I understand the aesthetically pleasing type of game early Pierce had may have an influence on you here. But, each of the players I named have higher eFG% than Pierce. Booker being smaller probably even lends more to my side of the discussion. He can score any way Pierce could, and shoots from deep better on top of it.
I don’t even think Pierce had an aesthetically pleasing game. I personally hated watching Pierce play because he was slow and sluggish. But he had more scoring skills than the guys of today, FG% aside.
Agreed on the point guards and bigs.
And I never understand how fans think anything other than the current era is the best product of basketball yet, when it comes to skill, athleticism, and versatility. Guess we will keep having our qualms…
I'm sure you can find someone to argue those points with, good luck on your journey.
He was friends with Ray Allen in South Carolina. He wanted to go to UConn because Ray was coming there.
Your initial point mentioning young Wade and Bron isn’t fair then if I can mention older KD and Bron, etc.
he was never going to UConn, I've seen KG re-tell this story on multiple podcasts and on sports docs like Beyond The Glory, he was a Michigan stan because of the Fab 5, that was his dream school and where he wanted to go to if he had got his ACT score. UConn has never been mentioned except for JC fiction.
How are the athletes simply better now? I keep hearing this refrain that guys are stronger and better athletes now.
Jordan was a pretty good 2. He's better than John Starks, IMO.
Larry Johnson comes to mind whenever this argument comes up
Oakley could consistently hit 15-20 footers so the narrative of Oakley just playing in the NBA due to just being an enforcer isn't true. You put Oakley over Draymond on those Warriors teams he would probably have better results.
I’m talking outside of Jordan of course. Because I think that was Ant’s point.
I say that because those guys foundations were built in that era. Guys aren’t building their foundations the same way anymore.
if he played today he would have just expanded his range a couple of feet behind the line
LeBron, Ant, KD, Ja, Fox, John Wall, Russ, D Rose, Shaedon Sharpe, Derrick Jones, Zion, Anthony Davis, Julius Randle, Miles Bridges, Donovan Mitchell, Paul George, Zach Lavine, Aaron Gordon, Trey Murphy.
Stop that. I’m a top tier Draymond hater, but that’s simply ridiculous. Draymond is switchable pretty much 1-5 at an elite level at his best and has had points in his career where he was a pretty respectable 3 pt shooter.
I named 5 Hall of Famers in the 8 names of strong guys I listed and you have no idea what you're talking about if you think any of the guys I listed served one purpose, to be big strong guys.
See the words “A couple” and “Mainly” to help clarify that point, if you’d like. You didn’t address skill or versatility from my initial comment you took offense to, so go ahead with that as well if you’d like.
What insults did I hurl?
At least you're admitting you never watched the players and timeperiod you're making definitive statements about.
Way to sidestep. But wrong, still, I watched Hardwood Classics almost religiously in my teens. I’d understand if that’s not good enough for you though.
A 1st rd pick vs an undrafted player not a fair comparison, yes Mase would do fine in todays NBA, he played at an allstar level after leaving the Knicks made an allstar game with the Heat.
I’m not the one who brought him up.
My bad I see that @superjohn brought that up
I am 1000000% taking Jokic over Ewing lmao. We’ll see where he compares to Hakeem and Kareem at the end of his career.