Who's the best basketball player that you've ever seen?

Question

All opinions are welcome! Defensive and offensive players. Thanks for all answers...

My vote goes to LeBron James, some of the stuff he's done is just spectacular, and he's just 21...MJ & Kobe rank among my best too...

Answer 1

Ah, I would probably say Bill Russell for the best defensive player, but all I really know about him is from what I've read about him. I've read that he's an incredible shot-blocker who would block a shot in a way that he'd tip the ball to himself or a teammate, instead of blocking shots into the stands.
I've read in Big Men Who Shook the NBA by Mark Heisler that someone wanted to find some totals of Bill Russell's blocks. In an era where blocks weren't tallied, it was pretty difficult. But, he was able to find someone who was recording Wilt Chamberlain's stats, and on one occasion Wilt had blocked about 25 shots. And Bill was the best at it, at the time, so you can imagine how many blocks he'd get. Also, the fact that Bill won 11 championships in 13 seasons is pretty amazing.

Here're some stats I've from http://www.hoophall.com/index.htm:

College Playing Highlights:
-Four-year letter winner under Hall of Fame coach Phil Woolpert
-All-America (1956)
-Led San Francisco to back-to-back NCAA championships (1955, 1956)
-Along with Hall of Fame teammate K.C. Jones, led USF to 55 straight wins and two straight undefeated seasons
-USA Player of the Year (1956)
-Scored 1,636 points (20.7 ppg) and grabbed 1,606 rebounds (20.3 rpg) in 79 games
-Two-time All-Conference, State, District and American
-NCAA Most Outstanding Player (1955)
-Member, gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic Team (1956)

Pro Playing Highlights:
-Won an amazing 11 NBA championships with Boston Celtics in 13 seasons (1957, 1959-66, 1968-69)
-NBA Most Valuable Player (1958, 1961-63, 1965)
-All-NBA First Team (1959, 1963, 1965)
-All-NBA Second Team (1958, 1960-62, 1964, 1966-68)
-NBA All-Defensive First Team (1969)
-Twelve-time NBA All-Star (1958-69)
-MVP All-Star Game (1963) after 19 points and 24 rebounds
-Holds the NBA single-game record for most rebounds in a half (32) vs. Philadelphia on Nov. 16, 1957
-Celtics's all-time leading rebounder (21,620, 22.5 rpg) in 963 games; second best in history
-Holds career playoff record for most rebounds (4,104, 24.9 rpg) in 165 games
-Holds NBA Finals record for highest rebound per game average (29.5 rpg, 1959) and by a rookie (22.9 rpg, 1957)
-Holds NBA Finals single-game record for most free throws attempted in one half (15, April 11, 1961) vs. St. Louis; most rebounds (40, March 29, 1960 vs. St. Louis and April 18, 1962 vs. Los Angeles); most rebounds by a rookie (32, April 13, 1967 vs. St. Louis); and most rebounds in a quarter (19, April 18, 1962 vs. Los Angeles)
-Grabbed a career-high 51 rebounds vs. Syracuse (Feb. 5, 1960), making him one of two players ever (Wilt Chamberlain) to grab more than 50 boards in a game
-Had seven games with 40 or more rebounds
-Led the NBA in rebounding in first three seasons (19.6, 22.7, 23.0) and five times overall
-Led the NBA in minutes played (1959, 42.5 mpg) and in 1965 (44.5 mpg)
-Scored 14,522 points (15.1 ppg) in his career and averaged 16.2 ppg in 165 playoff games
-Declared Greatest Player in the History of the NBA by the Professional Basketball Writers Association of America (1980)
-NBA 25th Anniversary All-Time Team (1970)
-NBA 35th Anniversary All-Time Team (1980)
-NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team (1996)
-Celtics retired his jersey number 6
-Named "Sportsman of the Year" by Sports Illustrated (1968)

Answer 2

My call: MJ:Well i have 13 but i have seen old MJ still doing it in 1999-2003.He was great offensive force but his defense was overshowed.He was great defender,9 Defensive Teams and 10 All NBA Teams Tim Duncan:The guy is based on fundamentals and that's why he's so booring to watch.Duncan is a smart defender that waits the right moment to block and get the rebound.He's the master of boxing out for a rebound and is a force in offense with post shots,mid range shots sometimes and glass shots I'm tired in the game because i great in offense and i'm great in defense too.I defend great,also i block and rebound terrfic for a SG that is great shooter,passer in offense.I'm great shooter from mid range and downtown.I'm like Dwayne Wade with better three point shot Darko

Answer 3

Michael Jordan is the best player to ever pick up a basketball. He was at the same time the best offensive and defensive player in the league. Outside of teammate Scottie Pippen he won six titles in eight years with average talent surrounding him but MJ also had the rare ability to raise the level of those playing around him. For two years he played minor league baseball while he dealt with the random murder of his father... otherwise he would have led the Bulls to eight straight championships. LeBron may end up the best but he has to earn it first!

Answer 4

Definietly Michael Jordan. I remeber watching each of the six years he won the championships with the Bulls. He's just an amazing player. But the best basketball player in a single performance would be Kobe, I was watching his game last year scoring 81, and that was one of the greatest things I've ever witnessed.

Answer 5

The best player i have seen in the NBA is LeBron James. He has turned around the Cleveland Cavaliers and is able to score 30 points per game on a regular basis

Answer 6

Best ever is Bill Russell (11 rings), but I never saw him play.

The best I saw was MJ, especially in his last Finals: made a drive to the basket to put the Bulls one point down; stole the ball from Malone and pulled up for that infamous J over Bryan Russell to win the series. Unbelievable. You can pick him for "D", too. Just look at that one famous picture of him guarding Magic in MJ's first Finals. Tenacious!

Answer 7

LeBron James

Answer 8

Kafredrick McEachin(BaBa)he is an 8th grader at Beverly Hills Middle School in Huntington, West Virginia.Yes I know you don't care about middle schoolars,but he could probably woop any of ya buts.Same with his spectacular best 3-point shooter cousin Akeem Webb.BaBa is best at trick Dribbling at getting the ball past you not being guarding 3-point shootin driving to the basket and stealing the ball.Akeem is good at being guarded and putting up an immpossible shot then swish .

Answer 9

Micheal J. Jordan! And aint nobody gone ever be better. Real Talk. He da best there ever was, will be and is! All dem other players just tryin they best to take his place but he irreplaceable! Nobdy and nothing will ever get the respect that this man has. And he aint gone ever lose his. Dead or Alive Micheal is still the best! And dats Real talk. Coming from his #1 fan. And to all yall haters fall back! And to errbody who think they can rep Mike like me yall fall back cause nobody can. I rep that man all day errday. 24/7 no matter where I am. Ah get on our level.
MZJORDANFREAK_23

Answer 10

Earvin "Magic" Johnson

He is the best point guard of all-time and even played center in the playoffs as a rookie when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was out.

Lebron James is very good, but cannot compare to Magic, not yet.

Answer 11

What!!!!! all the other guys selected guards. Haven't you heard of WILT CHAMBERLAIN. HELLO!?! he had 50+point season in the year when he had a 100 and on that 10 game stretch he had 70+points.But he was not like Shaq, he was a good shooter in the perimeter, you may not know this but he shoots as good as Dirk near the paint. So i say Wilt is the Best. he plays spectacular D too.