimous MVP heading into the seventh game, there was no pressure on the Cavs and Lebron, although losing in other finals would have been bad for their legacy, forcing a game 7 after falling 3-1 was enough of an achievement to get ahead, but all the pressure was on the pressure of Golden State not to drown, this was the lowest score. combined game between the two teams lebron had a knight out of shot who shot only 37.5 the cavs barely shot over 40 percent and the warriors shot 38 james had a triple double of 27 points with 11 rebounds and 11 assists with four and a half minutes remaining both teams had a huge goal drought the game was tied at 89 for three and a half minutes the warriors finally had the opportunity to score thanks to a mistake by Kyrie they came out on the counterattack curry passed it to andre iguodala and well, what? did you know? it happened two possessions later the ball was in kyrie irving's hands and he made the game deciding three over the unanimous mvp irving curry curry picked up the ball he tried to tie the game kevin love missed lebron scored the free throw to steal the game and cleveland was back Succeeding from a 3-1 deficit, this would be the most impressive achievement of Lebron's career and would be the highlight of his career, not only did he win one of the greatest series finals of all time, but he also finally met . his promise to bring a championship to Cleveland and of course it would be the end as MVP with averages of 29.7 points 11.3 rebounds 8.9 assists 2.6 deals and 2.3 blocks and 49.4 field goal percentage and 37 from three unfortunately after this the warriors would sign Kevin durant the player many considered the second best player in the league behind lebron with curry clay green and durant had no chance of winning for the next two seasons the cavs would lose in the finals in 2017 kyrie would demand a trade and head to the celtics Lebron would take a poor roster to the finals and lose in four games and most recently signed with the Lakers and is now looking to build something in Los Angeles to hope

full

y add to his amazing resume today for show and tell.

I brought my uncle. lebron, who is the nba rookie of the year? did you win the championship? No, yeah, but you made the playoffs, I just missed it. Let's look at the little frog again. Lebron's dominance and dominance over the NBA from 2010 to 2018 cannot be understated, this decade of basketball excellence has not been done at that level before Bill Russell's Celtics reached the finals many times in a row, but Bill was on the same team with the same level of help, the same coach and the same thing. Lebron went back and forth between many different situations many times. having an undeniable superstar with dwyane wade in 2011 and 12 but chris bosh had trouble fitting in and 2013 and 14 wade was on the decline but chris bosh now had a defined role in cleveland he had to adapt to a new environment and a new team . and in 2018 he had to take a garbage team to the finals, but as soon as he went to the lakers he missed the playoffs, which feeds the other side that says the weakness of the conference this is the reason why lebron arrived to the finals so many times though the opposition would say look at the eastern conference in 2019 as soon as lebron leaves suddenly the east is great so you could argue he is the reason the This one looks so good that this one doesn't.

He looks particularly strong with Jordan. Lebron has won three championships throughout his career. Four MVPs. Three finals MVPs. He earned All-NBA First Team honors 12 times. Second team. Twice he was all-defensive first team. Five times. Second team. Once as Rookie of the Year. -Three-time All-Star MVP, but what's important to recognize is that Lebron is the only candidate who hasn't retired from the NBA yet, he's still active, so like we did with MJ's retirement numbers and Russell and Wilt's blocking numbers, we'll do some. Conservative speculation let's assume that Lebron plays until he is 38 years old. Many think he could play into his 40s, which is probably true, but we're being conservative here, that's four more seasons, we'll assume he averages 70 games per season. 24 points, seven rebounds, six and a half assists, 1.3 steals and 0.7 blocks in those four seasons, leading to a total of 39,061 points, which would place him in first place all time, although they are fewer points than Jordan's hypothetical Lebron would reach this mark, while Jordan is just a hypothetical figure unless he wants to come out of retirement again at the age of 60.

He would give him 10,416 assists, which would put him third all-time, although he would be fourth with Magic's hypothetical numbers, he would give him 10,790 rebounds. 32,2126 blocks all-time, which is 17th 2,294 steals all-time, which puts him in seventh place all-time, so Lebron is on pace to be first in scoring, third in assists. 32nd all-time in rebounds. 14th in blocks and seventh in steals. His name will be on all-time lists, we'll also give Lebron four more All-NBA Second Team selections as well as all-star appearances. The statistical impact and versatility of it are unquestionable. Lethal scorer. Incredible pin. Great rebounder. A versatile defender from good to great until the end. three seasons lebron is for most the most versatile player of all time no player is as good in all aspects of the game as lebron however his record in the finals as well as in the 2011 finals is a pretty big stain on his career , but some would say that 2007, 2017 and 2018 are excusable.

Beating the Spurs in 2007 was almost impossible. Beating KD Steph Clay in green in 2017 with Kyrie Irving was pretty unlikely, so beating them in 2018 without Kyrie is practically impossible, so LeBron has the statistical dominance, but the dominance of him. in the east is questionable to say the least and his final record is pretty bad, so with each candidate's case now presented, looking at each player on an individual level, let's now look at them in comparison to each other when we compare nine. players can be quite complicated so you will need to organize it into categories of achievements and career numbers and we will rank your level of help starting with achievements 4 championships bill russell takes first place with 13 jordan and kareem are tied for second with six kobe duncan and magic are tied for third with five lebron james and larry bird are fourth with three and wilt chamberlain is fifth with two mvps championships kareem comes in with an nba record of six mvps jordan and russell have five, which is the second Lebron and wilt third with four mvps, larry bird and magic johnson have three, tim duncan has two for fifth place and kobe occupies last place with only one mvp.

Jordan has an NBA record with six Finals MVPs, but we'll give Russell first place with seven Finals MVPs because the award didn't exist in Russell's time and it's fair to assume he would have won at least seven of the 11. Potential final MVPs, so Russell is first with seven. Jordan has six. Duncan Magic and Lebron have three and there is a three-way tie. for third place, so kobe byrd and kareem have two for defensive player of the year, we speculate that russell would win four and wilt would win two, so russell takes first place with four, wilt takes second place with two and jordan takes third place with one, all the others never won a defense. player of the year award here are their all star games in comparison they are all NBA team picks and all defensive team picks statistically Kareem has the most points but LeBron will most likely pass him so which we will give the number one with an asterisk. and kareem two, the next is kobe at three jordan at four nexus will chamberlain tim duncan then larry bird and magic johnson and finally bill russell for rebounds wilt and russell are the best, both with more than 20,000 rebounds kareem is the third Duncan is sixth and then larry bird, however, lebron will pass him, so he is at five and bird at six, kobe at seven, jordan at eight, although he would have been higher if he had not retired and the magic comes at nine , but the same if he wasn't forced to retire, but He would be much higher here for assist first, it's magic by a decent margin, adjusted numbers or not, but LeBron would be beyond his real number, but not his number of retirement, so LeBron would be first, then Magic and a little further down the list is Kobe Bryant. at three larry bird at four kareem is actually fifth mj at six then wilt duncan and bill russell for career averages we will break down the career averages and top averages jordan and wilt are tied in career points per game then we have a lebron kobe kareem larry bird magic duncan and bill russell are in last place with only 15 points per game for main points per game wilt chamberlain is in first place with an absurd 36 points per game jordan is in second place with 32 points per game kobe and karim are tied for third place with 28.1 next comes lebron bird duncan magic and russell wilts are first in career rebounds per game, then bill russell, then kareem, then duncan bird lebron magic jordan and kobe for leading rebounds, the list is in the same order, wilt is the first to average just one more rebound and russell, who is second after karim with 14 per game, then tim duncan with almost 12 per game, larry bird in double digits then lebron magic jordan and kobe ​​for pro assist magic johnson is first then lebron bird jordan kobe wilt bill russell kareem and tim duncan and here are the top assists per game and finally here is the pro efficiency using true shooting percentage now we will classify the level of help each had player ratings will be pretty simple hall of fame members will have five points help all stars are three points and good but not all star level players and role players will be worth one point an example of a player like this would be charles oakley with mj also some guys were all stars or even hall of famers but were out of their prime when they were on the candidate team or were only there for a few years like george girvin was for mj some will require In context , a good player could be a guy who plays his role, let's say he's an eight to ten point, eight to ten rebound player, or he's a great defender, a very good shooter, a good scorer who wasn't a big star. and also 10 points for a true superstar as if they were among the top 5 in the NBA at the time they were teammates with a candidate and there is also a 1.5 multiplier for players who spent their career on a team because when a player is on the same team they usually don't play with as many stars, but only play with one or two for their careers, like magic, for example, and future Hall of Famers will also be accounted for, as well who, starting with Bill Russell, played with nine Hall of Famers, Bob Cousy, Bill Sharman, Tom Heintzen. frank ramsey sam jones casey jones tom sandersjohn havelchek and don nelson that's a total of 45 hall of fame points bayley howell is a hall of famer but that's because of his time in detroit before becoming a celt he was a lone star inductee of the Celtics, so he fits into Justin's all-star category and is actually the only regular All-Star, so that's three more points for good non-star players.

Russell played with Wally Nalls who was a former All-Star but just a top tier role player for the celtics and larry siegfried so that's two more points so bill russell has 75 help points after the mode multiplayer 1.5. Next up is wilt chamberlain for the hall of fame tom gala guy rogers paul arzen nate thurman hal greer chetwalker jerry west and elgin baylor, that's 40 hall of fame points for all stars woody salisbury tom messery luke jackson and larry costello forever not all star players al addles willie nalls wayne hightower paul newman redker wally jones mel counts happy harrison flynn robinson and jim mcmillan, so that's 62 points of help for Wilts.

Next up is Karim, who played with a superstar in Magic Johnson, which is 10 points for the Hall of Fame. We have Oscar Robertson, Jamal Wilks and James, worthy of all the stars. We have Flynn Robinson, Bob Dandridge, Jim Price and Norm. Nixon for the good players we have john mclaughlin greg smith lucius allen curtis pelley george thompson cornwell walker gail goodrich who is out of his prime casey russell kermit washington adrian dantly who is a hall of famer but he wasn't even a star in the lou hudson who played in los angeles during his last two seasons michael cooper jim jones a departure of prime spencer haywood bob mcadoo byron scott ac green michael thompson and orlando woolridge that's a total of 56 points of help for magic obviously had kareem who is 10 points james worthy of being a member of the hall of fame, as well as jamal wilkes norm nixon is the only All-Star for good players jim chon spencer haywood bob mcadoo byron scott ac green michael thompson orlando woolridge michael cooper sam perkins and vladi devock that's a total of 44 points larry bird played with three hall of famers robert church kevin mchale and dennis johnson that's 15 points tiny archibald was a hall of famer fame but he was only a 12 and 7 point guard on the celtics but he was a three-time All-Star one year Dave Cowans who is a hall of famer but he was out of his prime and it was only one year, for what only a star danny ainge was once a star and reggie lewis was a only star in birds last year rest in peace cedric maxwell averaged 15-7 but was never an all-star bill walton was past his prime for the Celtics but he was still a great sixth man Jim Paxton in the later years of his career Ed Pikeny Kevin Gamble was a 14 points per game scorer for bird's the last two seasons brian shaw scored 14 points per game during one season in boston and john bagley he averaged 7 and 7 in bird last season, that's 57 points help from michael jordan for the hall of famer who he played with with scottie pippen and dennis rodman and he never played with a guy who was just a star orlando woolridge and quentin Daly scored between 16 and 17 points in the early years of Jordan's career Steve Johnson Dave Corzin George Iceman Girvan averaged 16 points per game in the final year of his career playing with rookie MJ Sydney Greene was a 13-point power forward. 8 Charles Oakley was a double-double performer John Paxton Sam Vincent Bill Cartwright was a solid center Horace Grant was once an All-Star, but only in the season that MJ was retired B.J Armstrong was a really good point guard Tony Kuch was a great sixth man ron harper steve kerr luke longley rip hamilton scored 20 points per game in mj's first year with the wizards and larry hughes averaged 13 5 and 3 in the wizard, but with mj the multiplier gets complicated because for most of the people the wizard years don't really count for much and not giving him the multiplier would seem cheap, so we'll do the multiplier for his thirteenth season with the bulls, but no. multiply the two magicians, that's a total of 41 points help for mj for kobe had a superstar in shaq palgasol will most likely become a hall of famer has an overseas resume to match an already strong resume NBA's Eddie Jones was an all-star, as was Nick Van Nexel and although he was disappointing in the NBA, Dwight Howard was a stellar Elden Campbell was a 14-9 and two-block power forward Robert Orry was a stretch seven and seven. four glenn rice was a 16 points by The scorer of the game rick fox was a three and d wing derek fisher samaki walker was a power forward seven seven and one gary payton was out of his prime but it was still a very good way out of the best carl malone Horace Grant karon butler lamar odom chucky adkins chris mim andrew bynum trevor ariza was a good piece of the third wing metalworld was an even better third wing and the wing d steve nash for 60 games and in kobe's last year jordan clarkson d 'angelo russell and julius randle were all solid players, meaning a total of 66 points. for tim duncan, obviously, david robinson was a hall of famer, manu ginobili and tony parker will be hall of famers, kawhi leonard and lamarcus aldridge were stars towards the end of duncan's career, but most likely is that Kawhi ends up in the living room. of Fame, so we'll label him a Hall of Famer, but Lamarcus Aldridge may miss out and he wasn't at his Hall of Fame level on the Spurs with Duncan, where his true best moment was in the Blazers, so he'll just get the star tag avery johnson was a really solid point guard who had 12 points and seven assists per game over seven seasons with the Spurs black vinnie derek anderson bruce bowen brent berry was a great shooter michael finley roger mason george hill richard jefferson dejuan blair gary neal patty mills danny green thiago splitter marco belinelli and boris diaux 58.5 points help and finally lebron james for the hall of fame dwyane wade chris bosh and kyrie irving will all be members of the hall of fame for all the stars we have zadronis olgauskas mo williams and kevin love and for good players carlos boozer ricky davis jeff mcginnis draw gooden larry hughes ronald murray daniel gibson front west anderson varejao a very dilapidated shack anton jamison eudonis haslam mario chalmers ray allen shane battier j.r smith timothy mozgov tristan thompson kyle korver jordan clarkson kyle kuzma brandon ingram lonzo ball rajon rondo and javel mcgee that would be a total of 49 help points, so four help points russell would be first with 75, then we have kareem and kobe, then wilt duncan lebron magic and finally mj, so we will finally finish with each player. resume, what will be the three highlights of each player's career compared to each other, with Bill Russell being an 11-time champion he is number one on his resume being second in rebounds and blocks he is second and third he has five MVP awards for Wilt being first in blocks and rebounds having four mvps and having the highest averages are the things at the top of his resume with kareem six championships six mvps and being the one who will be second all time in points magic has five rings he would have been first all-time in attendance and has three MVP awards.

Bird has three rings, three MVPs and is fifth in major and regular points per game. Jordan has six rings, five MVPs and was second in career points per game and tied for first in career points. game kobe has five championships tied for third and leading point per game and is fourth all time in scoring duncan has five rings two mvps and is in the top 10 in both rebounds and blocks and for lebron's resume he will be the first of all time in points, he has three championships and four mvps with all this taken into consideration, with every achievement at every moment, every number and championship listed in front of you with all its context, with everything that is on the table, who is the goat, well, I don't know. there is no clear answer there is no clear definition of something winning is the only thing that matters if that is the case then bill russell could be your goat two other championships are a team achievement two others basketball is a team sport so championships are a team achievement and don't matter much for a player's legacy, if that's your opinion then Lebron James or Wilt Chamberlain could be your goat, maybe you're looking for a healthy combination of both, then your goat would probably be mj or kareem, maybe you love a team player, in that case your goat would be magic johnson or tim duncan maybe it's about the moments for you then your goat could be kobe bryant or larry bird there is no formula to determine who is the greatest of all time is subjective so to end this documentary I have not used the i word throughout this two and a half hour long video, but to end this video I would just like to say that I appreciate greatness, You can think that MJ is the goat without disrespecting Lebron James and vice versa to all the players I put.

This video is a legend and should be treated as such, regardless of who you attract, by choosing to hate the opposition, it's an ugly habit that we as humans need to stop doing if you've made it this far. Thank you very much for watching and showing it. that you have made it this far please comment, appreciate the greatness below and also if you are not subscribed yet and you have made it this far, I think I have earned your subscription at this point and I will end this video the way I end all the other videos, Be sure to like and subscribe for more NBA content like this and to hear the final music.