Who Is The GOAT? | An Original Documentary FULL

stepping up to the couch it's brian who led the league last season in cracked screens but with his new athletic case it looks like that won't be the case touchdown brian [Music] basketball is one of the biggest sports in the world ever since basketball was created by dr james naismith his game would spark years and years of amazing competition legendary stories and the game would be an outlet for some of the best athletes the world has ever seen basketball is unlike any sport where although it is a team game the superstar level players truly run the show this heavy focus on the individual player has led to a huge debate a debate about who the greatest player of all time is not who's the best player in the 80s or the 90s no who is the greatest of all time this documentary will not answer that question however it will lay out every player's career as it transpired in every player's case for goat shot here final seconds lebron james with a rejection ford sends it to korea skyhookers 100 one second left it up russell was right there there are nine candidates for the greatest of all time bill russell wilt chamberlain kareem abdul-jabbar magic johnson larry bird michael jordan kobe bryant tim duncan and lebron james we're going to go in chronological order here so we will start with the 11 time champion bill russell [Music] so [Music] so [Music] russell's story begins in high school despite his towering high tea didn't stand out much in his first two years of high school due to his lack of offensive skill it was hard for his coaches to put him on the court he saw so few minutes that he actually shared a jersey with a fellow bench warmer but after developing his defensive game further to a point where it was elite he would shine in his last two years of high school but due to his race he did not get 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 at one of the games a scout for the university of san francisco was in the stands the scout saw potential in russell who was at that point 6-8 and very athletic with a standing vertical that was 4 feet higher than the rim so russell was offered a scholarship in his sophomore year russell led his team to the ncaa championship receiving the mvp averaging 21.4 points and 21.5 rebounds he would win the championship once again later in his career with the san francisco dons russell was taken second overall by the saint louis hawks in the 1956 draft the 10th draft in nba history but being that it was 1956 and racial tensions were at an all-time high the hawks who had an all-white team traded russell to the boston celtics in exchange for the seventh pick ed mccully and cliff hagen who would both become hall of fame players interestingly enough the roychester royals were planning on taking russell with the first overall pick with the celtics coach and general manager red auerbach convinced the celtics owner walter brown to guarantee roychester's owner les harrison a series of shows performed by the iscapades a skating show that was at the peak of its popularity in the mid 50s the celtics owner was a part owner of this franchise so he offered to give shows to rochester in exchange for the royals passing on bill russell with the first pick so the royals passed on bill russell in exchange for a couple of skating shows one of the weirdest 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 pick casey jones with the 13th pick and of course bill russell these three players would lay down the foundation for the boston celtics teams of the 50s and 60s and it didn't take bill russell long to lead his team to the top russell spent up until december playing in the olympics so he would only play 48 games in his rookie season but he would average 15 points and a league high 19 rebounds and he would lead the 56 celtics to the nba finals where they would face ironically enough the team that traded him the saint louis hawkes russell would average 13 points and 23 rebounds for the series and he would put up 19 points and 32 rebounds in game seven leading the celtics to a two-point victory it is no secret that the reason that many would consider bill russell the greatest of all time is the fact that he has more rings than he does fingers after his rookie season russell would average 17 points on 23 rebounds a game and he would win the mvp in just his second season the boss and celtics would lose a close six-game battle versus the saint louis hawks in the 1958 nba finals next season russell would again lead the boston celtics to the nba championship averaging a league-high 23 rebounds as well as 17 points in this final series the celtics would sweep the minneapolis lakers with russell averaging 29 and a half rebounds per game this championship would be preceded with seven more consecutive championships in 1960 bill russell and the celtics would again defeat the team that traded him and the saint louis hawks this time in seven games the celtics would continue to win in 61 62 63 64 65 and 66 beating the hawks in five games in 1961 the la 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. utter dominance throughout that eight year span over those seven years russell would win four mvps averaged 16 points 24 rebounds during the regular season and he'd average 18 points and 26 rebounds as well as almost five assists for the playoffs and after losing to the wilt chamberlain-led sixers in 1967 the celtics would again win the championship in 1968 and again in 1969 that leaves russell with a career total of eleven championships and five mvps so mastery is coaching the celtics huh you know i was only kidding kidding howard didn't think so he asked me were you really a friend of mine or just an actor well what'd you tell him i told him that you were an obscure actor oh after all those calls i've dialed in seattle did you doubt directly of course i'll bet howard doesn't make half that many calls to his friends good friends good friends are for keeps so keep in touch long distance is the next best thing to being there one of the unfortunate parts of playing in the early days of the nba is a lot 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 which was russell's last season in the nba but he would still be selected to the all-nba defensive first team so it's safe to assume that russell would have made all defensive first team every year of his career defensive player of the year also did not 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 regarded as the best defender in the league for pretty much his entire career and finally finals mvp did not exist until 1969 where the first finals mvp was given to jerry west despite losing to the bill russell celtics so we'll just assume that russell would have won 7 out of the 11 possible finals mvps that would leave russell with a career tally of 11 championships five mvps seven finals mvps four defensive player of the year awards 11 all nba first team selections 13 all defensive first team selections 11 all-star appearances and 4 rebounding titles numbers wise he has career averages of 15.1 points 22 and a half rebounds 4.3 assists on 54 field goal percentage now once again russell's time period held him back 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 a game with a career high of 17 blocks russell says that he averaged up to 15 a game in college so let's just say that russell averaged six blocks per game for his career in 963 games he would have tallied 4815 career blocks that is just short of a thousand more blocks than hakeem elijahuan who is first all-time so that would make russell first all-time in blocks second all-time in rebounds and 149th all time in points russell's case for goat begins with him being the winningest player in not only basketball history but sports history 11 championships in 13 years pretty much being the best player on every team he was a part of up until his last two championships he was also regarded as one of the best defenders of all time one of the first bigs that could truly do it all on the defensive end because of his athleticism and speed he could really guard anyone on the court and he was potentially the greatest shot blocker of all time now as for the criticism against russell being the goat he was not perfect though he was an 11 time champion he notably had very good teammates he played with nine hall of famers all throughout his career being on a team that had five hall of famers including himself it is also thought that russell played in a weaker era of basketball with less talent and less teams which did lead to teams having a higher concentration of talent but basketball was still relatively new and not that popular of a sport at the time so top athletes were often choosing different sports to play so the level of competition could not rival that of the 70s 80s and so on and despite the celtics immense talent they could have been a lot more dominant they won 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 some comparable competition the 1967 sixers they would lose in the conference finals so while russell did dominate his competition for nearly his entire career he potentially did it against weak competition russell was also despite his defensive dominance a pretty mediocre offensive player he never averaged more than 19 points per game whereas every other candidate averaged 20 to 30 points per game a couple of times in their careers with less production you would expect higher efficiency but russell shot 44 for his career which is the worst of the nine candidates so despite averaging the least amount of 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 flip too many pages in the book of basketball to see the name wilt chamberlain when the name bill russell is mentioned the name wilt chamberlain doesn't fall far behind and the contrast of these two players is really the contrast of what makes a great basketball player winning versus individual statistics and wilt chamberlain no doubt had some absurd statistics [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] wilt the stilt began his basketball career in overbrook high school where unlike his counterpart and russell wilt was immediately a standout athlete starting on the varsity team for three years and scoring a total of 2 200 points in his high school career and that came off of many big performances wilt scored 71 74 and 90 points in three different games in his high school career he averaged 44 points in his senior year and in his 90 point performance he scored 60 of those points in just 12 minutes one quarter's worth of minutes scored 60 points being nearly seven feet tall in high school wilt was able to dominate his opponents inside for easy buckets wilt received the nickname the stilt from a local writer covering high school athletics all of his high school success led to him getting multiple scholarship offers from big schools he eventually settled on kansas in will's freshman season he would average a staggering 30 points and 19 rebounds and 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 second college season wasn't very fun for him after being triple teamed in the championship game every team kansas face would adopt that same strategy after his junior year wilt no longer wanted to play college ball but at the time the nba would not allow players to join the nba until after their graduation class had been completed so wilt opted to play with the harlem globetrotters after a year with the globetrotters wilt would be drafted with a territorial pick to the philadelphia warriors in 1959 where he would receive the biggest contract in the nba at the time in his rookie season which at the time was only 30 000 a year in chamberlain's rookie debut he would put up 44 points and 23 rebounds and for the season he would average 37 points and 27 rebounds and he was named the nba's 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 divisional finals wilt actually considered retirement due to the feeling that he was unfairly treated in comparison to other more human-sized players he would return though having his already massive salary by the standards of those times 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 ever score 3 000 points in a single season but unfortunately wilt's outstanding play did not contribute a lot to winning in his second season philly would get swept by the nationals and in his third season despite averaging 50 points 26 rebounds boasting his infamous 100 point game and averaging more minutes than there are in a regulation basketball game being the only player in nba history to put up 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 still wasn't enough the philadelphia warriors would be relocated to san francisco and then a few years into him being in san francisco after years of team disappointment despite individual success wilt would be treaded back to philadelphia to the newly added 76ers that just replaced the philadelphia warriors this roster was stacked future hall of famer hal greer multiple time all-star chat walker the team would beat the oscar robertson-led cincinnati royals and of course face bill russell celtics this would be the fourth time our two gotementary candidates would clash in the playoffs the series would go to seven with the final game being on the celtics home court both candidates would have amazing performances wilt would put up 32 and 30 and russell would put up 16 27 and 8. in the final minute of the game wilt would hit two free throws as well as get an open dunk on russell cutting the celtics lead to one russell would throw an inbound pass off of the side of the backboard which would give the sixers possession the sixers with a chance to win the game would inbound the ball and grier's putting the ball in a play he gets it out deeper with the game within their grasp the sixers would lose and wilt would now be owen iv against russell in the playoffs after that series wilt officially got the label of a loser in the following season wilt would win mvp and the sixers would lose to the celtics again in the playoffs after this loss of the celtics many of wilt's teammates were critical of him wilt would routinely skip practices and was almost a separate entity from the team which led to chemistry issues that didn't help against the celtics sixers management also fired the head coach of the sixers who let wilt get away with this behavior doff shays in favor of alex hannah alex didn't let wilt get away with this behavior and insisted that wilt take a step back in his role as a scorer opting for wilt to be more of a playmaker like his counterpart bill russell take less shots and focus on defense wilt protested this many times to the point where it seemed like he would fight coach hannah but hannah who is a six seven two hundred and nine pound former player never backed down from the seven one two hundred and eighty pound 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 also averaged 24.2 rebounds and a career high at the time 7.8 assists and he shot a record-breaking 68 from the field while his point production was far lower his insane efficiency made this one of wilt's most impressive seasons and because of his success winning his third mvp award along with his teammates improving from 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 only averaged 17 points per game for the series but he also contributed 28.5 rebounds per game and 6.8 assists next year the sixers would run the same game plan wilts would be the only center in nba history to lead the league in total assists averaging 8.6 a game and totaling 702 because of this wilt would win his fourth and final mvp award but unfortunately in their matchup versus the celtics the sixers were struggling with injuries the sixers still managed to go up 3-1 but would become the first team in nba history to blow a 3-1 lead wilt went back to his selfish ways and complained about his touches this led to further turmoil with the team and this along with personal reasons led to coach hannah resigning then wilt would be traded to the lakers wilt had asked for this trade but the reason for it has been heavily disputed a disagreement with ownership over a legal dispute unlisted personal reasons wilt feeling like he's grown out of philly even him wanting an opportunity to date white women was listed because that wasn't accepted in philly but was in la whatever the reason wilt was traded to the lakers for darrell imhoff jerry chambers and archie clark wilt was joining a team that featured hall of famers jerry west and elgin baylor along with a plethora of talented role players wiltstar in la wasn't without drama he had turmoil with the lakers owners and the head coach who he felt catered the offense too much to west and baylor and not enough to him the lakers still made the finals despite wilt struggles to fit in wilt would once again have to match up with his rival bill russell wilt would struggle mightily in this series only averaging 11.7 points per game on 50 shooting late in game 7 after wilt had led a comeback he would twist his knee badly on a rebound join the sam jones rebound coming off and chamberlain gets it 5 55 to go and chamberlain hurt his leg on the play baylor wrestle with the rebound 103 to 94. chamberlain can't move chris he's down there holding that knee he really twisted that knee on that last rebound but he did get the rebound and quickly calls for a timeout he'd have to sit out for the rest of the game and the celtics would win game seven by two points a brutal loss for wilt and the lakers him sitting was controversial because many didn't see the injury as severe enough to sit him for the last few minutes which led the lakers management to fire the head coach wilt would go down with an injury in the 1969-70 season after a good start with the new head coach of the lakers joe mullaney he wouldn't play again until the last three games of the season the lakers still made 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 severe injury in game 6. the lakers seem to be guaranteed to win with willis out but in one of the most inspiring moments in nba history late in game seven willis would play hobbling onto the court he only scored four points but played 27 minutes despite being severely injured this inspired his teammates to beat the lakers by two years in a row the lakers choked away the series next season the lakers would bring back gail goodrich and free agency that would face the bucks and the playoffs but with elgin baylor gone with an achilles tear and jerry west out with a knee injury the lakers would lose to the milwaukee bucks led by league mvp luau 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 wilt 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 mindset the lakers after matching up with kareem again would win with wilt matching the 11 year younger superstar play after play the lakers would once again face the knicks in the finals and they would beat them 4-1 with will winning finals mvp averaging 19 and 23. in the final year of his career wilt went out averaging 13 and 18 and beat his own record for field goal percentage shooting 72.7 percent for the season but 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 be sued by the lakers because he was still under contract with them he would be forced to be just a coach and after a year with the san diego conquistadors he retired when seven foot one-inch will chamberlain tried to get in a volkswagen people said it couldn't be done oh man it couldn't of course there's plenty of room for bill cunningham but then he's only six foot six [Music] just like bill russell some of wilt's stats were limited by the era that he played in no all defensive teams until later in his career blocks weren't recorded there was no finals mvp award in the first championship of his career and while there was no defensive player of the year award i don't think that wilt would have won as many as russell which as we previously speculated to before for bill we will say that wilt wins two defensive player of the year awards and as for the blocks it's been speculated that wilt and russell averaged roughly the same amount of blocks which was six a game for his career so just like russell we will multiply the amount of games that wilt played times six blocks which would put wilt first all-time on the all-time blocks list with an unbelievable 6270 career blocks you would also have a lot more all defensive selections because the award only came into existence in 1971 because there's only one spot on the first team for a center we will give wilt second team honors because we gave russell first team because for the most part he's considered a better defender this would give wilt 10 all defensive second team selections along with two more first teams he would have gotten after russell's retirement wilt's case for goat no doubt lies in his numbers he has the fewest amount of championships of the nine candidates but without a doubt the most impressive individual statistics wilt is sixth all-time in scoring one of seven players in the 30k points club he's first all-time in rebounds with a 2 300 rebound lead on bill russell wilt's dominance on the offensive end led to him putting up the highest scoring performance in nba history with 100 points versus the new york knicks in 1962 he also has six of the top 10 scoring performances in nba history and he scored 60 plus points 32 times in his career offensively wilt was arguably the most unstoppable force the league has ever seen on top of his dominance on the glass and the shot blocking that would have put him number one all time he won four mvps in his career won finals mvp once led the league in scoring seven times rebounds 11 times assists once he was the only center to ever lead the league in assist he was all nba first team seven times i'll nba second team three times all defensive first team four times and all defensive second team 10 times his dominance along with his ridiculous scoring outputs is the main reason many would call him the goat with the dominance came as a double-edged sword while his scoring made him individually great the only time wilt ever won in his career was when he sacrificed his offensive game in 1967 and 1972 wilt won by reducing his role offensively so wilt's dominance could be seen as a detriment to his teams so while wilt was great individually his numbers don't seem to correlate with winning at least at the highest level wilt won two rings but lost in the finals four times and lost to bill russell in the conference finals multiple times wilt at his peak performance numbers-wise was a loser only when he wasn't dominating the ball and scoring the most that he could did he win and he doesn't get the excuse of no help he played with many hall of fame level players like hal greer billy cunningham paul arsen nate thurman elgin baylor and jerry west it wasn't as much help as bill russell but he certainly wasn't stuck with scrubs so in summary his talent was unbelievable 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 a close a new player emerged as the next superstar of the nba that player was kareem abdul-jabbar there is no word that can properly sum up lou alcindor's high school career better than the word dominance lou was 6'8 and dunking the ball at the age of 13. so naturally in high school he dominated he led power memorial academy to three straight new york city catholic championships a 71-game winning streak and a 79-2 record overall power would also win the national high school championship in lual cinder's junior season alcindor would play college ball at ucla after playing on the freshman team in liu's varsity debut he would drop 56 points a ucla record making a statement early for how dominant he would be he would win player of the year twice he was a three-time first-team all-american won three championships winning most outstanding player in the ncaa for all three tournaments and he would be the first naismith college player of the year in 1969. he was so dominant in college that he would be the reason for dunking being banned after the 67th season a ban that would continue for a decade the milwaukee bucks would win a coin toss 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 rookie of the year and he'd lead the bucks to the second round of the playoffs with playoff averages of 35 and 17 on 57 shooting in the offseason the bucks would acquire oscar robertson in exchange for flynn robinson who had just made his first all-star appearance and charlie paulk this addition would be pivotal in the bucks becoming a powerhouse winning 66 games going on a record at the time 20-game winning streak alcindor would win his first mvp award 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 would of course be the finals mvp having averaged 27 and 19 on 60 shooting and after winning the 71 championship lou would have his name changed to kareem abdul-jabbar kareem would win his second mvp averaging his career best 35 17 and 5 on 57 shooting absurd stats but this would be the start of a trend in milwaukee kareem would play phenomenally but the bucks wouldn't see much success losing in the western conference finals because back then the bucks were a western conference team in 73 kareem would put up 30 16 and 5 but they'd lose to the warriors in the first round and then he'd 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 nearly 20 games and oscar robertson retiring the bucks didn't even make the playoffs because of this lack of team success as well as him feeling that milwaukee didn't fit his cultural needs with him being raised in new york he wanted to play in a big city so he asked to be traded to the knicks or the lakers he would get 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 for his 9 seasons with milwaukee his career with la would get off to a great individual start kareem averaged 28 points a league best 17 rebounds 5 assists and 4.1 blocks a game he would win his fourth mvp however because of old divisional rules despite having the fourth best record in the west they wouldn't miss the playoffs he would win his fifth mvp in the following season the lakers would face the portland trailblazers in the conference finals kareem would battle bill walton down low and kareem definitely won the individual battle but walton had significantly better help and the lakers would lose in a sweep for 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 use it to draft magic irvin johnson kareem finally had some help in la kareem would average 25 11 and three and a half blocks on a career-best 60 shooting that high efficiency could be attributed to him having 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-breaking 6th mvp the addition of magic wasn't the only improvement to the team norman nixon averaged 17-9 jamal wilkes averaged 20 points per game and michael cooper developed further as a defender the lakers would make the nba finals kareem would average 33 14 and four and a half blocks versus the sixers but the finals mvp would go to magic johnson who after kareem went down in game 5 would close out the series in game 6 with 42 15 and 7. and from this point on kareem would average 27 and 2 for the remainder of his career the lakers would win the 85 finals karim averaged 26 9 and 5 in that series in game 5 kareem would score 36 points to go up 3-2 and he'd score 29 in game 6 which would lead to him winning his second finals mvp in 1987 the lakers would beat the celtics in six games magic would win finals mvp in 1988 the lakers would beat the detroit pistons in seven games and james worthy would win finals mvp kareem at 40 years old only averaged 13 points and four rebounds and in 1989 kareem would play out his final season at the age of 41 averaging 10-3 and 1 and he would play his final game in game 4 of the 89 finals a series on which the lakers would lose in a sweep kareem put up seven points three rebounds and two blocks on two for eight shooting in basketball it's better to be bigger or smaller like us right like us up top [Music] kareem might have the most stacked 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 second team five times all defensive first team five times and second team six times he won rookie of the year and was a 19 time all-star his first all-time in scoring he's third in rebounds and for blocks in kareem's first four seasons the league did not record blocks had he averaged 3.5 blocks over those years that would be an additional 1123 blocks which would give him 4 312 career blocks which would place him first all time but third when you add in russell and wilt's hypothetical block numbers kareem's biggest case for goat has to be the fact that his name is just scattered everywhere being first all time and scoring top three in rebounds top three in blocks he owns 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 that but many would argue that these achievements especially his place on all time lists has a lot to do with his ridiculous longevity kareem only averaged 24.6 points for his career that's nothing crazy damian lillard and russell westbrook averaged just one less point per game for their careers and they certainly aren't on the level of the top scorer of all time kareem played for the second most games in nba history second to robert parish who only played 51 more games and he's first in minutes by almost 3 000 minutes had kareem retired at a normal age let's say 36 he would have retired with 31 527 points which is certainly impressive but would move him from first to sixth all-time in scoring as well as move him down from third to seventh and rebounds however the counterpoint to that would be it is very impressive for a player in the 80s where sports medicine clearly wasn't at its peak to play as much as kareem did maybe he wasn't scoring 40 every night but being able to play as long as he did is no doubt impressive and could potentially be seen as an example of why he is potentially the greatest so kareem's numbers are all over all time lists he won a record-breaking six mvps but those numbers have a lot to do with kareem playing an absurd amount of time when the big man era of the 70s ended a new pair of rivals came into the league magic johnson and larry bird and because we just ended kareem's overview it's only fair that we start with kareem's best teammate magic johnson [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] in his freshman year of college johnson went to a predominantly white school where ervin struggled to get the respect of his white teammates he was often ignored by these teammates never having the ball passed to him but johnson would eventually earn the respect of his white teammates and in his sophomore year he would earn the nickname magic in a triple-double performance where 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 johnson would be known as the best high school player in michigan and he was named a mcdonald's all-american despite being recruited by many top college teams magic decided to stay in michigan attending 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 indiana state who were led by larry bird this matchup would become the most watched college basketball game ever and johnson would win in the first game of their long-standing rivalry winning the most outstanding player of the tournament award johnson would then declare for the nba draft where he would be selected first overall by the los angeles lakers now unlike most players taking number one overall johnson was drafted into an amazing situation with la the pick used to take magic originally belonged to the jazz which the lakers got in exchange for gail goodrich the lakers were actually a talented team with the best player in the nba at the time karim of duljabar on the roster as well as jamal wilkes who averaged 20 a game and norm nixon who averaged 17 points and eight assists johnson would lose out on the rookie of the year award to 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 julius irving led sixers after going up 3-2 kareem missed game six due to an ankle injury so lakers coach paul westhead decided to start magic johnson at center magic would put up 42 points 15 rebounds seven assists and three steals and he led the lakers to a game six and series victory because of that game johnson would become the only rookie in nba history to win finals mvp magic's second season wasn't nearly as glamorous he missed 45 games with a left knee injury then came back just in time for the 81 playoffs where he fit in awkwardly and as a result the 54 win lakers were upset by the 40 win rockets losing 2-1 in the first round after johnson airballed a last-second shot in game 3. in his third season magic became one of the most disliked players in the nba after signing the biggest nba contract ever at the time johnson would then demand a trade due to a dispute with head coach paul westhead this dispute was due to westhead having a slower paced offense which went against johnson's fast-paced style lakers owner jerry buss decided to fire westhead instead of trading johnson a player getting a coach fired is more common and accepted in the modern nba but in the 80s it was not so magic was vood all around the league including in la 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 he became the third player in nba history to put up 700 points 700 rebounds and 700 assists in the same season the lakers would make their way to the finals once again to face the sixers and johnson would win his second finals mvp after getting a triple double with 13 13 and 13. the lakers would make the finals again but johnson's teammate norm nixon james worthy and bob mcadoo were all injured and they faced the sixers who added moses malone the lakers would lose in a sweep after this lakers general manager jerry west traded norm nixon which allowed johnson to no longer have to share ball handling duties which allowed magic to average a league high and career-high 13 assists along with 17 points and 7 rebounds the lakers made it to the finals again this time to face birds celtics for the first time in the finals the lakers won game one but would narrowly lose game two after magic failed to get up a shot before the final buzzer in game four he had the ball stolen and missed two free throws in the last minute of the game with three seconds to play he misses the first [Music] obviously to the game the lakers 14 points in the second period johnson misses him both heard the rebound and he had the ball stolen late in game seven again the dennis johnson is going in against cooper again and this time the failure from this series would result in him being dubbed as tragic johnson the lakers led by magic would face the celtics again in game one the lakers would allow a finals record 148 points so bad start but 38 year old kareem put up 30 and 17 in game two kareem also had 36 in game five the lakers would win in six games because of his big performances so kareem would win the finals mvp over magic next season kareem could not handle a 23 year old hakeem elijahuan in the post in the western conference finals so they would lose by the next season magic stepped up his game averaging a career-high 23.9 points and 12 assists this led to him winning mvp the lakers faced the celtics once again in game four magic would put up his iconic game-winning hook scott is in the ball game now five seconds to go [Applause] the lakers would go on to win the championship magic won finals mvp with averages of 26 points 13 assists eight rebounds and 2.3 steals and he did this on 54 shooting and with that game-winner he removed himself from the nickname tragic johnson next season the lakers would again win a championship beating the bad boy pistons but james worthy would walk away with the finals mvp because of his 36 point 16 rebound and 10 assist performance in game 7. this would be johnson's fifth and final championship magic would win mvp lose to the bad boy pistons in the finals next season after kareem retired johnson won his third mvp then the season after they lost to the michael jordan-led chicago bulls before the 91-92 season in a physical magic found out that he had contracted the hiv virus he then called for a press conference and shocked the basketball world because of the the hiv virus that i have attained uh i will have to retire from the lakers uh today despite retiring magic was voted as an all-star for the 92 season and he would play and wins mvp putting up 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 of the bench for 32 games as a power forward averaging 14 7 and 6 as a 36 year old and then he would retire officially after the 96th season i heard converse made a pair of bird shoes for last year's mvp yep well they made a pair of magic shoes for this year's mvp okay magic show me what you got the virtue the magic shoe choose your weapon from converse magic is to most people the greatest passer of all time he averaged 11.2 assists per game for his career he is fifth all-time in assist despite retiring prematurely had he not retired if he averaged 10.5 assists for the four years that he was retired with hiv playing 75 games each season he would move up to second all time with 13 291 total assist and if he had averaged 18 points per game for those four years he would have a career total of 23 107 points moving him from 80th all time to 30th all time and he would move up from 21st to 8th in steals magic won 5 championships was finals mvp for three of those championships one 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 goat definitely has to be his ability to score and pass at elite levels passing better than anyone besides for maybe jon stockton and being a good albeit not amazing score he also averaged 7 rebounds a game and nearly averaged a triple-double in 92 magic was a very versatile player and that versatility led to the lakers winning five championships but some would argue that being six nine playing point guard gave magic a significantly unfair advantage even if he wasn't being guarded by a point guard that meant that the opposition's point guard was guarding the lakers shooting guard or small forward so that was a mismatch that magic could get an assist off of his size was definitely a huge 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 a hell of a supporting cast he is the only player in this dock that was teammate with another gotten terry candidate besides for him being a teammate with that candidate which was kareem abdul-jabbar having the all-time scoring leader on your roster definitely helped he also had james worthy as a teammate who was a great scorer for the lakers and a hall of famer magic also lost out on two finals mvps and underperformed terribly against the celtics in the finals even if he redeemed himself that epic collapse is still a significant stain on his career so magic was a great passer versatile player and winner but the winning he experienced as a player could be heavily attributed to the amount of help that he had throughout his career when the name magic johnson is said out loud the name larry bird doesn't fall far [Music] as a freshman in high school bird broke his foot and missed most of the season but he would routinely still practice with the team putting up shots while using crutches at the same time which was an amazing example of how a dedicated bird was to the game bird would sneak to the gym in between classes and stay after school to get shots up larry would spend every free moment he had on a basketball court even limiting his sleep time so he could practice more bird would be a starter as a junior being a do-it-all player in an era where those were rare he was the second leading scorer and he was the best rebounder and passer on the team he would step up his game significantly in his senior year averaging 31 points and 21 rebounds byrd received a scholarship to play college ball for his hometown indiana hoosiers then he dropped out after struggling to adjust to the vastly different college environment but he would eventually enroll with indiana state he would have an amazing three-year career with the sycamores averaging 30 13 and 5 over his three years they would go 33-0 in his junior season leading them to the 1979 ncaa championship game to play magic johnson's spartans where bird would struggle shooting 33 from the field 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 were not yet coming to the nba so the celtics drafted birds sixth overall with the intention to sign him once he was done with college after this draft a rule was implemented called the bird collegiate rule which would prevent this from happening again in his rookie season bird would completely transform the boston celtics in the season before drafting him the seas 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 assists shooting 47 from the field and 40 from three bird would win rookie of the year but the celtics would lose to the sixers in the conference finals in the offseason the celtics would acquire two hall of fame big men the celtics owned the first pick in the draft that they got in a trade from the pistons and they traded that pick to the warriors for center robert parish and the third overall pick that they used to select power forward kevin mchale one of the biggest heists in nba history 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 make it to larry's first finals he would average 27 13 and 5 in the conference finals but in the nba finals bird would really struggle shooting the ball shooting just 41 averaging 15 points per game but to make up for that he averaged 15 rebounds seven assists and two and a half steals the celtics would beat the houston rockets 4-2 but because of his shooting woes the finals mvp would go to cedric maxwell who averaged 19 and 10 on 57 shooting next season bird would average 23 11 6 and 2 on 50 shooting and he'd be second in mvp voting but the celtics in their third match up versus the sixers would lose in seven games they would lose in the second round next year but in bird's fifth season he would win his first mvp averaging 24 points 10 rebounds six and a half assists two steals and a block shooting 50 from the field the celtics would advance to the finals facing the magic johnson lead lakers the rivalry between him and magic reached the championship stage once again this time in the nba magic would average 18 8 and 13 and a half assists but bird would match it with 27 14 and 3 and a half assists the celtics would win in seven games and bird would win finals mvp next season bird would step up his game even further putting up 29 10 and six and a half assists shooting at 52 from the field 43 from three and he was just two percent off from shooting at 50 40 90 shooting 88 from the free-throw line he would win his second consecutive mvp and the 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 ever do this averaging 26.7 assists and despite being moved to small forward he would average nearly 10 rebounds he was just .4 off from shooting 50 40 90 in both field goal percentage and free throw percentage the celtics only lost one game in the first three rounds and they 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 become regarded as one of the greatest teams of all time the celtics made it to the finals again in the following season but they had to fight through the bucks and pistons and the lakers who they played in the finals made it there easily boston was beat up and the lakers were dominant the celtics lost in six games next season bird would have the best statistical year of his career 30 points per game nine rebounds and six assists shooting 50 40 90 but the celtics would lose to the pistons in the conference finals next season bird would sit out with back issues only playing six games and for the next three seasons his career would fizzle out as a back injury he got in the off season a few years prior shoveling gravel led to chronic back issues which shortened his career significantly he would play the last game of his career in game seven versus the cleveland cavaliers in the 92 playoffs he would put up 12 points five rebounds and four assists and then he would retire the converse weapon that's the shoot that's magic do what he was born to do maybe so but that's not all that isaiah played like he's 10 feet tall for the kind of moves that never fail the weapon's the choice of kevin mchale the same is true for mark mcguire when i wear weapons i'm on fire what can the weapons do for king well i can do just about anything you already know what you did for me what i walked away with the mvp the converse weapon the number one weapon in the nba larry bird was given the nickname larry legend for a reason the reason being the guy was just legendary while his numbers may not stand out against some of the other candidates though they are definitely impressive and he is only a three-time champion which isn't a lot compared to some other candidates but he is arguably the most legendary player bird has so many iconic and just plain well legendary moments from his career bird had an eye for the dramatic he was known for his trash talk one of the things that led to julius irving iconically punching and strangling bird was larry trash talking him as the game had gone along bird counted up how many points he had versus how many irving had by the end of the third bird had 42 and irving had six midway through the fourth bird told irving to retire which led to the altercation he also famously walked into the locker room of the three-point contest said i hope all y'all are talking about who's coming second and for the next two contests he would shoot in his warm-ups and win both contests winning three in a row easily he would famously often tell opponents what move he was about to make then proceed to make it he played a whole game left-handed scoring 22 points left handed broke kevin mchale's celtic scoring record nine days after mchale broke the record scoring so impressively that he eventually made the opposing team cheer for him because of how unbelievable he was those are just a few of many legendary moments bird is also one of the greatest clutch performers ever the man had ice in his veins and he knew it bird was a three-time champion three-time mvp winning those back to back to back finals mvp twice all nba first team nine times second team twice all defensive second team three times rookie of the year and a 12-time all-star winning mvp once for bird he was a great scorer great rebounder and great passer similar to magic he was very versatile his passing often goes under the radar because of how good of a score he was bird won his fair share of individual awards and was a three-time champion but those awards don't stack up as well against many other candidates and byrd had the advantage of playing with one of the league's greatest six men and post players kevin mchale and one of the best defensive centers ever in robert parish as well as some other great teammates so bird definitely had his fair share of greatness but the scale of it seems smaller than most of the other candidates when the era of burden magic came to a close the league needed a new face and that face was michael jordan [Music] [Music] jordan [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] he looks to bring it in he comes away on the drive right mj started his basketball career playing high school ball at emsley a laney high school jordan tried out for the varsity team in his sophomore season but due to him being only 5 11 he was forced to stay in jv motivated to improve and having grown four inches over the summer jordan made the varsity team and averaged 25 points per game for his junior and senior seasons jordan received many scholarship offers for his high school play and he eventually settled with north carolina university as a freshman for the tar heels jordan averaged 13.4 points on a 53.4 shooting he won freshman of the year and won an ncaa championship after hitting a game-winning mid-range jumper versus the patrick ewing led georgetown hoyas [Applause] this iconic shot would be the turning point of jordan's career where he got the world's attention as basketball's next big thing he averaged 20 points and five rebounds for his sophomore and junior seasons shooting 54 from the field he won the naysmith and wooden college player of the year awards and he would skip his senior season to declare for the nba draft where he was taken third overall by the chicago bulls with hakeem elijahwan and bust sam bowie going over him 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 a 51 and a half percent shooting he was an all-star and he brought 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 he would miss 64 games the bulls management would try to convince mj to sit out for the rest of the season so that the team would get a high draft pick but mj accused him of trying to tank and they let him play for the remaining 15 games of the season and jordan struggled only averaging 22 points per game doing so 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 30 and 52 record the bulls would face the 87 celtics often considered one of the greatest teams ever and jordan would famously score 63 on the celtics in game 2 but the bulls would still lose in a sweep next season jordan would become the only guard to score 3 000 points in one season and be only the second player to ever do 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 shooting from the field jordan did this on a team whose second best player was charles oakley who was averaging a double-double on worst field goal percentage than jordan despite being a big man jordan was on a really bad team but he was so dominant that that team was at 500 but a team built entirely around one guy wouldn't beat a team with a lot of depth which is why the boston celtics would sweep the bulls once again this pattern would carry over for mj he had more seasons of insane individual accomplishment followed by disappointment in the playoffs because of a lack of help on his roster in the 87-88 season he'd put up 35 points five and a half a rebound six assists 3.2 steals and one and a half blocks on 53 shooting mj would win his first mvp and also take home defensive player of the year making him one of five guards to ever win defensive player of the year and making him one of four players to win both mvp and defensive player of the year in their career the bulls who won 50 games that year off of 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 the jordan rules that plan was pretty much knock him to the ground [Music] set the pick george lost every garden now look at the triple team as sally and rodman collapsed on tour damn rodman and jordan this time [Applause] time the pattern continued for the following season mj put up 33 8 and 8 on 54 shooting the bulls would make it to the eastern conference finals beating the cavaliers in an infamous series sellers has jordan george with two seconds to go puts it up and starts at the buzzer michael jordan has won it for chicago and beating the knicks but jordan and the bulls would once again fall to the detroit pistons next season was the first year that jordan had some real help scottie pippen who the bulls had traded for in the 87 draft was developing nicely and made the first all-star appearance of his career averaging 16.75 and two and a half steals and 1.2 blocks on 48 shooting and horace grant who the bulls also picked up in 87 averaged 13 and 8 and a half rebounds on 55 shooting and the bulls brought in head coach phil jackson who introduced the triangle offense that the bulls would see a lot of success with the bulls were the best they'd been winning 55 games jordan won the scoring title for the fifth year in a row and the bulls made it to the eastern conference finals again to face none other than the detroit pistons but they would lose in a seven game series losing to the pistons for the third consecutive season with all this losing in the playoffs and the league still being very much big men oriented many did not believe you could win with a guard i.e jordan as your best player but jordan and the bulls proved that all wrong in the 91 season jordan won his second mvp the bulls won 61 games the bulls beat the knicks and sixers in the first two rounds of the playoffs they advanced 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 shooting scotty also dominated with 22 8 5 3 and 2. the pistons walked off of the court in game 4 before the game was even over without shaking the hands of a single bulls player jordan had passed this obstacle in his career the bulls would face the magic johnson lakers in the finals and while they did not have kareem anymore they were still a very good team magic was still in his 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 only 5 games but a lot of the games were fairly 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 shooting absolutely stuffing the stat sheet jordan would win his first championship and finals mp this was the beginning of the first repeat next season mj averaged 36 and 6 scottie pippen stepped up his game further averaging 21 8 7 2 and 1 and the bulls made it to the finals to face the portland trailblazers who were led by clyde drexler and terry porter before the finals started the media started to spin a story about clyde being a better player than mj simply because he was a far superior three-point shooter because the rivalry of magic and bird was gone with magic retiring due to hiv and bird having injury problems the media wanted to create a new rivalry between mj and clyde but mj would quickly destroy any idea of a rivalry and destroy the criticism of his three-point shot saying that the reason that clyde is a better three-point shooter is because he chooses not to be a better shooter and he backed up that talk in game one where jordan scored an nba finals record 35 points in the first half mj did this by knocking down an nba finals record six threes in the first half he would average 36 for the series on 53 shooting with clyde only averaging 25 a game on 40 shooting the bulls won in six games and of course mj walked away with the finals mvp next season mj would not repeat as mvp with the award going to charles barkley which was unfortunate for charles because jordan used this as motivation so when the bulls met barkley's sons in the nba finals they beat them in six a six game series where jordan would average 41 points eight and a half rebound and six assists and walk away with finals of vp but during the 1993 playoffs a controversy arose where the night before a game versus the knicks in the conference finals jordan was seen in atlantic city in the middle of the night gambling and after that many stories came out of his gambling debts after this controversy carried over to the off-season michael jordan decided to retire at the age of 29. mj listed his lack of desire to continue playing basketball as the reason that he retired then later said it was the death of his father that made him want to quit playing basketball to pursue baseball his father wanted jordan to be a baseball player and mj hoped to fulfill his dad's wish but the timing of this retirement with this major controversy sparked a massive conspiracy that the league suspended mj but disguised it as a retirement the main point of emphasis for this conspiracy being this line that mj said in his retirement press conference five years down the line if that urge comes back if the bulls have me if david stern left me back in the league i may come back if dave is turning back in the league i may come back regardless of why he retired he did retire he would play baseball for a year and about midway through the 1994-95 season scottie pippen invited michael to a team practice and the bulls who were struggling that season at 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-like for his initial return however mj only averaged 27 points on 41 shooting in his 17 games that season and scottie pippen who had been the main scoring option for a year and a half now had to adjust to being dropped right back into his robin role after being the guy for over a year because of some adjustment struggles 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 surpassing the pistons but that somewhat failure that initially came with that series was more motivation for mj who trained like crazy in the 95 offseason the bulls added defensive and rebounding force dennis rodman in the off season and the bulls started the season 41-3 and finished the season with an nba record at the time 72-10 record jordan won his eighth scoring title averaging 30 points per game shot a career high from three 43 granted the three-point line was shortened for that season and he would win his fourth mvp award the bulls would only lose three games all throughout the playoffs beating the sonics in the finals in six games with jordan winning finals mvp next season the bulls would win 69 games mj would lose out on the mvp award to carl malone and just like was the case with barkley stealing an mvp from jordan proved to be a curse in the finals as jordan and the bulls would win in six games this series had some particularly iconic moments from jordan including a game winner in game one and the iconic flu game where jordan played with flu-like symptoms scoring 38 points and hitting 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 averaging 29 points a game at the age of 34. he would win his fifth and final mvp making it to the finals to face the utah jazz once again beating them in six games hitting the game winner at the end of game six 17 seconds from game seven or from championship number six winning his sixth ring sixth finals mvp going out with an iconic shot being the last moment of his career a storybook ending but jordan decided to ruin that storybook ending by adding some pretty mediocre and unnecessary chapters to the end by becoming a washington wizard after a few years as partial owner and president of basketball operations for the wizards jordan being so close to the game brought back his 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 shooting 41 from the field the wizards would miss the playoffs and in his last season jordan from the ages of 39 to 40 would average 20 points per game on 45 shooting he would finally retire for real at the end of the 2003 season what's in the bag look big mac fries play you for it you and me for my big mac first one to miss watches the winner eat no dunking on me get in there [Music] off the floor off the scoreboard off the bank board no rim over the second rafter off the floor [Music] through the window off the wall nothing but him [Music] over the river off the billboard through the window off the wall nothing but net michael jordan may have the most impressive resume of any candidate six championships six finals mvps five regular season mvps he made the all-nba first team 10 times and second team once he was all defensive first team nine times one defensive player of the year being one of four guards to do so he won rookie of the year and was a 14-time all-star winning 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 off of the pull-up or out of the post mj could hit any type of mid-range jumper you gave him and as a result he won 10 scoring titles and he's fifth all-time in scoring defensively michael won defensive player of the year as a guard he's second all-time in blocks amongst guards behind dwyane wade and he's third in steals but those are the rankings he has having retired twice with adjusted conservative numbers had he not retired jordan would be first all-time in scoring with 40 000 plus points 57th all-time in rebounds making him second amongst guards behind jason kidd he'd move up to second in steals and he'd move up to 74th all-time in blocks making him the only guard in the top 100. so these numbers are worth considering just like wilt and russell's block numbers are worthy of consideration jordan's case for goat has to be the great combination of championships and individual accomplishments that he has most candidates have a high amount of one or the other wilt didn't win a lot of rings but his individual accomplishments both award wise and statistically are phenomenal whereas russell has the most rings of all time but his numbers and individual accolades aren't nearly as impressive with mj he has all of the individual accolades as well as six rings he also never lost on the biggest stage six for six in the nba finals he also never played in a game seven in the finals mj's clutch factor and killer mentality is also one of the biggest arguments used for jordan's case for goat mj was ultra competitive he was known for wanting to not only beat his opponent but destroy them this competitive spirit led to mj working harder than anyone which is why he won so much mj won on the biggest stage without failure and stacked up other awards as well but for the other side jordan did not win much until scottie pippen showed up and he did not win until the pistons and celtics declined he wasn't winning on the biggest stage until a path opened up for him to get there there is also the argument that he had a weak competition while jordan played with pippin and rodman for three years both hall of famers he never faced more than two prime hall of famers in the finals james worthy and magic johnson in 91 just clyde drexler in 92. just charles barkley in 93 gary payton and sean kemp in 96 and jon stockton and carl malone and a lot of those players are not exactly the cream of the crop for hall of fame players other than magic none are commonly considered top 10 players of all time and many were not even top 5 players in the league when they met jordan in the finals and mj's perfect finals record may not have been so perfect had he not retired hakeem always gave the bulls problems because they never had a center that could come anywhere close to stopping him there is also the argument that he did not have a lot of competition at his position clyde drexler reggie miller joe dumars and mitch richmond are the four best guards of the 90s below mj clyde being the only real superstar at jordan's position so mj had a large collection of individual and team accomplishments but there are doubts about the competition in which jordan achieved those things in jordan's last few seasons in chicago there was a lot of buzz around the league about a kid from philadelphia who could be the second coming of mj that kid from philly was none other than kobe bryant [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] three we're tired in the 95-96 season while jordan and the bulls were busy making history winning 72 games there was a lot of buzz coming from philly lower marion high school was dominating high school ball led by their senior shooting guard kobe bryant bryant led lower marion to their first state championship in 53 years averaging 30.8 points 12 rebounds 6.5 assists 4 steals and 3.8 blocks for the season kobe received national attention for his performance and received several awards he was named the naysmith high school player of the year gatorade's national player of the year he was a mcdonald's all-american and he was a usa today's all-usa first team player after taking brandy to his senior prom he then decided to skip college and go straight to the nba well i have decided to skip college and take my talent to the nba [Applause] kobe was drafted by the charlotte hornets with the 13th overall pick but bryant had no interest in playing for charlotte he threatened them not to draft him saying he would instead play in italy but charlotte drafted him with the intention to trade him to the lakers for center vladi divac the lakers moved vlade to free up space to sign shaquille o'neal a player that could have easily been in this documentary and thus began what many people would call the greatest duo in nba history but it would take some time for this duo to succeed kobe wasn't a star day 1 like many other goat candidates but that was the disadvantage of coming straight out of high school kobe took some time to adapt to the nba 18 years of age in his rookie season he averaged only 7.6 points on 41.7 field goal percentage but that wasn't only 15 minutes per game off of the bench the lakers had one of the best players in the league on their team and shaq so they were trying to win so giving minutes to an 18 year old wasn't their top priority but kobe did participate in and win the 1997 slam dunk contest player will attempt two dunks here on a rotating basis so kobe will dunk and then so will the other two then they'll do it one more time [Music] 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 that season averaging 15 points per game off of the bench and being voted as an all-star not really deservingly because he made it from being a fan favorite but an all-star nonetheless next season kobe was finally given a starting job averaging nearly 20 a game his fourth season though was the real start of bryant's career and the start of the lakers amazing success kobe had career best averages of 22 points 6.3 rebounds and 4.9 assists on 46.8 field goal percentage but more importantly the lakers were the best they had been post-magic this was due to kobe's improvement hiring phil jackson as the new head coach and shaq's mvp season 29.7 points and 13.6 rebounds on 57 field goal percentage the lakers won 67 games and made it to the nba finals to face the reggie miller led indiana pacers kobe struggled mightily in this series his season average of 22 points per game dropped to 15 and his field goal percentage dropped by 10 but kobe was injured all throughout the series after jalen rose intentionally injured him but kobe did have a serious contribution to this series while he was bad for the series in game 4 shaq fouled out in overtime the pacers were in prime position to tie the series up 2-2 and considering how badly the lakers were blown out in game 5 this game very well could have won the pacers the series but brian didn't let that happen with two minutes left up one a 21 year old kobe bryant closed out the pacer scoring six points in ot two tough jumpers over his defender [Music] and hitting a two-point basket he was just inside the line give themselves a chance to take the lead and you know toby is gonna go to work again here he is over jackson how good is this kid and the game-deciding tip-in off of the brian shaw miss shaw running one-handed 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 stepped up his game to another level going from a star to a superstar playing with one of the most dominant offensive players in the nba kobe still managed to average 28 a game alongside him along with 6 rebounds and 5 assists the lakers won 56 games and went 15-1 in the playoffs only losing one game to a pissed off allen iverson and the lakers would complete the 3p in 2002 the lakers would once again make it to the finals easily and play the nets they won in a sweep but two of those games were closer than you'd think shaq won finals mvp once again and it was all downhill from there after the lakers won their third straight championship this is when the narrative of kobe being carried by shaq began kobe came into the league with the expectations of being the next mj being shaq's sidekick wasn't the role that people expected him to play while kobe was winning he wasn't doing it as the guy so the narrative began kobe wasn't okay with this he also wasn't okay with shaq's laziness kobe is known for his impeccable work ethic and asking a lot of his teammates shaq was more casual he relied on his unbelievable size to dominate on the basketball court he saw his size as all that he needed bryant wasn't happy about this and he was constantly on shaq's ass about it this beef 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 bring the team back to contention kobe would go through a court case in denver where shaq gave kobe no support the lakers would make it to the finals again despite their differences but would lose to a far less talented pistons team but also a far more cohesive pistons team where the players didn't hate each other due to money reasons and his beef with kobe shack would demand a trade and be sent to miami for quran butler and lamar odom this would begin a span of years where kobe would see a lot of individual success but the lakers would see no success in three seasons 2004 through 2007 kobe would average 31.8 points combined throughout those three seasons as well as 5.6 rebounds and 5.3 assists and despite his insane usage he still shot a very respectable 45 from the field and 34.4 percent three-point percentage in his second season without check kobe would average an absurd 35.4 points per game this all was for nothing though as the lakers would miss the playoffs in 2005 lose after going up 3-1 to the suns in the first round in 2006 and b gentlemen swept by the suns in the first round in 2007 but this really wasn't kobe's fault after shaq was traded many of the lakers players retired or left in free agency quran butler wasn't quite at an all-star level yet and would leave after one season with the lakers only averaging 15 a game and the lakers saw players like smush parker luke walton and kwame brown consistently in their starting lineups to be blunt kobe had no help no player no matter how great was winning anything with what he had this is why kobe would demand a trade after losing to the suns in 2007. you're still under contract with them are you saying right here on this show that you want to be traded yeah i would like to be traded yeah there's no there's no if ands or buts about it it's not a situation where what what what what you know i know before you reportedly said that you would like them to get jerry west back are you saying now emphatically regardless of what they've done you want out of los angeles yeah i like to be trained and it's as tough as it is to say that it's tough it is to come to that conclusion um you know there's no other there's no other there's no other alternative [Music] but despite some great offers the lakers would not trade kobe he would start the 2007-2008 season putting the lakers on pace for 50 wins then they would get pau gasol on top of that only having to give up powe's brother mark who was a second round pick kwame brown two scrubs and two first round picks the lakers would win 57 games kobe would win his 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 5 for the series but he shot a very poor field goal percentage of just 40 percent this loss was what kobe would call his darkest time as a player but kobe and the lakers would bounce back they made their way to the finals once again but unfortunately wouldn't face the celtics instead the dwight howard led orlando magic but luckily for the lakers this team was fairly inexperienced and the lakers were able to beat them in five games kobe would win finals mvp averaging 32 points and seven assists per game kobe was finally going to get his chance at the celtics next season though the lakers would two-peat beating the celtics in seven games kobe won finals mvp averaging 28.6 points eight rebounds and 3.9 assists he did shoot 40 from the field but everyone on both teams struggled from the field the lakers as a whole shot just 41 with these two championships kobe had proven that he could win without shaq and he got 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 which unfortunately wasn't vetoed by the league kobe would end the 2013 season by tearing his achilles and with this look on his face he knew it everyone on the court and in the stands knew it and everyone at home watching knew it this was the last time we would see kobe as an elite player he played two more seasons and retired in 2016. jalen oh no hey cole how you doing how retirement treating you it's great man it's great just uh you know a little writing a little investing nice so i don't know if you saw the thing on twitter about your statute no you don't pay attention to that stuff yeah i figured that me either i drink mr brat yeah i'll have a uh a vodka martini how many hours would you like [Music] 81. really no man i'm just playing just two joke for him he gets it kobe won five championships in his career one mvp and two finals mvps he made the all nba first team 11 times second team twice and third team twice he was all defensive first team nine times and second team three times and he was an 18-time all-star winning all-star mvp four times like jordan he was a phenomenal scorer and perimeter defender and kobe had the killer instinct that he would brand as the mamba mentality that mj did he was also arguably the hardest working player in nba history jordan certainly worked hard but he would also party and gamble a lot kobe was all business basketball was his one and only 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 of the court but he was blessed with being seven foot one kobe was of average height by nba standards but he worked his ass off to become one of the most lethal scorers the league had ever seen as well as one of the better defenders a leak had ever seen there is also an argument to be made 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 on good efficiency but lost out to tim duncan because bryant had more help but kobe definitely had a case for those three mvps where he came up short while kobe does have five rings there are a lot of questions about the legitimacy of them while no one can take away his last two rings many believe that kobe was carried by shaq or at the very least feel him not being the best player on his team for three rings lowers the value of them for his legacy the counterpoint to that would be any player alongside shaq in the early 2000s would not have been the best player on the team or at the very least wouldn't have been the finals mvp shaq in the 2000s consistently matched up against 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 down low because even though 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 bird three-pointer the point being winning finals mvp next to shaq was next to impossible bryant performed at finals mvp levels for two out of those three championships being injured in 2000. he averaged 25 8 and 6 in 2001 and 27 6 and 5 on 51 shooting in 2002. those are finals mvp level stats shaq just so happened to average 33 16 five assists and four and a half blocks in 2001 and 26 12 and 3 in 2002 there was no winning finals mvp for kobe playing alongside shaq but at the same time that also means that kobe was playing with the best player in the league for three years so that's certainly better help than anyone else on this list so kobe was one of the hardest workers ever one of the best scorers ever but he fell short on the mvp ladder many times and he wasn't the best player for three out of his five championships through kobe's reign in the nba there was only one player who was also constantly in the conversation for best player in the nba 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 he originally started off his career as an athlete trying to become an olympic swimmer but after hurricane hugo destroyed the only olympic-sized pool in saint crocs which was the virgin island duncan lived on tim had two practice swimming in the ocean but he wasn't too big of a fan of that because one beach conditions aren't the same as an olympic swimming pool and two duncan had a serious fear of sharks so this led to duncan losing his passion for swimming and switching over to basketball he played for his high school and really struggled a lot initially though he was really tall he picked up the game a lot later in life than most but after a few seasons he started in his senior year averaging 25 a game he wasn't recruited by big schools like duke or kentucky but he did get a scholarship with wake forest duncan's lack of flash but incredible reliability was established early with wake forest and he had a great freshman campaign but it was his sophomore season where duncan would establish himself as a top tier prospect he led the deacons to an acc championship duncan that season 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 was once again defensive player of the year as well as the acc player of the year the deacons won the acc title but in the sweet 16 duncan caught the flu and they lost one game from the final four in his senior year he'd averaged 21 points 15 rebounds and 3.3 blocks on 60 shooting he won the john wooden award and was the naismith college player of the year however the deacons failed to win the third straight acc title the san antonio spurs would take tim duncan first overall in the 1997 draft just like magic johnson duncan was drafted into a uniquely great situation with magic the lakers looked into a great pick from a trade made years before drafting magic for the spurs david robinson their superstar center went down with an injury that kept them out for the entire season so the team was really bad for the 96-97 season and ended up with the first pick duncan joining the admiral creating the twin towers having two athletic defensive superstar big men down low meant the paint was locked down the duncan as a rookie averaged 21 points 12 rebounds on two and a half blocks he was an all-star all-nba first team and made the all-nba defensive second team and he won rookie of the year the spurs would make it into the second round of the playoffs losing to the carl malone jon stockton jazz in his sophomore season duncan would put up similar stats to his rookie year but he would establish himself as the best player on the team the spurs would see a lot more success with this change the spurs would make it to the nba finals and face admittingly a fairly easy opponent they faced the eighth seeded knicks the only hc to ever make 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 shooting winning finals mvp in just his second season in his third year duncan bumped up his averages a bit but got injured before the postseason and didn't get to play in the playoffs next year he maintained similar averages was all nba first team and defensive first team but the spurs would lose to the kobe and shaq lakers in a sweep in the off season restricted free agency had not yet been implemented during the collective bargaining agreement and duncan strongly considered signing with the orlando magic who had laid out a plan and free agency to add tracy mcgrady grant hill and duncan the spurs were really lacking in talent besides for duncan as robinson was 36 the magic were offering a chance to dominate a weak eastern conference and be a legit competitor with the lakers who looked unbeatable in the western conference duncan was very close to signing and even told greg popovich that he would sign with the magic but because of 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 his fifth 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 upon matching up with the lakers again the spurs would lose in five games david robertson was aging and he could not handle shaq in the post and tony parker wasn't able to be a big contributor yet being a rookie duncan was pretty much on his own he'd win mvp back to back in the 0203 season averaging 23 13 four assists and three blocks on 51 shooting the spurs would win 60 games despite duncan having 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 just a three and d guy duncan was very much carrying this team despite the regular season success duncan and the spurs would have to surpass the hurdle 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 he also was often the guy who had to guard shaq he averaged 28 12 and 5 on 53 shooting and the spurs would beat the kobe shack lakers in six games duncan closing out game six with 37 points and 16 rebounds duncan single-handedly beat one of the greatest duos ever beef or no it was one of the most impressive feats of 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 finals matched up against the new jersey nets duncan would average 24 17 five assists and five blocks and in game six he would nearly put up a quadruple double putting up 21 points 20 rebounds 10 assists and eight blocks david robinson also put up 17 rebounds in his final game duncan would be named finals mvp next year the spurs would lose to the lakers in a tough series where the lakers would turn the tides in game 5. duncan hit an impossible shot to take the lead to duncan he gets double shackle over he gets away a fade away unbelievable but derek fisher would hit an impossible shot with 0.4 seconds remaining here they go they get it to fisher he scores fisher scores at the buzzer now this shot was pretty much impossible for fischer to get off in point four seconds but the league allowed it despite the spurs filing an appeal duncan would fall off a bit statistically in the 0.405 season but tony parker and manu ginobili would both average 16 points a game with parker averaging six assists a game and bruce bowen was still locking down on defense and shooting 40 from three the spurs made it to the finals with a more refined team and they would beat the team that formerly beat the lakers in the finals 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 he still won the finals mvp in the following post season the mavericks would beat the spurs in seven games only winning game seven by eight points dirk and duncan had a hell of a battle duncan averaged 32-12 and two and a half blocks and dirk averaged 27-13 but dirk ultimately had more help on his team in 2007 the spurs only lost 4 games all throughout the playoffs sweeping lebron's cavaliers in the finals but duncan would not be named finals mvp as it went to tony parker who averaged 24 and a half points on 57 shooting but after this duncan and the spurs would go through six years of playoff disappointment losing 4-1 to the lakers in the conference finals losing 4-1 to the mavs 4-2 to the mavs 4-2 to the grizzlies 4-2 to the okc thunder and in 2013 the spurs would make it to the nba finals but as we know the spurs had the series all but won in game six but ray allen would hit potentially the greatest shot in basketball history james catches puts up the three one goal rebound back out to adam his three pilots [Applause] with five seconds remaining after this crushing loss the spurs were motivated to come back and get revenge by this point the spurs were no longer a team built around duncan instead they were a team with no clear best player guys who knew their role and played it well and they had potentially the greatest ball movement of any team ever the spurs started the playoffs off rough barely beating the eighth seeded mavericks in seven games but they gentlemen swept the blazers in the second round and beat okc in six games where duncan averaged 18 and 10. in the finals duncan would average 15 and 10 and the spurs would manhandle the miami heat dwyane wade was on his last legs or more accurately his last knees and lebron was pretty much on his own and it didn't help that 22 year old spur kawhi leonard stepped up his game played great defense and averaged 18 points and six rebound on 61 shooting with those numbers kawhi of course won finals mvp over temp duncan but duncan got his fifth and final championship duncan would play two more uneventful seasons and retire at the age of 39. are you excited the week of greatness is back at foot locker a week of the sickest releases everyone's excited about it man that is exciting t rose i know is crazy right i gotta call tim tim duncan yo tim the week of greatness is back at foot locker no way that's insane 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 textbook team player and winner five championships in three different decades winning them in different roles in 99 he was a budding young superstar surrounded by veteran talent in 2003 and 2005 he was now the veteran star player carrying a team of young guys 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 wise veteran player that still contributed on the court but more than anything he was just an amazing leader tim duncan more than any other candidate besides for maybe bill russell did not care what he had to do all he cared about doing was winning if he had to step down his role in the offense he was happy to do it if that's what was required to win if he had to be a dominant player in lockdown defender he would do that for you tim duncan was an unselfish winner though it wasn't important to him for his individual accolades he was a two-time mvp three-time finals mvp he made 10 all-nba first teams with second team three times and third team twice all defensive first team eight times and second team seven times he won rookie of the year and was a 15 time all-star winning mvp once winning at every stage of his career and sacrificing some of his stats along the way is duncan's biggest case for goat after all basketball is a team sport and again besides for russell no other player at duncan's level was that unselfish but on the flip side 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 that the spurs continued dominating was by giving duncan less of a role in the offense and because of these sacrifices that duncan often made his statistics do not shine on the level of most of the candidates so while duncan was impressive as a winner his statistics are lacking because of the sacrifices that he made while in comparison and many other greats won just as much while maintaining their individual accolades kobe and duncan were both in their primes a new name came into the mix in between that period that name was lebron james as a freshman at saint vincent st mary lebron averaged 21 points and six rebounds as a 14 year old the fighting irish would go 27-0 and win a state title in his sophomore season he would 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 fit the ticket demand lebron would be named ohio's mr basketball the irish would go 26-1 and repeat as state champions as a junior the story of the greatest high school player ever spread even more he would appear in slam magazine beyond the cover of sports illustrated he averaged 29.8 rebounds and six assists he was named ohio mr basketball for the second year in a row the usa today's all usa first team and he would be the first junior to ever be named gatorade's national player of the year despite his individual success the irish would lose four games this season and lose the division 2 championship because of his legends spreading in his senior year lebron and the fighting irish would travel around the country to play nationally ranked teams james averaged 31.6 points 9.6 rebounds and 4.6 assists for the third straight 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 in a storybook fashion he would be drafted by the cleveland cavaliers and lebron became the hometown hero this would be both a blessing and the worst thing that could ever happen to lebron his first tent in cleveland would be a non-stop carry job for james in his rookie year lebron defended the hype that he received in high school many players collapse into mediocrity with less hype lebron more than rose up to the challenge though he certainly had some issues as a rookie he was fairly inefficient and averaged too many turnovers but the good of his rookie year far outweighed that bad he averaged 20.9 points 5.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists on 41.7 percent field goal percentage the cavs would miss the playoffs and he would not be named an all-star but he would win rookie of the year over carmelo anthony in his second season lebron would blossom even more and be named an all-star but in his third season lebron put up a career-high 31.4 points per game along with seven rebounds and 6.6 assists lebron came second in mvp voting behind steve nash the cavaliers would make it to the playoffs for the first time since 98 but they would lose the detroit pistons in the second round next season the cavs would win 50 games be the second seat in the east face the pistons in the conference finals and in an unbelievable performance lebron would put up 48 9-7 in game 5. he scored 29 out of 30 of cleveland's last points and hit the game-winning layup five seconds scores with 2.2 to go the cavaliers lead 109 107 and the pistons call for time 48 points for lebron james he 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 made it to the nba finals but facing the juggernaut san antonio spurs led by tim duncan the cavs had a zero chance and they would lose in a sweep this playoff run lebron went on would basically sum up the entirety of his time on the cavaliers individual success that unfortunately led to losing in the playoffs because of the lack of talent alongside him he didn't get the advantage of being drafted onto a team with kareem or shaq or ending up with a guy like scottie pippen or tony parker and ginobili lebron never got another guy alongside him in his first stint in cleveland and the addition of the big three boss in 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 didn't win much and in the second round of the 2010 playoffs versus the boston celtics lebron essentially gave up on the team when he realized that he once again was in an uphill battle where despite his amazing play he would inevitably lose lebron would go live on tv and announce the next chapter of his career the answer to the question everybody wants to know lebron what's your decision um in this fall man it's very tough and this fall i'm gonna take my talents to south beach and joined the miami [Music] lebron was joining dwyane wade and chris bosh in miami to force the miami big three but before he would even get onto the court he immediately shot himself on the foot by being a part of this party where they celebrated like they already won and in this party he said this to win championships not one championships lebron tell us about that not two not three not four not five not six not seven the big three era in miami would get off to a rough start lebron wade and bosh struggled to fit together initially lebron also struggled mightily with the criticism that came his way for his decision because the move he made at the time was unprecedented lebron would decide to embrace this villain role the nba fan base had assigned him and the miami heat would be the second seat in the east behind the derrick rose bulls the heat would beat those bowls with lebron effectively shutting down rose and they would 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 goat lebron averaged a measly 17.8 points 7.2 rebounds 6.8 assists and 4 turnovers on 47 shooting not a terrible stat line for an average player but for a superstar who most would have considered the best player in the league it was pitiful lebron was even outscored by jason terry the sixth man on the mavericks who averaged 18 points on 49.4 field goal percentage not only did lebron get outscored by terry but after shutting down derrick rose somehow he was the reason many times for terry scoring consistently getting burned by a six-man to make matters worse lebron would put up eight points on 27 shooting in game four where the heat could have gone up 3-1 the series would be the lowest point in lebron's career all the criticism of him being unable to win in cleveland only got worse when he was unable to win with two all-star teammates versus a team with only one all-star lebron would head into the 2011-12 season with only one goal prove them all wrong the first step was no longer trying to be the villain lebron was so focused on being the bad guy that he was no longer 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 shooting in the second round versus the pacers chris bosh went down with an abdominal injury which made it challenging for the top heavy heat to beat the aging boston celtics in game five paul pierce would hit a game-winning three in lebron's eyes to go up 2-2 pierce for three it's good paul pierce from way 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 he put up 45 points 15 rebounds and 5 assists on 73.1 shooting the heat would finish off the series in game seven and head to the finals to face the young okc thunder if the heat would win in five games lebron would win his first championship he'd win finals mvp on 28.6 points 10.3 rebounds and 7.4 assists on 47 shooting 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 nearly a block a career-high 40 from 3 and his second best career field goal percentage of 56.5 percent he'd win his fourth mvp lead his team to the finals to face the san antonio spurs going into game six the spurs were up 3-2 going into the fourth quarter the heat were down 10 and it was looking like the spurs would be walking away with the championship but lebron would once again respond with 16 points in the fourth quarter on 70 shooting as well as two assists but it would be ray allen who saved the game with a step back to the three-point line off of the chris bosh offensive rebound that came from lebron's miss james catches puts up the three one goal rebound back out to allen [Applause] with five seconds remaining in overtime lebron would make sure that the heat would finish it out with two points and two assists which doesn't sound like much but only eight points in total were scored by the heat in overtime so that was six out of eight points in game seven lebron would drop 27 12 and four winning the series for the heat and winning finals mvp next season the heat would struggle with injuries the heat would lose to the spurs in the finals and lebron made his second decision this time returning to cleveland to team up with kyrie irving and kevin love after the cavs traded andrew wiggins for him just like miami the cavs struggled at first but after trading for some role players and getting their chemistry figured out the cavaliers established himself as the best team in the east even though the atlanta hawks had a better record most would have agreed that the cavs were going to the finals and the cavs proved that by beating them in the conference finals on the sweep they would face the warriors in the finals but unfortunately they had no kevin love thanks to kelly olynyk dislocating his shoulder and kyrie irving went back down with an injury that previously bothered him in the second round versus the bulls so lebron was essentially by himself versus the warriors with timothy mozgov being the second best player for the cavs lebron put up 35 13 and 9 but because of all the defensive pressure that was on him he only shot 39.8 from the field the warriors won in six games but next year lebron would get a chance at revenge kyrie and kevin love were completely healthy for the series but this wasn't the same warriors team the dubs went 73-9 breaking the record for wins in a season stephen curry was the first unanimous mvp in nba history and klay thompson and draymond green with another season as star players improved immensely this was a juggernaut of a team but the cavs were healthy and there would be no more excuses for losing the series would not start out in cleveland's favor the warriors would infamously go up 3-1 it looked like lebron would once again lose in the finals and have a record of two and five in the finals not a great look but in game four lebron and kyrie irving both put up 41 points lebron also had 16 rebounds and 7 assists to go along with it and they beat the warriors 112 to 97. game six the warriors once again failed to close out the cavaliers lebron once again dropped 41 with eight rebounds and 11 assists on 59 shooting the cavs beat the warriors by 14. after this game the thought of a comeback was there no team had ever blown a 3-1 lead in the finals just like no team had won 73 games or had a unanimous mvp heading into game seven there was no pressure on the cavs and lebron though losing in other finals would have been bad for his legacy forcing a game 7 after going down 3-1 was accomplishment enough to get by but all of the pressure was on golden state pressure not to choke this was the lowest scoring game combined between the two teams lebron had an off-shooting knight shooting just 37.5 the cavs just barely shot over 40 and the warriors shot 38 james had a 27 point triple double with 11 rebounds and 11 assists with four and a half minutes left both teams went on a massive scoring drought the game was tied to 89 for three and a half minutes the warriors finally got an opportunity to score off of a kyrie miss they got out on the fast break curry passed it to andre iguodala and well you know what happened [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] two possessions later the ball was in kyrie irving's hands and he hit the game deciding three over the unanimous mvp irving curry [Applause] curry brought the ball up tried to tie the game over kevin love he missed lebron hit the free throw to steal the game and cleveland had successfully came back from being down 3-1 this would be the most impressive accomplishment of lebron's career and it would be the high point of his career not only did he win in one of the greatest final series of all time but he also finally fulfilled his promise to bring a championship to cleveland and of course he would be the final 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 to be the second best player in the league behind lebron with curry clay green and durant there was 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 carry a piss-poor roster to the finals and lose in four games and most recently he signed with the lakers and is now looking to build something in la to hopefully add to his astounding resume [Music] today for show and tell i brought my uncle lebron who is nba rookie of the year did you win the championship no yeah but you made the playoffs i just missed them let's look at the froggy again [Music] lebron's dominance and stranglehold on the nba from 2010 to 2018 cannot be overstated this decade of basketball excellence has not been done on that level before bill russell's celtics made the finals many times in a row but bill was on the same team with the same level of help with the same coach and same everything lebron went back and forth between many different situations plenty of times having an undeniable superstar with dwyane wade in 2011 and 12 but chris bosh who struggled to fit in and 2013 and 14 wade was on the decline but chris bosh now had a defined role in cleveland he had to adjust to a new environment and a new team and in 2018 he had to carry a garbage team to the finals but as soon as he went to the lakers he missed out on the playoffs which feeds into the other side which says that the weakness of the eastern conference is the reason why lebron made it to the final so many times however the opposition would say look at the eastern conference in 2019 as soon as lebron is gone suddenly the east is great so it could be argued that he is the reason that the east looks so great the east didn't look particularly strong under jordan either lebron has won three championships over his career four mvps three finals mvps he earned all nba first team honors 12 times second team twice was all defensive first team five time second team once rookie of the year and he is a 15-time all-star winning mvp three times but what's important to acknowledge is that lebron is the only candidate who has yet to retire from the nba he's still active so like we did with mj's retirement numbers and russell and wilt's block numbers we will do some conservative speculation we're going to assume that lebron plays until the age of 38. many think he could play till 40 which is probably true but we're being conservative here that's four more seasons we'll assume he averages 70 games a season averaging 24 points seven rebounds six and a half assists 1.3 steals and .7 blocks for those four seasons that leads to a total of 39 061 points which would place him first all time though it's less points than jordan's hypothetical lebron is likely to achieve this mark whereas jordan is just a hypothetical unless he wants to come out of retirement again at the age of 60. it would give him 10 416 assists which places him third all time though it would be fourth with magic's hypothetical numbers it would give him 10 790 rebounds 32nd all-time 2126 blocks which is 17th all-time 2294 steals which places him at seventh 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 and steals his name will be all over the all-time lists we will also give lebron four more all-nba second team selections as well as all-star appearances his statistical impact and versatility is unquestionable lethal scorer amazing passer great rebounder a good to great versatile defender up until the last three seasons lebron is to most the most versatile player of all time no player is as good at every aspect of the game as lebron however his record in the finals as well as the 2011 finals is a pretty big stain on his career but some would argue that 2007 2017 and 2018 are excusable beating the spurs in 2007 was next to impossible beating kd steph clay in green in 2017 with kyrie irving was pretty damn unlikely so beating them in 2018 without kyrie pretty much impossible so lebron has the statistical dominance but his dominance in the east is at the very least questionable and his finals record is pretty bad so with every single candidate's case now laid out looking at each player at an individual level let's now look at them in comparison to each other now when you're comparing nine players it can get pretty messy so it will need to be organized into categories accomplishments and career numbers and we will be ranking their level of help starting with accomplishments 4 championships bill russell ranks first 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 comes in fifth with two championships for mvps kareem comes in with an nba record six mvps jordan and russell both have five which is second lebron and wilt are third with four mvps larry bird and magic johnson both have three tim duncan has two for fifth place and kobe comes in last with just one mvp jordan has an nba record six finals mvps but we will give russell the first spot with seven finals mvps because the award didn't exist in russell's time and it's fair to assume that he would have won at least seven out of 11 potential final mvps so russell is first with seven jordan has six duncan magic and lebron all have three and there's a three-way tie for third so kobe byrd and kareem have two for defensive player of the year we speculated that russell would win four and wilt would win two so russell ranks first with four wilt ranks second with two and jordan ranks third with one everybody else never won a defensive player of the year award here are their all-star games in comparison they're all nba team selections and all defensive team selections statistically kareem has the most points but lebron will more than likely pass him so we will give him number one with an asterix and kareem two next is kobe at three jordan at four nexus will chamberlain tim duncan then larry bird and magic johnson and then finally bill russell for rebounds wilt and russell are the top dogs both with over 20 000 rebounds kareem is third duncan comes in sixth then larry bird however lebron will pass him so he is at five and bird at six kobe at seven jordan at eight though he would have been higher had he not retired and magic comes in nine but same thing if he wasn't forced to retire but he would be a lot higher here for assist first is magic by a decent margin adjusted numbers or no but lebron would be past his real number but not his no retirement number so lebron would be first then magic then a good bit 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 career averages and prime averages jordan and wilt are tied for career points per game then we have lebron kobe kareem larry bird magic duncan and bill russell comes in last with just 15 points per game for prime points per game wilt chamberlain comes in first with an absurd 36 points per game jordan in second with 32 points per game kobe and karim are tied for third with 28.1 then comes lebron bird duncan magic and russell wilts is first in career rebounds per game then bill russell then kareem then duncan bird lebron magic jordan and kobe for prime rebounds the list is in the same order wilt is first averaging just one more rebound and russell who is second then karim with 14 a game then tim duncan with nearly 12 a game larry bird in the double digits then lebron magic jordan and kobe for career assist magic johnson is first then lebron bird jordan kobe wilt bill russell kareem and tim duncan and here are prime assists per game and finally here is career efficiency using true shooting percentage now we will rank the level of help that each player had the rankings will be fairly simple hall of famers will be five points worth of help all stars are three points and good but not quite all star level players and role players will be worth one point an example of a player like that 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 candidates team or they were only there for a few years like george girvin was for mj some will require context a good player could be a guy that plays his role as let's just say an eight to ten point and eight to ten rebound player or is a great defender a really good shooter a good scorer who wasn't quite a star also 10 points for a bonafide superstar like they were top 5 in the nba at the time that they were teammates with a candidate and there is also a 1.5 multiplier for players who spent their career on one team because when a player is on the same team they usually don't play with as many stars but they just play with one or two for their careers like magic for example and future hall of famers will be accounted for as well so starting with bill russell he played with nine hall of famers bob cousy bill sharman tom heintzen frank ramsey sam jones casey jones tom sanders john havelchek and don nelson that is a total of 45 hall of famer points bayley howell is a hall of famer but that is because of his time in detroit before becoming a celtic he was a one-time all-star for the celtics so he fits into the justin all-star category and he's really the only normal all-star so that's three more points for good non-all-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 points worth of help after the 1.5 multiplayer next is wilt chamberlain for hall of famers tom gala guy rogers paul arzen nate thurman hal greer chetwalker jerry west and elgin baylor which is 40 hall of fame points for all stars woody salisbury tom messery luke jackson and larry costello for good not quite 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 is 62 help points for wilts next is karim who played with a superstar in magic johnson which is 10 points for hall of famers we have oscar robertson jamal wilks and james worthy for all stars we have flynn robinson bob dandridge jim price and norm nixon for 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 wasn't even an all-star on la lou hudson who played in la for his last two seasons michael cooper jim jones a way out of prime spencer haywood bob mcadoo byron scott ac green michael thompson and orlando woolridge that is a total of 56 help points for magic he obviously had kareem which is 10 points james worthy as a hall of famer 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 parish kevin mchale and dennis johnson that's 15 points tiny archibald was a hall of famer but only a 12 and seven point guard on the celtics but he was an all-star three times one year of dave cowans who is a hall of famer but he was out of his prime and it was just one year so just an all-star danny ainge was a one-time all-star and reggie lewis was a one-time all-star in birds last year rest in peace cedric maxwell averaged 15-7 but was never an all-star bill walton was out of his prime for the celtics but still a great sixth man jim paxton in the last few years of his career ed pikeny kevin gamble was a 14 point per game scorer for bird's last two seasons brian shaw was a 14 point per game scorer for one season in boston and john bagley averaged 7 and 7 in birds last season that's 57 help points from michael jordan for hall of famers he played with scottie pippen and dennis rodman and he never played with a guy who was just an all-star orlando woolridge and quentin daly were both 16 to 17 point scorers in the first few 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 13-8 power forward charles oakley was a double-double enforcer john paxton sam vincent bill cartwright was a solid center horace grant was a one-time all-star but only in the season where mj was retired b.j armstrong was a really good shooting point guard tony kuch was a great sixth man ron harper steve kerr luke longley rip hamilton was a 20 point per game score in mj's first year with the wizards and larry hughes averaged 13 5 and 3 on the wiz but with mj the multiplier gets complicated because to most people the wizards years really don't count all that much and not giving him the multiplier would seem cheap so we will do the multiplier for his 13th season with the bulls but not multiply the two wizards guys that's a total of 41 help points for mj for kobe he had a superstar in shaq palgasol will more than likely become a hall of famer he has the overseas resume to match an already solid nba resume eddie jones was an all-star as well as nick van nexel and even though he was disappointing in la dwight howard was an all-star elden campbell was a 14-9 and two block power forward robert orry was a seven and seven stretch four glenn rice was a 16 point per game scorer rick fox was a three and d wing derek fisher samaki walker was a seven seven and one power forward gary payton was out of his prime but still really good a way out of prime carl malone horace grant karon butler lamar odom chucky adkins chris mim andrew bynum trevor ariza was a good three nd wing metalworld piece was an even better three and d wing steve nash for 60 games and in kobe's last year jordan clarkson d'angelo russell and julius randle were all solid players that is a total of 66 points for tim duncan obviously david robinson was a hall of famer man manu ginobili as well as tony parker will be hall of famers kawhi leonard and lamarcus aldridge were both all stars towards the end of duncan's career but kawhi will more than likely end up in the hall of fame so we will label him as a hall of famer but lamarcus aldridge may miss out on it and he wasn't at his hall of fame level on the spurs with duncan where his real prime was on the blazers so he will just get the all-star label avery johnson was a really solid point guard bringing in 12 points and seven assists a game over seven seasons with the spurs vinnie del negro 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 help points and finally lebron james for hall of famers dwyane wade chris bosh and kyrie irving will all be hall of famers for all stars we have zadronis olgauskas mo williams and kevin love and for good players carlos boozer ricky davis jeff mcginnis drew gooden larry hughes ronald murray daniel gibson delante west anderson varejao a very out of prime 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 come in first with 75 then we have kareem and kobe then wilt duncan lebron magic and finally mj so we will finally end with every player's resume which will be the three biggest standout things from each player's career in comparison to each other with bill russell being an 11 time champion is number one on his resume being second in rebounding and blocks is second and third is him having five mvp awards for wilt being first in blocks and rebounds having four mvps and having the highest prime averages are the things at the top of his resume with kareem six championships six mvps and being what will be second all-time in points magic has five rings he would have been first all-time in assist and he has three mvp awards bird has three rings three mvps and he's fifth in prime and regular points per game jordan has six rings five mvps and he was second in prime points per game and tied for first and career points per game kobe has five championships tied for third and prime points per game and he is fourth all-time in scoring duncan has five rings two mvps and he is top 10 in both rebounds and blocks and for lebron's resume he will be first all-time in points he has three championships and four mvps with all of this in consideration with every achievement every moment every number and championship listed out in front of you with all of its context with everything out on the table who is the goat well i don't know there is no clear answer no clear definition to some winning is all that matters if that's the case then bill russell might be your goat two others championships are a team accomplishment two others basketball is a team sport so championships are a team accomplishment and they don't matter that much for a player's legacy if that's your opinion then lebron james or wilt chamberlain might be your goat maybe you look for a healthy mix 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 all about the moments for you then your goat could be kobe bryant or larry bird there is no formula for determining who is the greatest of all time it's subjective so to end this documentary i haven't used the word i for the entirety of this two and a half hour long video but to end this video i would just like to say appreciate greatness you can think that mj is the goat without disrespecting lebron james and vice versa every player that i put in this video is a legend and should be treated as such regardless of who you pull for choosing to hate the opposition is an ugly habit that we as humans need to stop doing if you've made it this far thank you so much for watching to show that you've made it this far please comment appreciate greatness down below and also if you aren't subscribed already and you've made it this far i think i've earned your subscription at this point and i will end this video the way i end every other video please be sure to like and subscribe for more nba content like this and cue the outro music you

Channel: Rusty Buckets

Views: 2,499,645

Rating: 4.7012248 out of 5

Keywords: michael jordan, lebron james, kobe bryant, magic johnson, larry bird, bill russell, wilt chamberlain, kareem abdul jabbar, tim duncan, michael jordan highlights, lebron james highlights, kobe bryant highlights, magic johnson highlights, larry bird highlights, bill russell highlights, wilt chamberlain highlights, kareem abdul jabbar highlights, tim duncan highlights, michael jordan mix, lebron james mix, kobe bryant mix

Id: 5naB2i9UcQ4

Length: 151min 26sec (9086 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 13 2019