Melo honestly probably doesn’t make it if he wasn’t able to come back in Portland, that run did wonders for his reputation. Pierce isn’t hated by elders, he’s hated by fans.
My point is to insinuate that KAT, Cousins & AD were dominant when their teams were almost always trash is essentially a contradiction. For most of their careers those guys were putting up numbers while they lost by 10. I think Embiid is better than Dwight was but his resume isn’t better, not even close.
The issue with Dwight was also people acted like dude wasn’t shyt just because he wasn’t as good as Shaq. People harped on how overrated he was to the point that it caused him to be underrated. And him not wanting to take advice from former players goes along with his immaturity and why he’s not liked.
Melo makes it no matter what. Apparently the players acknowledge how great he was. Dominant while your team is trash didn't mean much either. You can tell the difference between a great player putting up numbers on bad teams, and marginal to good players putting up great numbers on bad teams. In Cousins case, he got traded, and still put up the same numbers playing along side AD. That null and voids any discussion of him not being a great player. AI teams had more losing seasons that Ws.
Pierce is hated by pretty much everyone, aside from the C's organization. He's respected for his hard work and being consistent. Dennis hated by most.
People don't act like he wasn't shyt because he wasn't as good as Shaq. He's not great because he's not as good as ANY of the all-time great C's. If you look at the stats...career high of all of the Cs, he's not in Top 10 in ppg, rpg, bpg, apg. He may be for steals. He may not even be in Top 20 of those stats. In fact, he falls behind players like Ratliff, Camby, Zo for blocks. He's behind Serge in blocks too, and a bunch of folks for rpg. And Embiid, KAT, Jokic, Cousins already had better seasons statistically.
As for not listening to the OGs, they don't care if he didn't listen, they just wanted him to get better. He didn't listen AND he didn't get better. So either he didn't have the determination to be better, or he played to the maximum of his ability, which still means he wasn't good enough. Being goofy/playful or immature isn't relevant to what he did on the court being up to the standards of the All-Time cream of the crop.
He's a good C...but when you're talking about the best of the best to ever play the game, he doesn't make the cut. He'll be the Joe Dumars/Sidney Moncrief of C's. He's in the Ben Wallace/Deke/Zo/Chief level of Cs. That's good company as well, but Deke has a better case, being the greatest shot blocker the game has seen.
OAN - In my opinion, there are maybe 5 of the 50 that shouldn't be on there either. Bill Walton for 1. He was actually controversial on the 50 list...people felt he wasn't dominant enough then. And dudes definitely wanted Nique to have his spot. I don't think Lenny Wilkens needed to be on there either, or Pearl Monroe, and maybe Dave Debusschere. In their places would've been Artis Gilmore, Adrian Dantley, Neil Johnston, Bernard King. My other questionables were Chief, Worthy & Pippen. Worthy, everyone says how great he was, but I didn't see it. I saw him as a consistently good player.