The lesser known aspects of all time great players games.

**Kblaze8855** · 08-09-2015, 11:36 AM

Its Sunday...the off season...and I have nothing to do for some time. So...im gonna make and post bandwidth eating old computer slowing gifs of things I feel show some of the less celebrated aspects of some all time greats. Feel free to join in in gif or other less time consuming forms....

First...

Magic Johnsons scoring.

We all know about the hooks:

Hopefully we all know how agile and quick he was for his size....

And even when he got older and didnt move as quickly you still couldnt just take the ball as one might assume....

But magic had a good bit of "Give him the ball and get the **** out of the way" in him when he needed it....

^
Game winner. He had 34/18/12 that game.

He could score on broken plays and in desperate situations a lot better than I think hes given credit for.

The only reason Magic wasnt a 25+ a game scorer is choosing to drop off 3 layups a game to his teammates because he was unselfish and knew that guys will run hard every play if you reward them. And you cant leave a guy hanging when hes running the way those guys did. Magic will always be seen as the best passer but people dont credit him as I feel they should as a scorer.

He was arguably(note the "arguably") the best inside scoring guard of all time. Yes...considering his size he should be. But considering Shaqs size he should have been unguardable one on one. We still give him credit for being it though.

Magic had an unusual looking game...but he could score in the post with both hands...and finish on the drive with both hands. He could shoot a nice set shot...and he finished in traffic and made his FTs. He shot over 90% from the line a couple seasons. Unrelated but...anyone else surprised Magic shoots better from the line than Kobe(and Jordan for that matter)? Kobe feels like someone who should shoot 88-90% most years.

Anyway....ever hear the story of Magic calling his dad before that game 6 as a rookie where he filled in for Kareem and dropped 40? He told him he was taking it back to HS...and he was gonna score a lot.

I suspect Magic could have done such things whenever he wanted. He was too good on the run and the 80s west gave him too many chances to do it. Magic probably could have dropped 60 on the Kings or Nuggets at will.

**STATUTORY** · 08-09-2015, 11:41 AM

Kobe is actually a great passer, most assists at the shooting guard position. But it goes beyond the stats, he wasn't someone who was gonna drive in and kick out for the generic cheesy assist but he had the ability to make truly imaginative passes and a great court vision. A true maestro of the court. doesn't get talked about as much.

**RRR3** · 08-09-2015, 11:43 AM

LeBron: Scoring.

Unlike Magic, though, LeBron does score at an all-time great rate, but you'd never think he did given the way people talk about him.

**Kblaze8855** · 08-09-2015, 11:53 AM

I assumed Kobes Passing, Birds athletic ability, and Jordans *insert whatever someone pretends people dont know about Jordan* would come up rather quickly. And thats all well and good. But for now im gonna stick with some I rarely if ever see come up. Like Charles Barkleys suprising shot blocking...he didnt block that many...but he had some of the most spectacular blocks of all time....and nobody mentions it. I may go into that later...

And Duncans early career athletic ability:

**BuffaloBill** · 08-09-2015, 11:58 AM

Duncan's outlet. Countless easy buckets, notice the curve on the ball

**GIF REACTION** · 08-09-2015, 12:00 PM

Chris Webber's defense

**SamuraiSWISH** · 08-09-2015, 12:07 PM

For Barkley I was actually going to say his surprising and often forgot about three point shooting ability. People usually just think of him as a low block scorer but he had a long ball as well as decent handle for his position type.

Because of his ability to shoot the 3, I think he had like 56 in 3 quarters in a playoff game on Webber's Warriors. It's a forgotten abilities for Barkley because he was an odd SG - SF - PF combo hybrid.

And yes, Kobe and MJs passing ability is severely underrated.

Pippen and Penny's post up games are lesser known as well.

Or when people say Iverson had the ball in his hands a lot. He actually was a very good off the ball player with a tremendous motor who was always going and moving. Much like Rip, Reggie or Ray. Decent catch and shoot player too. He was just really undersized for his position of SG.

Bird's early career athletic ability and defensive capabilities are slept on aspects to his arsenal.

**LAZERUSS** · 08-09-2015, 12:14 PM

Magic could easily have been a 30 ppg scorer. That was proven in his very first year, and in the clinching game six of the Finals.

Later on in his career, he would put together strings of games in which he would routinely hang 30+ point games (and right in the middle of them, he would have a 4 point game on a couple of shots.) In the '90 playoffs, when his team was down 2-1 to the Suns, and no one else was doing anything, he hung back-to-back games of 43 points.

BTW, an interesting side-note... In his long rivalry with Larry Bird, guess which player had the highest scoring H2H game? Yep...Magic, and he had the TWO highest, with games of 39 and 37 points.

**Kblaze8855** · 08-09-2015, 12:42 PM

Good call on the Duncan outlet passing. Marc Gasol does a lot of that too:

This one ive had stashed in a folder for a few years and never got around to using:

**Kblaze8855** · 08-09-2015, 12:44 PM

Anyone wondering about the Barkley blocks...I meant things like this:

Not many could just go bully young Hakeem with the full extension like that.

**sdot_thadon** · 08-09-2015, 12:48 PM

Lots of people forget Charles was only like 6'3 in reality cause he played so big. I always loved the one man fastbreaks.

**Indian guy** · 08-09-2015, 12:49 PM

Pippen's athleticism in 1992. Everybody recognizes Pip as a great athlete, but nobody really considers him Tier 1. But having been binge-watching a lot of '92 Bulls games recently, not only is he a superior athlete than MJ that season, but the only SF I would dare consider better than that version of Pip is peak LeBron. Physically, everything just came together for him that year(like 2003 for Kobe). Just check out this alley oop from that season. And he was making freak plays like that in every single game. His motor was relentless.

**Kblaze8855** · 08-09-2015, 12:52 PM

not only is he a superior athlete than MJ that season

I dont think thats how it works...

**Indian guy** · 08-09-2015, 12:56 PM

Originally Posted by Kblaze8855

I dont think thats how it works...

I know what you mean, but '92 Pippen IS a better athlete than '92 MJ, who was still a great athlete.

**tpols** · 08-09-2015, 01:12 PM

KG's vicious dunking ability.. everyone paints him as a soft midrange shooter when twolve beast mode KG could light you up if given the chance.

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