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ESPN Ranks LeBron as the #3 NBA Player All-Time. What say you?

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G

GhostWriter24

Member
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/page/nbarank3/all-nbarank-3

i


All-Time #NBArank 10: Hakeem Olajuwon

All-Time #NBArank 9: Shaquille O'Neal

All-Time #NBArank 8: Tim Duncan

All-Time #NBArank 7: Bill Russell

All-Time #NBArank 6: Larry Bird

All-Time #NBArank 5: Wilt Chamberlain

All-Time #NBArank 4: Magic Johnson

All-Time #NBArank 3: LeBron James

All-Time #NBArank 2: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

All-Time #NBArank 1: His Airness, the One True King, Michael Jeffrey Jordan


Position
Small forward

Teams
Cleveland Cavaliers (2003-2010, 2014-present), Miami Heat (2010-2014)

Honors
Four-time MVP (2008-09, 2009-10, 2011-12, 2012-13), two-time Finals MVP, 11-time All-Star, 11-time All-NBA selection, six-time All-D selection, Rookie of the Year (2003-04), NBA scoring champion (2007-08)

Championships
Two (2012, 2013)

Career stats
27.3 PPG, 7.1 RPG, 6.9 APG, .496 FG%

Nickname
King James, The Chosen One

Did you know?
LeBron James and Michael Jordan are the only players in NBA history with four seasons of having a PER of 30 or higher. LeBron's performance in the 2015 NBA Finals will go down as one of the best of all time as he became the first player in NBA Finals history to lead all players -- from both teams -- in points, rebounds and assists. He scored or assisted on 57.7 points per game, the most by any player in NBA Finals history.
Click to expand...

I don't personally have a problem with him at #3, but putting him ahead of Kobe (ESPN's #12 All Time) and Magic Johnson (ESPN's #4 All Time) is going to get a lot of Lakers fans hot under the collar. What are your thoughts?
 
F

Fenderputty

Banned
This cements ESPN as joke status. Its stats guys and Brian fucking Windhorst writing this garbage. Lebron is arguably not even top 10.
 
S

Sephzilla

Member
I don't know if I'd put him ahead of Kobe

Edit - With a little further thought, I'm not sure I'd put him above Tim Duncan either.
 
B

bigkrev

Member
It's impossible to find the actual list on the ESPN website, but i'm guessing it's MJ at 1 and Wilt at 2, based on what I saw?

I have Lebron at 3 behind MJ and Magic, so I have no argument with the placement.
 
D

DontBeThatGuy

Member
He's lost 4 finals, and he looked really bad in 2 of those. I also STILL don't trust him in the clutch time. I'm just getting the negatives out of the way as to why he probably wouldn't make my top 3, but top 5? I dunno, seems likely. Top 10? Definitely.
 
M

mm04

Member
Of course they did. They helped make Lebron by hyping him in high school and broadcasting his games back then.
 
R

RNB

Banned
Not even close.

He's probably the only player in NBA history that has two other former or current AllStars on his team and still somehow "doesn't have any help"
 
J

Jay Sosa

Member
why are americans so obsessed with rings/championships in team sports when it comes to rating/ranking individual players?

Like with Peyton after his second ring. Dude played a horrible season and just because his defense won him another ring he's suddenly up there with Brady again?
 
C

Cagey

Banned
Jay Sosa said:
why are americans so obsessed with rings/championships in team sports when it comes to rating/ranking individual players?

Like with Peyton after his second ring. Dude played a horrible season and just because his defense won him another ring he's suddenly up there with Brady again?
Click to expand...

You-play-to-win-the-game.gif
 
R

Randolph Freelander

Member
I can't do an all time top 5 because my basketball life started in the 80s, so it wouldn't be fair to even guess how people from earlier eras would stack up with my generation (or vice versa) since I never saw them play.

With that caveat, I'm fine with LeBron in a top 5, maybe top 3, though I'd probably defer to putting Magic and Bird behind GOAT and slotting LeBron right after, and this is doing a disservice to Kareem, who I only saw play in the twilight of his career and Magic was clearly running that team.

Give me GOAT, Magic, Bird, LeBron, Kareem, Shaq, Kobe, Duncan as my lifetime top 8 or so and I think that would be a good start, and I wouldn't particularly order them other than saying you have GOAT, then Magic and Bird, then the rest.
 
D

DeathoftheEndless

Crashing this plane... with no survivors!
The Big Aristotle is too low. Nobody in the history of the game could have stopped Shaq in his prime without fouling him.
 
D

Dreams-Visions

Member
Randolph Freelander said:
I can't do an all time top 5 because my basketball life started in the 80s, so it wouldn't be fair to even guess how people from earlier eras would stack up with my generation (or vice versa) since I never saw them play.

With that caveat, I'm fine with LeBron in a top 5, maybe top 3, though I'd probably defer to putting Magic and Bird behind GOAT and slotting LeBron right after, and this is doing a disservice to Kareem, who I only saw play in the twilight of his career and Magic was clearly running that team.

Give me GOAT, Magic, Bird, LeBron, Kareem, Shaq, Kobe, Duncan as my lifetime top 8 or so and I think that would be a good start, and I wouldn't particularly order them other than saying you have GOAT, then Magic and Bird, then the rest.
Click to expand...

But Russell tho
 
O

overcast

Member
Maybe not top 3. Still he's top 10 for sure and you can start a debate about who belongs where. Can't believe Kobe didn't make the top 10.
 
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