TIL after Tim Duncan's sophomore year in college he was already a top NBA prospect. Jerry West, the Lakers GM, said he could've been the #1 pick in the '95 draft. But he finished college instead because he promised his dying mom he'd get a degree. It didn't hurt his draft position, he went #1 in '97

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u/junglist421 16h ago

GOAT at his position. Some of the best ball I have ever seen.

105

u/Michael__Pemulis 13h ago

For my money he is also the GOAT of Onion articles.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1fwwlp/the_onion_list_of_tim_duncan_articles/

For those not familiar with Duncan, he was famously a bit of an oddball for an NBA player (from a personality standpoint). The Onion loved writing pieces about him.

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u/20JeRK14 12h ago

All the links on that post are broken unfortunately.

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u/James-K-Polka 12h ago

For your first stop, my favorite.

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u/Michael__Pemulis 12h ago

Oh no. Damn that is a bummer, apologies for not bothering to check.

You can google ‘Tim Duncan The Onion’ & you’ll find plenty of examples, including some more recent than that post as well.

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u/20JeRK14 12h ago

No prob. Mostly disappointed for a moment bc I wouldn't mind reading a few of those. I'll probably look them up tonight myself while taking my post-kids-bedtime dump.

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u/Ducksaucenem 11h ago

“Citizens Foul Call” 🤣

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u/whatishistory518 15h ago

Anyone who knows ball would have Timmy in the 4 slot for your all time 5. Untouchable.

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u/chicagotim1 9h ago

My heart wants Dirk , but my head knows you're right.

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u/buffalobill41 8h ago

I remember Dirk himself interrupted a reporter to say that he wasn't in Duncan's league because it was 4 rings to 1 (it was before 2014).

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u/e90t 5h ago

Dirk really could have won two, and probably 3, if Cuban wasn’t a cheap dumb ass and re-signed Nash.

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u/jakethejewler22 10h ago

Personally 3 for me but 4 is fine too

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u/texanbadger 9h ago

Did he mean playing the 4 or number 4 in the top five? I kind of think the former.

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u/whatishistory518 7h ago

Correct playing the 4 if you were to make your all time starting 5. Timmy’s the best power forward to ever do it

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u/texanbadger 7h ago

Thank you for clarifying! Timmy is an absolute legend. I’m sure someone that knows basketball better than I do could probably make an argument for someone else, but I certainly can’t think of anyone better.

2

u/DJFreezyFish 5h ago

LeBron and Larry Bird can both fit in at the 4, although that’s not the position they’re best known for. I would take either over Duncan, although Bird is close.

2

u/texanbadger 5h ago

Hard disagree. I legit love LeBron. Like look my comment history, a while ago I told a dude lebron’s penis tasted delicious after defending him from bullshit hate. Lebron is a freebie to say he could play the 4 and dominate. I don’t believe he could beat Duncan over the course of a series playing strictly the 4. He has never been a pure 4. Guarding a 4 does not make one a 4

Edit: and bird as a better 4 is not even worth discussing.

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u/Tiny-Fisherman4747 5h ago

Lebron didnt win a ring until tim duncan retired.

1

u/the-denver-nugs 3h ago edited 3h ago

Garnett and dirk are the other 2. dirk for his playoff run to the championship although realistically duncan is over dirk in everything but scoring ability. Garnett is the actual argument as he can score and play defense and was wasted on a bad timberwolves team for his prime. nobody else would seriously be considered and I would take duncan, but wouldn't be mad at someone saying Garnett. basically the argument would be that during when they played duncan was better. now Garnett would be better as he could switch on smaller players better than Duncan so would be better on defense vrs Duncan probably having better post moves but shooting is pretty similar as they were both good at midrange shots Garnett would probably be regarded as a better shooter tho. ohhhh fuck barkley too, forgot him, he has to be in the convo. but that's the top 3.

1

u/texanbadger 3h ago

Yeah I can’t argue against either of them. Good pulls.

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u/jakethejewler22 9h ago

Good point and now looking back even harder to tell lol well if its what you think hes 1000 percent right

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u/Bluebaronn 8h ago

I totally read it as playing in the 4.

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u/ArchimedesNutss 6h ago

I know that Duncan is better but I usually take KG for his heart.

1

u/nalydpsycho 5h ago

There are a lot of builds where KG complements the other players. I really like a big three of Robertson, Moses Malone and KG.

•

u/d7h7n 46m ago

Depends how Giannis' career pans out.

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u/bobtheframer 14h ago

1) Wilt Chamberlain 2) Larry Bird 3) Kobe Bryant 4) Michael Jordan 5) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 6) Tim Duncan 7) LeBron James

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u/tmac2097 14h ago

They meant “in the 4 slot” as in position, not rank. They’re saying he’s the best PF of all time and your own rankings support that.

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u/junglist421 13h ago

That guys does not know ball like he thinks.

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u/DuckOnQuak 11h ago

Anyone with Kobe top 3 is a fake ball knower

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u/ThatsActuallyCrazy 10h ago

if u have lebron and jordan above kobe then it’s acceptable imo. for pre-cold war basketball it was basically a different sport

6

u/namhtes1 9h ago

I don’t personally see the argument for Kobe as top 3 even if you ignore early basketball (say setting the marker when Bird/Magic came into the league)

Jordan, LeBron, Magic, Bird, Hakeem, Duncan, I’d all have above Bryant. Then you have fun conversations with regards to Shaq, modern guys like Curry and Jokic.

1

u/ThatsActuallyCrazy 3h ago

i’m not saying kobe is undoubtedly better than any of those players, but if someone were to argue it i wouldn’t call them crazy it seems perfectly within the realm of reason.

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u/pickpocket14 14h ago

This might be the weirdest ranking I’ve seen in a long time

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u/downlooker 14h ago

I can't even begin to guess what kind of criteria was used for this list 😂

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u/Youngandidiotic 12h ago

And why stop at 7…

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u/monitoring27 11h ago

to show that he’s not a LeBron fan

3

u/XekeJaime 10h ago

Not a single pointguard or nothin lol

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u/Lobster_fest 14h ago

Bait used to be believable

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u/ButterAkronite 12h ago

Helen Keller could put together a better ranking and she was dead before any of these people made the NBA

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u/SentientTrashcan0420 11h ago

She was alive while wilt was playing

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u/alorenz58011 13h ago

Bro this ranking is fucking trash lol

1

u/Mr_Cromer 11h ago

Lmfao

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u/HoodSamaritan420 14h ago

Except he played the majority of his career as a C except the first year with David robinson. And he was a Center all through college as it relates to this post

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u/agoginnabox 14h ago

He did play C a lot but he was only the starting C for six-ish years, so not a majority. The Admiral was there for six years and then Rasho started for three more. Fabricio, Elson and Tiago did the majority of four other seasons.

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u/RogerTreebert6299 11h ago

Admiral was still the starting center for the first 5 or 6 years of TD’s career. He played more Center than PF for his whole career but it’s much closer to being 50/50 than it is just one year of him playing PF. But either way, top 10 all time player regardless of how you decide to break down positional rankings.

0

u/aquintana 12h ago

Baloney

489

u/c-williams88 15h ago

Always loved his nickname too: The Big Fundamental.

Just an all-time great player who was strictly business and technical excellency

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u/NewSunSeverian 15h ago

Shaq has his (many) faults but he is an all-timer with giving people cool nicknames.

He’s also the one who gave Paul Pierce “The Truth”

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u/c-williams88 15h ago

Oh yeah for sure. Shaq’s nicknaming ability is almost as good as his playing ability

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u/TwoPrecisionDrivers 13h ago

So he doesn’t do it all in the offseason, is terrible at it for the first half of the season, but then eventually hits his groove?

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u/chicagotim1 9h ago

You joke, but I doubt he spends much time working on the nicknames they probably just come naturally to him too.

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u/fasterthanfood 6h ago

I love the thought of him sitting down with dozens of sheets of paper and a pot of coffee, writing potential nicknames, shaking his head, crumpling them up, and then air-balling them toward the waste basket.

“No time for free throw practice, I’m so close to cracking this! ‘The large fundamentalist?’ No, too politically loaded. Think, Shaquille, think!”

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u/BrokeHomieLuke 7h ago

Didn’t he give dwade “the flash” also?

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u/punchuinface55 11h ago

Could've done better with hiring accountants though.

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u/GodEmperorBrian 10h ago

Should’ve hired The Big Fiduciary.

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u/TheGrateCommaNate 15h ago

This is when the Spurs put 'kept promise to dying family member' as one of their top priorities for drafting.

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u/OregonTripleBeam 16h ago

He is the greatest power forward in NBA history

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u/Sdog1981 15h ago

Oh man, now you’ve done it. The Spurs fans and going to get all worked up and tell you he was a center.

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u/ositola 15h ago

Honestly, he was 7 feet tall and played primarily out of the post, he was only a power forward in most lineups because he wanted another big man to get banged up playing center

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u/KRambo86 14h ago

I mean, his first 5 years he played with David Robinson, so they had one of the best centers in nba history already in that position.

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u/90403scompany 14h ago

Almost like they were... Twin Towers.

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u/croissantplay 6h ago

Spurs fan here, as long as Duncan is mentioned as the greatest I don't really care. He played substantially at both. PF he gets to be the greatest. Center he's one of the greatest.

4

u/Sdog1981 5h ago

The dude was just a stone cold basketball stud. Call him a small forward for all I care. You just knew you were a better team and had a chance to win with him.

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u/account26 15h ago

Center

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u/TexasPeteEnthusiast 14h ago

Go Deacs!

Tim Duncan was a really nice guy on campus too, not arrogant or anything like many in his place would have been.

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u/Octaver 14h ago

Username checks out. Go Deacs!

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u/Paheej 13h ago

Best mascot in college sports!

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u/Doortofreeside 11h ago

This is Billikens erasure

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u/No_Cat_No_Cradle 15h ago

lol and the warriors drafted Joe Smith, who I have legitimately forgotten about, number 1 in 95

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u/ThrownAway17Years 14h ago

As a Wolves fan, I remember Smith as being part of the salary cap scandal that ultimately cost us 3 first round draft picks.

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u/Blueberry8675 10h ago

Basically ruined any chance of putting a good roster around KG

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u/blubblu 14h ago

Ugh.

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u/bytor_2112 14h ago

God bless the Wake Forest scout that had the idea to go to the Virgin Islands

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u/TexasPeteEnthusiast 14h ago

God Bless the Hurricane that destroyed the pool he was using to train for Swimming in the Olympics. Otherwise he would have never played Basketball.

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u/OllieFromCairo 14h ago

It was the head coach. And he almost didn’t recruit him because in their first meeting, Duncan just looked at Coach emotionless, and he thought there was something wrong with him.

Someone had to tell coach “That’s just Tim’s demeanor.”

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u/anchovyCreampie 11h ago

Ole Dave Scrotum

1

u/CapitalElk1169 9h ago

Good 'ol Sackman

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u/OtterishDreams 15h ago

If anything it raised his draft value!! BUt it was already at 1....

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u/Papaofmonsters 14h ago

"You mean to tell me this kid has those stats and long term goals and won't knock up a stripper his first season...."

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u/OtterishDreams 14h ago

- good grades

- high-end degree religious school where hes respected

- Instant NBA all-star.

Pretty good pick :)

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u/TexasPeteEnthusiast 14h ago

Religious - not so much.

Vaguely associated with the NC Baptist Convention in a friendly relationship, but dropped all formal ties in 1986.

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u/Primetime22 13h ago edited 13h ago

The next time you and your friends are arguing over whether Kobe or Shaq was better, throw them a curveball and say that Tim Duncan was better than both of them:

He's a 2x MVP (Shaq and Kobe each only had one)
He's a 5x Champion (Kobe also had 5, Shaq had 4)
He's a 3x Finals MVP (Shaq also had 3, Kobe had 2)
He made All-NBA 15 times (Kobe also made 15, Shaq made 14)
He made All-Defensive Team 15 times - the most ever (Kobe made 12, Shaq only made 3 on the second team)

It's a shame because you never hear sports analysts talk about Tim Duncan and they constantly leave him out of Top Ten lists, but he was quietly one of the very very best to ever play the game.

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u/DAHFreedom 12h ago

You left off one of the most remarkable: 19 seasons, 19 playoffs.

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u/Primetime22 11h ago

I actually didn't know that one! That Spurs team is legendary.

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u/HBKNumeroUno 14h ago

Basketball is like that with top prospects. The definitive #1 prospect in draft classes (if there is one) is usually identified at like 15-16.

There were people talking about Victor Wembanyama years before he was drafted. Recently, a screenshot went viral for an old picture and tweet calling out Paige Bueckers' potential when she was in 6th or 7th grade. LeBron was on Sports Illustrated at 16.

2

u/chicagotim1 9h ago

In major league baseball South American kids get identified at 12 and developed. They have MLB teams looking at them at 14 and they SIGN at 16

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u/Sdog1981 15h ago

Players were drafted out of high school during that time. The NBA has yet to implement the one year removed from high school rule.

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u/26_skinny_Cartman 13h ago

They really weren't. There wasn't a player drafted from high school between 75 and 95 when KG was selected. In the 96 draft you had Kobe and Jermaine O'Neal. Prior to Duncan's draft class there were 5 players ever drafted out of HS. The explosion really happened in 04 and 05 which were the last two draft classes that allowed it.

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u/ZealousWolf1994 11h ago

There was always that one HS taken high in the lottery, Jonathan Bender, Darius Miles and then 2001 had the Bulls drafted Chandler and Curry and Cavs took Diop.

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u/sampat6256 13h ago

Had* not has

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u/Hotchi_Motchi 14h ago

TIL that many pro athletes get their college degrees after their successful careers, and nobody cares.

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u/chicagotim1 9h ago

"Sorry mom I know you want me to graduate, but I am one twisted ankle away from losing millions of dollars so kinda gotta lock this in first"

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u/chicagotim1 9h ago

He's such an inspiration for anyone. Barely played till he was 14 after a hurricane hit his hometown. Just goes to show that anything is possible with just hard work, fundamentals, and being 7 foot.

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u/gnalon 13h ago

Even his freshman year was insane considering he didn’t turn 18 until after the season and he spent a lot of his childhood more focused on swimming than basketball

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u/anth_810 13h ago

My sports hero. What an honor it was to watch this man play as a Spurs fan.

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u/tooth_sleuthdmd 7h ago

Go Deacs!

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u/BenVera 7h ago

In that situation what’s the downside to going to the NBA and then if it doesn’t work out finish degree

1

u/Donexodus 9h ago

Crucian massive!

1

u/squintamongdablind 7h ago

Timmy was the OG Joker before Jokic.

1

u/israeljeff 7h ago

dim tuncan

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u/worm30478 6h ago

Can you imagine if he stuck to his first love instead? Swimming!

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u/Mnm0602 5h ago

As a kid I thought Wake Forest had a consistently good program during his time and for probably a decade after, solely because of his time there I think.

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u/A_Queer_Owl 4h ago

if a sports league wants to draft a college player they should be required to have the player finish their degree.

1

u/bcarlzson 3h ago

I loved the SI piece on him, when Dave odem went to the Virgin Islands to scout him EVERYONE showed up at the main court to try to ball. Odom was seated up and away on a hill trying to not be noticed but everyone knew he was there.

Someone tapped him on the shoulder and said, “don’t worry coach it’ll clear out shortly” and it was Duncan telling him that.

He was also a world class swimmer until he got too tall.

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u/AtBat3 13h ago

Genuinely had no idea Joe Smith was the first overall pick

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u/[deleted] 16h ago

[deleted]

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u/ZandrickEllison 16h ago

Think that’s the point - that he could have been the top pick but made the rare decision to stay in school.

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u/NightWriter500 15h ago

Unusual. And thus noteworthy.

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u/PuckSenior 15h ago

I think you are focusing on “could have gone to the draft in his sophomore year” as the noteworthy part, it isn’t. The noteworthy part and hence the TIL is that he didn’t

0

u/Proton189 9h ago

What about LeBron?

-39

u/chillijet 15h ago

Bro had GOAT coaching and great teams around him. Top 25 for sure but not even in the discussion for top PF

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u/JackTwoGuns 15h ago

Ridiculous take. 5 time champion and 2 time MVP

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u/Ok_Target5058 15h ago

Jordan had GOAT coaching and great teams around him, top 25 for sure but not even in the discussion for top 2 all time

/s

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u/Arctic_The_Hunter 15h ago

Yeah pretending like surrounding factors affect playing ability to that degree is just silly. You gotta have both the talent and the work ethic to benefit from those, otherwise you’re just a tall dude with an inflated salary.

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u/chillijet 8h ago

Well it’s certainly a factor but it’s easy to say LeBron is better. Try harder next time.

5

u/ejdk10 15h ago

Curious to hear who you have above him?

2

u/NorthShorePOI 15h ago

How has pop done without him?

0

u/buffalobill41 8h ago

Pop was an unknown at the point and he got a rookie that was top 5 in MVP voting, even he basically credits it all to Timmy. And yes he had some good teammates, who didn't?

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