-#2 was won by Moses Malone
-#3 is the best one yet, with some great player ready to take the throne. There will be much more players in the notable player shoutout, but I'll try to limit the voting options to as few as possible.
-You can vote for players in any way you want: On-court impact, Off-court impact, championships etc.
Nominees:
1. Steve Francis (1999-00 to 2004-05)
P/36 | R/36 | A/36 | TS% | Ortg | Drtg | PER | Ws/48 |
18.0 | 5.6 | 5.9 | .532 | 106 | 105 | 19.1 | .128 |
* My all-time favourite player. He was a douchebag but was damn entartaining to watch. Francis had a couple of good years in the NBA, with his 2nd and fourth year sticking out. He got me into basketball, but sadly is nowhere close to otheer players on the list so he doesn't get my vote.
He doesn't even deserve to be a votable option. But I'm making this so I just want people to remember and appreciate how entartaining Francis was to watch. Hopefully someone shows some sympathy and votes for Franchise.
2. Allen Iverson (1996-97 to 2007-08)
P/36 | R/36 | A/36 | TS% | Ortg | Drtg | PER | Ws/48 |
23.9 | 3.3 | 5.4 | .519 | 105 | 105 | 21.4 | .132 |
* The Answer. The answer you can be named the league MVP and be considered one of the best players of the era simply by being popular and shooting a lot of shots. The god of ineffectiveness and destroying his teams offense. He gets a lot of undeserving recognition on offense.
That 2001 Sixers team was very good on defense, not because of him. Mutoumbo, Ratliff, Lynch. He was their best offensive player, hence the 25.5 FGA per game. So Mutoumbo was money in the Playoffs, especially on defense. Then there's the Finals, where he continued playing well, and where Iverson showed just how ineffective can he be. He took almost 60 shots more than Kobe in the series, and about 50 more than Shaq. Sure, No one except Dikembe helpe on offense, but how could they when the USG% between you and your big man is 56. You're supposed to be an All-time great scorer, which the other team had two of, to pull that off.
There is no denying that Iverson was a cultural icon and inspired many players to play basketball. His character goes beyond the game itself so voting for him should be fully justified.
This is not strictly a stat-oriented voting.
3. Dwyane Wade (2003-04 to 2014-15)
P/36 | R/36 | A/36 | TS% | Ortg | Drtg | PER | Ws/48 |
23.9 | 4.9 | 5.9 | .566 | 111 | 104 | 25.0 | .185 |
* What a dissapointment. I like him so much more than Kobe Bryant, and I wished so hard that he would surpass him (about 4 years back it seemed like he would) but he just failed, by an inch. But that
inch, no matter how small it is, is still obvious. That horrible Heat year hurt him so much.
Dwyane is still an amazing player. He is probably the best player of the three-point era not to win the MVP award, with the second one also set to make an appearance on this list. His 08/09 season
is legendary. He had one of the best seasons since MJ, and still couldn't win the MVP. Shows you the unfairness of LeBron James. Dwyane Wade is an basketball icon, and I hope he gets back into his
old form and in the Playoffs so he surpasses Kobe as the 2nd greatest shooting guard. Highly unlikely, but one can hope.
4. Chris Paul (2005-06 to 2014-15)
P/36 | R/36 | A/36 | TS% | Ortg | Drtg | PER | Ws/48 |
18.6 | 4.4 | 9.9 | .578 | 123 | 104 | 25.6 | .249 |
* Let's cut the crap. Paul is the greatest three-point era point guard next to Magic. It's not even questionable. He's the best defensive point guard since prime Kidd, and the real question is can he
surpass Magic? That's very hard to answer since championships play a very large role in this stage of his career. So far, no. He has the stats to start the conversation though.
He has the better career Ortg than Magic, and the third best Ortg point guard season ever, just behind Chauncey Billups and Terry Porter. He has the better career PER than Magic and has the best ever
point guard season in PER. He has a better career Ws/48 than Magic and has the best Ws/48 point guard season in the history of the NBA. When you consider on how many Finals appearing team Magic was (9)
it's amazing to see how close Paul is to him.
But it still is Magic, and will be unless Paul starts winning some titles.
Oh and the media stole his MVP and gave it to Kobe. You can't be the so-called best player of a generation without an MVP.
Other Notable Player Shoutout
There are so many good players that wore #3. Shareef Abdur-Rahim, the Aldridge of old, was a good player. He peaked early and stayed at that consistent level, never really improving.
Caron Butler was a good player earlier in his career and I decided to give him a shoutout for eating straws.
Ty Lawson continues to be one of the best offensive point guards in the league. If someone teaches him how to play defense, he could turn out to be an All-star level player.
Stephon Marbury was certainly popular with his gigantic bubblehead. He was actually a pretty good player in his prime, All-staresih. Marbury
was a part of that amazing 2001 All star game.
Drazen Petrovic because I am from Croatia and he was efficient.
Clifford Robinson because no one could pull of the headband as cool as him.
Dennis Scott because I like him on the set and those Magic teams were awesome to watch.
John Starks because he was fun to watch and he had some legendary good/bad moments.
EDIT: Ben Wallace
Lastly, and leastly, Damon Stoudemire.
Obiously, all of these players are deserving of a shoutout.