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I always see posts about "who is the best ever" and people include players like Bob Pettit and Jerry West and Bill Russell. Their opinions are probably correct, but how many of us really saw these people play? Very few. So we're just going off what other people say about these players. Again, those people are probably right, but it's still all second hand. It's not too different from someone saying "Evans is better than Curry and Jennings" without having seen any of their games. You might be right, but your opinion is hollow.
So I think a good rule for ranking people historically would be to exclude anyone that played at any point earlier than 1979 or so. Maybe George Mikan was great, but he played in a white-washed league against a bunch of average Joes with second jobs. Maybe Bill Russell was fantastic, but he still played in an era in which the quality of the game and the athletes was way lower than today. Once you get to Magic and Bird, you can start to judge people against something similar to today's level of competition.
Thoughts?
So I think a good rule for ranking people historically would be to exclude anyone that played at any point earlier than 1979 or so. Maybe George Mikan was great, but he played in a white-washed league against a bunch of average Joes with second jobs. Maybe Bill Russell was fantastic, but he still played in an era in which the quality of the game and the athletes was way lower than today. Once you get to Magic and Bird, you can start to judge people against something similar to today's level of competition.
Thoughts?