SI's Best Player Alive...

[Bryan Danielson]

2000: Shaq
2001: Shaq/AI
2002: Duncan
2003: Duncan
2004: Duncan
2005: Duncan
2006: Wade
2007: Kobe
2008: LeBron
2009: LeBron
2010: LeBron
2011: D-Rose
2012: LeBron
2013: LeBron
2014: LeBron
2015: Steph
2016: Steph
2017: KD
2018: LeBron
2019: Kawhi
2020: Zion

 

[Swagnificent]

KOBE WAS THE BEST PLAYER TIL 2013 .. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE WAS HE DIDNT HAVE THE SUPERTEAMS THAT BRON N WADE HAD FROM 2010 TIL THEN

I think the knee injuries slowed him down in 2011 and 2012. In 2013 he was right there with LeBron but I give the edge to LeBron based on defense. Like KD vs Bron the last few years, the older guy has to conserve his legs on defense so the younger guy edges him out overall.

 

[Primetime]

Couple things:
Garnett was definitely the best player in the league in 04. From what I remember, there was little argument that he was the mvp and the best in the league in 04. The whole story was that he finally had some help with Sprewell and Cassell.

Nash, CP3 and Dirk were never the best players in the league. Dirk losing in the first round as a #1 seed(even though it was a matchup nightmare) is unforgivable and should be held against his legacy. How many different allstar teammates did Dirk have throughout his prime?

Yea, I think I'm along the same lines.

1. Lakers "superteam" hoopla/drama
   
2. KG finally has help

Were the two things that stood out in 04.

I don't recall much debate/distinction separating MVP from best player during that year. KG vs Duncan was always an active topic on sohh every year.

 

[Swagnificent]

You gotta do a ton of reaching, I mean a whole lot, to say Kobe was the best player for 10 years...

Once again you are mistaking having the best season with being the best player. The best player doesn't change much from year to year. Its not like the MVP award which changes yearly to whoever had the most impressive season. For example, I know Kobe had subpar seasons in 2004 and 2005. In '04 he had the off-season knee surgery and the rape trial that had him looking like a shell of himself. And in '05 he had leg injuries that affected him all year long. With that said, he was still the best player in the league because when fully healthy he could turn his game to a level no other player could match.

Listen to the NBA players. They pretty much all said Kobe was the best from 2001-2010. Kobe was clearly the best to anyone with eyes. All his peers said it nightly. From Shaq in 2001 on.

 

[Swagnificent]

2009, Wade was definitely the best player on the planet. I don't see why not.

Nah. Wade's best case for being the best in the world was 2011. Kobe was no longer the same because of the knee issues and Bron went bytch mode that year.

 

[Sccit]

I think the knee injuries slowed him down in 2011 and 2012. In 2013 he was right there with LeBron but I give the edge to LeBron based on defense. Like KD vs Bron the last few years, the older guy has to conserve his legs on defense so the younger guy edges him out overall.

I DUNO I THINK 2011 KOBE DEF WINS VS DALLAS WIT WADE N BOSH AS TEAMMATES

 

[Sccit]

You gotta do a ton of reaching, I mean a whole lot, to say Kobe was the best player for 10 years...

NO U DONT.. ITS ACTUALLY A GIVEN

HE HAD A 10 YEAR PRIME AND PRIME KOBE IS A GOAT

THE ONLY WAY IT LOOKS LIKE REACHING IS WHEN U EAT UP MEDIA ANTI-KOBE AGENDA

 

[Reggie]

From 2000 on i'll take a shot and list who I believe were the best players in the world at that point
2000- Shaq
2001-Shaq
2002-Tim
2003-Tim
2004-Tim (wont' argue anyone who says KG though he played more minutes and took more shots to Duncan to get the numbers he got)
2005-Tim
2006-Kobe
2007-Kobe
2008-Bron (know most will say Kobe but until they got Pau the Lakers probably a 45-47 win team like the Cavs and Bron had superior numbers across the board plus this is MY list)
2009-Wade (Bron was a beast but Wade was on some other shyt that year)
2010-Bron
2011-Bron
2012 Bron
2013 Bron
2014 KD
2015 Bron
2016 Steph
2017 Bron
2018 Bron
2019 Giannis
2020 Giannis

 

[Easy-E]

•I notice an inconsistency in conflating "best player" with best season. Understanding this is subjective, they called CP3 the best player in the world in '08, and Nash in '05, and all respect to both, they were never the best in the game. That jumps out to me...

u don't remember prime Chris Paul

 

[murksiderock]

NO U DONT.. ITS ACTUALLY A GIVEN

HE HAD A 10 YEAR PRIME AND PRIME KOBE IS A GOAT

THE ONLY WAY IT LOOKS LIKE REACHING IS WHEN U EAT UP MEDIA ANTI-KOBE AGENDA

We're gonna disagree on this...

For superstars, I define "prime" as how long they were elite players, defining "elite" as how long were you a Top 10 player----->I define prime differently for borderline stars and role players...other people define prime differently, but that's how I objectively define it and I hold every superstar to that same standard....

"Peak" is different to me, and I define your 1-year peak as your GOAT year, like for this thread, KG was at his absolute best in '04. Everybody peaks at different stages, so I also look at everyone's 5-year peak, which to me is the 5-year window they were at their overall highest level of play...

Kobe became a Top 10 player in the 1999-00 season, and maintained it all the way thru the 2012-13 season. 1999-2013, that's a 14-year prime, longer than not only most old head's whole careers, but a longer sustained run of elite play than everybody I've seen besides LeBron, and probably longer than anybody else who has ever played besides Kareem...

His longevity as an upper echelon player works strongly in his favor, it's one of the strongest points on his resume, and it has to be respected because a lot of admired superstars can't and won't be able to match that...

I don't see anti-Kobe media narratives and regardless I don't have one. Unlike alot of the old heads from Jordan era backwards, I was fortunate to see damn near all of Kobe's career and his entire run as an elite player, so no narrative can influence how I feel about him anyway, whether that spin is positive or negative. I feel that way for everyone I watched, ain't a narrative that can tell me about how I interpret what I actually saw...

 

[murksiderock]

So based off how I define prime, it's ridiculous to say there was a 10-year window that he was the best player in the NBA. Swag is giving him 2000-2010 (2000-01 thru 2009-2010), that window can obviously be shorted on the front end because while Kobe was probably the better of the two by the end of their run, when the Lakers actually won championships, the 3peat, Shaq was the best player on the team...

That immediately takes the first two years that Swag is giving him, you can't be the best player in the world if you aren't even the best player on the team...

The biggest argument for Kobe would be his 5-year peak 2005-2010, as he was playing at his highest level and got to three Finals, two chips. I've already said I consider his actual candidacy as best player to stretch a little beyond this window. So any one of the years in his peak an answer could be Kobe and not really be wrong or crazy because he was in the convo, but to state matter-of-factly it was Kobe is assuming he was the only guy, and that's a distortion of reality...

At Kobe's peak you had Duncan, Dirk, and LeBron as the closest challengers for the title. Any one of those guys could be named along with Kobe, for multiple years by the way...

The biggest disagreement I see on here regarding Kobe isn't that he was an All-Time great player, because everyone agrees on that. It's that diehards get infuriated when people don't claim Kobe to have this vise-lock reign on the NBA. He didn't, for as great as Kobe was, at his very best there was very little separation, if any, between him and at least one other player (sometimes two) at the top. That viewpoint can be broken down and explained a number of ways, but people who are unable to be objective about Kobe aren't gonna respond positively to anything that doesn't tell you he owned basketball most or all of his prime, so it is what it is...

None of this takes away that he is a GOAT, and I'm in the group that doesnt think KG was orders of magnitude greater than Kobe in '04. KG had the best season, but there was competition for best player. Kobe wasn't the best player for the entire 00s, that's essentially what Swag is giving him, and although that's my opinion it would be a juvenile mischaracterization to insinuate I'm anti-Kobe because of it, because that isn't true at all and never has been...

 

[murksiderock]

u don't remember prime Chris Paul

Yeah i do, it wasn't that long ago lol. He was never the best basketball player alive...

 

[Swagnificent]

So based off how I define prime, it's ridiculous to say there was a 10-year window that he was the best player in the NBA. Swag is giving him 2000-2010 (2000-01 thru 2009-2010), that window can obviously be shorted on the front end because while Kobe was probably the better of the two by the end of their run, when the Lakers actually won championships, the 3peat, Shaq was the best player on the team...

That immediately takes the first two years that Swag is giving him, you can't be the best player in the world if you aren't even the best player on the team...

The biggest argument for Kobe would be his 5-year peak 2005-2010, as he was playing at his highest level and got to three Finals, two chips. I've already said I consider his actual candidacy as best player to stretch a little beyond this window. So any one of the years in his peak an answer could be Kobe and not really be wrong or crazy because he was in the convo, but to state matter-of-factly it was Kobe is assuming he was the only guy, and that's a distortion of reality...

At Kobe's peak you had Duncan, Dirk, and LeBron as the closest challengers for the title. Any one of those guys could be named along with Kobe, for multiple years by the way...

The biggest disagreement I see on here regarding Kobe isn't that he was an All-Time great player, because everyone agrees on that. It's that diehards get infuriated when people don't claim Kobe to have this vise-lock reign on the NBA. He didn't, for as great as Kobe was, at his very best there was very little separation, if any, between him and at least one other player (sometimes two) at the top. That viewpoint can be broken down and explained a number of ways, but people who are unable to be objective about Kobe aren't gonna respond positively to anything that doesn't tell you he owned basketball most or all of his prime, so it is what it is...

None of this takes away that he is a GOAT, and I'm in the group that doesnt think KG was orders of magnitude greater than Kobe in '04. KG had the best season, but there was competition for best player. Kobe wasn't the best player for the entire 00s, that's essentially what Swag is giving him, and although that's my opinion it would be a juvenile mischaracterization to insinuate I'm anti-Kobe because of it, because that isn't true at all and never has been...

You talk about basketball like a cac.

Nobody black has ever talked about Duncan or Dirk being better than Kobe. If you wanna do this cac talk go to RealGM or somewhere like that. Over here we talk ball like we in the barbershop.

If you wanna say Bron was better than Kobe from 2005-2010 then go right ahead. You'd be wrong but at least that debate would be honest since that is who we were debating was the best back then. But this revisionist history to put Kobe in a debate with Dirk or Duncan is laughable. Nobody black ever had them in the same class as Kobe back then. Once again I don't know what the cacs were saying but then again I also don't care. But when I was in my late teens/early 20s discussing ball it was never Kobe vs Dirk or Duncan. Everyone knew Kobe was better than them. Did he win MVP or the title in 2007 like them? No. But nobody thought for one second those guys were better.

 

[murksiderock]

You talk about basketball like a cac.

Nobody black has ever talked about Duncan or Dirk being better than Kobe. If you wanna do this cac talk go to RealGM or somewhere like that. Over here we talk ball like we in the barbershop.

If you wanna say Bron was better than Kobe from 2005-2010 then go right ahead. You'd be wrong but at least that debate would be honest since that is who we were debating was the best back then. But this revisionist history to put Kobe in a debate with Dirk or Duncan is laughable. Nobody black ever had them in the same class as Kobe back then. Once again I don't know what the cacs were saying but then again I also don't care. But when I was in my late teens/early 20s discussing ball it was never Kobe vs Dirk or Duncan. Everyone knew Kobe was better than them. Did he win MVP or the title in 2007 like them? No. But nobody thought for one second those guys were better.

And you talk about Kobe like a dikkrider, so now that, that's out of the way...

Your comprehension is lacking, because I didn't say LeBron was better than Kobe those 5 years, just that he was one of three guys legitimately in that conversation with Kobe. There was never a sustained period of time that Kobe was solo as the best player in the world. In the entire history of the NBA, maybe 5 guys could actually say that, and Kobe isn't one of them...

He was in that conversation yearly for a solid stretch but it wasn't a decade. All that other shyt bout white people is irrelevant...

 

[Swagnificent]

There was never a sustained period of time that Kobe was solo as the best player in the world

According to who? White media people? Or NBA players, coaches, and GMs?

Once again you just giving me white boy talking points. There are sites like RealGM where you would fit in. Over here we don't talk like that. Kobe was the unanimous best player in the NBA from 2005-2009 (at the very least) according to his peers (aka other NBA players). The only people who questioned his standing as the best player in the world at that time didn't play in the NBA.

To say he never sustained being the best player in the league for 5 straight years is asinine. Anybody who lived and breathed ball back then knew he was the best. Even your boy LeBron has quotes stretching from 2005-2009 where he calls Kobe the hands down best player in the NBA.

Here's the video evidence since you seem to have amnesia of what really happened in the 2000s: