I loved Dr J. Haven’t watched much basketball the past 20 years but the Doctor was way to cool back in the day
I remember hearing Isiah Thomas once say that Larry Bird was the “toughest” guy he ever played against...Magic Johnson was the “smartest”...and Micheal Jordan was the “best”.
I like Red Auerbach’s 12 best list:
https://celticswire.usatoday.com/lists/nba-boston-celtics-red-auerbach-playoff-dirty-dozen/
Dr J makes the list as #10.
Larry Bird.
Just ask Magic Johnson and Doc Rivers.
5.56mm
Interesting list from Dr. J. No one on that list played beyond about 1970-1973…. ish.
Still hard to discount any name on that list though!
What they play now (at least at the Pro level) bears more resemblance to rugby played with a spherical ball than the b-ball of Dr. J.
This is a list of what Irving might want to use and not by position. He put Russell at a forward position when he was a center. He had two shooting guards in Robertson and West. Except for Russell after his first couple of years when he concentrated on rebounding and clearing for the fast break, all were scorers. His second team better be scorers as no one there played defense.
And there were a few names left out even from the retired team. Instead of arguing about who plays forward, Malone or Duncan, I might have selected Bob Pettit. Pettit played in 11 straight All Star Games, was named All Star Game MVP more times than any player in history, and guided the Hawks to the 1958 NBA championship. He averaged over 38 minutes a game, over 16 rebounds third in history, over 26 points, over 3 assists, and according to ESPN, in 11 years did not have a single turnover or was tagged with a technical foul.
And at point guard Tiny is okay but what do you do with John Stockton the NBA career all time assist leader? And Julius was too young to have seen Cousey. There’s a lot more, but that sticks out to me.
wy69
Dr J was one great player.
Every one of his top ten played every year between 1960 and 1969.
1955-1969, 1959-1973, 1960-1974, 1960-1974 and 1958-1971.
Baseball was still getting many of the best black athletes at that time.
Bird.