TBrown
Wolf of Beale Street
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2009
- Messages
- 67,166
- Likes
- 29,729
Why do you think there is this obsession in the NBA of comparing guys from different eras, and specifically a need to definitively determine which player is better than the other? In other sports, fans seem to be OK with saying that you can't really tell if Player X was player than Player Y, for a variety of reasons, but they were both among the best players of their era and the conversation gets left at that.Bill Simmons and Ryen Russillo had a great convo yesterday about Lebron's place in Laker history and culture.
The interesting part was about Kobe and Lakers culture. Both hosts are outsiders in LA and they were talking about how half of Lakers fans are just Kobe fans. Russillo said he was at the beach during game 2 of the Nuggets series and there were Kobe jerseys everywhere. "That's the guy who wants to argue with you about Kobe being better than Lebron."
RR said he was talking to some guys at the gym after Lakers were sent home and he asks them "are you guys upset?" And it came off like they were a little giddy to say "Kobe would've never got swept."
Why do you think there is this obsession in the NBA of comparing guys from different eras, and specifically a need to definitively determine which player is better than the other? In other sports, fans seem to be OK with saying that you can't really tell if Player X was player than Player Y, for a variety of reasons, but they were both among the best players of their era and the conversation gets left at that.
It happens to a certain extent in every sport, but it seems to be a bigger deal in basketball. There isn't the same level of intensity surrounding the question "Was Barry Bonds a better hitter than Babe Ruth" in baseball than "Is LeBron better than MJ?"
Sorry in advance to @zjcvols
On his pod, BS said he had '89 Pistons as the 4th best team all time when he wrote his book (I think 15 years ago)...are the bad boy Pistons the most overrated team all-time? Am I way off base on this? I think their branding and the fact that they beat MJ and Magic has elevated their status. Magic only played in 2 finals games. Kareem was 41. MJ was 25 and Pippen was 22. The bad boys lost to the Lakers when they weren't so old and lost to the Bulls when they weren't so green. Two short guards + Laimbeer in the starting 5? No top 20 player. Zeke and Rodman were the only top 75 players. That's the 4th best team? I can't accept that
I think part of it is that high-profile athletes get people talking, and the NBA has the highest-profile athletes. I think that may be the entire basketball-related explanation.
I think other explanations are specific to Lebron and MJ....they get 70% of the eras talk and the reason there is so much of it is that it's actually a tight GOAT race and it's all recent history. Bonds vs. Ruth may be a a tight GOAT race, but one of them is ancient history. Manning vs. Brady is recent history, but not a tight race.
BTW, Kobe and Lebron were same era.
You mention Kobe and LeBron in the same era and it’s insane to think do this.
LeBron and Ant were drafted 17 years apart.
Kobe and Giannis were drafted 17 years apart.
Duncan and Jokic were drafted 17 years apart
Just speaks to how absolutely insane LeBron’s longevity is.