Way more MVPs, more FMVPs, More All-NBA 1st nods, higher career points/rebounds/assists/steals/blocks per game and for career, way more efficient scorer, better 3pt shooter, better to significantly better in literally every advanced metric, significantly better at start of career and end of career, better and longer prime, better peak season, way better in playoffs in career, significantly better peak playoff run …

Oh, and LeBron was also In-Season Tournament MVP and IST 1st Team Nod. Case closed.

In today’s era, Celtics. 2024 Celtics were an elite, versatile defense and had 5 shooters most of the time, with 3-4 of them that can create for others … Pistons defense was monstrous in the post, but would struggle against the Celtics’ spacing.

In 2004, the Pistons. Game was called differently, and I’m assuming Celtics wouldn’t take as many 3s (again, different era of basketball 20 years ago…). If this Celtics team had to play the style back then, they’re not built to beat a great interior defense.

Game is way different now. It’s called different, the rules are different too … these would/if scenarios are kinda silly tbh. You can’t just assume taking today’s playstyle and transposing it into the league 20 years ago. The current playstyle took decades of teams/coaches/players who led the charge and changed the game (7s or less Suns, Curry Warriors, etc…).

Jokic > English > David Thompson > Fat Lever / Dan Issel / Melo

My top 10 of all time:

• Mengke Bateer

• Sun Yue

• Javaris Crittenton

• LaVar Ball

• DeSagana Diop

• Cherokee Parks

• Stanislav Medvendenko

• Joel Embiid

• Nikoloz Tskitishvili

• Chris Jent

Both deserved their DPOY awards, especially Gobert.

Marcus’ was arguably a bit weaker in a year no one really stood out defensively, so they gave the award to the best defender on the best defensive team, but Bam was 4th that season behind Smart, Bridges, and Gobert. He wasn’t close to winning.

Did Bam and AD have seasons where they were DPOY worthy? Yes, especially AD.

Did Bam and AD have seasons where they deserved DPOY over the person won DPOY? No.

European sports fans are just different lol.

I went to a PSG vs Auxerre game in 2022 right before the World Cup started … and the Auxerre section of the stadium was cheering loudly all game long, even as they were down.

They lost 5-0. But they didn’t give AF lol. It was pretty cool to see.

Fans here in the US are mild af.

And I paid like $105 to get a row 1 seat near the middle of the stadium …

That same seat for an NBA game is like 50x the price, and way more for NFL.

Jayson Williams shot his limo driver “accidentally” with a shotgun, attempted to cover it up, and only served 27 months in jail.

I believe I could have banged Rihanna.

Rough timing tbh after AD put up a ton of bricks and got cooked on the other end vs South Sudan today lol.

While often labelled as a playoff under-performer, he also averaged 31/7/6 on 60% TS in the playoffs during this span.

When you state shit like this, you completely miss why Harden was labeled as a playoff underperformer.

He has always been a volatile player come playoff time. Dominant highs and pathetic lows.

He’s still the only superstar I’ve ever seen that got benched in a 4th quarter of an elimination game. He has many, many big chokes in key moments that stand out in his career. And unfortunately for him, his low points outshine his high points.

Harden is a generational offensive talent, but his incompetent and low-effort defense, and numerous low points in his playoff career tarnish what should be considered as one of the legendary careers of the modern game.

And frankly, he’s changed his game in his twilight after losing his speed/athleticism to continue being an effective point guard (unlike Russ, whose career predictably fell of a cliff after his athleticism waned).

And a +/- of -1

Tatum/Jrue/DWhite could do it this year.