On a one off basis guys can have out there opinions but if you have a bunch of former players or coaches saying the same thing about a player it is absolutely worth consideration.

This sub seems to selectively pick and choose what former player takes to see as credible depending on the player that is being discussed and if the praise or criticism matches up to a preferred narrative here

i’m sorry but i’d rather listen to a player or a coaches flawed take on a game than respect the opinion of some random ass journalist who probably never played the game at a high level

Acting like journalist opinion is gospel will always be far more hilarious. For every player with an obviously bad take, there are far more of them from journalists that you can find on this sub alone…

I want to be fair and say both sides of the coin should contribute to the conversation, but it’s probably a 60-40 split for me favoring players. Most journalist are not Zach Lowe. Heck, they’re not even Ben Simmons who still has some shit takes from time to time.

Your take is funny with how bad it is. Taken as a group, players/coaches are immensely more qualified to judge the relative skill of other players than journalists.

And sports journalists are wise people that never have dumb opinions?

I’ve definitely hear more dumb stuff said by journalists than players/coaches.

What are you talking about? Michael Jordan was obviously an amazing owner for the Charlotte Hornets & Dennis Rodman has never made any bad takes. Shaq definitely doesn’t denigrate modern centers whenever he can, Isiah Thomas & Joe Dumars were great in management, & it’s not like Kendrick Perkins isn’t one of the most respected media analysts ever.

In all seriousness, yeah. NBA players are probably the least objective sources you can find. Their top 10 lists are absolutely wild.

Awards based on NBA media is a fucking joke. Almost all of these media are funded by gambling and there are dozens of legacy newspaper votes. Who even reads local newspapers anymore?

I am also curious as to how highly Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili are regarded

hakeem is considered the best defensive player ever. or at least in the top list. some think hes the best center as well… hes not some guy that just capilized on a few years

That’s a main reason why I don’t hold Tim Duncan or the Spurs “Dynasty” in high regard

All of that plus Chinese fans really love players with an aesthetically pleasing game.

Kobe used to be really big over there.

Kobe was and is immensely popular there. I have to imagine some people are at least defining their criteria based on him (which of course would favor him)…it’s pretty funny when you think about it

But this is fairly limited to sentimental opinion. I don’t think anyone even over there would realistically argue that he’s higher than LeBron in all-time rankings for one.

Given the timeline of popularity of basketball jn China, you should largely view the above criteria as a way to reverse engineer a system in which Kobe ranks far higher than he would otherwise.

The MVP talking point is most firmly held by Chinese Kobe stans though so that makes sense.

They might deadass think it’s Kobe over there

Yeah, just based on point 4. China definitely thinks MJ is the GOAT. 2x 3 PEAT consecutive championships and all winning it staying in Chicago.

That point is basically directed at the GOAT debate.

Played NBA with a mate in primary school, he wanted to play as the Raptors and picked Vince Carter, I picked Doug Christie… wanted to see which team he was on in NBA 2004, the rest is history. Many miserable years as a Kings fan. Many people have not even heard of the Kings here in Australia unless you follow the NBA.

I would expect Chinese fans to disproportionately support teams that are large market, West Coast located, and/or recently successful.  So I’d expect the Knicks, Lakers, and Warriors to be the most popular. 

It would be fascinating to learn the story behind someone there supporting a small market team like Memphis or New Orleans though haha. 

It’s simple, they follow the star players. The same group of LeBron fans will become Cavs fans, Heat fans, Lakers fans and 76ers fans as he switch teams.

When they follow a team for a long time, some of them might become a loyalist that stays with teams as players come and goes. For example many people from Yao era still supports Rockets to this date, same with many Kobe fans that stays with Lakers. I suppose Warriors will be similar after Steph retires.

But for the most part, Chinese fans follow the teams that their favorite players are playing for.

Far more player-oriented than team-oriented. But also, sometimes you’ll see someone be a fan of a team for a player and then remain a fan of that team. Some anchoring effect I guess.

Steph is weirdly underrated either way

It’s straight garbage foh

Yeah I mean you can literally have 100 million people there agree on one thing (not necessarily basketball related) and still be in a huge minority.

It’d be like going to China and saying “Americans don’t think the moon landing is real based on a bunch of people I talked to but it’s not really the majority opinion”

Nahh SGA definitely deserves it in the regular season. Wemby needs to play more games.

I stronlgy disagree. The media are historically better at determining who are and are not good players than players and coaches.

For one, coaches are principally to blame for the idiotically slow realization that 3 is 50% more than 2. A lot of coaches now are smart. In the past that was not the case.

Players generally idolize players with the skill to make difficult shots or difficult dribbling moves (Kobe, AI, Kyrie, etc.). The players who can do those things are not always the best players. Ask 100 former players and they’ll likely universally rank Kobe and Iverson way too high.

What about Jalen Brown or spurs Kawhi?

I don’t agree with the opinion. I also think MVPs are a great achievement and are a great indication of greatness

One of his nicknames is the big gorilla because he has no finesse and is just upper body lmao