2023 Bruins were even more disappointing than the Lightning, in my opinion.

As an American, if the opposite happened where U.S. Team led by double digits with 7 minutes to go and then lost the game, I would feel as follows:

1. It would be crushing.
2. I would feel that my team played significantly better except for the last 7 minutes.
3. I would feel that if they ran 100 simulations of the last 7 minutes of the game, my team would win 95% of the time.
4. I would point to those two plays as 2 critical points in the game where if the call had gone another way, we would have still pulled it out.
5. That said, I would concede that the end result is the end result. None of the calls were egregious or outside the norm in high-stakes basketball games. It was a well-fought battle and I would grudgingly accept the end result, even if I would continue to insist on points #2 and #3 above.

Why is it that Gobert would not fall for that in a million years if a normal person tried to pull it off. But, why did he fall for it with Chris Paul?

This is Reddit. Getting downvoted (when you’re not blatantly being a jerk) just means you have a nuanced position that upsets the simple-minded. I take it as a compliment 😃

Noah Lyles was 100% right. It’s dumb Americans that confuse supporting a for-profit professional organization based in the U.S. (i.e., the NBA) with some misguided sense of patriotism.

As for your specific question, it’s not that EVERY best player in the world plays in the NBA. Rather, it’s that the NBA is the greatest COLLECTION of basketball talent in the world from top to bottom. In ⚽️, the English Premier League and La Liga can argue over which is the superior league. For golf, PGA, European League and LIV compete against each other, although most people would say that the PGA has a higher level of talent. But, for basketball, NBA is without question the best leavue in the world and there are only a few exceptional cases where the best player opts out of playing in the NBA.

Ah, ok. The Platonic Ideal. I’m hoping Wemby will reach that potential. Otherwise, I don’t know if I will watch the NBA after LeBron retires.

Feels like Tier 5 and Tier 6 should be flipped.

KD is probably ranked too high given he only has 1 MVP and 2 Rings and Steph is a little low given he has 4 rings and 2 MVPs as well as being the greater shooter ever. I would switch KD and Steph, although I know KD would beat Steph every time in a game of 1 on 1.

I would also leave out West and add Jokic in his place.

What would a player need to do in order to get to Tier 1? Has any athlete in any sport ever met whatever your standard you are thinking of?