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Basketball

Top 100 Pro Basketball Players Ever: #90 – #81

See the tab at the top of this article to understand the process for these selections

#90: Shawn Kemp

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All-NBA 2nd Team: 3x (’94, ’95, ‘96)

NBA All-Star: 6x (’93, ’94, ’95, ’96, ’97, ‘98)

NBA Top 10 Rebounds: 3x (’95, ’96, ‘97)

NBA Top 10 Blocks: 2x (’93, ‘94)

NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 1x (‘94)

NBA Top 10 WS/48: 3x (’94, ’95, ‘99)

2nd Best Player on one Runner-Up: 1996 Sonics

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 88th

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 150th

Everyone talks about The Fab Five and Lenny Bias bringing playground to the big time, but Shawn Kemp was right there with them. Kemp was a symbol of the 1990s attitude that combined flash with power. Kemp is one of the all-time greatest dunkers, which was further amazing as he played power forward. Each night there seemed to a differently angled alley-oops between Kemp and Gary Payton. Kemp was going to be one of those players that kept people watching the NBA in the post MJ era…assuming that fans wouldn’t be turned off by that attitude.

But yeah, Kemp was really good too. The Kemp-Payton era peaked with 55 wins in 93 and a Conference Finals Game 7 loss to Barkley’s Suns, a 63 win campaign in ’94 (where they were the first #1 seed to be upset in Round 1 by Mutombo’s Nuggets), a 57 win 1995 (another bad first round loss), a 64 win 1996 (and a near title win, losing in six to the 72 win Bulls) and a 57 win 1997 (lost another tough seven gamer to the Hakeem-Drexler-Barkley Rockets). That’s a pretty nice peak. Kemp was a 18-10 guy for each of those teams with offensive ratings between 110 and 115 when the average was about 108. Kemp was also a very good defensive player, something that was missing when Blake Griffin was compared to Kemp earlier in his career.

Things fell apart in Seattle when Jim McIlvaine, a terrible center who averaged 2 PPG and 3 RPG in 14 MPG the season before, got paid money that Kemp was expecting. Kemp forced a trade, which landed him in Cleveland. Kemp’s personal life began to fall apart, and while he had a still okay 1998 (bad offensively though) and a surprisingly good 1999 (Cavs GM Wayne Embry said he weighed 315. Kemps normal playing weight was around 230), he got caught up in drugs, had weight problems and had seven kids with six women. He had some stints in Portland and Orlando, but it was over.

Kemp makes the list because his peak was pretty good. If it were longer, he’d be higher up. You could win a NBA Title with Shawn Kemp as one of your top two guys for sure. He was also successful in a Western Conference that had tons of great big men (Karl Malone, David Robinson, Hakeem, Barkley) and held his own in most of those match-ups (while outplayed by him, Kemp holding his own against Malone, including shooting 69%, was a big reason the Sonics and not the Jazz made the 1996 NBA Finals).

#89: Robert Horry

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All-NBA Rookie 2nd Team: (’93)

Role Player on seven NBA Champs: 1994 Rockets, 1995 Rockets, 2000 Lakers, 2001 Lakers, 2002 Lakers, 2005 Spurs, 2007 Spurs

Played in the Playoffs Every Season of His Career

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 84th

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 355th

I’m with Simmons on this one. It takes a special choice to be a guy who says “you know what, instead of being this 30 minutes a game, high scoring popular athlete, I’m going to sit back, wait till coach calls me, and hit all the big shots I’m asked to”. I’m going to just post a bunch of box scores and clutch shots Horry completed over the years here. Remember that Horry’s career averages are 7 PPG and 5 RPG. There are ALL playoff/Finals games.

5/22/93: In Game 7 of the Western Conference Semi-Finals against the Sonics and the game tied at 91, Horry beats the shot clock with 33 seconds left for a two point lead. Rockets would end up losing though. He was a rookie here by the way.

6/1/95: The Rockets defeat the San Antonio Spurs in six games of the Conference Finals. Horry had a good series, with a 22-7 in the clincher with six three pointers.

6/11/95: The Rockets go up 3-0 on the Magic in the NBA Finals. Horry has a 20-9-4, where he also scored 11 fourth quarter points. Three of those were a dagger with 15 seconds left that gave Houston a 4 point lead.

6/14/95: Horry goes for 21/13/5 as the Rockets complete the sweep of the Magic.

6/19/00: With the Pacers pushing for a Game 7 in the 2000 NBA Finals, Robert Horry scores eight points in the 4th and helps the Lakers put it away.

5/26/02: Lakers vs. Kings, Game 4 in the Conference Finals. Surely everyone remembers the final shot where Horry hits the game winner after Kobe and Shaq miss. But you know what else? Horry actually hit a three with 1:30 left to bring the game to 96-93. That’s two threes in the last 90 seconds of game time that the Lakers won by one. Here’s a video of the winner.

6/19/05: With the Pistons looking to take a 3-2 lead in the NBA Finals, Big Shot Bob does it again with a 21-7 game with five three pointers in Game 5. The crazy part? He had 0 points in the first 35:57 of regulation. He scored all 21 points starting with 3 seconds left in the third. Oh yeah, he also scored the Spurs last 5 points in OT when they were down 95-91, including a gem of a three pointer with 6 seconds left when Rasheed Wallace left him open.

I’m starting to think I put him too low.

#88: Chris Mullin

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All-NBA 1st Team: 1x (’92)

All-NBA 2nd Team: 2x (’89, ‘91)

All-NBA 3rd Team: 1x (’90)

NBA All-Star: 5x (’89, ’90, ’91, ’92, ‘93)

NBA Top 10 Points: 4x (’89, ’90, ’91, ‘92)

NBA Top 10 Steals: 3x (’89, ’91, ‘92)

NBA Top 10 Offensive Win Shares: 3x (’90, ’91, ‘92)

Member of one Runner-Up: 2000 Pacers

Member of the 1992 Dream Team

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 82nd

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 88th

Chris Mullin, like some others on this list, represents someone who threw away part of their career due to a vice, in this case alcohol. To Mullin’s credit though, he beat the disease and became one of the best dead eye shooters in the NBA, even rivaling Larry Bird. Mullin would put together five straight seasons of 26 PPG in one of the toughest eras in NBA history talent wise. Unfortunately, his body began to break down in 1993.

Why Mullin over someone like Kemp? Mullin was regarded as THE small forward in 1992 once Bird was pretty much done. To put things in perspective, Scottie Pippen was coming along and the 1992 Bulls were regarded as the best team in forever. And Mullin beat Pippen for All-NBA First team that year. At his peak, Mullin was an unstoppable shooter. Problem was, his peak didn’t last too long.

#87: Bob Dandridge

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All-NBA 2nd Team: 1x (‘79)

All-NBA Defensive 1st Team: 1x (’79)

All-NBA Rookie 1st Team: (’70)

NBA All-Star: 4x (’73, ’75, ’76, ‘79)

One of the Best Three Players on two NBA Champions: 1971 Bucks, 1978 Bullets

Third Best Player on one Runner-Up: 1974 Bucks

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 80th

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 91st

One of the players that I have to read about more than actually see. There are two defining Bob Dandridge stories. The first (according to Simmons) is that in the 1978 Conference Finals Dandridge outplayed Julius Erving which was a key factor in the Bullets getting past the Sixers in route to their title. The only stats show that Dandridge hit 61 FGs in the series and averaged 22.8 PPG while Dr. J hit 53 and scored 21.5 PPG. The second defining story is really an anti-Elvin Hayes story. Turns out that Hayes fouled out of Game 7 against the Sonics in the ’78 Finals, and Dandridge led the Bullets to the Championship anyway.

That’s enough winning for me. Combine that with his Pyramid and 500 rankings and I feel good about his spot here.

#86: Paul Westphal

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All-NBA 1st Team: 3x (’77, ’79, ’80)

All-NBA 2nd Team: 1x (‘78)

NBA All-Star: 5x (’77, ’78, ’79, ’80, ’81)

NBA Top 10 Points: 3x (’76, ’78, ’79)

NBA Top 10 Assists: 2x (’77, ’79)

NBA Top 10 Steals: 1x (’76)

NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 2x (’76, ’79)

NBA Top 10 Offensive Win Shares: 4x (’77, ’78, ’79, ’80)

NBA Top 10 WS/48: 3x (’78, ’79, ’80)

Role Player on one NBA Champion: 1974 Celtics

Best Player on one Runner-Up: 1976 Warriors

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 79th

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 141th

Seemingly an all offense point guard who scores a lot and gets a lot of assists. Westphal makes it this high as he was the top PG of the late 70s, highlighted by his three 1st Team selections. He was a solid role player for the 1974 Celtic title team and almost won the title in 1976 against the same Celtics. He led the upset over Rick Barry’s Warriors in 1976 as well.

Westphal is more of a resume thing. By all indications he was a top player of the late 70s, even though it was a short period of time.

#85: Dan Issel

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All-ABA 1st Team: 1x (‘72)

All-ABA 2nd Team: 4x (’71, ’73, ’74, ‘76)

ABA All-Star Game MVP: 1972

ABA All-Star: 6x (’71, ’72, ’73, ’74, ’75, ’76)

NBA All-Star: 1x (’77)

ABA All-Rookie 1st Team: (’71)

ABA Rookie of the Year: 1971

ABA Points Leader: 3x (’71, ’72, ’73)

ABA Top 10 Points: 5x (’71, ’72, ’73, ’74, ’76)

NBA Top 10 Points: 2x (’80, ‘82)

ABA Top 10 Rebounds: 5x (’71, ’72, ’73, ’74, ’76)

ABA Top 10 PER: 5x (’71, ’72, ’73, ’74, ’76)

NBA Top 10 PER: 4x (’77, ’80, ’81, ’82)

ABA Top 10 Offensive Rating: 2x (’74, ’76)

NBA Top 10 Offensive Rating: 5x (’78, ’79, ’80, ’81, ’82)

ABA Offensive Win Shares Leader: 2x (’73, ’74)

ABA Top 10 Offensive Win Shares: 5x (’71, ’72, ’73, ’74, ’76)

NBA Top 10 Offensive Win Shares: 5x (’77, ’78, ’80, ’81, ’82)

ABA Top 10 Defensive Win Shares: 5x (’72, ’73, ’74, ‘75, ’76)

ABA Top 10 Win Shares: 5x (’71, ’72, ’73, ’74, ’76)

NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 4x (’77, ’78, ’79, ’80)

ABA Top 10 WS/48: 6x (’71, ’72, ’73, ’74, ’75, ’76)

NBA Top 10 WS/48: 4x (’77, ’78, ’80, ’82)

ABA All-Time Points: 2nd

ABA+NBA All-Time Points: 10th

ABA All Time Rebounds: 6th

ABA+NBA All-Time Win Shares: 22nd

Best Player on one ABA Champion: ’75 Colonels

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 76th

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 106th

One of the toughest to rank for sure. His ABA stats just scream offensive player and little else, although he did seem like a good defensive player by ABA standards. Ironically, his worst ABA season led to a Championship, showing perhaps Kentucky was better off with him being the 2nd guy. He seemed like a very good but not great NBA guy as well. He won two NBA playoff series as a featured guy, and as soon as the Nuggets moved on to Alex English and Calvin Natt, the Nuggets nearly went to the Finals. So I don’t know. He doesn’t seem that highly regarded. We’ll go with very good offensive weapon that could be a 3rd guy on your NBA title team. Seems fair.

#84: Artis Gilmore

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ABA MVP: 1x (’72)

All-ABA 1st Team: 5x (’72, ’73, ’74, ’75, ’76)

All-ABA Defensive 1st Team: 5x (’72, ’73, ’74, ’75, ’76)

All-NBA Defensive 2nd Team: 1x (’78)

All-ABA Rookie 1st Team: (’72)

ABA All-Star: 5x (’72, ’73, ’74, ’75, ’76)

NBA All-Star: 6x (’78, ’79, ’81, ’82, ’83, ’86)

ABA Top 10 Points: 5x (’72, ’73, ’74, ’75, ’76)

NBA Top 10 Points: 2x (’78, ’79)

ABA Rebounds Leader: 5x (’72, ’73, ’74, ’75, ’76)

NBA Top 10 Rebounds: 7x (’77, ’78, ’79, ’81, ’82, ’83, ’85)

ABA Blocks Leader: 3x (’72, ’73, ’75)

ABA Top 5 Blocks: 5x (’72, ’73, ’74, ’75, ’76)

NBA Top 10 Blocks: 7x (’77, ’78, ’79, ’81, ’82, ’83, ’85)

ABA PER Leader: 1x (’72)

ABA Top 5 PER: 5x (’72, ’73, ’74, ’75, ’76)

NBA Top 10 PER: 5x (’77, ’78, ’79, ’81, ’82)

NBA Offensive Rating Leader: 1x (’82)

ABA Top 10 Offensive Rating: 1x (’76)

NBA Top 10 Offensive Rating: 5x (’80, ’81, ’82, ’83, ’84, ’85)

ABA Defensive Rating Leader: 2x (’74, ’75)

ABA Offensive Win Share Leader: 1x (’72)

ABA Top 5 Offensive Win Shares: 5x (’72, ’73, ’74, ’75, ’76)

NBA Top 10 Offensive Win Shares: 5x (’78, ’79, ’81, ’82, ’83)

ABA Defensive Win Shares Leader: 4x (’72, ’73, ’74, ’75)

ABA Top 5 Defensive Win Shares: 5x (’72, ’73, ’74, ’75, ’76)

NBA Top 5 Defensive Win Shares: 1x (’77)

ABA Win Shares Leader: 2x (’72, ’73)

ABA Top 5 Win Shares: 5x (’72, ’73, ’74, ’75, ’76)

NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 7x (’77, ’78, ’79, ’81, ’82, ’83, ’85)

ABA WS/48 Leader: 2x (’72, ’73)

ABA Top 5 WS/48: (’72, ’73, ’74, ’75, ’76)

NBA Top 10 WS/48: 5x (’77, ’79, ’81, ’82, ’83)

All-Time ABA Points: 17th

All-Time ABA+NBA Points: 24th

All-Time ABA Rebounds: 2nd

All-Time ABA+NBA Rebounds: 5th

All-Time ABA Blocks: 1st

All-Time NBA Blocks: 23rd

All-Time ABA+NBA Blocks: 4th

All-Time ABA PER: 3rd

All-Time NBA Offensive Rating: 116.9 (21st)

All-Time ABA Defensive Rating: 95.0 (1st)

All-Time ABA Win Shares: 82.2 (1st)

All-Time ABA+NBA Win Shares: 189.7 (9th)

2nd Best Player on one ABA Champion: ’75 Colonels

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 75th

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 84th

Quite the resume. Gilmore dominated the ABA obviously and the NBA he was quite good as well. Has to get the edge on Issel because his NBA career is stronger, although not great either. Gilmore’s Bulls teams didn’t win anything and only made the playoff twice, but when he got to team up with George Gervin the Spurs were a force. They still couldn’t get by the Lakers in ’83 and wouldn’t have any success in the Gilmore era.

Still, both Issel and Gilmore were quite good players.

#83: Tracy McGrady

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All-NBA 1st Team: 2x (’02, ’03)

All-NBA 2nd Team: 3x (’01, ’04, ‘07)

All-NBA 3rd Team: 2x (’05, ‘08)

NBA Most Improved Player: 2001

NBA All-Star: 7x (’01, ’02, ’03, ’04, ’05, ’06, ‘07)

NBA Top 10 Points: 6x (’01, ’02, ’03, ’04, ’05, ‘07)

NBA Top 10 Steals: 1x (‘05)

NBA Top 10 Blocks: (’00)

NBA PPG Leader: 2x (’03, ’04)

NBA PER Leader: 1x (’03)

NBA Top 5 PER: 4x (’01, ’02, ’03, ’04)

NBA Offensive Win Shares Leader: 1x (’03)

NBA Top 10 Offensive Win Shares: 4x (’01, ’02, ’03, ’04)

NBA Top 5 Defensive Win Shares: 1x (’05)

NBA Top 10 NBA Win Shares: 3x (’01, ’03, ’05)

NBA WS/48 Leader: 1x (’03)

NBA All-Time Single Season WS/48: .262 (59th, 40th in 3P Era)

NBA All-Time Single Season PER: 30.3 (17th, one of eight players to hit 30)

Has a 62 Point Game

Never Won a Playoff Series

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 77th

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 97th

When I wrote my “What-If Injury All-Stars” article one name I did not include but I was asked about was Tracy McGrady. And while yes, injuries did cut short a tremendous career, the truth of the matter is T-Mac still had the opportunities to have a better career than he did, but he just didn’t want it badly enough.

There was an article that I read a while ago that I THINK came from Grantland that wrote about how everything came so easily to McGrady that the drive to push himself just wasn’t there. Here’s someone with such physical gifts that he actually was Top 10 in blocks one year (2000) despite being a small forward and 6’8”. He also managed to have a top 10 season in steals as well. What you are looking at is someone who had everything offensively. He could be an elite shooter, an elite driver, an elite passer (and in 2003, was those things) and POTENTIALLY could be as good as, if not better than, Scottie Pippen defensively. That is no exaggeration.

In 2003 in terms of pure physical gifts I would take McGrady over Kobe Bryant without question…that’s how great McGrady was. T-Mac’s 2003, before hand checking was banned, was 32.1 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 5.5 APG, 46% FG, 38% 3P, 80% FT, 116 Offensive Rating on 35.2 % usage for a WS/48 of .262 and a 30.3 PER (one of eight players to hit 30). Kobe never touched that. Not even Kobe’s crazy 2006. The only teammates T-Mac had that season with a PER above 15? Grant Hill for 29 games and Drew Gooden for 19.

T-Mac was so good that he nearly led his Magic team to a huge upset of the 2003 Pistons. The Magic were up 3-1 (T-Mac famous said that “it was nice to finally get past the first round) but the Pistons won three straight. T-Mac shouldn’t be faulted though, as here were the players who started with him in those playoffs: Gooden (7 games), washed-up Darrell Armstrong (1 game), Pat Garrity (1 game), Gordan Giricek (7 games), Jacque Vaughn (6 games), and Andrew DeClerq (6 games). Even a “how the hell is this guy still in the league” Shawn Kemp played about 10 minutes per game. This team was awful. The fact that McGrady got this team almost over a Pistons team that would make six straight Conference Finals is nuts. It’s also a great what-if, as I think T-Mac’s Magic can beat Iverson’s Sixers in Round 2, and then I have no idea how the Nets planned to guard him.

Back to reality, McGrady never reached those heights again, which was crazy because he was only 24. He had a good season in 2004…he still led the league in PPG, but it wasn’t as transcendent as the year before and since the Magic still sucked around him the team plummeted (and got Dwight Howard in the draft). McGrady went to Houston to team up with Yao, only they couldn’t both stay healthy or win anything (and when the Rockets did win a playoff series…McGrady was injured). McGrady’s last great moment was when he led the 2008 Rockets to 22 straight wins. Those 2008 Rockets again lost in Round 1.

It all comes down to how hard did Tracy McGrady try. I think up until 2003 he tried his damnest (although, even then, the destructive defensive potential he had wasn’t being realized). Then he coasted on his natural talents. When Phil Jackson wrote about how McGrady was potentially going to get traded for Kobe, Jackson said “everytime someone asked McGrady to play defense his back hurt”. Ouch. Even T-Mac’s 62 point game, there’s a point near the end where he could have gotten more but he starts laughing and missing free throws. It’s an odd lack of focus (it’s also the most entertaining game between two 20 wins teams ever probably, as Gilbert Arenas also goes for 40).

I think that’s the big difference between T-Mac and Kobe. Yes T-Mac had an edge in physical, pure basketball talent. But Kobe wanted it more. Kobe wanted to be the greatest. Kobe worked out every day. I think that’s why T-Mac’s body fell apart when Kobe’s didn’t. And that’s a big reason why Kobe is where he is and T-Mac’s down here. Nothing wrong with #83, but he’s someone who should be in the top 20.

#82: Joe Dumars

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NBA Finals MVP: 1x (’89)

All-NBA 2nd Team: 1x (‘93)

All-NBA 3rd Team: 3x (’90, ’91, ’93)

All-NBA Rookie 1st Team: (’86)

All-NBA Defensive 1st Team: 4x (’89, ’90, ’92, ’93)

All-NBA Defensive 2nd Team: 1x (’91)

NBA All-Star: 6x (’90, ’91, ’92, ’93, ’95, ‘97)

NBA Top 10 Points: 1x (‘93)

NBA Top 10 Offensive Rating: 1x (’97)

NBA Top 10 Offensive Win Shares: 1x (‘93)

Role Player on two NBA Champions: 1989 Pistons, 1990 Pistons

Role Player on one Runner-Up: 1988 Pistons

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 74th

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 78th

Dumars is also a tough one to rank, as his advanced metrics defensively suck (as do pretty much all the Piston players of those title teams do…just wait till we get to Isiah) and a lot of his greatness seems to hinge on reputation. Truth is though, Dumars was a tough defensive player, one who gave Jordan tons of problems in the late 80s. Defensive rating just isn’t going to capture a perimeter player’s value. Dumars was so respected defensively that it was considered that he would replace the injured John Stockton on the Dream Team. That’s high praise for sure.

Otherwise, Dumars was fit as a 2nd or 3rd option for title team. His 1989 Finals, where he won MVP, were pretty ridiculous at 27 PPG, 6 APG, 58% FG. That actually made me want to rank him higher. He couldn’t be a leader of a playoff team, but as a 2nd or 3rd guy he was a deadly weapon.

#81: Sidney Moncrief

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NBA Defensive Player of the Year: (’83, ’84)

All-NBA 1st Team: 1x (’83)

All-NBA 2nd Team: 4x (’82, ‘84, ‘85, ‘86)

All-NBA Defensive 1st Team: 1x (‘83)

All-NBA Defensive 2nd Team: 4x (’82, ‘84, ‘85, ‘86)

NBA All-Star: 5x (’82, ’83, ’84, ’85, ‘86)

NBA Offensive Rating Leader: 1x (’81)

NBA Top 10 Offensive Rating: 5x (’81, ’82, ’83, ’84, ’86)

NBA Top 10 Offensive Win Shares: 5x (’82, ’83, ’84, ’85, ’86)

NBA Top 10 Defensive Win Shares: 1x (’84)

NBA Top 5 Win Shares: 5x (’82, ’83, ’84, ’85, ’86)

NBA Top 10 WS/48: 6x (’81, ’82, ’83, ’84, ’85, ’86)

NBA All-Time Offensive Rating: 119.4 (6th)

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 73rd

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 90th

“When you play against Moncrief, you’re in for a night of all-around basketball. He’ll hound you everywhere you go, both ends of the court. You just expect it.”

That’s a quote from none other than Michael Jordan.

Moncrief’s Bucks were always a tough out in the playoffs. In 1981 they lost by 1 point in Game 7 to the Sixers (although Moncrief was merely a role player then). In 1982, another tough loss to the Sixers although still Moncrief was coming along.

1983 was a breakout, as Moncrief average 23.3 PPG as the Bucks beat Bird’s Celtics in a sweep…but again fell to the (best) Sixers team in the Conference Finals. The Bucks would be back in the Conference Finals again, but this time Bird’s Celtics were ready for them.

The 1985 playoffs are notable because Moncrief’s Bucks are historically one of seven teams to beat a Michael Jordan team in the playoffs, and one of four unique teams (’85 Bucks, ’86 Celtics, ’87 Celtics, ’88 Pistons, ’89 Pistons, ’90 Pistons, ’95 Magic). Moncrief had an insane 150 offensive rating against the Bulls in that series. Jordan was still great, but his 44% shooting was low for him even as a rookie and part of that was because of Moncrief. The Bucks would fall to the Sixers again.

The Bucks would make their third Conference Finals in four years, but the best Celtics team was ready for them. In 1987 it took seven games for the Celtics to get by the Bucks. Moncrief’s body would break down after that, and Terry Cummings and an old Jack Sikma weren’t enough to contend in the East.

Losing to Dr. J, Moses Malone and Larry Bird year after year isn’t that bad. If his career was longer and healthier, who knows, perhaps it’s the Bucks in the 1987 Finals. Too bad Moncrief couldn’t stay healthy. He’s one of the best two way players of all time. Even Michael Jordan said so.

Other (DC, Marvel, Disney etc.)

RDT Reviews Terminator: Genisys

Massive spoilers here…I really don’t know how to review this without spoiling the whole thing. Then again the trailers did that anyway.

Let’s get something out of the way first. Anytime you mess with time travel, you have to have a suspension of disbelief when it comes to matching things up between timelines. No doubt, you’ll need to do it for Terminator: Genisys (referred from now on as T5).

It would help to have seen Terminator 1 and Terminator 2: Judgment Day before this. Quick synopsis of the Terminator franchise: In 2029 John Connor leads humanity in victory over a computer intelligence program named Skynet. Skynet looked to wipe out all of humanity as it felt humanity was the greatest threat to the world. In a last ditch attempt before losing the war, Skynet sent a T-800 Terminator (cyborg killing machine) into the past, specifically 1984, to kill John’s mother, Sarah, so that John is never born and Skynet defeats the human led Resistance. The Resistance sends Kyle Reese back to protect Sarah and ensure John is born. Interestingly enough, Reese turns out to be John’s father, but that’s a time paradox I won’t get into.

That’s mainly what you need to know here. All of that happens in T1, and T5 we start with a recreation of that day of victory, with John Connor looking to take out that time machine. As Kyle is about to be sent back in time though, he sees John get attacked. This event here leads to the changes in the time period. The assumption I think here is that Skynet has already seen the events of T1, T2 (I think T3 and T4 get wiped out in this scenario but I’m not sure). Nonetheless, the 1984 Kyle Reese goes back into obviously looks the same to the audience as T1 did, but it has one big change: Sarah Connor already knows all of this and is prepared. While time traveling Kyle Reese also received memories that he didn’t know, which I’m not a fan of but I’ll get into it later.

The entire early portion of this film is pretty fun. Skynet had planned another assassination attempt on Sarah Connor when she was a child, but the Resistance already planned for that too and sent a T-800 to protect her (and as it turned out, to raise her too). We also get a lot of reference to the past and the original two films here, as Skynet also sent a T-1000 (who is awesome, again) to intercept Reese. While again, we’re a little screwy with the timelines, I think it’s handled rather well considering how complicated multiple timelines and time travel is.

The film takes a downturn though when Sarah plans on going to 1997 to stop Judgment Day. Reese, through his “memories” convinces Sarah to go to 2017 instead. This is a strange plot point here, as I assume then that T2’s events would still happen in 1997 (or at least J-Day starting then). Reese claims that a program called Genisys leads to the Judgment Day in 2017. The T-800 (“Pops”, which I’ll get into) can’t go though, as apparently you can’t have exposed metal in the time machine and it would take too long to heal.

Here is where the trailer really hurt the film, as there is a great reveal here. Of course there’s tons of confusion about Reese and Sarah when they show up. They get arrested but cops can’t ID Sarah. They ID Kyle, but are just as confused as Kyle Reese is a kid in 2017. Things even get MORE confusing, as John Connor shows up and frees Sarah and Kyle. The trailer ruined this reveal about John Connor being a Terminator, which is a shame because it was pretty well done and would have made a great twist. The rest of the film turns into a by the numbers “blow up this building” plot, which considering the characters, is quite the letdown (Sarah Connor sees her unborn son all grown up? What?). Also, to continually screw with the timeline, 2029 Kyle tells 2017 Kyle about Genisys and Skynet, so that 2029 Kyle can remember it when he’s sent back to 1984. All of that was just so Kyle could convince Sarah to go to 2017 instead of 1997 (why not do both by the way? Is the time machine going anywhere?)

There’s two more points to make. The first of which is that the way to stop Genisys is pretty stupid and goes against pretty much the entire franchise. First let’s talk about what Genisys is. Genisys is a software that links everyone together over the internet. Sound familiar? It’s a brilliant idea because it’s something that audience members today can connect to. I mean I could see Apple or Windows doing this by 2017. So the idea of blowing up the server doesn’t really work for me. You’re telling me that Genisys can’t survive the blowing up of a physical server over the internet? Oh, and while we’re on this, the personification of Skynet was not something I wanted to see. Less is more, right?

The second point is that the film really misses a trick with the very end. As established in T2 and said in this film, everything from Skynet must be destroyed. That’s what made the very ending of T2 so powerful, after the relationship John Connor and the T-800 had established in that film the self-destruction of the T-800 is a great movie moment. Here we get close to that moment, but then a very lame explanation on why the T-800 survived. Nevermind that the T-800 is still around, and Skynet could always reboot itself through it. Very bad choice here. Anyway…

Arnold Schwarzenegger is pretty great as the T-800 throughout the entire film. The relationship with Arnold’s T-800 and Emilia Clarke’s Sarah Connor is pretty good and is definitely a reference to T2’s John and the T-800. I definitely see where critics came from with Clarke being miscast as Connor, and I don’t even necessarily agree, but I think it was done to get that daughter image that we didn’t have an opportunity for in the original films. Still, she’s obviously no Linda Hamilton.

I didn’t like Jason Clarke’s John Connor though. He felt like a poor man’s version of Loki from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Jai Courtney’s Kyle Reese is also underwhelming and I’d even argue bad. For someone who’s supposed to have been John Connor’s right hand in the war against the machines, he seems to be a complete wreck when he sees that 1984 isn’t what he seemed.

But we all showed up for Arnold anyway, and as I wrote before, he’s great.

There’s just way too many things going on here, and as a result it takes away from moments that potentially could be great. I will say though that this didn’t feel like a straight money grab. It seems clear that there is a lot of effort in T5 and they tried to make the story actually make sense.

Pros:

+Arnold is great.

+Good callback to earlier films.

+Good effort in trying to make sense of what feels like a million different timelines.

+Arnold-Sarah relationship works and is an interesting new take.

+Twist is intriguing; too bad it was spoiled in the trailers.

+There’s another awesome T-1000.

Cons:

-Kyle Reese is underwhelming.

-John Connor is underwhelming.

-Way too much going on takes away from more important plot points.

-Some misplaced comedy.

-Plan to stop Judgment Day is terrible.

-Personification of Skynet.

-Huge plot problem goes against the Terminator fracnhise with the ending.

Can’t deny I had fun with this one though. Was a lot better than I expected and really, considering all of the elements of the film, could have been FAR worse.

Grade: C+

 

Basketball

RDT’s Notes about the 2015 NBA Draft

Arguably more than any other sport the NBA Draft can immediately change the short and long term fortunes of a team. In terms of success in any team sport, that #1 overall pick can single-handedly turn a perennial losing franchise into a NBA Championship contender (like the Cleveland Cavaliers). It only takes the right kind of talent to be in that #1 slot.

The 2015 NBA Draft seemed to have two “sure-things” and one who’s pretty close. I’m just going to jot down some notes here pick by pick.

1. Minnesota selects Karl Anthony-Towns. Is it strange I’m not super into this pick? Everything in the scouting report has written about a strong work ethic and a super high basketball IQ. A lot of the concern is how he’ll hold up playing 30-35 minutes per game, as that didn’t happen at Kentucky. I think he’ll ultimately be the 2nd best player in this draft, probably a 17-8 guy with three point range.

2. The Lakers select D’Angelo Russell. My pick for the best player in the draft. Comparisons to Penny Hardaway and Brandon Roy? That’s absolutely what’s needed in today’s NBA. Hopefully he comes a solid “big” point guard and not a Tyreke Evans type. I wanted him in NY at #4.

3. Jahlil Okafor was selected by the Sixers. I was big on Okafor for a while, but attitude concerns turned me off slightly. My guess he has the biggest chance of being a dud in this top three, considering the mess of the team he ended up on. I mean they can’t just get rid of Nerlens Noel. The Okafor pick might have been bpa, or it might have told us something about Joel Embiid.

4. My Knicks selected KRISTAPS. I usually have a thing for international players, so Kristaps works for me. Obviously I’m hoping for the next Nowitzki and not Bargnani…and I understand we’re more likely to get the latter. But let me be excited for once!

5. Orlando selected Super Mario Hezonja. I really hope we aren’t talking about how bad Kristaps over Super Mario is in a few years.

6. Kings picked Willie Cauley-Stein. I was really into him for defensive reasons.

7. Nuggets picked Emmanuel Mudiay. A good sleeper pick for best player in the draft honestly.

9. Hornets selected Frank Kaminsky. Apparently MJ passed on four lower first round picks from Boston for Kaminsky. I mean whoa. NBADraft.net actually compared him to Sean Marks. So I mean, that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

10. Especially since Miami got Justice Winslow. I don’t know if I’m really sold on him, but he sounds better than Kaminsky for sure.

12. Trey Lyles went to Utah. I liked the pick. Don’t know if he’ll be a star, but he should be a solid guy who maybe snags a few All-Star berths.

19. My Knicks picked Jerian Grant. Energy guard. Kinda guy where like if he’s your best player your team is probably like 26-56, but if he’s a 6th man he could hit a few shots to win you a game. I think I like him for now.

23. The Nets selected Rondae Hollis-Jefferson. Only making a note of this because the Nets traded him and Mason Plumlee for Steve Blake. In other words, LOL Nets. (I didn’t even realize Blake was still in the league at this point).

26. The Spurs took an international big man: Nikola Milutinov. I’m assuming he’s amazing because Spurs.

27. The Lakers look Larry Nance Jr. Nance got a fair bit of publicity this week as he apparently made a joke (not sure if it was intended to be a joke) about Kobe being a rapist. That’s gonna be awkward.

I don’t really know much about the 2nd round, although the Cavs got my favorite name in the draft: Rakeem Christmas.

Other (DC, Marvel, Disney etc.)

RDT Reviews Inside Out

There are some spoilers in this review, although I will try to avoid any big ones.

Over the years Pixar has done an exceptional job is relating their films, and more specifically, their characters to the audience. Inside Out is a perfect example of this Pixar specialty. The story is about the five emotions of a young girl named Riley, and how each emotion influences Riley’s memories and behaviors.

Our primary protagonist, Joy, is the emotion responsible for making Riley happy (duh). She’s the life of this film, always looking for the positive in every scenario, good or bad. When Riley moves from her perfect life in Minnesota to an unknown, unattractive life in San Francisco, those bad scenarios become the norm. Before Joy had complete control of Riley’s emotions. Now, Fear, Disgust, Anger, and most importantly, Sadness can’t help themselves in their influence of Riley, and Sadness especially seems to have a strong effect on Riley. Things go astray when Joy and Sadness both lose access to Riley’s controls, and it’s up to them to get back and steer Riley back on track.

The level of detail in Riley’s mind is visually beautiful and brilliant created. There’s a memory bank, a subconscious, a dream world even a literal train of thought (quite clever). It’s a smart movie that will make you wonder how you once forgot about your favorite toy or even remind you about those memories that strengthen your family ties or even career goals. You’ll wonder about those moments you became frustrated with your friends and how you made new ones. And the whole time you’ll wonder if it’s because your inner Anger took control, or if your inner Joy got stuck in a memory bank somewhere. Throughout the film, you’ll think of your friends and each emotion and wonder about them too. Children will relate to Riley. Parents will relate to Riley’s parents.

It’s worth noting that this movie is absolutely hilarious, with each character adding a certain flavor. Each character is memorable and the jokes lead to a good laugh every time.

If there’s one flaw in the film, it has to do with Joy. No doubt Joy is a great character and really what makes Inside Out work. But I can’t help but dislike a lot of Joy and Sadness’s interactions. It’s certainly not intended by the writers, but I did find Joy to come off as a bit of a bully to Sadness in two scenes specifically.

Still, that’s nitpicking. Everything else works great and it’s fantastic.

Pros:

+Great Story

+Vividly incredible visuals

+Great, memorable characters

+Relatable to the audience

+Absolutely hilarious

Cons:

-Great as she is, Joy can come off as a bit of a bully

Grade: A

Basketball

Top 100 Pro Basketball Players Ever: #100 – #91

See the tab at the top of this article to understand the process for these selections.

#100: Mark Price

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All-NBA 1st Team: 1x (‘93)

All-NBA 3rd Team: 3x (’89, ’92, ’94)

NBA All-Star: 4x (’89, ’92, ’93, ’94)

NBA Career WS/48: .158 (69th)

NBA Career Offensive Rating: 116 (28th)

Career FT%: 90.4% (2nd)

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): Not Ranked

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 155th

Mark Price could be considered the Steve Nash prototype for a series of entertaining Cavs teams in the late 80s-early 90s. Like Nash, Price’s Cavs teams would fall short, at best getting to the Conference Finals in 1992. The ’92 Cavs were quite competitive, finishing off Larry Bird’s career in the Semi-Finals and taking one of the better Jordan Bulls teams to six games in the Conference Finals. A familiar story for Price and the Cavs.

Twice Price’s Cavs won 57 games (in ’89 and ’92), yet both times were beaten by Jordan’s Bulls. Just add Price to the list of players denied a Championship by Jordan (they absolutely could have won in ’92).

Price had a great supporting cast: Brad Daugherty and Larry Nance, which also drew parallels to the late 2000s Suns with Nash, Amar’e and Marion. Mark Price was ahead of his time and would have ranked much higher on this list if his career lasted longer. He’s destined to miss this list in the future as guys like James Harden are destined to make it.

#99: Tom Chambers

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All-NBA 2nd Team: 2x (’89, ’90)

NBA All-Star Game MVP: 1x (’87)

NBA All-Star: 4x (’87, ’89, ’90, ’91)

Top 10 NBA Points: 3x (’87, ’89, ’90)

Role Player on one Runner-Up: 1993 Suns

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 96th

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 120th

In a way, the power forward, Western Conference version of Mark Price. Chambers was a high volume, high scoring power forward who also couldn’t quite get to the finish line. In 1987, his Sonics got to the Conference Finals but fell to the Lakers. In 1989 he was with the Suns, got to the Conference Finals…and lost to the Lakers. In 1990, against Chambers’ Suns got to the Conference Finals but fell to the Trail Blazers. By the time the Suns got to the finals in ’93, Chambers was a role player as Charles Barkley had arrived and taken Phoenix to the next level.

Still, a solidly strong career for Chambers during a tough era for the NBA. Winning MVP in the 1987 All-Star Game, while only an All-Star Game, was impressive considering the stacked nature of the Western Conference team. He also had a 60 point game in 1990. Chambers’ only real detriment is that defensively he wasn’t much and Advanced Metrics aren’t too kind to him. But there are enough deep runs in the playoffs that he shouldn’t be discredited.

#98: Tim Hardaway

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All-NBA 1st Team: 1x (‘97)

All-NBA 2nd Team: 3x (’92, ’98, ’99)

All-NBA 3rd Team: 1x (’93)

All-NBA Rookie 1st Team: (’90)

NBA All-Star: 5x (’91, ’92, ’93, ’97, ‘98)

Top 10 NBA Points: 2x (’91, ’92)

Top 10 NBA Steals: 2x (’91, ’92)

Top 10 NBA Assists: 8x (’90, ’91, ’92, ’93, ’96, ’97, ’98, ’99)

Career NBA Assists: 14th

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): Not Ranked

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 87th

There are two sides to the Tim Hardaway story. The first half is the offensive side, the free wheeling Run TMC Warrior side. Hardaway was a fast point guard who was a key member and arguably the best player on some good early 90s Warrior teams. Unfortunately he then blew out is knee. He still came back strong and found himself in Miami after being traded.

This is where Hardaway lost his chance to become a top 50 guy. The Miami Heat were a solid team when Jordan was around, and became arguably the best team in the Eastern Conference after Jordan retired. The key word is arguably. Despite high seeding, the Heat constantly lost to the lower seeded New York Knicks and ruined any Championship runs Miami could have made. The Heat probably had one realistic crack at the Championship in the lock-out shortened 1999.

After the Heat upset the Knicks (after many players were suspended, allowing the Heat to come back down 3-1) in 1997, they were beaten by the Bulls. But, it looked like a sign of things to come. In 1998, the 2nd seeded Heat lost in five to the 7th seeded Knicks. Hardaway had a big series, but it wasn’t enough. In 1999 the Heat were the #1 seed in the East and the Knicks barely made the playoffs. This time Hardaway fell apart, being a major reason on why the Knicks pulled off the upset as Hardaway put up a 9 PPG, 6 APG, 27% shooting series. Hardaway proceeded to put up another stinker of a series in 2001, when both the Knicks and Heat were evenly matched, with a 8PPG, 5 APG, 29% shooting series. Had Hardaway come through in either of those series, perhaps Miami makes a Finals run. Once Alonzo Mourning has his kidney issues, the window had closed on Miami’s and Hardaway’s title hopes.

Can’t ignore his success obviously, but he could have had a better career for sure.

#97: Manu Ginobili

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NBA Sixth Man of the Year: 1x (’08)

All-NBA 3rd Team: 2x (’08, ’11)

All-NBA Rookie 2nd Team: (’03)

NBA All-Star: 2x (’05, ‘11)

2nd or 3rd Best Player on two Championship teams: ’05 Spurs, ’07 Spurs

Role Player on two Championship teams: ’03 Spurs, ’14 Spurs

Role Player on one Runner-Up: ’13 Spurs

Career Win Shares: 97.5 (86th)

Career WS/48: .202 (20th)

Best Player on 2004 Gold Metal Olympic Team

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): Not Ranked

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 143rd

Gets big credit for being one of the best Advanced Metrics players in the league as well as a key member for four of the Spurs titles. He was one of the best perimeter players throughout the mid 2000s, only the Spurs style often held him back. None the less, without him the Spurs don’t win all those championships.

It should be pointed out that Ginobili also led Argentina to the Gold Metal in 2004, the year the United States screwed it up with the terrible team they threw out there.

The limited minutes and injuries hurt Ginobili’s resume for sure, but at one time he was a dangerous perimeter player that could be counted on to win games. He’s probably the evolutionary Drazen Petrovic.

#96: Alonzo Mourning

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MVP Runner-Up: 1x (’99)

NBA Defensive Player of the Year: 2x (’99, ‘00)

All-NBA 1st Team: 1x (’99)

All-NBA 2nd Team: 1x (’00)

All-NBA Defensive 1st Team: 2x (’99, ’00)

All-NBA Rookie 1st Team: (’93)

NBA All-Star: 7x (’94, ’95, ’96, ’97, ’00, ’01, ‘02)

Role Player on one Championship Team: ’06 Heat

                   NBA Top 10 Rebounds: 1x (’99)                 

NBA Blocks Leader: 2x (’99, ’00)

NBA Top 10 Blocks: 10x (’93, ’94, ’95, ’96, ’97, ’99, ’00, ’02, ’06, ’07)

NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 2x (’99, ’00)

NBA Career Blocks: 11th

NBA Career WS/48: .166 (59th)

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): Not Ranked

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 73rd

Influenced from the great defensive centers of the late 80s and early 90s, especially good friend Patrick Ewing, Mourning was a great defensive center that couldn’t get his team to the finish line. Like teammate Tim Hardaway, Mourning couldn’t get the Heat past Ewing and the Knicks, and his career resume suffered as a result.

As good as Mourning was, being the MVP runner-up in 1999 seems strange in retrospect and also seemed like a slap in Tim Duncan’s face. Nonetheless, someone needed to take over the post-Jordan post-Shaq Eastern Conference and Mourning could have been that guy. Unfortunately, the losses to the Knicks combined with his kidney problems later in his career cut Mourning’s career as a top guy short. He also wasn’t quite as good as Shaq, and not as good as Olajuwon and Robinson before him, or even Mutombo. Mourning can be classified as very good and not great, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Mourning does get some extra credit as he showed to be a great bench guy for the 2006 Heat.

#95: Dikembe Mutombo

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NBA Defensive Player of the Year: 4x (’95, ’97, ’98, ‘01)

All-NBA 2nd Team: 1x (’01)

All-NBA 3rd Team: 2x (’98, ’02)

All-NBA Defensive 1st Team: 3x (’97, ’98, ‘01)

All-NBA Defensive 2nd Team: 2x (’95, ’99)

All-NBA Rookie 1st Team: (’92)

NBA All-Star: 8x (’92, ’95, ’96, ’97, ’98, ’00, ’01, ’02)

2nd Best Player on one Runner-Up: ’01 Sixers

Role Player on one Runner-Up: ’03 Nets

NBA Rebounds Leader: 4x (’95, ’97, ’99, ‘00)

NBA Top 10 Rebounds: 11x (’92, ’93, ’94, ’95, ’96, ’97, ’98, ’99, ’00, ’01, ‘02)

NBA Blocks Leader: 5x (’94, ’95, ’96, ’97, ’98)

NBA Top 10 Blocks: 11x (’92, ’93, ’94, ’95, ’96, ’97, ’98, ’99, ’00, ’01, ’02)

Top 10 NBA Win Shares: 2x (’97, ’98)

NBA Top 10 Defensive Win Shares: 7x (’93, ’94, ’95, ’97, ’98, ’99, ’02)

Top 10 NBA WS/48: 1x (’99)

NBA Career Rebounds: 20th

NBA Career Blocks: 2nd

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): Not Ranked

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 95th

One of the all time great defensive players. Mutombo’s teams always seem to succeed no matter what role he was in. Mutombo showed up in Denver and led the Nuggets to the first #8 seed over a #1 seed in NBA playoff history when they beat the ’94 Sonics. He moved onto Atlanta where the Hawks are a regular Eastern Conference playoff team. He got sent to the Sixers, and provided the defensive anchor on the Allen Iverson-led Finals team. The Nets acquired him to try to slow down either Shaq or Duncan in the finals in 2003. Mutombo then provided solid bench minutes for the late 2000s Rockets, even anchoring a team that won 22 straight games in 2008. He went down in the 2009 playoffs, his body finally broke down in the 2009 playoffs, which was a shame as the Rockets also lost Yao Ming in those playoffs and still took the eventual NBA Champion ’09 Lakers to seven games.

It’s difficult to stress just how good Mutombo was defensively. He was a destructive force in the middle that blocked pretty much anything that came into the paint. If he was around five years later, his presence would have destroyed the slash and kick game. Mt. Mutombo’s defense alone led teams to the playoffs.

The only knock on Mutombo’s career is how Shaq dominated him in the 2001 Finals. If that goes differently, Mutombo is ranked a lot higher.

#94: Yao Ming

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All-NBA 2nd Team: 2x (’07, ‘09)

All-NBA 3rd Team: 3x (’04, ’06, ‘08)

All-NBA Rookie 1st Team: (’03)

NBA All-Star: 8x (’03, ’04, ’05, ’06, ’07, ’08, ’09, ‘11)

NBA Top 10 Rebounds: 1x (‘08)

NBA Top 10 Blocks: 2x (’05, ‘09)

Top 10 NBA Win Shares: 2x (’04, ‘09)

NBA Top 10 Defensive Win Shares: 2x (’05, ’09)

Top 10 NBA WS/48: 4x (’04, ’05, ’07, ‘09)

NBA Career WS/48: .200 (21st)

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): Not Ranked

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 154th

The case against Yao: only 486 games played and only got past Round 1 once.

That’s really it. Yao Ming’s career will always be one of the great injury what-ifs. He was a great player from the moment he got onto the court until the moment he got hurt in the 2009 Semi-Finals. The 2009 Semi-Finals itself is a great what-if, as the Lakers struggled against Yao and the series went seven even after Yao went down.

You can argue Grant Hill as a better injury what-if, but Yao’s Advanced Metrics put him over the top for me. It didn’t surprise me that Yao didn’t need Tracy McGrady to advance in the playoffs. Here’s what you got from Yao: 18-25 PPG, 8.5-10 RPG. Efficient offense. Practically no help except McGrady in big moments. And yet in 2009, Yao was ready to make the leap. Just a shame his body didn’t agree.

#93: Vince Carter

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NBA Rookie of the Year: 1999

All-NBA 2nd Team: 1x (‘01)

All-NBA 3rd Team: 1x (’00)

All-NBA Rookie 1st Team: (’99)

NBA All-Star: 8x (’00, ’01, ’02, ’03, ’04, ’05, ’06, ’07)

NBA Top 10 Points: 5x (’00, ’01, ’04, ’05, ’07)

NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 2x (’00, ’01)

NBA Top 10 WS/48: 1x (’01)

2nd in PER: 2001

NBA Career Points: 30th

NBA Career Three Pointers: 6th

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 89th

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 99th

One of my least favorite players of all time mainly for two reasons: he was a massive disappointment considering he could have the best player in the league, and he embarrassingly gave up on the 2004 Raptors, which led to a trade to the New Jersey Nets.

The 1st part: Carter was an unstoppable force inside and the best in-game dunker perhaps in NBA history. He also became known for getting knocked down once and not going back inside as a result, as well as a multitude of what seemed to be ridiculous injuries. His nickname was Wince Carter. And while sometimes he was a great outside shooter, someone with his inside game shouldn’t be sixth all time in three pointers.

The 2nd part: 16 PPG, 3 RPG, 3 APG, 41% shooting in the first 20 games for Toronto in 2004. He gets traded to the Nets and puts this up: 27.5 PPG, 6 RPG, 5 APG, 46% FG. Jason Kidd isn’t that good. And if you need more proof, there’s an interview where he admits he didn’t always try hard. And you wonder why he gets booed in Toronto.

He only gets the jump on guys like Yao because as his career continues he became an effective role player for both Dallas and Memphis, and it did seem he finally realized he wasted a lot of his career. He also was unstoppable in 2001 for a Raptor team that absolutely could have made the Finals (Carter’s last second three in Game 7 just missed). Carter had a monster series in that one, with an opening 35 point game in Philly in game 1, a monster 50 point game in game 3 and a big 39 point game with the Raptors season on the line in game 6. Vince Carter was great for a short period of time, but he should have owned the league.

#92: Carmelo Anthony

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All-NBA 2nd Team: 2x (’10, ‘13)

All-NBA 3rd Team: 4x (’06, ’07, ’09, ‘12)

All-NBA Rookie 1st Team: (’04)

NBA All-Star: 8x (’07, ’08, ’10, ’11, ’12, ’13, ’14, ’15)

NBA Top 10 Points: 9x (’04, ’06, ’07, ’08, ’10, ’11, ’12, ’13, ‘14)

NBA PPG Leader: 1x (’13)

NBA Career Points: 39th

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): Not Ranked

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 105th

Carmelo may believe he’s just as good as LeBron and Wade, but he’s never elevated his game to win a Championship, only once getting close (in 2009, when he was gift wrapped Chauncey Billups). He’s failed to get past round one in the Western Conference every year he was there except 2009, went to the much easier Eastern Conference, and managed to win one playoff series in five years. He’s had Marcus Camby, Allen Iverson (slightly past his prime, but still more than enough as a 2nd scoring option easily), Billups and Andre Miller to help him.

Look, Carmelo’s on this list at this point as at times he can be an unstoppable scorer. But that’s really it. He’s a negative on defense. He clashes with coaches. He left Denver and Denver won 59 games the next season. His Advanced Metrics aren’t that good. He’s a one dimensional volume scorer. In today’s NBA, that just isn’t going to fly. After an injury plagued 2015, there’s a chance his prime might have passed him by.

He has a 62 point game and he can score. If he can either have an elite team surrounding him or he just gets his head in the game and improves, perhaps Melo can make a run.

#91: Kevin Johnson

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NBA Most Improved Player: 1989

All-NBA 2nd Team: 5x (’89, ’90, ’91, ’92, ‘94)

All-NBA 3rd Team: 1x (‘92)

NBA All-Star: 3x (’90, 91, ‘94)

NBA Top 10 Assists: 6x (’89, ’90, ’91, ’92, ’94, ‘97)

NBA Top 10 Steals: 1x (’91)

NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 2x (’89, ’91)

NBA Top 10 WS/48: 4x (’89, ’90, ’91, ’97)

NBA Career Assists: 19th

NBA Career APG: 9.1 (6th)

NBA Career Offensive Rating: 118.1 (11th)

NBA Career WS/48: .178 (41st)

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 93rd

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 102nd

When he was healthy, one of the more unstoppable point guards in the league. The one time the Suns beat the Lakers in the playoffs, in 1990, KJ torched Magic and averaged a 22-6-11 in the series. KJ was an excellent offensive player who led along with Tom Chambers a very good Suns team every year.

Unfortunately, KJ wasn’t at his best when Charles Barkley arrived in 1993. His two awful games to start the 1993 NBA Finals probably cost the Suns the title (as much as being cost a title against a Jordan team could happen). KJ battled injuries for the next 4-5 years, but at least had a good ending in 1996 and 1997.

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews The 1993 WWF King of the Ring

WWF King of the Ring ‘93
June 13, 1993
Dayton, OH

The New Generation was hit with Hulkamania brother!

Hulk Hogan had “retired” at the conclusion of Wrestlemania VIII. After a top feud of Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage, Vince McMahon had Flair drop the World Title to Bret Hart. While Bret was a new face on top of the card, he had been an excellent IC and Tag Champion over the years. There weren’t any heels built for Bret to face off with, but Bret still carried the top title with pride and his match quality night in and night out proved he was worthy of being the Champion.

Who knows why the decision at Wrestlemania IX was made to have Bret drop the title to Yokozuna who then immediately dropped it to a returning Hogan. The crowd was hot for the finish, sure, but long term that was one of the worst the WWF had ever made. Unless of course, we were getting Hogan vs. Bret at Summerslam ’93. But first we’re getting Hogan vs. Yoko II. Bret will have to carry the PPV match quality wise…while Hogan has to “draw the money”, brother.

The Card

This is being billed as the first King of the Ring, but there were previous non-televised KOTRs before.

King of the Ring Qualifier: Bret Hart vs. Razor Ramon

This is a rematch from the ’93 Royal Rumble. Ramon had just began his program with The 1-2-3 Kid, which would lead to a face turn.

Razor was such a cool character. Really could have been a top guy in pretty much any era.

Razor definitely has heat…huge “1-2-3” chants.

Pretty awesome false finish where Bret tries for a backslide out of a Razor’s Edge, but then flips over Razor by using the turnbuckles and rolls Razor into a small package.

Bret Hart wins via pin in 10:25. Razor goes for a belly to back suplex off the top, but Bret turns in midair and lands on Razor for the 1-2-3. Good match that made Razor look really strong as he went toe to toe with Bret. Interesting to see a Bret match where he doesn’t go for the legs at all.

Man, I can’t believe they were building toward a Mr. Hughes vs. Undertaker program. I mean how dreadful does that sound?

King of the Ring Qualifier: Mr. Perfect vs. Mr. Hughes

This was Mr. Perfect’s short WWF comeback, but it wouldn’t last and he’d retire again shortly. He would be back in 1997 of course.

The role of selling for the monster is something Perfect was a master of…but this isn’t pretty to watch.

Ha. Bret gets asked who he would wrestle between these two. I mean, you think he laughed like hell before or after he answered Mr. Perfect?

Hughes crotches the 2nd rope and he sells it like he’s taking a shit. I think I’ve had enough.

Mr. Perfect wins in 6:02 by DQ. Hughes takes the urn and whacks Perfect for the DQ. I mean whatever really. This match can be best described as Mr. Perfect wrestling himself. But even then, it was better than it had any right to be. And we get Perfect vs. Bret II.

Mr. Fuji and Yokozuna interview. Trying to save face about Wrestlemania IX here. I don’t remember Yoko ever cutting English speaking promos though, so that was something.

King of the Ring Qualifier: Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan

One of the last WWF matches of Duggan’s early WWF run. He’d show up in WCW when Hogan did.

Match is built around whether or not Duggan can slam Bigelow or not. A small story is better than none I guess.

Duggan gets the slam…but the end would be near for him.

Bigelow wins via pin in 4:59. Duggan misses the 3 Point Stance clothesline, and Bigelow comes off the top with the headbutt to advance. Interestingly, if I were watching this without knowing the results I would have assumed Luger was coming from the other side of the bracket against Bret, but Luger vs Bigelow would be heel vs. heel, so either Tatanka was going over or something screwy was happening.

King of the Ring Qualifier: Tatanka vs. Lex Luger

Luger was still the Narcissist here (with awesome music). I assume if Bret were still champion and Hogan wasn’t around, Luger would be winning this tournament to face Bret at Summerslam.

Interestingly, both Luger and Tatanka were undefeated, so something had to give here.

Refs make Luger cover the metal plate in his arm with an elbow pad…which doesn’t make any sense, but it works.

This hasn’t been too bad. Luger still gave a shit at this point it seemed.

Only real complaint here: announcer’s pretty much give away the finish bringing up the time limit constantly.

Draw: Time Limit: Other complaint: Luger and Tatanka don’t really gain a sense of urgency as time ticks away. Luger gets big cheers asking for five more minutes. I wonder if Vince had the idea of turning him face at this point. Luger then whacks Tatanka without the elbowpad!

Match was a solid back and forth affair. They would have much worse matches later for sure. Anyway, this draw puts Bam Bam in the finals.

King of the Ring Semi-Finals: Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect

First, Bret and Perfect have a hilarious promo, which includes Bret saying Stu Hart beat Larry Hennig, and Perfect responding with “your dad never beat my dad”.

The commentators tell the story about Razor stomping on Bret’s hand in their earlier match. According to Bret’s book, this was to allow Bret to use three different finishes and give him an excuse not to use the Sharpshooter.

So far this match has been ahead of its time. Hard, crisp moves that remind me a bit of the Angle vs. Benoit series.

Ridiculously stiff European uppercut from Bret late in the match. What a match this has been.

Great psychology! Bret goes for the Sharpshooter and Perfect grabs Bret’s damaged hand!

Vertical suplex sends both men to the outside, which was a unique spot for sure.

Bret Hart wins via pin in 18:56. Perfect puts Bret in a Small Package…but Bret reverses into his own and wins! Amazing match, possibly the 1993 Match of the Year. Very similar to technical matches a decade later.

Hogan interview. The last in his WWF career for some nine years.

WWF Championship
Hulk Hogan© vs. Yokozuna

Whatever you think of Hogan’s drawing power at this point, the live crowd was still pretty hot for him.

This is the rematch from Wrestlemania IX.

Match starts off really slowly, with Yokozuna just beating on Hogan.

Hogan goes for the slam! But doesn’t get there.

Hogan no-selling a belly to belly isn’t exactly putting Yokozuna over here…

Yoko surviving the big legdrop though…that definitely is putting Yokozuna over.

Yokozuna wins the WWF Title by pin in 13:08. Hogan calls for a slam after Yoko kicks out of the legdrop…but is distracted by a camera man. The camera blows up in Hogan’s face, and Yoko hits a big legdrop of his own to finish off Hulkamania in the WWF until Hogan returned at No Way Out 2002.

Match is awful. Maybe it flew for 1986, but in 1993 Bret had shown the main event style was headed in another direction. He also didn’t put over Yokozuna clean either. I mean an exploding camera? Interestinly, Undertaker would do the whole surviving Yokozuna’s splashes and such better in 1994, although those matches had other problems. Crowd was very pro-Hogan for what it’s worth, which isn’t much at this point.

Yoko lands a Banzai Drop on Hogan to finish him for good.

We get an interview with the IC Champ Shawn Michaels. He names his new bodyguard Diesel here.

Money Inc. and The Headshrinkers vs. The Smokin’ Gunns and The Steiner Bros.

Seems like a thrown together match just to include the tag division.

The Gunns and Steiners win when Billy Gunn pinned Ted Dibiase in 6:49. Dibiase takes out Billy with the Million Dollar Dream, then cockily let’s go. Billy rolls him up for the win, which is a pretty lame finish. Probably done to get the Gunns over as Dibiase’s career was coming to a close anyway.

Yokozuna victory celebration!

WWF Intercontinental Championship
Shawn Michaels© vs. Crush

This was near the end of Crush’s good guy run. I never saw Crush as a money drawing top face, but some thought he should have gotten the run instead of Luger. I would disagree though.

Match started off okay with Crush hitting HBK with power moves and HBK selling them to death.

Match terrible slows down though when Diesel rams Crush into the post and HBK then locked in a headlock. Killed the match.

Shawn Michaels retains by pin in 11:14. Two Doinks show up and distract Crush, and HBK gets a superkick to the back of the head for the pin. A contender for HBK’s worst PPV match post-Rockers to be honest.

King of the Ring Finals: Bret Hart vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

The beginning of the match can be described as Bam Bam viciously kicks Bret Hart’s ass.

The middle of this match can be described as Bam Bam viciously kicks Bret Hart’s ass.

Luna Vachon gets a chair shot in, and Bigelow finishes Bret with the flying headbutt! A second referee comes in to say the match continues because of Luna’s interference. Weird moment there, as I mean, should Hogan have gotten a 2nd chance earlier then?

Bigelow STILL kicks Bret’s ass, and to be honest it’s pretty awesome.

Bret makes his comeback and we get a great back and forth.

Bret Hart wins King of the Ring via pin in 18:11. Bret gets the victory roll for the win. A tremendous big man vs. little man match. Shockingly, there was no Bigelow vs. Hart program afterwards (makes sense with the screwjob finish in the middle), but Bigelow went nowhere after this. Don’t you think Taker vs. Bigelow makes more sense than Hughes vs. Taker? Come on now.

Jerry Lawler attacks Bret during Bret’s coronation, legit injuring Bret’s ribs. Lawler even throws the throne chair at him. Great heel stuff from Lawler as the PPV ends.

There’s a some great (Bret-Perfect) and a bunch of good (Bret everywhere else). There’s some historical significance here too with Hogan’s last WWF PPV for nine years and Diesel’s PPV debut. There’s a lot of bad too, showing that the WWF just didn’t have a deep talent roster at this point (Mr. Hughes?!) or didn’t know what to do with such talent (The Steiners or even Doink here). Luger vs. Tatanka was okay, but the rest of the non-Bret matches just weren’t good.

But Bret Hart showed that World title belt or not, he was the MVP of the WWF at this time. Soon Vince would have no choice than to put the strap on him.

Final Grade: B-

Basketball

This Day In Sports 6-12: The Chicago Bulls…and Michael Jordan win Title #1 (1991)

On this date 24 years ago, Michael Jordan shed the label of a star who couldn’t win like Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. On June 12th, 1991 Michael Jordan led the Chicago Bulls over Magic’s Lakers four games to one to win the NBA Championship.

Jordan had a monster series: 31.2 PPG-6.6 RPG-11.4 APG-2.8 SPG-1.4 BPG on 56% shooting.  Scottie Pippen provided the Bulls that extra push with a big series himself.

Game five historically was the last NBA Finals game of Magic Johnson’s career, and the last regular season or playoff game for him until his brief comeback in 1996.

Basketball

This Day in Sports 6-8: The Celtics Win Championship #16

Perhaps the NBA’s all time greatest team, the 1986 Boston Celtics, defeated the upstart Houston Rockets 4-2 to win their league leading 16th Championship. Larry Bird and Kevin McHale each chipped in 29 points. Hakeem Olajuwon was held to 19 and (an injured) Ralph Sampson held to 8, on a combined 10 for 26 shooting.

Despite the loss, it was expected that the Rockets would be the future of the NBA. Hakeem especially had brought the franchise to life and was in only his 2nd season. The Hakeem-Sampson combo had overwhelmed the Lakers in the Western Conference finals. The Rockets would fall apart around Hakeem over the next few years though, leading Hakeem playing the Kevin Garnett on the Minnesota Timberwolves role until 1993.

The Celtics would nearly defend their title…the Lakers would take them out in six though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYsABYH9n_E

Basketball

RDT’s 2015 NBA Finals Prediction

#2 Cleveland Cavaliers @ #1 Golden State Warriors

It’s interesting that one of the biggest reasons LeBron James went to Cleveland was the expectation of an improved supporting cast than he had in that last year in Miami (young Kyrie Irving over past his prime Dwyane Wade, and at worst Chris Bosh and Kevin Love would cancel one another out, although Love was regarded as superior), and yet, here we are. LeBron has carried this Cavs team throughout these playoffs. It’s not Irving or Love’s fault; both have been injured. Kevin Love had a disappointing year…for him. He was still quite capable of being a third banana. Kyrie Irving had been fantastic before injuries caught up to him. Throughout the Chicago series Irving played a role I expected Steve Nash to play for the Lakers when their big four was expected to go to the NBA Finals, which was a dangerous spot off shooter that could make a play anywhere on the court. Of course, Irving is far more capable of that. Kyrie’s health is almost as important as LeBron in this equation. Yes the Cavs have acquired some parts during the year that have helped immensely in Iman Shumpert, Timofrey Mozgov and J.R. Smith. Yes, J.R. Smith can win a game himself. Yes Tristan Thompson has become quite an underrated player who the Cavs might be better off with than Love. I just think the Warriors are too good.

I originally thought Golden State in five. I also saw everyone else seems to have the same prediction. Jalen Rose just said on commentary as much. But I mean, just look at LeBron these playoffs. His shot hasn’t been falling at all…and he’s STILL unstoppable. LeBron just finished the Eastern Conference Finals with a 30-11-9 average and his shot didn’t fall at all. Say what you want about the Hawks, I called them the worst 60 win team ever, but they were still a 60 win team. Cleveland also got by Chicago, which were quite a good team (they are probably the 90’s Knicks to LeBron’s Jordan). LeBron James is having one of the all-time sick playoff runs, easy opponents or not. Again, the Cavs have dominated with two of their signature players on the bench for a lot of the playoffs, sporting a 15-2 overall record. That’s why I don’t think it’s Warriors in five anymore.

The Warriors are absolutely stacked. They have a guy who went off for 37 in a quarter in Klay Thompson. They have crazy depth with Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston and Andrew Bogut. They have multiple players that can at least hinder and slow down LeBron in Draymond Green and Iguodala. The team is so good they bench a guy like David Lee, who offensively could still be a 17-8 guy today. Oh, and they have the league MVP, a guy who just dropped 30 a game and nearly shot 50-50-80%s in the Western Conference Finals in Stephen Curry. I don’t know if Shumpert, one of the best perimeter defenders in the league can handle him. I don’t think a hobbled Irving can do it. And LeBron may be able to, but it will be exhausting and may affect his offensive play. Golden State has lost three games TOTAL at Oracle Arena this season (46-3).

LeBron James has been a combo of Iverson, Magic and Jordan in these playoffs. But It’s just not going to be enough. Golden State is stacked beyond stacked.

But LeBron will keep them in it.

Warriors in 7

Hockey

RDT’s Not-So-Serious Stanley Cup Predictions…The Finals!

Just for some quick record keeping, let’s see how I’ve done this playoffs.

I went 3-5 in round 1 (Montreal, NYR, Chicago)

I went 3-1 in round 2 (NYR, Chicago, Anaheim)

I went 1-1 in round 3 (Chicago)

That leaves me at 7-7…with ONE series remaining. Can we go over .500?

#3 Chicago Blackhawks @ #2 Tampa Bay Lightning

I’ll try to take this somewhat seriously.

The case for the Lightning:

-Just shut out the Rangers on their home ice in Game 7.

-In that series, had five players record seven points or more. That’s an average of a goal or assist per game.

-They have one time 60 goal scorer (and 43 this year) Steven Stamkos.

The case for the Blackhawks:

-They’ve been here before. Goalie Corey Crawford won’t feel the pressure as he’s played well in past Stanley Cup Finals.

-They too just won a road game 7.

-They have Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, two players I know who are great. Both seemed to play well in the Conference Finals.

-They also have Duncan Keith, a defender who scored 8 assists in the Conference Finals.

This is all I know. Experience alone makes me go with Chicago. Because all hockey series as of late go seven games, we’ll go with that.

Blackhawks in 7.