I was 11 watching the playoff run to the finals of the 76ers. A.I. was phenomenal in those playoffs. And just like many of LeBrons runs with bad teams had no business being in the finals with the Lakers. A magnificent talent for sure
Me to, some rankings seem to high or to low but that's ok. Makes for interesting content. Ad to high, I don't think Melo belongs on top 50 over Paul or Reggie, Scottie also seems to low.
Loved how Nick first said that people selectively ignored a few facts regarding scottie pippen and then went straight to saying that kawhi didnt deserve to win the first mvp because he averaged 18 ppg in the finals without mentioning the primary reason why leonard won the mvp - for guarding lebron james, 2nd-best player all time in his peak and limiting him to a very poor FG% as per lebron's standards. This is why nick wright needs a chris broussard to check him in these type of conversations
Not going to knock Kawaii too much but his defence in that series gets over hyped. Lebron went for 28/8/4 on over 57% shooting. He did not shut down lebron. Lebron supporting cast just got heavily outplayed by the spurs depth.
Kawhi when u look at time played an his accolades versus time not played. It is scary !! He’s to me the closest to Michael. As much as ppl say LBJ whom is closer to Magic/Bird. Kawhi is a spectacular 2-wsy player. With a quiet game of holding u down on defense then his lethal mid range If not for injuries I believe he would be in at least 2 more final appearances. I’m not even a fan. But I see it 😎
A lot of hypotheticals bud but his peak is not even close to Lebron's. When lebron is averaging 35 points 12 and 9 in the finals then you know there's levels
Kawhi is the real deal. His availability is the only reason he hasn't been in the convo for MVP and best player status consistently. Kobe copied Michael. When Kawhi plays he looks like Michael. Michael was more creative. Kawhi likes to get to his spots. Kawhi could still win another chip one day. If he has the drive his game should age very well.
@@Luthieran That's a joke right? I mean, like it what world is his peak close to Lebron's 2013 season, or Lebron's 2016 season, or his 2018 season? Unless by close, you mean, in general, a superstar/all time season. In which probably, yeah. But like, I don't know if you remember, but Kawhi's finals performance, while amazing, didn't touch the all time finals performances
This list could literally go player by player every week and I would still be interested. Nick has so much history to share about the game so I’m sure he’s leaving things out
Bro do you think he wrote the Almanac? He’s not a genius with history he literally just reads ALOT of stats. It’s his job….. also he probably has a teleprompter in front of him
@@FaLLeN3421 his job isn’t to be as knowledgeable as he is, if that was the case, nick wouldn’t stand out and be able to hold his own against NBA lifers like Rick. Nick’s job is to get clicks and views, period. His knowledge of the NBA is incredibly impressive
Nick needs to give kawhi more credit for his finals mvp. He said he averaged just 18 and 6. Only Parker had more points with .2 more ppg. Only Duncan and boris diaw had more rebounds. And he also got that 18 and 6 while shooting over 61% from the field, 58% from 3 and guarding the best player in the world. He was crazy efficient. Plus, who else should have gotten it. Duncan had 15 and 10 but was less efficient, and did significantly less defensively. Manu had 14, 3 and 4. Parker had 18 and 4.5. No one else had more than 10.2 ppg. When you look at the averages, it looks like they won a the finals series with a relatively mediocre yet efficient contribution from 6-8 guys. Well deserved mvp for kawhi
Well, I'd say west should not have won finals mvp that year. The next year, when lebron lost to golden state, he had an even better argument for winning it and didn't. Winning the title is basically a requirement to get the finals mvp at this point and west is just an outlier.
And just one more thing on Pippin, I know a lot of people like to play the "Jordan never won anything without Scottie" card but if you go back and look at that 88 playoffs against the Cavaliers and then look at the box score and you try to tell me that Scottie was some kind of Difference Maker I'll know where you stand on basketball knowledge lol And just another little tidbit about Scottie Pippen, he actually has more playoff games where he shot 33% or less than he has playoff game where he scored 30 points
uhm... but the Bulls didnt win in '88. When people say Jordan never won anything without Scottie, it means once Scottie emerged as a star, the Bulls started to win (not when Scottie joined the Bulls as a rookie).
@@garysalazar5279 or when he was coached by DOUG COLLINS ON MINUTES RESTRICTIONS 😂. The correct saying is: “Jordan never won without someone putting up Lebron stats minus 8 ppg and has more career steals than Gary Payton while not starting his first year and a half 👍🏽”
On the Elvin Hayes argument and if a frog had wings it wouldn’t bump its butt on the ground 😂😂 if “Jordan Had lost in the finals” well he didn’t move on 😂😂
the debates are so interesting because skill vs accomplishments make 2 very different arguments. the most accomplished players are usually not the most skilled.
Nick Wright is referring to the 93 series where the Bulls are down 2-0 but come back to win. Pippens block on Charles Smith in game 5 was probably the biggest moment of his career. However in 94 refuses to comes back in the game in which Kukoc hits the winning shot.
People don’t realize how good Kawhi and the Spurs were in 2017. If he was healthy, they would have taken down the KD, Steph, Kaly, Draymond Warriors in the playoffs and would have won it all that year. Nobody in the league had an answer for Kawhi that year but Kawhi was an answer for everybody. They won 61 games and rested their players a lot. And they were the best team in the league. People mistake those Warriors in 2017 as the greatest team ever but people don’t realize how the Spurs dominated them. They played the Warriors three times in the regular season that year won 2 games and actually blew them out in those 2. And the Warriors win the last matchup which was kind of a meaningless game late in the season. They were also blowing the Warriors in game 1 before Kawhi got injured in Oracle too. The Warriors could stop nothing in the paint. Aldridge would feast in the low-post. Anyone would attack in the paint easily and they had some nice shooters too not to mention Kawhi’s efficiency being all-time great and against those Warriors his splits wiuld have gone up too because they had no one in the paint against him and no Warriors player could handle Kawhi’s strength and post-game.
Idk if they would have won it if you remember the spurs got off to that kind of start vs OKC the year before and lost in 6 but I certainly wish we could’ve saw it play out
@@slimey10spd5 that team was not unbeatable I would’ve loved to see it play out because Kawhi and Aldridge were dominating before the injury same for 2018 with the rockets who led the series 3-2 before CP3 got injured but credit to them they still won
@@slimey10spd5 Have you actually watched the games? The Warriors could do nothing to keep them out the paint. Kawhi and Aldridge were just feasting and the depth of the Spurs really showed up. The fact that Aldridge and Kawhi could actually rest while the Warriors had to play their big 4 all night was a huge loss for them. And you don't understand the fact that styles make fights. The Warriors might have been the better team with more talent but sometimes the way a team is built and the style they play can beat a team better then them. We saw that multiple times in the NBA. 2020 bubble year, the Bucks were the most talented team in the East but Miami waxed the floor with them because they were built to stop Giannis. That season the only team to beat the Bucks more than once were the Heat and in both of those regular season games, Giannis had his worst games and struggled hard against the Heat defense. And there are multiple examples of this in history. The We Believe Warriors beat the number 1 seed Dallas because they matched up great against them. In the regular season Warriors' record against the Mavs were 3-0. Dallas with MVP Dirk weren't a bad team at all. They just didn't match up good with the Warriors. The Spurs were the kryptonite of the Warriors because their 2 best players could dominate the paint, their team had incredible depth and everyone on their team were great defenders. And Pop's defensive schemes were great against the Warriors, not to mention that the best defender you can put on KD one-on-one that year in the whole was Kawhi. The Spurs would have won that series but you can keep fooling yourself.
@@kerke4639 Im not going to read 5 paragraphs sir…. Just know if you actually believe your comment.. I feel sorry for your basketball knowledge. Pretty sad
Nick Wrong used pippens segment to criticize Jordan lol! It amazes me how this dude won't get off trying to make Jordan look bad to try and make LeBron look good! LET IT GO BRO
Naw that be Dave cowens league mvp 2 time champion and nick didn't even put him in the top 50 and dude has a mvp on his resume yet he put Bernard king in hes a great player but he was plagued with injuries and his resume doesn't hold a candle to Dave cowens and yes Dave cowens fits into the 50 year time span that nick laid out 50 best of the last 50 years
Kawhi has had essentially 4 postseasons taken from him on cheap fouls. 2 years because of zaza and 2 years because joe ingles took an unnecessary take foul on a fast break when the game was over. I think clips would’ve won the title last year had he not tore his acl
Guys get fouled. If you are getting hurt every time you fall wrong while you are still young at some point it's on you. There is a reason you see it with people like AD and kawhi over and over and almost never to a younger LeBron or kobe
Elvin Hayes seems like he’s in a similar situation with Steph Curry in that his finals MVP was stolen from him that he should have had. I am learning so much history from this list Nick should really be praised on what he is doing here.
Nick makes it seem like jordan played 8 years with no success before scottie got there. Pippen literally got drafted at the start of Michael's 3rd year and in the second year he had a broken foot so whenever Nick says Jordan didn't win without pippen, it means nothing
Mark Carman from Chicago is a Scottie Pippen superfan but he is saying what he saw in Scottie. He was a very good player like Chris Middleton from the Bucks. You tend to think that some underrate Scottie but that is only because Lebron fans try to make him into something he was not.
I do not understand NBA cultures obsession with Allen Iverson he averaged 41% shooting the year he won the MVP He was a small guard who did not move the ball who was horribly inefficient scoring the ball by volume and I swear he just gets elevated because his highlights are incredible In terms of all time greatness he is much closer to Carmelo Anthony then Scottie Pippen or Elvin Hayes
Good point. I think alot of It is his cultural influence, his ability to score despite being a smaller player, his highlights, dribbling ability and breaking down his defenders (Especially the ankle breakers) and him just being a likable guy so alot of what you said gets overlooked by these things. To the basketball purest we notice the percentages and his overall winning in his career which bumps him down on lists compared to other players. (Just my personal opinion on this)
It is hard to put AI before Kawhi and Scottie. And I was a huge Iverson fan. Those 2001 series vs Vince are still in my top 5 series of all time. What an amazing show they put. The problem with Iverson is he was too stubborn I remember back before the 2001 finals they showed all the little injuries he got during that seasom and playoffs. He played through everything, which later reduced his efficiency. And he was not able to find a good pairing superstar to win a chip But in the past 30 years, no other superstar has dragged so little talent to the Finals. Even LBJ in 2007 had more to work with
Longevity will ALWAYS weigh heavier than peak. Everyone has a peak, but barely anyone has longevity. Longevity isn’t about lasting the longest, it’s about sustaining success. There’s more context in longevity than in a peak. Prove me wrong 🤷🏾♂️
Longevity is about greatness. Peak is about who truly was the best. It will not “always weigh higher” ur favorite player of all time probably just has hella longevity is why u say that. Jordan is the only player ever to not be outside of ANY body who knows even the smallest about basketball top 3 of all time. But his longevity isn’t the greatest of time, it isn’t even top 3 of all time. So how can “Longevity ALWAYS weigh heavier than peak” Kobe had more longevity, Lebron, Kareem, Tim Duncan, etc etc. Don’t know too many top 5s that look like that. Jordan also accomplished more in 6 season than Lebron has in 20 plus. You can’t seriously look at someone & say somebody played 6 years LONGER & won 2 less championships (3 if we exclude the Mikey mouse ring which a good amount of ppl do) das just 1 example of how ur comments makes no sense. If player A & player B both played in the league together. & player A was always better, but he retired after 8 seasons & player B retired after 14. It would be disingenuous & re writing history to go back & say because player B stayed around longer he’s now always been the better player. Again, ur logic doesn’t make sense.
@@tyjohnson3111 I see your post got a lot of love maybe you should rethink your Lebron argument lol I like that Lebron fans trying different ways to not be 2nd all time 😂
You know, I would normally hate on something so obviously fake and contrived, but I don't mind the "callers", because I really read that type of stuff in the comments
I thought Pippen,Hayes,& Kidd would be in latest five.So two out of three.Nick hinted to Wade in the next five.I would have him in the 21-25.Three more guesses for next five are Robinson,Stockton,& Kidd.
Its a testament to how great wade was and how much he impacted real winning that despite literally the entire second half of his career being completely held back by his injuries and a terrible surgery he had in highschool that came back to bite him he still would be in most peoples top 28 all time and im sure alot would have him in the top 25
Should absolutely be there.Almost forgot about the late sixties/early seventies guys.Who will he rank better Shaq or Hakeem,Malone or Barkley,Bird or Durant,West or Wade,Oscar or Isiah?
I feel you but Harden has the durability. He has the All-NBAs and he led a team to the playoffs 8 years in a row and the only other guy to do that was LeBron. He also has an MVP. I see the argument for both sides honestly.
Guys 2019 Kawhi's run by itself is better than Harden's whole postseason career and an all time run to the title AND at their picks I'm taking Kawhi regardless. He wins both "better" and "greater" arguments
The fact Allen Iverson is better then kawhi is mind blowing kawhi should have 4 rings rn if not for injuries. And kawhi is by far one of the top 10 playoff players in history. If people really say the regular season doesn't matter then kawhi gotta be way higher
It would be nice if Nick actually talked about how they played, strengths and weaknesses rather than just reading off stat lines from games. There is very little insight here besides records and stats. He also cherry picked Pippen's good games. There are loads of big games where he came up well short offensively. Its this reason he is ranked where he is and no higher.
@@xfvsd039 you can argue the relevance. And it's not about feelings, it's about facts outside the simpleton numbers. For example, a guy who scored 10 could be more valuable than someone who scores 20. Not Great insight when you just regurgitate stats
@@xfvsd039 in this world. It doesn't require feelings, you just can't be dumb enough to think points are all that matter in basketball. 4th quarter is irrelevant when compared to the totality of an entire game so that's irrelevant. You've never heard of players dominating a game without scoring lmfao. You're a casual
My god Nick’s Scottie Pippen stats are hilarious. He’s really trying to make it seems like Scottie was actually better in some spots and series. Nick bringing up game 6 in Orlando by Scotty. Not bringing up Scottie was 2-11 in game 1 loss and 4-13 in game 5 loss. Shot 40% from Feb field. Scottie was a great #2 and had some great games but had so many big games where he was lost and disappeared.
@@Costelloworld Yeah, Jordan played 13 seasons with the Bulls and was eliminated 7 times in those 13 seasons. The other 6 times he won the NBA championship and finals MVP. In seasons he went started the season with the team in camp he was 6 rings in 12 years if that helps.
I would love to see who’s above and then I can above why Scottie and kawhi are ranked so low. Nick is absolutely right about kawhi weirf career. But he’s a playoff monster. Turns it up almost everytime. The greatest playoff performers of this era is Bron🐐(greatest performer ever), then Steph,kawhi,. Giannis, KD. But kawhi is in that realm.
i can see him having AI over Harden strictly off the fact that he took the 6ers to the Finals by himself. Harden only got to the WCF and had CP3 to help
I would put Iverson top ten simply because he had Aaron McKey on his team during the finals. I'm assuming he only made it to the league because he saved the commissioner's life or something extreme like that.
kawhi had one of the greatest post season runs only Jordan, Hakeem, LeBron and Shaq have had better post season runs than kawhi in 2019 over the last 30 years Kawhi is top 25. I get that he has a very weird career but if Kawhi leads clippers to a championship he will have 3 tiles 3 FMVPs and now a case for top 15
His career is far from over. Nick has said this list is based off of what players have done currently opposed to what they will be at when it is all said and done. For example: He said Nikola Jokic would be in the low 40’s on this list if he made this list after he won his second MVP, but that didn’t happen yet, so he isn’t on the list.
The problem with AI is that his supporting casts were bad because stars didn’t want to play with him. He wouldn’t pass or practice, he fought with teammates and coaches, and he had a bad attitude. You’re leaving out half the story with AI
Leonard is a weird one. I will say Duncan was the guy who was ahead of him as far as points per game and it was only by .2. Leonard definitely deserved that finals MVP. Leonard if you look at his entire body of work it looks like he should be a top 20 player the problem is he misses so much time and he’s been injured a lot so it really makes it hard to judge him I think this is a good spot maybe he should’ve been in the 20s but it’s understandable why he’s this low because he has really high highs and has a lot of accolades but he’s also missed a lot of time. Nick touchdown it he hasn’t played 600 career games which is amazing and he doesn’t have the cumulative stats that would put him as one of the greatest in the top 20 which is the only thing really hurting him such high highs but misses too much time. I think it is wrong that Nick is trying to tear down the Chicago talkshow host by calling him a super fan because Nick is the biggest super fan of LeBron so much so you can make an argument he put Pippen to High to try to tear down Michael a little bit to justify LeBron being number one.
Wow. Hayes has been a legendary basketball player for 50 years. He's the only player (star of team) to beat Kareem in college. Won MVP, scored a ton of points, played forever, won a championship or two. One of the best PFs ever.
I cant believe that guys take on Scottie. Before scottie "got good" as he puts it, Mike had no rings. Michael has said on record, he doesnt get 6 rings without Scottie. Scottie doesnt do it without Mike. They needed each other. Mike could count on Scottie do guard the other teams' best person so Mike could take it slightly east on D to go score 30 + points. Mike was getting abused in the playoffs before Scottie. Period. And even as Mike was moving into his prime and scottie was coming up they were losing to the Pistons. They wouldnt have done a 3 peat with Doug Collins as coach. Maybe 1 or 2 rings max cause Mike was just that good and his will is second to none. The last piece of the puzzle was Phil. Once it all came together, they never lost.
Pippen didn't guard the opposing team best player more than Jordan, this is a myth. Jordan wasn't getting abused in the Playoffs before Pippen got there. Pippen wasn't even the best rookie when he got there and wasn't a top ten player in the 1st Playoff series Jordan won. Every good leader say they couldn't win without their teammates that not unique to Jordan and Pippen. Jordan needed a team like everyone else that team happened to be the Bulls.
Folks actually make it seem as though Michael Jordan said he didn't need pippen when clearly from the beginning he has said numerous times that he did. But folks act like he said he didn't for their own personal agendas. Sad world man
I'm fine with this week's list when Nick is not super biased he's actually one of the best young historians of the game, so I'm enjoying all these little factoids from his perspective oh, I am going to skip the top three though not because I know LeBron is going to be number one but his repeated and inaccurate shots at Jordan even throughout this whole list are just annoying as they have been over the past six years lol
yea Nick has a huge blind spot when it comes to Jordan, he does the same thing he accuses Jordan fans of who try to downplay Lebron's career. I do like a lot of his basketball takes though and agree with him on a lot, but as soon as the GOAT discussion happens I just tune him out lol.
That spurs Team was a clear team victory but TD was in his Twilight and Kawhi was the CLEAR reason they won. You're not going to shut down PRIME Lebron but he got the key stops that destroyed Miami's momentum
Nick prides himself in not tearing down Wade when talking about LeBron. But he has no problem tearing down other stars who people even remotely compared to LeBron. He mentions that Kawhi had back to back 9pt games in the Finals, but what he conveniently forgets to mention is that it was in games 1 and 2 of the Finals, the games where Miami split the series 1-1, and gave everyone the impression that this might be another 7 game series. However, we know that's not what happened. In games 3-5, Kawhi averaged 23.7pts (leading the Spurs in scoring, by far), 9.3reb (also leading SA), 2stl, and 2blk, on 68.6%FG, 53.7% 3pt, 84.2% FT. They destroyed Miami in those 3 games, and Kawhi was the primary reason they won the series. Nothing about his performance says he didn't deserve Finals MVP. The only way you'd think that is if you didn't watch the games and just looked at the box score averages for the series. Fact is, during those 3 deciding games, Kawhi was the best player on the court, for both teams. But Nick can't let anyone think that anyone outplayed LeBron, for even a 3 game stretch in the Finals.
@@brandenhill8426 he doesnt care anything about the regular season kawhi is just a playoff player. And he is one of the best playoff performers I ever seen and arguably robbed of 2 championships because he got injured. Last year when giannis won and the year Zaza cheapshotted him. And if we are being honest kawhi is way better then ai ever was
@@Lefthandrightband lol, stop giving Kawhi championships he didn’t win. That spurs team was definitely not gonna beat the KD-Steph warriors even if he wasn’t hurt, and I doubt the Clips would’ve beat Milwaukee last year either since Giannis is much better than he was in 2019. Kawhi is properly placed. Not sure I’d place AI over him though, for sure.
I understand his reasons for kawhi but i feel like he's way too low, he shud be top 30 at least and closer to 20 than 30 if we are being honest that Toronto chip is legendary
Let’s be honest one finals mvp came as a coat rider of tim Duncan and that dynasty. His mvp was a result of holding Lebron to 30 8 8 lol a joke of an mvp. Like Iggy was that year. And that Toronto chip let’s be real if klay and KD actually play he’ll just KD play he doesn’t sniff that one.
@@jonathanwalter3075 all I'm saying is that kawhi at his best is better the guys mentioned before him so far by default he's top 30 if guys like harden, kidd, Stockton, etc r top 30
Crazy how someone like Nick didn’t have a vote for NBA top 75 list but Kendrick Perkins did… perkins couldn’t do an analytical breakdown like this for his life
Your list has been great so far, but I'm sorry Kawhi should have been better on the list. You can't argue he hasn't played enough and then ignore that fact with players like magic and bird. The guy is a winner through and through (doesn't he have like the all time winningest percentage?) and DPOY's.
Peak Kawhi maybe deserves to be higher up on the list, but he didn't have a very long peak and peak kawhi was a top 5 guy in the league but never the best guy in the league. He was also a defensive specialist for the early part of his career. In comparison Magic and Bird who also had short careers were just better than kawhi and are top 10 guys. Magic is the best PG of All Time and Bird is the 2nd best SF of All time.
@@Chronz at no point did I ever think Kawhi was better than LeBron or KD. I have Kawhi as the 4th best SF of all time depending on what position you want to give KD. Pippen is right behind him. Scottie Pippen is severally underrated due to him playing with Jordan for his entire prime. Klay Thompson is also really underatted due to being Steph's Robin. This guy's wouldn't have as many wins but significantly more individual statistical accolades if they decided to play without there batmans.
@@shamidullah1 Not saying that Kawhi should be higher than bird or larry, but I'd still say Kawhi is atleast a top 20 player. The guy led a team with Kyle Lowry as his number 2. He's prob the 3rd best SF of all time (i have him higher than kd tbh). Bird and KD had several great teammates in their championship runs. Also, Kawhi is a top 3 or 4 player in the whole 2010-2020 era. Guys like Allen Iverson (ranked higher on this list) were not even top 5 in their own era
@@shamidullah1 i disagree with everything you wrote. Most people don't know how to Guage statistical worth. They think more ppg/higher per game averages = better stats and that's simply not true.
Kawhi has bad injury luck but he clearly should be higher then 32 based on his A game being all time great 2 way talent on insane all around efficiency.
@@boonebeasley9622 Drexler is ranked fine, he has zero case being any higher than 35, and really should be low 40s, best player on a couple finals team and 2nd best player on a title team, no MVPs, only once named 1st team All-NBA, and usually performed mediocre come playoff time.
@@boonebeasley9622 Pippen is arguably the greatest wing defender of all time, the greatest second option of all time, the best defender, rebounder and playmaker on 6 title teams, made 4 All-NBA first teams and was a top 3 MVP finisher in basically the only season he was allowed to lead a team. Pippen is easily above Drexler
He didn't help teams. I would put Pip way above Iverson. Iverson has the better stats and accomplishments, but Pip will helpyou win, and that's what matters.
@@Chronz he is no scrub he just not in drexler level in my opinion even in his solo season he was just 22 ppg which is a subpar season scoring for prime drexler who was just as good as a passer and rebounder
@@Chronz deff close and the fact that post prime drex won a championship in his first season with a co superstar shows what could have been with Jordan they definitely would of won before 91 drexler was already an superstar in the 80's so they would have been won they both lost to the pistons in 1990 imagine they were together then
Who's your favorite player from this week's episode?
Hey Nick, perhaps you could walk us through the process, over years, of building this list
Also, could you tell us how did you make sure the list was internally consistent?
Kawhi by default, everyone else played before I was alive 😂
I was 11 watching the playoff run to the finals of the 76ers. A.I. was phenomenal in those playoffs. And just like many of LeBrons runs with bad teams had no business being in the finals with the Lakers. A magnificent talent for sure
For me, it's Scottie hands down. The 90s Bulls and Rockets are my jam.
Hey Nick, perhaps you could walk us through the process, over years, of building this list
Also, could you tell us how did you make sure the list was internally consistent?
Keep crying
@@novembers5760 lol he’s just asking a question. Who’s crying?
@@Joes35 idky bozo🤡
@@novembers5760 lol there’s definitely a clown here. Look in the mirror
I’m loving this series
Absolutely, so in-depth
Me to, some rankings seem to high or to low but that's ok. Makes for interesting content. Ad to high, I don't think Melo belongs on top 50 over Paul or Reggie, Scottie also seems to low.
that ending was kinda adorable 28:59 nick rly trying his best to make this feel as important as impossible
Loved how Nick first said that people selectively ignored a few facts regarding scottie pippen and then went straight to saying that kawhi didnt deserve to win the first mvp because he averaged 18 ppg in the finals without mentioning the primary reason why leonard won the mvp - for guarding lebron james, 2nd-best player all time in his peak and limiting him to a very poor FG% as per lebron's standards. This is why nick wright needs a chris broussard to check him in these type of conversations
Not going to knock Kawaii too much but his defence in that series gets over hyped. Lebron went for 28/8/4 on over 57% shooting. He did not shut down lebron. Lebron supporting cast just got heavily outplayed by the spurs depth.
@@hockeyislife67 when kawhi guarded him it was lower I believe.
Kawhi when u look at time played an his accolades versus time not played. It is scary !! He’s to me the closest to Michael. As much as ppl say LBJ whom is closer to Magic/Bird.
Kawhi is a spectacular 2-wsy player. With a quiet game of holding u down on defense then his lethal mid range If not for injuries I believe he would be in at least 2 more final appearances.
I’m not even a fan. But I see it 😎
A lot of hypotheticals bud but his peak is not even close to Lebron's. When lebron is averaging 35 points 12 and 9 in the finals then you know there's levels
Kawhi is the real deal. His availability is the only reason he hasn't been in the convo for MVP and best player status consistently. Kobe copied Michael. When Kawhi plays he looks like Michael. Michael was more creative. Kawhi likes to get to his spots. Kawhi could still win another chip one day. If he has the drive his game should age very well.
@@jamesreacher1156 I think it’s close to LBJs for sure.
PREACH BRO🙏🏾🎯 Even though I'm a fan your absolutely correct and it's scary scary for sure. I thought I was the only one to see this
@@Luthieran That's a joke right? I mean, like it what world is his peak close to Lebron's 2013 season, or Lebron's 2016 season, or his 2018 season? Unless by close, you mean, in general, a superstar/all time season. In which probably, yeah. But like, I don't know if you remember, but Kawhi's finals performance, while amazing, didn't touch the all time finals performances
This list could literally go player by player every week and I would still be interested. Nick has so much history to share about the game so I’m sure he’s leaving things out
Bro do you think he wrote the Almanac? He’s not a genius with history he literally just reads ALOT of stats. It’s his job….. also he probably has a teleprompter in front of him
Agreed john
@@FaLLeN3421 his job isn’t to be as knowledgeable as he is, if that was the case, nick wouldn’t stand out and be able to hold his own against NBA lifers like Rick. Nick’s job is to get clicks and views, period. His knowledge of the NBA is incredibly impressive
@@FaLLeN3421 I might be inclined to see it that way too if it wasn't for his heated responses while watching first things first
@@FaLLeN3421 haha you forgot to change to your burner account
The way nick wright talk about pippen you would think he’s better than jordan 😂
Nick needs to give kawhi more credit for his finals mvp. He said he averaged just 18 and 6. Only Parker had more points with .2 more ppg. Only Duncan and boris diaw had more rebounds. And he also got that 18 and 6 while shooting over 61% from the field, 58% from 3 and guarding the best player in the world. He was crazy efficient. Plus, who else should have gotten it. Duncan had 15 and 10 but was less efficient, and did significantly less defensively. Manu had 14, 3 and 4. Parker had 18 and 4.5. No one else had more than 10.2 ppg. When you look at the averages, it looks like they won a the finals series with a relatively mediocre yet efficient contribution from 6-8 guys. Well deserved mvp for kawhi
I see both points and it could go either way. Thanks for info
i get you but let's look at it like this. if west won the MVP on a losing side Why not Lebron?
Well, I'd say west should not have won finals mvp that year. The next year, when lebron lost to golden state, he had an even better argument for winning it and didn't. Winning the title is basically a requirement to get the finals mvp at this point and west is just an outlier.
@@thorwhitmore4141 if West doesn't deserve it for you then fair play to you. 2015 Iguodala will forever be the worst though
And just one more thing on Pippin, I know a lot of people like to play the "Jordan never won anything without Scottie" card but if you go back and look at that 88 playoffs against the Cavaliers and then look at the box score and you try to tell me that Scottie was some kind of Difference Maker I'll know where you stand on basketball knowledge lol
And just another little tidbit about Scottie Pippen, he actually has more playoff games where he shot 33% or less than he has playoff game where he scored 30 points
uhm... but the Bulls didnt win in '88. When people say Jordan never won anything without Scottie, it means once Scottie emerged as a star, the Bulls started to win (not when Scottie joined the Bulls as a rookie).
It's actually used to be brought up in playoff series as well, Shannon, Nick, those guys have brought it up on multiple occasions
@@garysalazar5279 or when he was coached by DOUG COLLINS ON MINUTES RESTRICTIONS 😂. The correct saying is: “Jordan never won without someone putting up Lebron stats minus 8 ppg and has more career steals than Gary Payton while not starting his first year and a half 👍🏽”
@@GoodMortySmith what?😂 Scottie ain’t that good
@@JC-po5zy NBA Finals Scottie vs the opposition’s top player
Scottie 20.8ppg 9.4rpg 6.6apg 2.4spg 1.0bpg
Magic 18.6ppg 8.0rpg 12.4apg 1.2spg 0.0bpg
Worthy 19.3ppg 3.0rpg 2.0apg 1.0spg 0.0bpg
Divac 18.2ppg 8.8rpg 2.0apg 1.8spg 2.4bpg
Scottie 20.8ppg 8.3rpg 7.7apg 1.5spg 0.7bpg
Clyde 24.8ppg 7.8rpg 5.3apg 1.3spg 1.0bpg
Porter 16.2ppg 4.3rpg 4.7apg 1.0spg 0.3 bpg
Scottie 21.2ppg 9.2rpg 7.7apg 2.0spg 1.0bpg
Barkley 27.3ppg 13.0rpg 5.5apg 1.2spg 0.5bpg
Johnson 17.2ppg 3.0rpg 6.5apg 1.3 spg 0.3bpg
Majerle 17.2 ppg 8.2rpg 3.7apg 1.3spg 2.2bpg
You right 🤷♂️ but to me looks like if he averaged 8 more ppg, them stats look awfully Lebron-ish…
My man Nick is always "Wright" ❤️ 👏🏽
Tremendous work. Would have liked to go deeper into the playoff performances from these stars as far as FG % but overall great work.
On the Elvin Hayes argument and if a frog had wings it wouldn’t bump its butt on the ground 😂😂 if “Jordan Had lost in the finals” well he didn’t move on 😂😂
the debates are so interesting because skill vs accomplishments make 2 very different arguments. the most accomplished players are usually not the most skilled.
Pippen was to Jordan what vanfleet was to kawahi
Pippen lead in every positive stat for the Bulls except points....try a different comparison that's a reach
🤣🤣🤣🤡
@@geronimopratt7976 Pippen did not lead the Bulls in every positive stat besides points. Go do your research
Scottie was a monster
Marbury Owned Him
Nick Wright is referring to the 93 series where the Bulls are down 2-0 but come back to win. Pippens block on Charles Smith in game 5 was probably the biggest moment of his career. However in 94 refuses to comes back in the game in which Kukoc hits the winning shot.
I think Wes Unseld also won a regular season MVP. He was beloved by old sportswriters.
I want Nick's top 25 characters and scenes from The Wire.
People don’t realize how good Kawhi and the Spurs were in 2017. If he was healthy, they would have taken down the KD, Steph, Kaly, Draymond Warriors in the playoffs and would have won it all that year. Nobody in the league had an answer for Kawhi that year but Kawhi was an answer for everybody. They won 61 games and rested their players a lot. And they were the best team in the league. People mistake those Warriors in 2017 as the greatest team ever but people don’t realize how the Spurs dominated them. They played the Warriors three times in the regular season that year won 2 games and actually blew them out in those 2. And the Warriors win the last matchup which was kind of a meaningless game late in the season. They were also blowing the Warriors in game 1 before Kawhi got injured in Oracle too. The Warriors could stop nothing in the paint. Aldridge would feast in the low-post. Anyone would attack in the paint easily and they had some nice shooters too not to mention Kawhi’s efficiency being all-time great and against those Warriors his splits wiuld have gone up too because they had no one in the paint against him and no Warriors player could handle Kawhi’s strength and post-game.
You sound foolish. No team in the history of the game can beat the kd warriors in a 7 game series. Dont fool yourself bud
Idk if they would have won it if you remember the spurs got off to that kind of start vs OKC the year before and lost in 6 but I certainly wish we could’ve saw it play out
@@slimey10spd5 that team was not unbeatable I would’ve loved to see it play out because Kawhi and Aldridge were dominating before the injury same for 2018 with the rockets who led the series 3-2 before CP3 got injured but credit to them they still won
@@slimey10spd5 Have you actually watched the games? The Warriors could do nothing to keep them out the paint. Kawhi and Aldridge were just feasting and the depth of the Spurs really showed up. The fact that Aldridge and Kawhi could actually rest while the Warriors had to play their big 4 all night was a huge loss for them.
And you don't understand the fact that styles make fights. The Warriors might have been the better team with more talent but sometimes the way a team is built and the style they play can beat a team better then them. We saw that multiple times in the NBA.
2020 bubble year, the Bucks were the most talented team in the East but Miami waxed the floor with them because they were built to stop Giannis. That season the only team to beat the Bucks more than once were the Heat and in both of those regular season games, Giannis had his worst games and struggled hard against the Heat defense. And there are multiple examples of this in history.
The We Believe Warriors beat the number 1 seed Dallas because they matched up great against them. In the regular season Warriors' record against the Mavs were 3-0. Dallas with MVP Dirk weren't a bad team at all. They just didn't match up good with the Warriors.
The Spurs were the kryptonite of the Warriors because their 2 best players could dominate the paint, their team had incredible depth and everyone on their team were great defenders. And Pop's defensive schemes were great against the Warriors, not to mention that the best defender you can put on KD one-on-one that year in the whole was Kawhi. The Spurs would have won that series but you can keep fooling yourself.
@@kerke4639 Im not going to read 5 paragraphs sir…. Just know if you actually believe your comment.. I feel sorry for your basketball knowledge. Pretty sad
Nick Wrong used pippens segment to criticize Jordan lol! It amazes me how this dude won't get off trying to make Jordan look bad to try and make LeBron look good! LET IT GO BRO
Exactly
Nick out here really teaching people the history of hoops! 2nd best NBA analyst behind Chris Brousard 🔥👌🏻
I like him over Broussard
Mchale maybe the most underrated player of all time.
Naw that be Dave cowens league mvp 2 time champion and nick didn't even put him in the top 50 and dude has a mvp on his resume yet he put Bernard king in
hes a great player but he was plagued with injuries and his resume doesn't hold a candle to Dave cowens and yes Dave cowens fits into the 50 year time span that nick laid out 50 best of the last 50 years
Kawhi has had essentially 4 postseasons taken from him on cheap fouls. 2 years because of zaza and 2 years because joe ingles took an unnecessary take foul on a fast break when the game was over.
I think clips would’ve won the title last year had he not tore his acl
Guys get fouled. If you are getting hurt every time you fall wrong while you are still young at some point it's on you. There is a reason you see it with people like AD and kawhi over and over and almost never to a younger LeBron or kobe
@@mindyourbuisness8104 ah yes when someone slams into your knee at full speed you're supposed to just walk it off 🤡
Nick have you ever considered a career in Law? You have a gift for stating facts and presenting it in with excellent logic and rationale.
let’s gooo fire list
Iverson’s basketball IQ is 100x what Westbrook’s would be on its best day.
Elvin Hayes seems like he’s in a similar situation with Steph Curry in that his finals MVP was stolen from him that he should have had. I am learning so much history from this list Nick should really be praised on what he is doing here.
Same. I don't know all the 70s, 80s history and only the basic stuff of 90s and 00s
Lots of gems here
How do you rank the second best player on a 6 time NBA championship team 33rd on a list of 50?
Good job nick! You’re doing good.
Kahwi might be one of those players where if he doesn’t get hurt as often. He might have ended with 4 chips
Nick makes it seem like jordan played 8 years with no success before scottie got there. Pippen literally got drafted at the start of Michael's 3rd year and in the second year he had a broken foot so whenever Nick says Jordan didn't win without pippen, it means nothing
bro the disrespect on kawhi is wild
Lol. This list is trash but still entertainment
Mark Carman from Chicago is a Scottie Pippen superfan but he is saying what he saw in Scottie. He was a very good player like Chris Middleton from the Bucks. You tend to think that some underrate Scottie but that is only because Lebron fans try to make him into something he was not.
I do not understand NBA cultures obsession with Allen Iverson he averaged 41% shooting the year he won the MVP He was a small guard who did not move the ball who was horribly inefficient scoring the ball by volume and I swear he just gets elevated because his highlights are incredible In terms of all time greatness he is much closer to Carmelo Anthony then Scottie Pippen or Elvin Hayes
Good point. I think alot of It is his cultural influence, his ability to score despite being a smaller player, his highlights, dribbling ability and breaking down his defenders (Especially the ankle breakers) and him just being a likable guy so alot of what you said gets overlooked by these things. To the basketball purest we notice the percentages and his overall winning in his career which bumps him down on lists compared to other players. (Just my personal opinion on this)
Nick should release trading cards of his Top 50
And club superstar
@@Kruppt808 yep those should be the special cards each year 12 of them would be cool
Marks Scottie Pippen comments are so bad lol
It is hard to put AI before Kawhi and Scottie. And I was a huge Iverson fan. Those 2001 series vs Vince are still in my top 5 series of all time. What an amazing show they put. The problem with Iverson is he was too stubborn
I remember back before the 2001 finals they showed all the little injuries he got during that seasom and playoffs. He played through everything, which later reduced his efficiency. And he was not able to find a good pairing superstar to win a chip
But in the past 30 years, no other superstar has dragged so little talent to the Finals. Even LBJ in 2007 had more to work with
No, LBJ had probably the worst roster ever to get to a finals . Iverson had at least one or two decent to good players.
It’s hard 2 put Ai over them but not hard 2 put pippen anywhere near close 2close 2 either 1 of em 🤔🤦♂️
C'mon man, kawhi should be atleast top 30
It's unfair to not talk about kawhi's defence. You completely ignored his defence in 14 finals
he held LeBron to 28,8 and 4. Definitely NOT worthy of an MVP🤣
Longevity will ALWAYS weigh heavier than peak.
Everyone has a peak, but barely anyone has longevity.
Longevity isn’t about lasting the longest, it’s about sustaining success.
There’s more context in longevity than in a peak.
Prove me wrong 🤷🏾♂️
Longevity is about greatness. Peak is about who truly was the best. It will not “always weigh higher” ur favorite player of all time probably just has hella longevity is why u say that. Jordan is the only player ever to not be outside of ANY body who knows even the smallest about basketball top 3 of all time. But his longevity isn’t the greatest of time, it isn’t even top 3 of all time. So how can “Longevity ALWAYS weigh heavier than peak” Kobe had more longevity, Lebron, Kareem, Tim Duncan, etc etc. Don’t know too many top 5s that look like that.
Jordan also accomplished more in 6 season than Lebron has in 20 plus. You can’t seriously look at someone & say somebody played 6 years LONGER & won 2 less championships (3 if we exclude the Mikey mouse ring which a good amount of ppl do) das just 1 example of how ur comments makes no sense.
If player A & player B both played in the league together. & player A was always better, but he retired after 8 seasons & player B retired after 14. It would be disingenuous & re writing history to go back & say because player B stayed around longer he’s now always been the better player. Again, ur logic doesn’t make sense.
You bragging about hiking a long plateau or climbing Mount Everest?
Case closed longevity is about luck and health.
I’d rather have a higher peak
@@LakeShow-2481 thanks for trying 👍🏾
@@jsmooth4116 thanks for trying 👍🏾
@@tyjohnson3111 I see your post got a lot of love maybe you should rethink your Lebron argument lol
I like that Lebron fans trying different ways to not be 2nd all time 😂
He’s talking about Walt Frazier at the end
Kawhi should be a bit higher but your reasoning makes sense
You know, I would normally hate on something so obviously fake and contrived, but I don't mind the "callers", because I really read that type of stuff in the comments
I thought Pippen,Hayes,& Kidd would be in latest five.So two out of three.Nick hinted to Wade in the next five.I would have him in the 21-25.Three more guesses for next five are Robinson,Stockton,& Kidd.
Its a testament to how great wade was and how much he impacted real winning that despite literally the entire second half of his career being completely held back by his injuries and a terrible surgery he had in highschool that came back to bite him he still would be in most peoples top 28 all time and im sure alot would have him in the top 25
Should absolutely be there.Almost forgot about the late sixties/early seventies guys.Who will he rank better Shaq or Hakeem,Malone or Barkley,Bird or Durant,West or Wade,Oscar or Isiah?
Having Kawhi this low is outrageous
He has missed ALOT of games
@Tong Zou who should have won it ahead of him?
Nick what’s the over and under on these fan call ins being real?
That's actually my first real problem with the list, Kawhi is top 25 clear and it also means you have Harden above him which is outrageous
I feel you but Harden has the durability. He has the All-NBAs and he led a team to the playoffs 8 years in a row and the only other guy to do that was LeBron. He also has an MVP. I see the argument for both sides honestly.
James harden aint better than kawhi
@@GIGAFAT3 how many titles Harden have? So ya it is close
Guys 2019 Kawhi's run by itself is better than Harden's whole postseason career and an all time run to the title AND at their picks I'm taking Kawhi regardless. He wins both "better" and "greater" arguments
The fact Allen Iverson is better then kawhi is mind blowing kawhi should have 4 rings rn if not for injuries. And kawhi is by far one of the top 10 playoff players in history. If people really say the regular season doesn't matter then kawhi gotta be way higher
It would be nice if Nick actually talked about how they played, strengths and weaknesses rather than just reading off stat lines from games. There is very little insight here besides records and stats. He also cherry picked Pippen's good games. There are loads of big games where he came up well short offensively. Its this reason he is ranked where he is and no higher.
@@xfvsd039 you can argue the relevance. And it's not about feelings, it's about facts outside the simpleton numbers. For example, a guy who scored 10 could be more valuable than someone who scores 20. Not Great insight when you just regurgitate stats
@@xfvsd039 in this world. It doesn't require feelings, you just can't be dumb enough to think points are all that matter in basketball. 4th quarter is irrelevant when compared to the totality of an entire game so that's irrelevant. You've never heard of players dominating a game without scoring lmfao. You're a casual
Mark from chicago brought the heat. Spoke facts 🔥
Nick look like he's about to be on Flagrant 2
Lol the one on one argument… it’s a team game. 80s had some ballers
My god Nick’s Scottie Pippen stats are hilarious. He’s really trying to make it seems like Scottie was actually better in some spots and series.
Nick bringing up game 6 in Orlando by Scotty. Not bringing up Scottie was 2-11 in game 1 loss and 4-13 in game 5 loss. Shot 40% from Feb field. Scottie was a great #2 and had some great games but had so many big games where he was lost and disappeared.
Wait they LOST ?...WITH Jordan..dats crazy.. you sure you got that right
@@Costelloworld Yeah, Jordan played 13 seasons with the Bulls and was eliminated 7 times in those 13 seasons. The other 6 times he won the NBA championship and finals MVP.
In seasons he went started the season with the team in camp he was 6 rings in 12 years if that helps.
I would love to see who’s above and then I can above why Scottie and kawhi are ranked so low. Nick is absolutely right about kawhi weirf career. But he’s a playoff monster. Turns it up almost everytime. The greatest playoff performers of this era is Bron🐐(greatest performer ever), then Steph,kawhi,. Giannis, KD. But kawhi is in that realm.
Kawhi is too low
Never heard of Elaine Hayes nice nick enlighten me a little
Elvin WTF lol
Kawhi would be one of the best players ever if he could stay healthy but he can't
The first 2 callers were the 2 worst calls I've ever heard on any show. And ric Bucher has to say dumb things on purpose.
Talk more about Kawhis 2 defensive player of the year
Scottie at 33 and him wearing 33 is not a coincidence. Lol
Nicks list has to be based on overall production for their careers, thats the only way i can see a.i and harden above kawhi
i can see him having AI over Harden strictly off the fact that he took the 6ers to the Finals by himself. Harden only got to the WCF and had CP3 to help
not to mention Harden disappears in the playoffs consistently
I would put Iverson top ten simply because he had Aaron McKey on his team during the finals. I'm assuming he only made it to the league because he saved the commissioner's life or something extreme like that.
Nick needs to do a deep objective Dive into the bulls 90s dynasty
If Parker and Manu aren’t on the list, Duncan better be a top 3 player! Name another 5x champion that had 0 teammates on this list.
David Robinson
@@FirstnameLastname-qb2bg true. But maybe that counts in 1999, The Admiral was an old man in 2003
@@ricardofranco9589 True. I forgot Kawhi is on this list too.
Lmao kawhi bro
I would probably say Mchale is better than Pip. He is a great post player and averaged 25 ppg in the Finals and 26 ppg one regular season.
kawhi had one of the greatest post season runs
only Jordan, Hakeem, LeBron and Shaq have had better post season runs than kawhi in 2019 over the last 30 years
Kawhi is top 25.
I get that he has a very weird career but if Kawhi leads clippers to a championship he will have 3 tiles 3 FMVPs and now a case for top 15
His career is far from over. Nick has said this list is based off of what players have done currently opposed to what they will be at when it is all said and done.
For example: He said Nikola Jokic would be in the low 40’s on this list if he made this list after he won his second MVP, but that didn’t happen yet, so he isn’t on the list.
@joceja23 no he’s not one of them final mvps he was a role player he could be top 25 by the end but rn he’s not
@joceja23 his regular season accomplishments and production are still very limited.
uhmmm dirk?
The problem with AI is that his supporting casts were bad because stars didn’t want to play with him. He wouldn’t pass or practice, he fought with teammates and coaches, and he had a bad attitude. You’re leaving out half the story with AI
Where did a teammate every say that about him? You’re just making up anything smh not one of his teammates every said anything like this about him
I promise you made that up
Lmao
scottie pippen carried michael jordan his numbers were very impressive
Lol
Leonard is a weird one. I will say Duncan was the guy who was ahead of him as far as points per game and it was only by .2. Leonard definitely deserved that finals MVP. Leonard if you look at his entire body of work it looks like he should be a top 20 player the problem is he misses so much time and he’s been injured a lot so it really makes it hard to judge him I think this is a good spot maybe he should’ve been in the 20s but it’s understandable why he’s this low because he has really high highs and has a lot of accolades but he’s also missed a lot of time. Nick touchdown it he hasn’t played 600 career games which is amazing and he doesn’t have the cumulative stats that would put him as one of the greatest in the top 20 which is the only thing really hurting him such high highs but misses too much time. I think it is wrong that Nick is trying to tear down the Chicago talkshow host by calling him a super fan because Nick is the biggest super fan of LeBron so much so you can make an argument he put Pippen to High to try to tear down Michael a little bit to justify LeBron being number one.
Never heard of Elvin Hayes and the way Nick talks him up I’m surprised it took me until now to do so. That’s an impressive career!
Wow. Hayes has been a legendary basketball player for 50 years. He's the only player (star of team) to beat Kareem in college. Won MVP, scored a ton of points, played forever, won a championship or two. One of the best PFs ever.
one of the most hated players ever that's why they swept him under the rug
WE WANT SKIP BAYLESS ON THE SHOW
Then Lebron won’t make the list !🤨
Calm down.
No we don't
no we dont.
God please no 🙏🙏🙏
I cant believe that guys take on Scottie. Before scottie "got good" as he puts it, Mike had no rings. Michael has said on record, he doesnt get 6 rings without Scottie. Scottie doesnt do it without Mike. They needed each other. Mike could count on Scottie do guard the other teams' best person so Mike could take it slightly east on D to go score 30 + points.
Mike was getting abused in the playoffs before Scottie. Period.
And even as Mike was moving into his prime and scottie was coming up they were losing to the Pistons. They wouldnt have done a 3 peat with Doug Collins as coach. Maybe 1 or 2 rings max cause Mike was just that good and his will is second to none.
The last piece of the puzzle was Phil. Once it all came together, they never lost.
Pippen didn't guard the opposing team best player more than Jordan, this is a myth. Jordan wasn't getting abused in the Playoffs before Pippen got there. Pippen wasn't even the best rookie when he got there and wasn't a top ten player in the 1st Playoff series Jordan won. Every good leader say they couldn't win without their teammates that not unique to Jordan and Pippen. Jordan needed a team like everyone else that team happened to be the Bulls.
Pippen has an argument to be higher, it would invalidate this list if he wasnt included. Scottie one of the greatest wing defenders and Point Forward
Folks actually make it seem as though Michael Jordan said he didn't need pippen when clearly from the beginning he has said numerous times that he did. But folks act like he said he didn't for their own personal agendas. Sad world man
Wow. Kevin Mchale was underrated
I'm fine with this week's list when Nick is not super biased he's actually one of the best young historians of the game, so I'm enjoying all these little factoids from his perspective oh, I am going to skip the top three though not because I know LeBron is going to be number one but his repeated and inaccurate shots at Jordan even throughout this whole list are just annoying as they have been over the past six years lol
yea Nick has a huge blind spot when it comes to Jordan, he does the same thing he accuses Jordan fans of who try to downplay Lebron's career. I do like a lot of his basketball takes though and agree with him on a lot, but as soon as the GOAT discussion happens I just tune him out lol.
That spurs Team was a clear team victory but TD was in his Twilight and Kawhi was the CLEAR reason they won. You're not going to shut down PRIME Lebron but he got the key stops that destroyed Miami's momentum
Also worth noting no one on the spurs scored more than 18 ppg if you look at their stats it was truly done by committee
@@justinjones9579 and they went crazy from 3. Spurs couldnt miss in that series
Nick prides himself in not tearing down Wade when talking about LeBron. But he has no problem tearing down other stars who people even remotely compared to LeBron.
He mentions that Kawhi had back to back 9pt games in the Finals, but what he conveniently forgets to mention is that it was in games 1 and 2 of the Finals, the games where Miami split the series 1-1, and gave everyone the impression that this might be another 7 game series. However, we know that's not what happened.
In games 3-5, Kawhi averaged 23.7pts (leading the Spurs in scoring, by far), 9.3reb (also leading SA), 2stl, and 2blk, on 68.6%FG, 53.7% 3pt, 84.2% FT. They destroyed Miami in those 3 games, and Kawhi was the primary reason they won the series. Nothing about his performance says he didn't deserve Finals MVP. The only way you'd think that is if you didn't watch the games and just looked at the box score averages for the series.
Fact is, during those 3 deciding games, Kawhi was the best player on the court, for both teams. But Nick can't let anyone think that anyone outplayed LeBron, for even a 3 game stretch in the Finals.
I'm just not sure how you can have AI and Harden over Kawhi. Neither AI or Harden were ever winning a ring as the best player on a team.
I thought kawhi was goina be top 20 minimum I mean the guy is a beast in the playoffs
@@Lefthandrightband Nick is big into regular season numbers and kawhi doesn't stack up there
@@brandenhill8426 he doesnt care anything about the regular season kawhi is just a playoff player. And he is one of the best playoff performers I ever seen and arguably robbed of 2 championships because he got injured. Last year when giannis won and the year Zaza cheapshotted him. And if we are being honest kawhi is way better then ai ever was
@@Lefthandrightband lol, stop giving Kawhi championships he didn’t win. That spurs team was definitely not gonna beat the KD-Steph warriors even if he wasn’t hurt, and I doubt the Clips would’ve beat Milwaukee last year either since Giannis is much better than he was in 2019. Kawhi is properly placed. Not sure I’d place AI over him though, for sure.
@@molove-zb1tz the clippers would have ruined giannis
I understand his reasons for kawhi but i feel like he's way too low, he shud be top 30 at least and closer to 20 than 30 if we are being honest that Toronto chip is legendary
Let’s be honest one finals mvp came as a coat rider of tim Duncan and that dynasty. His mvp was a result of holding Lebron to 30 8 8 lol a joke of an mvp. Like Iggy was that year. And that Toronto chip let’s be real if klay and KD actually play he’ll just KD play he doesn’t sniff that one.
@@jonathanwalter3075 all I'm saying is that kawhi at his best is better the guys mentioned before him so far by default he's top 30 if guys like harden, kidd, Stockton, etc r top 30
He did not deserve finals mvp in 2014
Bro doesn’t even have 15k career points he can’t be that high
Crazy how someone like Nick didn’t have a vote for NBA top 75 list but Kendrick Perkins did… perkins couldn’t do an analytical breakdown like this for his life
Yes he could. This isn't analytics lol, its per game averages.
Bc Nick is is to emotional when it comes to certain people🤣🤣🤣
Your list has been great so far, but I'm sorry Kawhi should have been better on the list. You can't argue he hasn't played enough and then ignore that fact with players like magic and bird. The guy is a winner through and through (doesn't he have like the all time winningest percentage?) and DPOY's.
Peak Kawhi maybe deserves to be higher up on the list, but he didn't have a very long peak and peak kawhi was a top 5 guy in the league but never the best guy in the league. He was also a defensive specialist for the early part of his career. In comparison Magic and Bird who also had short careers were just better than kawhi and are top 10 guys. Magic is the best PG of All Time and Bird is the 2nd best SF of All time.
@@shamidullah1 nah. Kawhi was the best 1 or 2 seasons, his peak was short lived but to be next pippen is hilarious.
@@Chronz at no point did I ever think Kawhi was better than LeBron or KD. I have Kawhi as the 4th best SF of all time depending on what position you want to give KD. Pippen is right behind him. Scottie Pippen is severally underrated due to him playing with Jordan for his entire prime. Klay Thompson is also really underatted due to being Steph's Robin. This guy's wouldn't have as many wins but significantly more individual statistical accolades if they decided to play without there batmans.
@@shamidullah1 Not saying that Kawhi should be higher than bird or larry, but I'd still say Kawhi is atleast a top 20 player. The guy led a team with Kyle Lowry as his number 2. He's prob the 3rd best SF of all time (i have him higher than kd tbh). Bird and KD had several great teammates in their championship runs. Also, Kawhi is a top 3 or 4 player in the whole 2010-2020 era. Guys like Allen Iverson (ranked higher on this list) were not even top 5 in their own era
@@shamidullah1 i disagree with everything you wrote. Most people don't know how to Guage statistical worth. They think more ppg/higher per game averages = better stats and that's simply not true.
Kawhi has bad injury luck but he clearly should be higher then 32 based on his A game being all time great 2 way talent on insane all around efficiency.
I'm hoping you have John Havlishek in better position than Mc Hale.
Nick criteria seems to be based on guys longevity more than a played peak. Nothing wrong with that.
Which makes sense. Being great over many years is much harder than being amazing for 1-2 years
@@tysontenney804 longevity > peak, always.
D Wade and AD were already superstars when LeBron got to them wtf is Nick talking about LeBron has never had to wait for a player to grow and mature
They just like to say he never played with anybody
Clyde coming up next week!!!
He put Clyde already smh he buggin got Clyde ranked very low
@@boonebeasley9622 I meant Walt "Clyde" Frazier. I'm a Knicks fan (poor me). That's what he's known as.
@@boonebeasley9622 Drexler is ranked fine, he has zero case being any higher than 35, and really should be low 40s, best player on a couple finals team and 2nd best player on a title team, no MVPs, only once named 1st team All-NBA, and usually performed mediocre come playoff time.
@@hardwoodthought1213 with players like Pippen over him I disagree he is clearly better than pippen
@@boonebeasley9622 Pippen is arguably the greatest wing defender of all time, the greatest second option of all time, the best defender, rebounder and playmaker on 6 title teams, made 4 All-NBA first teams and was a top 3 MVP finisher in basically the only season he was allowed to lead a team.
Pippen is easily above Drexler
Stylish player, he means Walt Frazier.
Nick is confusing the 92 2nd round series against the Knicks with the 93 Eastern conference finals against the Knicks.
Gabe on McHale was straight hate
Hayes sound like he could be hire
Nick Wrong is shaking in his Ugg boots
I see know about AI, not having teammates: DC, stackhouse, Aaron McKie won 6th man, Larry Hughes, Tim Thomas..he just didn't play winning basketball
He didn't help teams. I would put Pip way above Iverson. Iverson has the better stats and accomplishments, but Pip will helpyou win, and that's what matters.
Interesting that he is doing this. Although we already know who is no.1 is..
Hey would we look at Jordan the same if he didn't win 6 championships?
just mute it everytime bucher speaks . its ridiculous
Ric bucher's question is one of the most stupid questions a caller has asked in this series
L
Nick why don’t you respect Clyde Drexel smh Scottie over drexler ? I’m not too sure about that Clyde was clearly a better solo act
Scottie had like 1.5 seasons to showcase that tho. It's close enough to go either way
@@Chronz he is no scrub he just not in drexler level in my opinion even in his solo season he was just 22 ppg which is a subpar season scoring for prime drexler who was just as good as a passer and rebounder
@@boonebeasley9622 true but the defense closes the gap. I think you're right but it's pretty close
@@Chronz deff close and the fact that post prime drex won a championship in his first season with a co superstar shows what could have been with Jordan they definitely would of won before 91 drexler was already an superstar in the 80's so they would have been won they both lost to the pistons in 1990 imagine they were together then
So Steph curry gets slack because Andre iguodola won finals mvp over him yet Kawhi’s mvp which was very similar, doesn’t mean anything?
To help completely honest kawhi is a lot better than Scottie pippen, and pippen is overrated by people who want to take credit away from Jordan.
Nick you are wrong on PIPPEN