Most Overrated player of: All time, This Decade, and Last Season.

[Stoney]

All time:
tough call between Ralph Sampson and Bill Walton. Walton is rated by some as a top 25- 30 player of all time with a proffesional career where he only had two elite level seasons, and even in those two seasons he was plagued by injuries. Too many people overrate his level of play in the Blazers' championship season, while good, he still got outplayed by Kareem almost as badly as Hakeem outplayed Robinson in 95. While Walton and the Blazers won their series, unlike Robinson and the spurs, you can't give all the credit to Walton for that, as basketball is a team game after all, and Walton had better teammates than Kareem that year. I'll agree that he was really great in college though.

While he might not be overrated today, Sampson was extreamly overrated during the first half of the 80'es. Not only did he win three straight college player of the year awards while only having good but not great stats and never leading his team to a championship or even the title game. In the NBA, he was then seen by many as the best player on a Rockets team where Hakeem both have better stats than him, played better defence, and stepped up his game much more during the playoffs, with the exception being Sampsons memorable shot against the Lakers in the WCF in 86. After 86 he struggled with injuries and was sort of forgotten, and today i would not say he's that overrated.

This decade:
Too many to pick only one. The cousins VC and T- Mac, with Bosh, Arenas and JJ up there too.

Last season:
While i love to watch Rondo play, i gotta go with him in this one. Sometimes people talked/talks like he's a top 3 PG in the league, which he isn't yet.

[gengiskhan]

IMHO

Most overrated player of 2000 Decade: Kobe Bryant (runner up: Dirk Nowitski)

Why?

very simple. Kobe never had as dominant a season as Shaq.

Kobe never had as dominant NBA finals series as Dwyane Wade had in SG position despite being to NBA finals record 7 times so far(Wont even bother comparing him to Shaq's & Dunkin's finals performances)

Yet. Kobe Bryant is called Player of the 2000 decade despite winning rings with most dominant big man of 2000 decade.

His PER efficiancy is good but not outstanding for the decade. ESPN the media gladly wanna disgrace Shaq & Dunkin dominance of the 2000 decade & gave it to Kobe. This was laughable at best.

Why?

plainly cuz of 35ppg season when he was jocking every shot despite 45%FG & that 81 pts game. Kobe is great no doubt. but so were drexlar & dominique. He is still no shaq or dunkin in 2000 decade.

Runner Up: Nowitski is the 2000 decade larry bird. thats just laughable. He is anything but a franchise player.

[FindingTim]

Kobe's game is so 2-faced that I don't feel fully comfortable mentioning him in the overrated section.

I'm only 21 so I didn't see Drexler play much, but from what I've seen he wasn't that great. If memory serves right he can't even dribble with his left hand...

Currently I think Lamarcus Aldridge and Dwight Howard are way overrated. Aldridge could do so much more to utilize his talents, just like Howard (though he seems to have improved on offense)

[dgnr8]

KOBEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEe

[indiefan24]

(Wont even bother comparing him to Shaq's & Dunkin's finals performances)

dunkin donuts mmmmm

[IN-PAX-WE-TRUST]

Decade: T-Mac

Last Season: Bosh ( the guy put up numbers on a crappy team for years. The Shareef comparisons are legit)

All-Time- DUNNO

[magnax1]

Of course injuries are part of the equation, you can't judge someone who only played ~60% of a season.

It's true, Wade played great in the (rather few) games he played, but not on Dirk's level. Better scorer? 24.5 @ 50.2/41.6/90.4 is definitely not worse than to 26 @49.1/26.6/80.7. Better passer? Wade is a guard, so he should be, but Nowitzki is also a great passer, especially considering that he's a 7ft PF with (at least at that time) offensively liable bigs that can't utilize his passes for sh*t. Oh, and he is extremely well at ball-handling and produces only few turnovers. So while Wade had twice as much assists than Dirk in 06/07, he furthermore caused twice as much turnovers. Dirk had 9 rebounds per game and finished 8th in defensive rebounds in his MVP season, pretty good considering he's a perimeter-oriented player.

Also, Dirk lead his rather mediocre team to ]67 wins, finished #1 in PER and win shares, and #3 in offensive ratin (#12 in defensive rating, for those who think that MVP Dirk was still "irk").

Well, I'm tired of this revisionist discussion. Let's just agree to disagree, then.

I laughed at the bold part. The Mav's perimeter was stacked.
I also laughed at 27 on 49% isn't better then 24.5 on 50%. It really doesn't get any simpler then when comparing a one dimensional scorer, to a complete player, and the complete player is a better scorer anyway, then the complete player is better.

[seoerizer]

Kevin Durant.

[raptorfan_dr07]

It's Kobe Bryant, pretty easily and I think a lot of reasonable, knowledgeable basketball fans agree but they don't want to be perceived as "haters' so they don't mention him.

Kobe IS a great player, that much is obvious. But come on. You actually have the media and a lot of ignorant fans who not only believe he is in the same league as Michael Jordan (which he never has been) but some believe he's BETTER. If he wins 6 rings, you'll have even more ignorant people hyping the comparison when Kobe is not, has never been nor will ever be on the same level as Jordan, much less BETTER. That's not even a slight on Kobe, it's just the truth. How could he NOT be overrated given that?

NO other plaiyer has been as undeservedly compared to a player widely regarded as the GOAT. If that's not overrated, I don't know what is. And yes, you can be a great player but very overrated. (Kobe Bryant).

Reading through this thread, there are actually a good number of posters who have selected this answer. This is my answer for all three questions as well, but you could probably make the case for some others, especially when talking about past decade and last season. However, I think it's Kobe pretty easily when talking about all time.

[chazzy]

Last season was definitely Durant. I heard some ridiculous comments from analysts in the offseason.

ex. Stein: "Why is it a big deal that Lebron teamed up with Wade? He's not a top flight player like Kevin Durant or something"

[Jasper]

Quite the posts ...

Any case the list can be long in regards to players considered all-time.

When I look at a player over rated - it would mean over the whole compulation of his career people expected him to take his team or teams to the promised land and the result was ZILLCH.

But the OP post also stated this decade as well as last season.
This gives me an edge to name one player that could of would of should of taken his team to the promised land , and two franchises expected the same :

Baron Davis

yep he was injury prone ... but he's had some serious hip , like many in past history and is sitting on a nice contract right NOW.

[Jasper]

Reading through this thread, there are actually a good number of posters who have selected this answer. This is my answer for all three questions as well, but you could probably make the case for some others, especially when talking about past decade and last season. However, I think it's Kobe pretty easily when talking about all time.

Over rated comes with a cost.
Even though he is over hyped , he has assisted in delivering championships.
Even though he is glorified - over rated should be someone that fans , franchises all thought would help their organization take them to some where special.

Last season was definitely Durant. I heard some ridiculous comments from analysts in the offseason.

ex. Stein: "Why is it a big deal that Lebron teamed up with Wade? He's not a top flight player like Kevin Durant or something"

I follow Stein man pretty closely , and I do not remember - ever him saying this .. .you have any proof ?
Stein was the always on Lebron as the best or 2nd best in the world , next to Kobe.

[MasterDurant24]

Quite the posts ...

Any case the list can be long in regards to players considered all-time.

When I look at a player over rated - it would mean over the whole compulation of his career people expected him to take his team or teams to the promised land and the result was ZILLCH.

But the OP post also stated this decade as well as last season.
This gives me an edge to name one player that could of would of should of taken his team to the promised land , and two franchises expected the same :

Baron Davis

yep he was injury prone ... but he's had some serious hip , like many in past history and is sitting on a nice contract right NOW.

[ashbelly]

Reading through this thread, there are actually a good number of posters who have selected this answer. This is my answer for all three questions as well, but you could probably make the case for some others, especially when talking about past decade and last season. However, I think it's Kobe pretty easily when talking about all time.

You guys are on a roll today.

[opps]

IMHO

Most overrated player of 2000 Decade: Kobe Bryant (runner up: Dirk Nowitski)

Why?

very simple. Kobe never had as dominant a season as Shaq.

Kobe never had as dominant NBA finals series as Dwyane Wade had in SG position despite being to NBA finals record 7 times so far(Wont even bother comparing him to Shaq's & Dunkin's finals performances)

Yet. Kobe Bryant is called Player of the 2000 decade despite winning rings with most dominant big man of 2000 decade.

His PER efficiancy is good but not outstanding for the decade. ESPN the media gladly wanna disgrace Shaq & Dunkin dominance of the 2000 decade & gave it to Kobe. This was laughable at best.

Why?

plainly cuz of 35ppg season when he was jocking every shot despite 45%FG & that 81 pts game. Kobe is great no doubt. but so were drexlar & dominique. He is still no shaq or dunkin in 2000 decade.

Runner Up: Nowitski is the 2000 decade larry bird. thats just laughable. He is anything but a franchise player.

Kobe has the most rings in the game today along with Fisher.
He has been in the Finals in the last three years.
Won MVP & 2 MVP's
& overall has been in the Finals 7 times.
+ many other accomplishments

How in the **** is he the most overated player of the decade??? Kobe went number 13 in the draft & rode the bench his first few years. If anything he has overachieved