I think it’s almost unanimous that Steph is the greatest shooter of all time and Magic is the greatest passer of all time. My question is, who has a wider gap between them and #2 + the rest of the pack?
Also, stats are important, but not the end all be all here. For instance, Klay might actually be a slightly better catch-and-shoot 3pt maker than Steph, but Steph is so far and away better at creating his own shot it’s why he is clearly the best shooter of all time. And Magic may not hold the assist record, but you would be hard-pressed by most fans and players if you said Stockton had a similar passing ability to Magic.
U hear debates on TV “is XXX the 2nd best shooter after Steph” all the time. Never heard a debate on is XXX a better shooter than Steph. On the flip side, ppl debate if Bron is a better passer than Magic all the freaking time.
And I think the latter is a bit insane to be honest. LeBron is a phenomenal passer, but he’s like only 70% as good as Magic. Magic makes passes LeBron can’t and he would do the once in a while insane pass we praise LeBron for on a nightly basis (often multiple times a game).
People don’t realize Magic was doing incredible passes so often that it kind of became not that special and expected.
I’m not old enough to watch many Magics games, but I watch LeBron very often. I cannot say if Bron is better or worse or 70% or 80% of Magic for that matter. But I can tell u, Bron is widely considered the best passer by many in modern history and he does make insane passes on nightly basis. If you say that only 70% as good as Magic, fine, I have no problem with it, maybe passing back in the day is just that much better than today’s players.
I wouldn’t say passing in general was way better, I just think Magic was better. For every insane pass LeBron makes, Magic would make 4-5x that amount. Like maybe LeBron can make 99% of the passes Magic makes, but he can’t do it at the same consistency and at the same volume as Magic (or at least we’ve never seen him try to).
Joker is better passer then LeBron. I don’t think LBJ is top 5 passers ever either.
For me it goes: