Which NBA player do you think will be remembered very differently 10 years from now?
Could be for better or worse. Someone who’s overrated today but will age well, or someone who’s loved now but might be viewed differently in hindsight.
Dame, he’s very good player but he hasn’t won anything or done anything. Him getting picked top 75 during the anniversary feels like recency bias more than anything.
Edit: he won an NBA cup. An outstanding achievement. Unfortunately I don’t think it’ll push him past “very good player” ten years from now
Shoulda gave his spot to Dwight howard
Dwight Howard should have been in over someone else. Same was fine.
Sucks that Dame spent the prime of his career with an org that just never seemed willing to make the moves to put a winner around him, and then injuries sapped the end of his career. “Very good player” I think is underselling what Dame was at his peak, but with his lack of even a finals appearance I think that will be lost to time. Dude had some of the most electric clutch moments in the 2010s
He also was up against the warriors at their peak, and if you use harden stans logic, he may as well have several championships.
I recall Paul Allen’s “confused old man face” when the warriors were down and then all of a sudden they were up by 10 year after year in the playoffs.
The year where the Warriors were repeatedly down big in the 3rd Q and then came back to win was in 2019. Paul Allen died of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in October 2018.
to be fair, he also chose to stay at that org when it was clear they were never going to make the moves necessary to have him as a contender.
He was okay being a great player and staying loyal, but ultimately at some point you gotta take things into your own hands. Imagine a world where LeBron never left the cavs the first time and never won a ring cause of it. Would change how we view his career completely.
Contrary to what most ESPN talking heads would have you believe “hasn’t won a ring” is not the same as “hasn’t done anything.” He’s 7x All-NBA, he is the only player in NBA history with two series ending walk-off shots, he beat prime Lob City LAC and the ascending Jokic/Murray Nuggets in the playoffs. He is on the very short list of best pure shooters of all time (I’d probably only put Ray and Steph ahead of him in my 40 years of watching). He will retire in the top 30 or top 40 of virtually every offensive stat. I do not agree that he belongs outside the top 75 all time.
Also some of the nuttiest individual games of all time. Still holds the greatest playoff game score against the nuggets, has multiple 60 point and a 70 point game, averaged 40+ over periods of time. The bubble run was genuinely incredible by him.
Be truly was that guy, but if you didn’t watch him night in and night out you’d never know. It’s very easy to just say “no rings”. But there’s a lot more to sports than that.
Agreed. Likable guy, but doesn’t have the individual career success/accolades that a guy like CP3 has.
These days you can average 27.9 ppg over your 6 season prime stretch and be accused of “doing nothing” because your team wasn’t very good. NBA ring culture is so dumb.
By people who have literally done nothing.
This poor guy was taking bums to the WCF and we’re wondering why he couldn’t beat the KD Warriors.
I dont have a rational argument, but i have always backed dame for making top 75 he is a fantastic player that carried extremely mid teams in the playoffs. The third best guard of the era behind curry and harden.
No joke, also arguably a top 3 shooter of all time
There is no argument for Dame being a top-three shooter of all time.
Im convinced the top 75 all time based on bbref accolade will look very, very different from the top 75 based on people eye test. Dame may not be top 75 but nobody will ever forget him making Austin Rivers literally praying to god after Dame finally miss a 3.
This would also be why people’s ranking of Kobe differ wildly.
Dame has a very good bbref case for top 75 though
Yeah 10 time all star 7 time All NBA talent who are top 5 in 3 pointers don’t exactly grow on trees
Tons of great players havent really won anything though. Dame has 2 playoff series ending shots under his belt. He has always been known as super clutch. His crazy range with his very solid handle and quick release make him one of the best shooters all time in my opinion. He’s better than James Harden in my book
IST trophy erasure
You right, he did get an NBA cup trophy. That’s a very valuable win for my agenda
Dame > Brunson. End of discussion
He’s the Tracy McGrady of this era.
Who should have went ahead of him? Not winning doesn’t mean you aren’t a great player.
Not his fault Portland built shit teams around him
Now with the success of Brunson and Jokic definitely Carmelo.
Jokic took his number.
LaMelo took his nickname.
KD took his Olympic record.
Brunson took his city.
KG took his wife.
And Lin took every positive PR points left in his disposal.
Not to mention he got his name stolen. When you say “Carmelo Anthony”, most of the general population right now will immediately think of the high schooler who killed Austin Metcalf
Maybe in Texas. The rest of the country is still going to default to Carmelo Anthony the basketball player.
nobody will remember that kid once the media cycle completely washes out in 1-2 years
I didn’t even like Carmelo as a Knick. He was never committed to winning and it was obvious. All he cared about were his stats. I never understood why he had such loyal stans
I used to say, Melo would score between 25-40 points per game, but you’d have no idea whether his team won.
You give Melo a choice between 18/7/5 in a win and 40/9/0 in a loss and he is taking option B every time
I’m sure you would know better than me how big the overlap of Knicks and Syracuse fans is, but I don’t think anyone could fault an Orange fan for being loyal to Melo.
Same way as a UConn fan I will always defend Ray Allen’s move to Miami as being mostly Ainge’s fault with some blame to Rondo and a pinch to KG and Pierce too. Jesus Shuttlesworth made me fall in love with basketball
Yeah I think a lot of people forgot about Melo’s Syracuse connection, honestly. His son reminded some people. Some of these casuals dont even know where Syracuse is, though.
I don’t REALLY think about him as a “Knick” tho, for some reason.. even tho he was there for like 7 years, it feels like it was very brief… weird time in the NBA, really, to me. Carmelo did go through some injury troubles with the Knicks…
Man that feels like a LIFETIME ago 😂
What always bothered me was on the 2K games his hustle stat would be like in the high 90s and the dude didn’t hustle! Sure he would for offensive rebounds but besides that he was lazy on defense, fighting thru screens, diving for balls etc
Let’s be real, after like 20 years of abuse we were ready to cling onto anything. Linsanity was arguably the highest highs we experienced as Knicks fans pre-2022. And that was cause a UDFA turned out to be a top 10 guard in the league on a hot streak lol.
As many flaws as Melo had, we were also put in a really bad positon to build a contender around him. Not only did we sign Amare right before essentially a career altering injury, but Dolan panicked and forced us to trade away our entire core like a few months before Melo was going to hit FA and already made it clear he wants to come back to NY. If either of those things didn’t happen (Amare’s injury and we managed to retain Felton, Gallineri and Mozgov along with our pick), Melo could potentially have a much better team around him.
The night the Knicks won the finals, I heard these dudes on the subway claiming that Melo is better thsn Brunson
Carmelo was always overrated imo. Just took everyone a long time to see it
Top 15 scorer NCAA champ Only behind MJ, Kobe, and KD in international play
He won’t slide that far people don’t look at him fondly now
Melo has to big of an olympic career. 4 Olympics over 16 years, and three golds.
I’m shocked to not see this answer more often.
10 years from now (especially if his son isn’t going to good in the NBA) will be immediately forgotten about
People ain’t gonna immediately forget about a top 15 scorer who played nearly 20 seasons, including in a major city. Maybe he’ll be thought about less often, but that’s to be expected, like a Chris Webber or a Mitch Richmond.
I hate to say it but Mitchell too, tons of Knicks fans wanted him in the draft (we got Ntilikina) and for years it was rumored that both Mitchell and Knicks were interested in each other.
By the time was right to get him, the Knicks already had a surging Brunson and the Jazz asked what we would’ve used to get OG and even more, Mitchell went to Cleveland.
In Brunson’s stint as a Knick so far, he has a 2-0 playoff series wins vs the Cavs.
He was already heavily controversially seen like this 15 years ago.
If anything consensus correctly shifted that he was a good player that didn’t make his teammates a lot better
Idk I feel like we always knew who Melo was and that hasn’t really changed. I don’t see that changing 10 years from now
You can argue that it already happened.
Good, I wish more one sided players were forgotten for two way players. Plenty of guys that can do 90% of what Carmelo could do on O but also give the same effort and effect on D.
I think(hope) that westbrrok will be less hated after 10 more years
This is a great answer because in ten years a whole generation of fans will have come up that never saw Russ in his prime, but they’ll look at his stats and go “Holy shit!” On paper he is such a remarkable player, but having watched him live paints a slightly different story.
EDIT: Just adding a link to the thread when Russ broke the triple double record to see the reactions in the moment. https://old.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/64fzom/russell_westbrook_makes_history_as_he_sets_the/?ref=share&ref_source=link
Dude that is already happening.
In a thread about Brunson being on some list of point guards or something I commented that Russ was a clutch mother fucker who did some crazy things to get wins.
I got downvoted, multiple comments saying things like “yeah did crazy things for his team to lose” or “yeah so clutch KD had to get away from him”. Then I replied with his insane clutch stats and people were like “oh I didn’t know”.
Russ is really a legendary NBA player. Before that 2016⁄17 season if you asked if anyone would ever average a triple double the answer was almost always “no”. Now with Jokic and some of these astounding players it doesn’t seem as insane but it really was.
Russ during that MVP 16⁄17 season is still maybe the clutchest, most heroic individual season in NBA history. Just an absolute mad man on a mission
Averaging a triple-double was impressive, but then he did it 4 more times and people were less impressed
And they shouldn’t have been.
But also for people who saw him live he was a BEAST. The way he attacked that rim and had some crazy angles guy is just fun to watch highlight reels of.
Russ is definitely going to be one of those guys where you see a post in 10-15 years saying “only real ball knowers remember prime Westbrook was a problem” and then you remember oh yeah he was
So like Oscar Robertson? There’s not a lot of footage of him playing. But he’s mentioned more these days with how much more common 3ple doubles are
Wouldn’t that imply people didn’t think much of Oscar while he played? I don’t think that’s true…
Oscar Robertson played more like Jokic than Westbrook lol
I feel like he’s one of the players people use his stats to take away from his legacy actually
He was a remarkable player live, wtf you mean? Seems like you might be one of the stat readers. Dude was insane at his peak
Yeah, and if you watch Russ highlights, he has some of the most incredible plays. Top 10 dunks are up there with the best. Top 10 assists are amazing. Nobody gonna be watching vids of his lowlights
Idk that clip of him carrying the ball for 5 seconds after the inbound is going to be played forever
That one is still funny
Everyone wants to act like they’ve never gotten upset looking for their phone while using it
Possibly the most underrated passer in NBA history.
Top 5 playmaker of our generation.
Easily top 5. Probably second best or third best to CP3 and Harden. Cant think of anyone that comes close other than those two
Absolutely. I’ve been going back and watching some Wizards games from the year Russ was there, and some of the assists he pulled off that season were insane.
That’s a great one. His stats will get him noticed and then people look up the highlights and think he’s like Magic.
I think his online fans contribute to the hate more than anything. Him retiring will definitely benefit his legacy.
Same. He was one of my favorites growing up. Unfortunately these days people clown on him for stat padding or not being able to get out of the first round of the playoffs as the undisputed main guy.
If luka never gets that mvp or wins a chip he will be remembered as a good scorer and thats about it, he’ll be thought of as a worse James harden, which himself is already being viewed much more negatively. This holds true for all the players whose accolades are lagging behind their production, people who didnt watch them play discount them to no end
Luka carried his team prematurely to a Finals. Harden hasn’t. Harden may have reached the Finals but that was due to him being with KD and Westbrook
He has an mvp tho, theyll be looked at similarly and the mvp will give harden the edge imo
I almost think the rest of hardens career will lead to that MVP being undervalued rather than holding him above his peers. There are already people who don’t really give him much credit and he’s still playing. They’ll call him the original foul baiter and shot chucker who didn’t make his team good enough to win a chip
You could literally say the same thing about the accomplishments Luka currently doesn’t have. I know yall love him but this take makes zero sense
I wish it mattered, but accolades will always mean more for legacy, I don’t think they should but it’s the only way to ensure that you’re not passed over as a simple note in history
10 years from now Luka will still be playing. How we going to “remember” him differently when his career is still happening?
With the way Luka takes care of his body, if he’s still playing at 37 he will be a shell of his current self.
Yeah dude already plays like an old man.
No way worse than James Harden. He’d have to make the playoffs every year and choke every year.
Harden has an MVP and went to 7 with the KD Warriors. Luka has that one finals run ig
I think you’re overestimating how much people will care about Luka’s playoff performances if he doesn’t win a ring.
People will just see 2 ringless players, with one having an MVP, and pick the MVP winner.
History doesn’t care about the details. Think of the best player you can think of that never won a ring or an MVP in their career (other than Luka), how high is that player for you?
Luka straight up plays harden ball. Whether we like it or not Harden was so fuckin good at getting to the free throw line and controlling games thru said frees throws the nba changed the fuckin rules multiple times. Luka is a James harden prototype. He came after and plays the exact same way and it’s still up for debate if he’s better says ALOT about how much not better her is at this moment in time. I personally like Luka as a player way more but he is for sure at this point in his career not better than James harden. I will be pretty shocked if Luka is able to pull multiple mvps and championship runs out of his career.
Luka is a much better passer and is adept at using his size, although he does usually play in a similar mold. It’s just the playoff performances that kill me with Harden outside of a great year or two. He notoriously drops in every single counting stat from regular season to playoffs, when Luka is second all time in ppg behind Michael Jeffrey Jordan.
Luka’s efficiency is worse than Harden’s. Having higher volume on worse efficiency is negatively impacting your team more.
Also much better passer is a stretch, Harden is an all time passer too lol
Much better passer is insane. You clearly never watched prime Harden
Harden was an insane passer at PG
guys, before you be mean to this guy just remember he is seven years old. so it’s not his fault he doesn’t know basketball
At a certain point the “he is always on bad teams” narrative will run out of steam. He’s played with Bruson, Kyrie, Lebron, Klay and KP (among others).
He’ll need to put up or shut-up.
He played with Klay once he was already so cooked that his lifelong franchise by whom he was beloved had dumped him because he couldn’t produce anymore. He got Brunson before his meteoric rise and LeBron at the twilight of his career. And KP was chronically injured. That’s like saying how did Steve Nash never win, he played with Kobe, Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol, and Dirk.
Luka will be remembered as a great scorer and terrible defender who spent more time whining to the refs than running back on defense.
Jaylen Brown
Despite the accolades (NBA champion, ECF MVP, FMVP, 5x All Star, etc.) Jaylen Brown’s reputation is at an all-time low right now. He’s become the punchline to jokes. People love to shit on him for his questionable opinions, statements, and perceived performative nature (pseudo-intellectual, spray on hair, etc.)
In 10 years, all of the things people clown him for will be irrelevant. He’ll be remembered for his actual basketball instead of all the other nonsense. I think his reputation will age very well, he’s just at a low point right now
Agreed, though I think he’ll fall into that category of forgotten stars that Redditors 20 years from now will be like “ELI5 why isn’t Jaylen Brown mentioned as one of the greats?”
I think Westbrook will only receive more and more love as the years go on.
Westbrook has no off-switch. Always gives 110%. I respect the hell out of him.
He has the resume and highlights that will make for a really easy entry-level appreciation for the him as a player and the NBA in general. Like, I remember when I first started getting into the NBA like 15 years ago I was hooked on Shawn Kemp, Vince Carter and Dr J highlights. See man dunk was all I needed to be invested. And Russ’ highlight reel is one of the best in the modern NBA. It’s why I think players like Giannis and Blake Griffin’s careers will be remembered more fondly than like a James Harden or Carmelo Anthony, because the entry into appreciating them is a lot easier. See man dunk!
Jayson Tatum:
Hes on pace to be a top ~10 playoff scorer oat, he’s already 27th at 28.
A lot of the responses here are listing guys who haven’t won championships. I think the historical reappraisal usually goes the other way. Guys who won a lot but were not the star of their own team tend to lose luster over time. Ben Wallace was 5x All-NBA, but nobody things of him as a top 10 or 15 center now.
Who are the role players who get some of the credit of their star teammates now? I’d put Westbrook on the list, Kyrie, Booker, Draymond, maybe AD and Klay.
Out of the guys you listed, I think Booker will fade the hardest. Klay and Draymond will always be tied to the warriors dynasty for a boost. Kyrie and AD have the LeBron link. Bias here but I think Westbrook will be remembered more fondly once people forget the lakers years and he also kinda brought back the triple double.
Booker has been very good to elite during his career but I’m not sure he has that “hook” that will stick with people
I think that’s fair, but I also look back to how guys like Worthy and Parish were viewed late in their careers to how they are viewed now. They’re both great players, but I think the associations with Magic and Bird (plus rings and being on TV deep into the playoffs every year) got them more credit at the time than how they are remembered now. As the memories of watching the games fade, we rely more on the stats and specific accomplishments.
Book’s career so far reminds me of Ray Allen if he never got traded to the Celtics.
Luka
Euroleague title at 16, 6x all star, 6x all nba 1st team, 2 scoring titles, games like 60⁄20 and 72 w/ 5 steals, team floor raiser, finals appearance first year with a good team, lakers 1 month ppg record holder. I dont think people are wrong about how good this guy is…
It’s genuinely deranged how negative the conversation about Luka on this sub is
Ok I know the question asks about 10 years from now, but the more time passes, the less most players will be remembered at all.
The truth is, if the player isn’t in the era that you were watching basketball, most new fans won’t know much about them. And as more time passes, only the greatest players will be talked about at all. How many players from the 80s do we talk about with any frequency? Isaiah, Magic, Larry, MJ (mostly bc of his play in the 90s), Kareem…there are other guys like Barkley who were drafted in the 80s but I wouldn’t consider them 80s players.
That’s kind of it. Outside of old heads, most people don’t care much about the vast majority of players from older eras. If you’re just good but didn’t win a title or MVP, most people won’t know much about you as time goes on.
This dawned on me when I realized youngsters (well, at this point we’re talking about people who have been watching the NBA for around a decade) don’t care at all about Rasheed Wallace and Lamar Odom. Dudes were geniuses, but certainly flawed ones. And those guys won titles, etc. Can’t even start with anyone lower in the rotation.
Complete facts.
The kids know Tim Duncan but have forgotten about Ginobili.
I was fortunate to be basketball crazy in the 90s, but even since then I have had limited knowledge of notable and impactful players from the 80s and earlier unless they already had a legacy of some kind.
Maybe the real little kids, Ginobili won a ring just 12 years ago
12 is a long time for 20 yr olds. At best they were 17 and only saw a fraction of Manus reign (NBA, International).
For context in 2019 a bunch on younger fans disregarded Paus whole career because Marc had an elite season. They had no idea how many times the best Gasol brother changed in history.
That’s right. I was born in 1980. A lot of players I loved back in the day, nobody knows…or they know them for controversy or something.
I like this take. It’s like a branch of the GOAT debate and every time all I can think about is “how TF do you pick ONE guy?” At any given moment over the last 35 years you could have asked me to name 50 players that are amazing, and I’d have a hard time picking only 50. If I picked a top 50 from the 90s I think half the sub would have to spend an hour on google looking up names.
Not even championships or MVPs guarantee a player will be remembered.
While true, media and the information age will make “remembering” at least a little better. If you look at the quality of recorded NBA games from the 80s, they are very difficult to watch due to poor recording quality. Only the playoffs and finals are serviceable. However, even a no-stakes regular season game between two has-been teams is recorded and preserved in full HD quality.
Doesn’t mean everyone will watch them. But I do think more players will be remembered in the 2010’s for that reason than the 80’s.
i mean the question is about 10 years from now. the 80s are 40-50 years ago… thats not really a good comparison.
I feel like Kawhi already is remembered differently.
People will only appreciate his trees in 30 years
Hopefully Embiid. At the moment, according to most NBA fans, his biggest legacy talking point is ‘never made the ECF and flops’ but the guy has an MVP, 2 scoring titles and multiple all defense nods.
I hope in ten years once everyone is over him as an actual player that people dislike, people will recognize how incredible he was, and more importantly, would have been, if his body hadn’t betrayed him.
Legitimately had an argument to become the greatest center ever but just couldn’t stay on the court. That should be his legacy.
I think he had other issues as well, but I agree that the current discourse on Embiid is too harsh. His peak was incredible, he just had some rotten luck (org drafting busts, Kawhi 3, injuries, Simons against Hawks…)
Also a GM who was assigned by the NBA to destroy his team. Colangelo ignored the minute restrictions in Embiid’s rookie season and got him hurt again
Eh, he’s a great player, but has never shown the ability to get it done in crunch time in the playoffs (I know, I know, he’s been injured for a lot of the runs) His talent/size goes hard in the regular season, but he just throws up random bullshit late in playoff games
Giannis. After he goes to a bigger market with high expectations and breaks down physically. That will, unfairly, overshadow his peaks in Milwaukee
I mean, “He was great for a while but his health failed him” is basically the consensus opinion of him now. It’s not like people expect him to ever be consistently healthy at this point, and it’s pretty hard for anything to overshadow a championship topped off with a 50 point close out game regardless of market size. That’s always going to be what he’s remembered for no matter what happens.
If his career continues as you suggest it might, it definitely will not overshadow his peak. The later years will just be considered irrelevant to his legacy. Not every all-timer has LeBron or Kareem’s longevity. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird both only played 13 seasons, and Giannis is at 13 now.
Magic had 5 rings in 13 seasons with 9 finals appearance and Bird had 3 along with delibatating back problems. Giannis is nowhere near those two.
His point isn’t that Giannis is as high as those two. It’s that their shortish careers haven’t hurt their legacies. His 8 year peak is underrated, imo.
LaMelo Ball
He’s polarising now, and people either see the dumbness or the wizardry. When all’s said and done he’ll either have put it together, or will be a punchline of a joke.
Unless the Hornets start to show some consistent success (doesnt mean rings or anything) he will be remembered as a talented player who didnt really accomplish anything
He’s 24. I don’t think you can even really project how good the Hornets will be, or if he’ll even stay with them that far out.
Yeah, if he ends up not accomplishing much, I think he’s gonna end up being remembered like Jason Williams. Flashy highlights but that’s pretty much it. And of course his off court antics as a bonus.
I get your point but White Chocolate was flashy for flashy’s sake. I think even without major accolades, we’ll look back at LaMelo as a major innovator, more akin to Harden. Iso guard play now is heavily derived from Harden’s step back, tween-cross, and deceleration moves. LaMelo’s one-legged three is a legal move that does gain an advantage for the offender in certain situations.
I see kids in the gym actually practicing these shots. It’s unconventional, and old heads will always argue that their way was best, but there’s no reason that one-legged quick off-the dribble shots can’t be successful if practiced sufficiently. Dirk took one-legged midranges with high efficiency. I really see some of LaMelo’s offense as the next evolution of guard play. And like with any innovator, some of it is garbage. Natural selection of ideas will keep the good stuff.
All of the top guys get crazy disrespected in this era. Shai Luka and Tatum are all timers but don’t get talked about like they are
Curry and LeBron got a lot of hate when they were younger too
Shai
I agree. The hate on SGA at the moment is just crazy overblown. It won’t last forever.
Different case but similar in a way: many people who saw him play disliked Kareem because of his personality, and he wasn’t even considered top 10 all time when he retired. Forty years later he’s consensus third best ever to do it.
Away from the narratives of the moment about players’ character, people can look at players based on their actual performance.
Shai is still young enough where he can have a 2nd arc.
Frobe is more known as a dunker, Shaq side kick and volume shooter. While Black Mamba is more of what he’s remembered for now.
I hope they lighten up on Rudy gobert once he retires, except for the Covid stuff that was stupid
Wemby, with him being so young, he could become the future face, or a flopper or Toby Green (picks fights and is a jerk) or a NBA golden child , He could also be very well a Harden
Anything is possible
I’m gonna guess there is a spike in googling “Toby Green” and a reaction of “What is this sport?”
AFL people love to insert their weird little sport in to any conversation, it’s quite a skill.
I guess they just can’t fight that feeling anymore…or at all
its more like he’s either the future face, or just injured
wemby will probably age like greene, champion player who’s had some bad moments and is remembered for them but nowadays they’re overshadowed by the fact he’s genuinely a good footballer
Jimmy.
When you’re playing finals losses are a badge of honor. Once you retire ohh he’s going down
I’ve been saying this.
People hype up Finals losses these days, but as someone that’s been watching for awhile, I can say for certain they almost HURT a legacy more than help it.
I don’t like Butler, but I will admit he is a winner, for sure - and has had some genuinely great runs. But people will look back and see a lack of crazy counting stats, no major accolades, and no Rings and just go ‘meh…’. I’ve seen a million times over.
Especially since the teams he beat won (2021 Bucks, 2024 Celtics, 2026 Knicks)
It’s going to be remembered like Drexler’s Portland teams
Tatum, ESPECIALLY if he has a top 5 MVP voting caliber season the first full year he returns from a torn Achilles.
The accolades are all already there as a 28 year old, if he gets another ring there are going to be some conversations some people really don’t want to hear lol.
Honestly this goes for any of the guys who won 1 title recently. If sga Tatum jokic Giannis or now even Brunson get another one they’ll be thrust into conversations most of us aren’t ready for. Hell throw Kawhi (ignoring the one 12 years ago for now) or AD (unlikely) in there too. And lastly god forbid brown get another first team or finals mvp 😭
Anyone think Russ because we’ll look at his stats and be amazed that he did that as a guard?
To this day I have never seen a player go baseline to baseline faster than him. Unreal athleticism in his prime.
Lebron is about to start the second half of his life. He’s not the kind of guy to disappear. He’s a driven person with resources. He’ll do something really remarkable.
Lobos beer
Lebron to own a nba euro team
Jokic. People will fully appreciate what he brings to the Nuggets when we go a decade without another big who can dish it like him.
Kyrie when scientists discover that the world is indeed flat
Dame cause dude overrated asfuck
The single player who will suffer the most from being forgotten is Jimmy Butler.
Playoffs riser with no ring, left the Heat in bad terms.
Bron, if he’s retired at the time
Draymond will turn into a lovable broadcaster. Pretty much following Barkley’s footsteps
Alex Sarr after leading Wizards to 3peat will be remembered differently.
And going with tyle of player this type of question really is about, with set reputation: Jimmy Butler. In 10 years his controversies will be forgoten, but these runs to final won’t.
I’ve been a fan for more than 30 years now the it seems like the types of players who get rated more highly by the next generation (who didn’t watch them play) are guys who put up monster counting stats but never sniffed a title like Tracy McGrady or Carmelo Anthony. Next generation who didn’t see them play seem to discover their stat lines, watch their highlights, and draw conclusions from that. It’s not that those guys were considered crap in their day, people just understood their limitations better from actually watching them play.
Thinking about current players that fit that mold I’d say Embiid and James Harden feel like safe bets to be overrated in ten years.
TMac did sniff a title, the Spurs were one rebound away from winning the 2013 Finals
Kawhi
I think every player discussed on this sub all the time good or bad will be remembered differently ten years from now.
Time just does that
Jokic - his organization is struggling to put a coherent team around him. We all think he might be chasing GOAT status or at least top 10 for now, but in 10 years we’ll look at him more like Dirk.
Wemby! People will finally realize hes not a good baller, hes just tall.
Lol just stop it. He is the first unanimous DPOY. That alone will be something to show for. Its not like people say hes the best center of all time right now. Only time will tell.
Anthony Davis
Being constantly injured has affected his game and form.
He won a title but will often be on an asterisk because it was in the bubble.
Devin Booker or Joel Embiid
DeRozan. Carried the Raptors but kept running into prime LeBron. As soon as LeBron left the East, Derozan was traded and had to watch Kawhi get a ring in Toronto (I believe that Toronto could have won it that year with him). Uneventful runs in San Antonio/Chicago and now he’s stuck in Sacramento. Unfortunately, I believe the second half of his career will make ppl forget just how good/well he was in Toronto.
Damian Lillard gets more love in NBA circle talk than James Harden despite having done much less all around. Even today, James is still competing and carrying his teams (during the regular season) while we don’t know if Dame can even give 20-25 good minutes at this point. Whether it’s prime for prime, shot making ability or playmaking (both horrendous at defense), there isn’t one attribute Dame out edges Harden in (Harden also has an MVP)
So this generations Carmelo Anthony? Interesting question
Bam assuming his 83 points is a big deal
Lauri. People see him as someone who’s just happy getting points/paid on a taking team. A couple of championships will hopefully change that view.
ben simmons goat season incoming
Jimmy Butler. when its revealed he is Michal Jordan’s son
/s
because there is a “rumor” that he is
I am curious how Harden’s reputation ages.
Currently he is known as a good regular season guy who dissappears in the playoffs. But as the next generation of fans come up they will see his obscene scoring numbers, an MVP, a finals run (off bench but stat pages don’t denote that) and all his All-NBA and allstars.
In the future I can imagine the youtube video of “how this unathletic guy broke the NBA” with clips of his crafty moves to shoot FTs and ignoring his explosive first step and how lethal his step back was.
Most players. Players have their public image carefully curtailed
Bradley Beal
The true answer is all of them. It’s how it always goes. Harden, Embiid, SGA, Luka, Jokic etc will all be remembered more fondly than they currently are. Just look at LeBron or dwade. There are plenty of people online who will tell you neither player was ever hated. That’s how strong rose colored glasses are.
KD, I think people will get over it once he’s gone. But idk
Wemby
Scottie Barnes, if he shows he can consistently lead his team while under pressure. He showed some of that during this year’s playoffs.
I honestly think Dame will be one of those young kid fan favorites several years after he retires. Kids or young fans will try to argue how much better he would’ve been if he had more help, draw parallels between him and Curry etc.
Chauncey Billups. Hoping it was all a misunderstanding.
Butler will be correctly regarded as a cancerous joke.
Draymond Green
I’ll give you an odd one: Jimmy Butler. Yeah he was a dick to KAT and Wiggins so he’s being clowned currently, (deservedly so) but I think once he retires people will appreciate the two finals runs where he was the Heat’s best player a bit more, and will appreciate the battles between him and Giannis and the J’s in Boston since those were some of the high point and low point series of all of their careers.
Shai and Tatum . People will look at them like the players that they are , winners .
Not even a big fan of him, but I think Rudy Gobert will be remembered better over time. He’s pretty divisive now, but I expect his DPOYs will outlive his reputation, and people will ultimately remember him as a defensive stalwart.
Joel Embiid