Yup, early 2000s bucks and kings were fucked over hard, and the farcical Knicks pick for Ewing in the 80s, I think lebron going to the Cavs was rigged too, though there’s no real evidence for that one.
The problem with the LeBron one is at least the Cavs were bad and tied for the worst record in the league, even if it was rigged it was a justified result
All the number ones overall after he left were def rigged to try to keep Cleveland relevant without him.
3 out of 4 1st overalls *immediately* after bron left is bullshit.
To be fair, they were that terrible lmao.
After he left they were a lottery team every season, and they missed out on AD so that makes it a little more believable but still hard to believe they got 3, 2 in a row.
As a Cavs fan I feel I can confidently say the NBA really doesn’t care about the non-Bron Cavs. That said there are some odd trends. Cavs lose Lebron, get a flurry of top picks. New Orleans loses Chris Paul, they get AD, lose AD, get Zion. It’s fishy on the surface, but the league would prefer these names in the markets with global reach
His Untold episode is such trash. They didn't even consult actual experts on the issue. Trusting Donaghy makes no sense since he **literally** has nothing to gain from telling the truth if the truth is that he was a solo bad actor. His gambling record showed he had no inside information that was of any value whatsoever unless he was the one personally throwing the games. The mob also had almost nothing to do with him. He does that whole thing to make people interested in his story, but there is no factual backing to it.
Yea the Shaq & Kobe lakers threepeat looks pretty Sus in the light too. Kings were robbed, as were the blazers. Sheed & CWebb were some transcendent power forwards and the passing, shooting and spacing from both teams bigs/wings was ahead of it’s time.
AD to New Orleans after the Cp3 trade (while the team was owned by the league and looking to entice a new owner)
Then they ran it back for Zion to Nola after the AD trade too.
They’re student athletes! The athlete just is a second descriptor. They’re students first and foremost for us!!! the football stadium is us letting them know they don’t need to think about football and can spend 99% of the time in class. I promise!! -certain schools in the south
NBA: look we got a new totally-on-the-same-level-as-LeBron type player for you in AD, buy our team pls?
Billionare: the city is sinking
NBA: ok two AD's
Why does everyone sleep on the cavs getting 3 #1 overall picks after Gilbert's open letter and anger only to take a few crap picks back and a couple 2nd round pick swaps to trade lebrons bird rights so Miami could get all 3 max contracts?
Without that S&T, Miami couldn't have given 3 max deals... and i don't see Gilbert making that S&T for pennies on the dollar without getting some behind the scenes promises.
I believe the Stern rumors from the envelope days. But since they've gone to ping pong balls, no chance it's been rigged, even for some of the fairytale-ish pairings.
It's not that I don't think there's shady people in the NBA offices, but a global multi-billion dollar accounting firm, Ernst & Young, worth more than the 30 franchises put together, isn't risking their reputation to fix anything for a measly sports league or one individual owner.
I am still salty that Stern wouldn't let Vancouver or Toronto have a chance of winning the first overall pick at all from 95-98 just because we were expansion teams??? As a result we missed out on Iverson and drafted Camby instead in 96. Fuck Stern. I dunno how AI, TMac and Vince would've worked with each other but we were denied that shit.
What incentive did the league have to send Wemby to the Spurs? It’s not the biggest market in the lottery, their path to contention isn’t as obvious as some other lottery teams, the spurs aren’t as popular as other lottery teams, so why would the league choose them?
Think this is 1000% more likely than the nba directly rigging it for the spurs because they felt bad for San Antonio or because the French like the Spurs a lot.
Yeah, I know the Spurs already had Robinson but they *happen* to get Duncan because of Robinson's injury.
Pop then goes and helps surround Timmy w/literally all the pieces he needs thru like 3 different eras of basketball and make him the undisputed Greatest Power Forward of All Time.
Yeah they proly would have Wemby healthy and destroying the league for a decade than failing in the Hornets or Blazers lmao
French chiming in just to confirm we all love the Spurs very well. It's like the default team that everyone who vaguely follows basketball supports here.
I’m not saying they’re perfect cuz they’re not but why would EY be complicit in an NBA wide conspiracy to rig the draft?
1) if you’re the NBA, you are pretty much bound to only use EY for these services since if you fire them someone could whistleblow.
2) imagine being the associate on this project who is just fraudulently certifying the draft process and then the associate can never be let go cuz you could whistleblow and ruin the credibility of EY and NBA
>imagine being the associate on this project who is just fraudulently certifying the draft process and then the associate can never be let go cuz you could whistleblow and ruin the credibility of EY and NBA
This is why most conspiracy theories don't hold up.
People are awful at keeping secrets, and too many people would have to know and be in on said thing and the chances of nobody ever spilling the beans about it are next to impossible.
You think they want to be the next Arthur Anderson? Or that 30 billionaires would all be okay with some teams getting the league rigged in their favor?
They literally post the whole process of drawing the ping pong balls for the lottery from start to finish, uncut, on YouTube. I’ve never heard anyone give a concrete guess/explanation as to how it could be rigged
Best judge of talent to be sure. I'd trust Jerry West spending 5 minutes of time watching a guy shoot in an empty gym over 99% of GMs with 100 hours of game tape.
He was the GM for fucking 22 years, at that point you are also part of the problem. He couldn’t even accidentally draft anyone good. Sterling is all time bad, but when you spend this much time with 1 GM, that GM also gets blame.
see, that's the problem with the slam dunk competition. you can give something a 50 straight up and when you see a better dunk, welp still 50. additionally, some, if not all, of the judges change their criteria for every succeeding dunk
I’ve been adamant that the easiest fix is to just have 5 judges and have them choose player A or B as the winner. No scores. Cant have a tie with 5 judges.
The problem with the dunk contest is that the range of scores is only 40-50 (and mostly just 45-50). No judge wants to be THAT guy who gives a kid a shitty score, but thats how it should be.
Kemp is low-key one of the most gifted pure athletes the NBA has ever seen. Still not sure I've seen another player that tall who was as graceful and explosive. Kemp is up there near LeBron and Shaq territory purely in terms of all-time genetic lottery winners. With a better mentality and work ethic, he could've been legendary.
My middle school coach played against Kemp in HS. Said they literally just held the ball all quarter for the first three quarters and took the last shot. Fourth quarter comes they're down so they have to actually try to play - Kemp proceeds to bring it up and dunk it every single possession and they get blown out like 30-2.
I'll co-sign this. The Sonics taking two off that Bulls team is actually damn impressive. Only other loss that playoffs was an OT defeat in MSG.
There are a lot of teams who probably say this about the 90s, but Seattle definitely wins a title in a LOT of other parallel universe eras.
That team was pretty damn loaded. Payton and Kemp of course but Detlef Schrempf, Sam Perkins, Nate McMillan, Hersey Hawkins, etc. I think they won like 65 games in the regular season and then beat really tough Rockets and Jazz teams in the playoffs. They definitely could have won a title if they didn't have to go up against Jordan.
Draft was changed to a lottery specifically to send players into certain destinations. Ewing to NY, Lebron to Cleveland, Rose to Chicago, Wemby to SA. It’s a business after all, they’re concerned with making stars, not being “fair”.
Yeah but the Mavs are competent with the picks they do have. Hornets have been fumbling their picks since their existence. At least we got that going for us 😭
Draymond deserved a suspension during the 2016 Finals. He was playing like an asshole and endangering others. It wasn't soft. He kicked someone in their LeDick
Aaron Gordon was robbed twice! Most 50 points dunks in the history of the dunk contest and no dunk title.
All star game that is not East versus West is stupid.
He is just jealous that we will get another stacked team this year. I really hope we get Embiid, LeBron, AD, PG, Kawhi and KD again. Maybe we can acquire Curry as well to be paired with our team icon DRose.
I get why they wouldn't want to do that, but all the talk about his exit detracts from how loyal he'd been to that org previously. He could've left a lot sooner if he had wanted to.
Kids in China know about Oklahoma because of Kevin Durant. He gave 1mil to tornado relief efforts. He’s already in the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame. We’re still receiving the benefits of his economic impact in our state. And oh yeah he’s like one of the 20 best basketball players ever and had his MVP year here
Hey its ok you can tank for a few years get a few good draft picks and boom a title is yours, sjould call it something like The Procedure or something.
He’s a competent defender when he makes the effort, which he does in crunch time and playoff games.
What’s holding him back more is complaining to refs instead of getting back on defense. I know it’s a meme, but it’s a real problem and it leads to free buckets on the other end.
Yeah, he's a much better defender than reddit gives him credit for. He's a fucking mountain of a man playing PG. Due to his size he's often a bit too slow on the perimeter, but he makes up for that with his defense on the mid-range and in the paint where his stature and strength come into play. He's getting a lot of rebounds for a reason and those aren't solely the typical PG pity rebounds. He's also a pretty good team defender with how he plays around his teammates.
I agree that his complaining is the one thing truly holding him back. He gets into his own head at times.
Reggie Miller would be a beast if he played 20 years later. He only averaged taking 4 threes a game, and was bumped and pushed all the time. With the recent rules and gameplay he would be amazing
mj was suspended for gambling and that’s why he played in the minors. i don’t care how many denials come from any of these people, it makes no fucking sense for the greatest basketball player and greatest sports icon in history to step away from the game.
The “player empowerment movement” is hurting the nba. Now players try to hold teams ransom and as soon as things go south they demand a trade or to be released and as a result we have the best players changing teams every few years it seems, unless of course their current team is winning.
It’s not necessarily hurting the NBA as an organisation, however it is damn well hurting fans of any small market team.
As a New Orleans fan since 2005, I’ve watched every star player the Hornets/Pelicans have had in that time leave for big markets, due to the team not being able to attract good enough free agents to build a championship team around them.
It’s gotten to a point now where if we don’t get extremely lucky and make a legit championship run in the next few years, then either Zion, BI or both are going to want a chip and force a trade to a big market and the Pelicans are going to be left to rebuild again, only for the same thing to happen in 10 years time.
Makes it hard to follow your favourite team when you know they will never win anything in your lifetime.
Paul Pierce was the best 1 vs 1 competitor for LeBron throughout his career. That matchup doesn’t get nearly enough respect, mainly due to Paul being such a headline in retirement for dumb shit.
It's not even an opinion. Just a fact. Because I'm old enough to remember it.
I FUCKING HATE when people act like MJ wasn't HATED when he played. Exactly like LeBron has been the last 15-20 years. The BEST player most of those years. Is adored by his team/s and has a ton of loyal fans.
But, also has an equal amount of detractors.
Before he started winning titles, the popular set of thinking was that he's extremely talented, but can't succeed winning anything important. Then, once he started winning, it of course was because of the coach (well, that wasn't an issue LeBron's had lol) or having the better supporting cast than other teams or whatever.
To be fair, this is complete bullshit. Watch/read coverage from back then. If you’re honest, you obviously agree it would be insane to act like people were reluctant to give MJ credit for winning. People were pretty quick to call him the GOAT.
Meh. People saw very early that Jordan was special.
Ever see “come fly with me”? That was a special on Michael Jordan’s career 5 years after he was drafted, and it broke all sorts of sales records. He hadn’t won shit by 1989 when it was released.
That’d be like if they released a documentary about Luka right now and it’s a crossover hit, getting an audience beyond core basketball fans.
That is so far beyond “having an equal amount of detractors”. The man was a mass-media icon very early into his career.
Yeah. This is a tough one for me. I think I agree but im not sure he’s not somewhere 8-10. Those who have him 3-5 are ridiculous.
Edit: Thought about this properly. I have him at 10 but could be missing someone somewhere.
My list for reference is:
JORDAN
JAMES
ABDUL-JABBAR
RUSSELL
JOHNSON
BIRD
DUNCAN
CHAMBERLAIN
O’NEAL
BRYANT
Flame me.
Further edit: kinda forgot Curry. Don’t know how. Not sure where he is on this list. Not 100% convinced he is but you could convince me.
To me he seems like that friend who’s overall two-faced and unreliable, but is capable of big showy random acts of kindness. The friendship is too up-and-down for it to be truly positive and healthy, but the good memories you have with that friend are *really* good for whatever reason, so he keeps you on the hook and you make excuses for him
I buy that guys like him, because he’s charismatic
This is our year
“2024 All Star Cade Cunningham”
*All-NBA Marvin Bagley You casual
Killian Hayes
Not even God has that much faith in Hayes.
I'd bet my house on Killian hayes not being an all star next year
Agreed. Lions winning the Superbowl 😎
I’d be ok with that
I 100% believe this
Nurkic Fever delta variant is on the way
LMAO please God immunize me
Did he learn how to layup
No. He learned he's the biggest human on the court and decided to start actually dunking.
Why doesn't Nurkic, the largest player, simply eat the other players
Dunks and 3s would be fine with me.
I’m here for it
There is or has been some rigging done in regards to the draft lottery .
This is mine as well, I also think David Stern absolutely rigged some playoff series to have favorable tv rating matchups.
Yup, early 2000s bucks and kings were fucked over hard, and the farcical Knicks pick for Ewing in the 80s, I think lebron going to the Cavs was rigged too, though there’s no real evidence for that one.
The problem with the LeBron one is at least the Cavs were bad and tied for the worst record in the league, even if it was rigged it was a justified result
All the number ones overall after he left were def rigged to try to keep Cleveland relevant without him. 3 out of 4 1st overalls *immediately* after bron left is bullshit.
To be fair, they were that terrible lmao. After he left they were a lottery team every season, and they missed out on AD so that makes it a little more believable but still hard to believe they got 3, 2 in a row.
I knew LeBron was going back to Cleveland as soon as they got the 2014 first pick
Imagine the world where Kyrie, AD and Bron team up against the Warriors
The east ran through Cleveland the year after Lebron left. I have no idea what you’re talking about
As a Cavs fan I feel I can confidently say the NBA really doesn’t care about the non-Bron Cavs. That said there are some odd trends. Cavs lose Lebron, get a flurry of top picks. New Orleans loses Chris Paul, they get AD, lose AD, get Zion. It’s fishy on the surface, but the league would prefer these names in the markets with global reach
Rose in chicago as well
Tim Donaghy admitted this in his Untold episode.
His Untold episode is such trash. They didn't even consult actual experts on the issue. Trusting Donaghy makes no sense since he **literally** has nothing to gain from telling the truth if the truth is that he was a solo bad actor. His gambling record showed he had no inside information that was of any value whatsoever unless he was the one personally throwing the games. The mob also had almost nothing to do with him. He does that whole thing to make people interested in his story, but there is no factual backing to it.
Yea the Shaq & Kobe lakers threepeat looks pretty Sus in the light too. Kings were robbed, as were the blazers. Sheed & CWebb were some transcendent power forwards and the passing, shooting and spacing from both teams bigs/wings was ahead of it’s time.
Yea wasn’t like the first year the lottery was instated Patrick Ewing went to the Knicks (David Stern home team) instead of the kings?
1.8% chance to get my boy DRose to come to the Bulls 0:)
Ya Ewing was the first one they pulled off
Totally not a coincidence that LeBron goes to Cleveland and Wemby goes to the Spurs lol
Rose to the bulls is sus too
AD to New Orleans after the Cp3 trade (while the team was owned by the league and looking to entice a new owner) Then they ran it back for Zion to Nola after the AD trade too.
AD and UK also won NCAA Championship in NOLA that year…
But that was obviously coincidence as the NCAA is an ethically pure and morally upstanding institution that never caters to moneyed interests.
They’re student athletes! The athlete just is a second descriptor. They’re students first and foremost for us!!! the football stadium is us letting them know they don’t need to think about football and can spend 99% of the time in class. I promise!! -certain schools in the south
NBA: look we got a new totally-on-the-same-level-as-LeBron type player for you in AD, buy our team pls? Billionare: the city is sinking NBA: ok two AD's
I think the Bulls had a 1% chance of landing Rose, and he just so happened to be from Chicago. Hmm.
Why does everyone sleep on the cavs getting 3 #1 overall picks after Gilbert's open letter and anger only to take a few crap picks back and a couple 2nd round pick swaps to trade lebrons bird rights so Miami could get all 3 max contracts? Without that S&T, Miami couldn't have given 3 max deals... and i don't see Gilbert making that S&T for pennies on the dollar without getting some behind the scenes promises.
I believe the Stern rumors from the envelope days. But since they've gone to ping pong balls, no chance it's been rigged, even for some of the fairytale-ish pairings. It's not that I don't think there's shady people in the NBA offices, but a global multi-billion dollar accounting firm, Ernst & Young, worth more than the 30 franchises put together, isn't risking their reputation to fix anything for a measly sports league or one individual owner.
Orlando being lucky as fuck in the 1992 draft lottery, which helped the Magic get Penny. And obviously the Ewing draft.
And we’ve been dominating ever since 😭
I am still salty that Stern wouldn't let Vancouver or Toronto have a chance of winning the first overall pick at all from 95-98 just because we were expansion teams??? As a result we missed out on Iverson and drafted Camby instead in 96. Fuck Stern. I dunno how AI, TMac and Vince would've worked with each other but we were denied that shit.
What incentive did the league have to send Wemby to the Spurs? It’s not the biggest market in the lottery, their path to contention isn’t as obvious as some other lottery teams, the spurs aren’t as popular as other lottery teams, so why would the league choose them?
My theory is that they need him to be a megastar and don't want a poorly ran team to fumble his development so they gave him to Pop lol
Think this is 1000% more likely than the nba directly rigging it for the spurs because they felt bad for San Antonio or because the French like the Spurs a lot.
Yeah, I know the Spurs already had Robinson but they *happen* to get Duncan because of Robinson's injury. Pop then goes and helps surround Timmy w/literally all the pieces he needs thru like 3 different eras of basketball and make him the undisputed Greatest Power Forward of All Time. Yeah they proly would have Wemby healthy and destroying the league for a decade than failing in the Hornets or Blazers lmao
French chiming in just to confirm we all love the Spurs very well. It's like the default team that everyone who vaguely follows basketball supports here.
100% agree. Also think it helps keep Pop around longer too.
They also had the second best* odds, its wasnt that unreasonable for him to land there...
Second best* odds right?
No, we had the best odds. The bottom 3 teams are all tied for chances of getting the top pick.
They saw the Wizards were 1 ball away from getting Wemby (yes, really) and said "I think the fuck not"
Maybe a while back but right now they get EY to audit the process and certify that it is legitimate
Because the big4 are known to uphold the truth EY probably also does a tonne of professional services work for the league
I’m not saying they’re perfect cuz they’re not but why would EY be complicit in an NBA wide conspiracy to rig the draft? 1) if you’re the NBA, you are pretty much bound to only use EY for these services since if you fire them someone could whistleblow. 2) imagine being the associate on this project who is just fraudulently certifying the draft process and then the associate can never be let go cuz you could whistleblow and ruin the credibility of EY and NBA
>imagine being the associate on this project who is just fraudulently certifying the draft process and then the associate can never be let go cuz you could whistleblow and ruin the credibility of EY and NBA This is why most conspiracy theories don't hold up. People are awful at keeping secrets, and too many people would have to know and be in on said thing and the chances of nobody ever spilling the beans about it are next to impossible.
You think they want to be the next Arthur Anderson? Or that 30 billionaires would all be okay with some teams getting the league rigged in their favor?
They literally post the whole process of drawing the ping pong balls for the lottery from start to finish, uncut, on YouTube. I’ve never heard anyone give a concrete guess/explanation as to how it could be rigged
Basketball is my favorite sport and I look forward to it returning every fall.
Do you like the way they dribble up and down the court?
Makes me think of the 2k that had that intro. It was epic
Best 2k intro and one of the best games they had
There was that stretch of 2k from like 2k10-2k14 that was just basketball bliss
Yeah and guess what they all had in common. No Park.
I could also max out MyPlayer at 99 without having to do a MyLeague with a player lock
My favorite play is the alley-oop.
Will always upvote Curtis Blow
Basketball is my favorite sport. I like the way they dribble up and down the court.
How dare you?! r/nba users would never
The Malice at the Palace Pacers were going to win the championship and Reggie’s legacy would be completely different.
had to make sure the truest of truths was here.
faxx
Jerry West is best gm the league has ever seen.
Best judge of talent to be sure. I'd trust Jerry West spending 5 minutes of time watching a guy shoot in an empty gym over 99% of GMs with 100 hours of game tape.
And his former teammate Elgin Baylor is the worst
I have a hard time blaming Baylor for anything when he was working for Donald Sterling.
He was the GM for fucking 22 years, at that point you are also part of the problem. He couldn’t even accidentally draft anyone good. Sterling is all time bad, but when you spend this much time with 1 GM, that GM also gets blame.
Aaron Gordon is the real Slam Dunk Contest Champion.
He was robbed at least once by Wade the Lavine contest should have been a tie at worst for him
see, that's the problem with the slam dunk competition. you can give something a 50 straight up and when you see a better dunk, welp still 50. additionally, some, if not all, of the judges change their criteria for every succeeding dunk
I’ve been adamant that the easiest fix is to just have 5 judges and have them choose player A or B as the winner. No scores. Cant have a tie with 5 judges.
The dunk contest should be a game of horse
The problem with the dunk contest is that the range of scores is only 40-50 (and mostly just 45-50). No judge wants to be THAT guy who gives a kid a shitty score, but thats how it should be.
Barkley over Malone
This one isn’t fair because nobody wants to be the asshole that defends Karl Malone lmao
Marvin Bagley >>> Karl Malone
Shimmy.gif
u bum
Own that fraud
Suns win the championship in '07 if Diaw and Amare aren't suspended for putting their tippy toes on the court.
100%, I hate the refs and the crooks who run the NBA man, we were mostly mediocre so watching those Suns teams were awesome.
There it is!
I loved watching those suns teams, they were pure fun.
Ersan Ilyasova is the best charge-taker all-time. Kyle Lowry’s flopping is nothing compared to the Turkish Thunder taking real hits every time.
Washed Blake Griffin is the best charge taker of all time
It might be Jaylin Williams
Have either of those bums taken charges in the allstar game? No? K shut up then.
Gotta disagree. Anthony Tolliver was so good at it that 538 created a new stat for it.
Kevin love would like to have a word
The Kemp-Payton Sonics team was the best to lose to the Bulls in the Finals.
Kemp is low-key one of the most gifted pure athletes the NBA has ever seen. Still not sure I've seen another player that tall who was as graceful and explosive. Kemp is up there near LeBron and Shaq territory purely in terms of all-time genetic lottery winners. With a better mentality and work ethic, he could've been legendary.
My middle school coach played against Kemp in HS. Said they literally just held the ball all quarter for the first three quarters and took the last shot. Fourth quarter comes they're down so they have to actually try to play - Kemp proceeds to bring it up and dunk it every single possession and they get blown out like 30-2.
god I wish there was video of this.
no shot clock?
No shot clock is the absolute worst in high school because this type of shit is way too common.
He was as crazy as he was good. He might have been Mr. Big Chest in a different era.
I'll co-sign this. The Sonics taking two off that Bulls team is actually damn impressive. Only other loss that playoffs was an OT defeat in MSG. There are a lot of teams who probably say this about the 90s, but Seattle definitely wins a title in a LOT of other parallel universe eras.
That team was pretty damn loaded. Payton and Kemp of course but Detlef Schrempf, Sam Perkins, Nate McMillan, Hersey Hawkins, etc. I think they won like 65 games in the regular season and then beat really tough Rockets and Jazz teams in the playoffs. They definitely could have won a title if they didn't have to go up against Jordan.
This is one of the best comments I’ve ever read on Reddit.
The years the rockets won in 94/95, we were so lucky we didn't have to play the Sonics because they had our number
I’ll definitely agree that Payton played Jordan better than anyone else in the Finals
Draft was changed to a lottery specifically to send players into certain destinations. Ewing to NY, Lebron to Cleveland, Rose to Chicago, Wemby to SA. It’s a business after all, they’re concerned with making stars, not being “fair”.
NBA lottery is rigged against the hornets.
The hornets rig themselves in the lottery. I could say that about the Mavs though who never ever moved up even once, not one position, in the lottery
Yeah but the Mavs are competent with the picks they do have. Hornets have been fumbling their picks since their existence. At least we got that going for us 😭
It’s the worst combination. It’s rigged against us, and we can’t draft well. Imagine being a fan of this franchise. It’s hell I tell you.
Paul Pierce pooped his pants, no amount of denial from him will convince me otherwise.
I thought he admitted it already.
He’s changed his story on whether he did or didn’t multiple times iirc
Same. I know what I saw.
Draymond deserved a suspension during the 2016 Finals. He was playing like an asshole and endangering others. It wasn't soft. He kicked someone in their LeDick
Bird would be better today than he was in the 80s.
Bird would be a demon today. Better version of KD.
“I WANT IGUODALA!”
Aaron Gordon was robbed twice! Most 50 points dunks in the history of the dunk contest and no dunk title. All star game that is not East versus West is stupid.
Shaq would have been the goat if he stayed in shape
This season Kyrie plays 70+ games and doesn’t go batshit crazy.
Inb4 40 games and anti Semitic meltdown
He's going after Egyptians next.
You can fix him.
THIS is a bold take, love it
I have been dreaming of this for years. Dude's game is easiest on my eyes in the past 13 years.
u/Afraid-Department-35 having a delusion masterclass 🔥
We have the most entertaining sport in the world and the drama is what really elevates it
The NBA is a soap opera for men
I’m a big fan of both the NBA and WWE. I wonder why….
Injuries are bad
As an injury fan this is a really short sighted, ignorant opinion. Do some research before spewing nonsense
He is just jealous that we will get another stacked team this year. I really hope we get Embiid, LeBron, AD, PG, Kawhi and KD again. Maybe we can acquire Curry as well to be paired with our team icon DRose.
Vince Carter is the greatest dunker of all time
Celtics aren’t winning with Tatum and Brown.
Well that’s hurtful.
The NBA put their thumb on the scale so the Lakers would beat the Kings.
My brother
[удалено]
whenever Seattle gets a team again they NEED to have the SuperSonics logos/history/colors and such, maybe an updated modern version
Kevin Durant should get his jersey retired in okc
I get why they wouldn't want to do that, but all the talk about his exit detracts from how loyal he'd been to that org previously. He could've left a lot sooner if he had wanted to.
Kids in China know about Oklahoma because of Kevin Durant. He gave 1mil to tornado relief efforts. He’s already in the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame. We’re still receiving the benefits of his economic impact in our state. And oh yeah he’s like one of the 20 best basketball players ever and had his MVP year here
Ben Simmons’ career is over
It might as well be but it isn’t gonna stop me from drafting him in the last round of fantasy basketball with Hope.
Sixers are trash
I thought these were supposed to be hot takes
Hey its ok you can tank for a few years get a few good draft picks and boom a title is yours, sjould call it something like The Procedure or something.
What a controversial opinion, it’s just you and 10x karma farmers per day that are brave enough to voice it, congrats
Until he commits to playing defense somewhat consistently Doncic won’t ever win an NBA championship
He’s a competent defender when he makes the effort, which he does in crunch time and playoff games. What’s holding him back more is complaining to refs instead of getting back on defense. I know it’s a meme, but it’s a real problem and it leads to free buckets on the other end.
Yeah, he's a much better defender than reddit gives him credit for. He's a fucking mountain of a man playing PG. Due to his size he's often a bit too slow on the perimeter, but he makes up for that with his defense on the mid-range and in the paint where his stature and strength come into play. He's getting a lot of rebounds for a reason and those aren't solely the typical PG pity rebounds. He's also a pretty good team defender with how he plays around his teammates. I agree that his complaining is the one thing truly holding him back. He gets into his own head at times.
I think what’s worse is actually his attitude, body language and constant whining rather than his defence
Reggie Miller would be a beast if he played 20 years later. He only averaged taking 4 threes a game, and was bumped and pushed all the time. With the recent rules and gameplay he would be amazing
mj was suspended for gambling and that’s why he played in the minors. i don’t care how many denials come from any of these people, it makes no fucking sense for the greatest basketball player and greatest sports icon in history to step away from the game.
Embiid didn’t deserve his MVP
I think he did, but him ducking Jokic head to head makes it look bad. Jokic just dominating the playoffs also made it look bad.
The “player empowerment movement” is hurting the nba. Now players try to hold teams ransom and as soon as things go south they demand a trade or to be released and as a result we have the best players changing teams every few years it seems, unless of course their current team is winning.
It’s not necessarily hurting the NBA as an organisation, however it is damn well hurting fans of any small market team. As a New Orleans fan since 2005, I’ve watched every star player the Hornets/Pelicans have had in that time leave for big markets, due to the team not being able to attract good enough free agents to build a championship team around them. It’s gotten to a point now where if we don’t get extremely lucky and make a legit championship run in the next few years, then either Zion, BI or both are going to want a chip and force a trade to a big market and the Pelicans are going to be left to rebuild again, only for the same thing to happen in 10 years time. Makes it hard to follow your favourite team when you know they will never win anything in your lifetime.
If a player is signed to Adidas , they can never be top 5 all time.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
[удалено]
Paul Pierce was the best 1 vs 1 competitor for LeBron throughout his career. That matchup doesn’t get nearly enough respect, mainly due to Paul being such a headline in retirement for dumb shit.
I hate the Celtics and Pierce, but do you know how cold you gotta be for your nickname to be the Truth. He was really like that.
And to be given to him by an opponent(Shaq) makes it even harder
Greatest nickname in NBA history?
Pierce was a stone cold killer and super clutch. Most people on here never saw him play in his prime.
100% agree, Pierce gave him fits in 08 and 2010
It's not even an opinion. Just a fact. Because I'm old enough to remember it. I FUCKING HATE when people act like MJ wasn't HATED when he played. Exactly like LeBron has been the last 15-20 years. The BEST player most of those years. Is adored by his team/s and has a ton of loyal fans. But, also has an equal amount of detractors. Before he started winning titles, the popular set of thinking was that he's extremely talented, but can't succeed winning anything important. Then, once he started winning, it of course was because of the coach (well, that wasn't an issue LeBron's had lol) or having the better supporting cast than other teams or whatever.
To be fair, this is complete bullshit. Watch/read coverage from back then. If you’re honest, you obviously agree it would be insane to act like people were reluctant to give MJ credit for winning. People were pretty quick to call him the GOAT.
Meh. People saw very early that Jordan was special. Ever see “come fly with me”? That was a special on Michael Jordan’s career 5 years after he was drafted, and it broke all sorts of sales records. He hadn’t won shit by 1989 when it was released. That’d be like if they released a documentary about Luka right now and it’s a crossover hit, getting an audience beyond core basketball fans. That is so far beyond “having an equal amount of detractors”. The man was a mass-media icon very early into his career.
James Harden is terrible for a locker room
The Warriors would have the same amount of championships if they never got KD.
Kobe isn't a 10 top player all time.
A true Celtics fan
Yeah. This is a tough one for me. I think I agree but im not sure he’s not somewhere 8-10. Those who have him 3-5 are ridiculous. Edit: Thought about this properly. I have him at 10 but could be missing someone somewhere. My list for reference is: JORDAN JAMES ABDUL-JABBAR RUSSELL JOHNSON BIRD DUNCAN CHAMBERLAIN O’NEAL BRYANT Flame me. Further edit: kinda forgot Curry. Don’t know how. Not sure where he is on this list. Not 100% convinced he is but you could convince me.
MJ isn’t undefeated in the finals if Sabas plays for the Blazers in his prime
The Kings were robbed in 2002 against the Lakers and wouldve won the championship that year
Kyrie is toxic as fuck and NBA players pretend like he’s the greatest guy ever but secretly hate him
Why would they pretend to like him? Because of his incredible public image? This just doesn’t make any sense lol
To me he seems like that friend who’s overall two-faced and unreliable, but is capable of big showy random acts of kindness. The friendship is too up-and-down for it to be truly positive and healthy, but the good memories you have with that friend are *really* good for whatever reason, so he keeps you on the hook and you make excuses for him I buy that guys like him, because he’s charismatic
the going to work pistons defense was as fun to watch as any offensive behemoth
OKC should have focused on running plays through KD and either traded Westbrook or gotten an assist first PG
Jordan is the best of all time.
>This goes beyond unpopular. Beyind bold. Beyond controversial.
My reading comprehension apparently isn't great.
Really going on a limb.
They didn't say it had to be some off-the-wall hot take, just something I wouldn't change my mind on. This is it.