Originally Posted by
Goat Milk
Come on Bernard, Tmac was never a top 5 player?
Bro, before there was Wade and Lebron and Durant and all these guys, when Shaq was at the downfall of his career, and Steve Nash was winning back to back MVPs, Kobe vs. Mcgrady was the greatest Rivalry there was in the NBA.
McGrady was a guy that could do things at will it was pretty nuts- he has the wingspan of a center and is one of the greatest passers I've personally ever seen at that position. McGrady was certainly a top 2-3 player during a year/or two in orlando and certinatly was the first year he came to Houston when he had the greatest single-handed comeback performance in NBA history. Please don't say Shaq was a top 5 player in 05. AFter 2003, Shaq dropped to a top 15-20 player in the league in my opinion. Some of the first-team all NBA votes he got in like 04 and 05 were simply because the NBA sucked at the Center position. Duncan/Garnett might be the only PFs in that top 5 discussion, maybe Dirk. Amare was getting good too, a superstar really who never needed Nash, but those guys weren't top 5 in those years in my opinion. I don't know who else you would put in the discussion- Nash? I don't know, I guess you can argue that, but I never considered Nash a top 5 player even during the years he won the MVPs. I think Mcgrady and Iverson were certainly top 5 players in their careers, particularly McGrady, even though Iverson had the better career, McGrady was one of the most dominant players in the league because of his athleticism and length. Durant took a lot of what he knows from Mcgrady, although he was never the passer Tmac was.
I think the only thing we can agree thats constant, is that Kobe has been a top 5 player in the NBA for nearly the last decade.