2002-03 GM Survey

[fpliii]

I wish someone could find that article from The Sporting News (I believe), ranking the top 25 players in the league. Only Shaq (#1 and #2 on every GM's list), Kobe, Duncan, Garnett, Kidd, Webber and Pierce made every top 25. Yao was the only rookie (potential). The top 10 was:

Shaq, Kobe, Duncan, McGrady (?), Garnett, Kidd, Webber, Dirk, Pierce, Iverson.

I found something similar (this almost certainly is something else though, since it's from the end of the previous season):

http://www50.zippyshare.com/v/90684084/file.html

I'll look more when I have the chance...

[fpliii]

I found one other, though this is from even earlier (2000) so it's definitely not the same thing (still interesting):

http://www53.zippyshare.com/v/78929429/file.html

[SCdac]

makes the Spurs' run that much more impressive. Not only winning the championship but going through the Lakers on the way there.

[bl2k8]

makes the Spurs' run that much more impressive. Not only winning the championship but going through the Lakers on the way there.

Spurs went through the worst Shaq/Kobe team in 03

[SCdac]

Spurs went through the worst Shaq/Kobe team in 03

Eh, Shaq put up 25/16 and Kobe put up 32/5/4.

But it wasn't enough against the Spurs.

[Whoah10115]

Do you remember around when it came out? Was it also before the 02-03 season?

It was during.

[Artillery]

the true mvp voting

Oct. 7: If you were starting a franchise today and could sign any player in the NBA, who would it be?
Shaquille O'Neal - 64.0%
Tim Duncan - 28.0%
Kobe Bryant - 4.0%
Tracy McGrady - 4.0%

And Kobe fans want to pretend he was on another level from McGrady. Pretty clear who the two best players in the league were in the early 2000s.

[red1]

Oct 3: Which teammates comprise the best duo in the NBA?
Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant - 100.0%

no love for kwame brown and juan dixon?

[STATUTORY]

And Kobe fans want to pretend he was on another level from McGrady. Pretty clear who the two best players in the league were in the early 2000s.

that's a logical fallacy, NBA GMs are not infallible. In fact we have the benefit of hindsight and they are projecting forward. In retrospect it wasn't even close, Kobe a whole different stratosphere from Tmac

[Cali Syndicate]

that's a logical fallacy, NBA GMs are not infallible. In fact we have the benefit of hindsight and they are projecting forward. In retrospect it wasn't even close, Kobe a whole different stratosphere from Tmac

At the time, Kobe was better as a defender and overall scorer however T-mac was pretty close as a player.

[KG215]

In that short 2-3 year window I think many people felt McGrady was on or close to Kobe's level. He just had shit teammates in Orlando and didn't have the team succes to back him up like Kobe. Obviously, in hindsight that seems silly, but at the time it was a legitimate argument.

[fpliii]

In that short 2-3 year window I think many people felt McGrady was on or close to Kobe's level. He just had shit teammates in Orlando and didn't have the team succes to back him up like Kobe. Obviously, in hindsight that seems silly, but at the time it was a legitimate argument.

It's a shame that we didn't get to see Hill/T-Mac together much during those four years.

[Whoah10115]

In that short 2-3 year window I think many people felt McGrady was on or close to Kobe's level. He just had shit teammates in Orlando and didn't have the team succes to back him up like Kobe. Obviously, in hindsight that seems silly, but at the time it was a legitimate argument.

I think it was always obvious. Maybe the talent level was the same, but McGrady always did a lot by himself. That has nothing to do with bad teammates. He played an individual's game. He was just so good sometimes that he could take the game over. And doing it the way he did was too much to ignore. But he was never as good as Bryant. People can talk all this "If he had Kobe's teammates" stuff, but when he had better teammates and actually used them (in Houston, before he had a bunch of injuries), he couldn't put up the same scoring numbers...and his shooting percentages were lower than Kobe's.

[Cali Syndicate]

I think it was always obvious. Maybe the talent level was the same, but McGrady always did a lot by himself. That has nothing to do with bad teammates. He played an individual's game. He was just so good sometimes that he could take the game over. And doing it the way he did was too much to ignore. But he was never as good as Bryant. People can talk all this "If he had Kobe's teammates" stuff, but when he had better teammates and actually used them (in Houston, before he had a bunch of injuries), he couldn't put up the same scoring numbers...and his shooting percentages were lower than Kobe's.

He really only played one season in Houston before his back started giving him fits. And while his numbers were down that season, he did very well in the playoffs.

[shallehalle]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm21rKmllvM