So we've been counting down the days 'til the NBA season tips off, and that day is today! With that said, I've been a bit behind in my count-downing-ing. Thus, you get the top 4 in one gi-normous post. Okay, it's not that gi-normous. But what do you want? New accolades for the already universally acclaimed? These guys are the best, and you'd be hard put to find reasonable arguments against it. At this point in his career, you might argue Kobe isn't as valuable as some of the other players. I'd argue he still has a slew of years left in him, mostly because he's the most dogmatic player when it comes to conditioning. Anyway, here's the top 4, in descending order, because really why feign anticipation when the future is already upon us? (Last year's rankings in parentheses...sorry no pics, I wanted to get this up before tip off actually went down, so I'm posting from work. Shhh! Don't tell anyone!)
1. Lebron James (1)…The King really does make the competition look weak by comparison. I’m not hating on Kobe as #2, but I feel qualified enough to confidently say that the whole 1 and 1A discussion that went on during last season’s playoffs was sheer bogosity. Lebron James is hands down the number one player in the NBA. Making this list, I actually wondered who could deservedly be placed at the number 2 slot, as ALMOST as good as James. No one seemed even in the ballpark. Last season, no one else was in the conversation for MVP, and Lebron earned that. He is the most talented player in the league and he consistently performs up to his abilities, making him the scariest thing since the Black Death (how is that not an incredible and controversial nickname for some athlete yet?).
Now, LBJ doesn’t come into this season without a bit of controversy. He’s been dubbed any number of belittling names for his actions as the ’09 season came to a close (and for Lebron Gate this summer). Still, it almost gives him more of an edge this year. If you were to compare these top 4 guys to super heroes, Lebron would be Captain America. He's obviously created in a lab somewhere, and he's got that superhuman quality without seeming next-to-godly. He's the guy you want leading your team (of super heroes OR regular Joes, Jamarios, and Delontes), but at the same time you wonder if that pristine front can really be all there is to him. I hope these faux pas aren't simply blips on his path to world edification but rather a sign of the edge needed for utter domination.
2. Kobe Bryant (2). After several seasons of controversy and much heated debate, this seems to be the slot Kobe Bryant now fills comfortably. At this point, Mamba is a known quantity. So known, in fact, I don’t think I have much to say about him. The only statement I need to make is that there are three aspects of greatness in my mind, and Kobe excels in all three. They are talent, effort, and skill. Kobe is arguably the best ever in two of the three.
First let’s start with the aspect I wouldn’t rank him tops in historically: talent. Kobe may not be the most talented basketball player on the planet, but he is close. Talent is the potential that is talked about as upside, and it is the quiet inner nexus that allows players to grow. Obviously, you need to have this if you’re going to be one of the elite. (Quick aside: top 5 most talented players ever have to be MJ, Lebron, Chamberlain, Dr. J, and Magic) The other aspect that goes hand in hand with talent is effort. Effort is often thought of as the refuge of role players and glue guys. I look it as the maximization of potential. Think of talent as a bubble and maximization as the extent to which a player fills this space with actual ability and accomplishments. Kobe may not have been blessed with the largest potential bubble in history, but no one can dispute that he’s filled his cup the brimming, and maybe even snuck back to the well for refills. (If you talk about the biggest bubbles filled most maximally, I would go with Kobe, MJ, Mailman, and Bill Russell as the archetypes.)
The last aspect speaks to those abilities filled out through maximization. Here, again, Kobe could potentially be at the top of the list historically. Kobe Bryant, in my humble estimation, is the most skilled player in the NBA. Tops ever would include Bryant, Duncan, Bird, MJ, and Chamberlain? The difference between talent and skill is that skill exists outside of realms solely inhabited by athleticism. Thus, we can see that Lebron is more talented than Kobe, though he may not ever be as skilled. Mamba is a technician of the highest order. Oh, and to continue the super hero conceit, Kobe is totally Spider-man. I'll let you play with that on your own time. Okay, more listing…
3. Dwight Howard (8)…I honestly think this is a big drop from the two spot, but last season was a recession of sorts when speaking of high profile players on display. Several major talents underperformed when compared to 07-08. Thus, though Dwight has several very obvious needs to elevate his game to where we all want to see it, he gets the nod at 3. Besides, he didn't exactly get worse over the last year or so. Despite the not hard to see flaws, Superman's become the barometer for dominant when it comes to defense and rebounding. Some Ewing Theory questions arose in this year's playoffs, and there was a steep drop-off when he was pitted against a team with size enough to keep Andrew Bynum off the court in the finals, but expect Howard to come back just as dominant. Last offseason, I didn't see much improvement, and I attribute that to the Olympics. That's what I hear, anyway. This offseason, with a finals lost stewing in his craw for 5 months, expect him to come back with at least one new post move. Here's hoping.
4. Dwyane Wade (11)…Wade may be getting dropped out of the 3 spot simply for his team’s underwhelming performance this year. Also, when taking into consideration the ability of the top 3 guys to take over games, Wade just comes out a little short. All that aside, he had a great season. For much of it, he was said to be in the MVP race. It was a statistical tour de force by Wade, and much hurrah-ed reinvention of the Iverson plus two show of recklessly abandoning self preservation we saw early in Wade's already championship-filigreed resume. I don't know. Words kind of fail me. The Dark Knight brings it all, and he wants to make the all-defense team this year. Watch out. The question now is simply what will his team bring?
What will any team bring? For all my hullaballooing over the top talent (and talent maximization) in the league, the season is made up of teams. These top 50 players will head the storylines throughout the season, that much we can be fairly certain of. Everything else? To be determined. And it all starts...in two hours!
NBA Top 50: The Super Beings (No. 1-4)
