NBA media in the offseason is largely dominated by trade rumors and the various things that players get up to in their time off. However, a large part of how fans of the game entertain themselves is by engaging in hypothetical debates. One of the most controversial topics is building the ‘best starting 5’ in NBA history. The parameters for the questions may keep changing, but it’s an evergreen basketball debate.
Everyone has their team when it comes to this question, and the Fadeaway World team is arguably unbeatable too. However, a recent post asked fans to build the ideal team picking from 10 players considered to be among the greatest ever. Barring Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan, all the mentioned players enjoyed their primes in the 2000s, and fans had some interesting take on what the best combo out of all of these would be.
“Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Shaquille O’Neal… no one can beat this superteam.”
“Magic, Mike, LeBron, Tim, Shaq.”
“Give me Steph, MJ, LeBron, Dirk and Shaq I’m not losing the spacing will be crazy.”
“MJ, Steph, Bron, Kobe, Shaq, nobody beating that 5.”
“Jordan, Magic, Kobe, Duncan, and, The Dream.”
“Some of y’all need to put some respect on Hakeem’s name fr.”
“MJ and Bron on the same team would be more than enough, adding Curry, Shaq, and KD to the mix would just make it insane.”
“All the Lakers and Tim Duncan.”
“PG: we have steph SG: we have MJ SF: we have Lebron PF: we have Dirk and C: we have Hakeem.”
“Steph, Kobe, KD, Dirk, Shaq…. We running 4 out easy.”
“Shaq, Dirk, KD, Kobe, Steph. 4-0 sweep.”
“You couldn’t go wrong with any combination of these legends, man.”
It’s always hard to decide who to pick when the debate ends up being between proper legends of the game. Most fans would pick Michael Jordan and LeBron James, although Shaquille O’Neal playing center also seems to be a popular choice. Ultimately, fans will never get to see anything close to this, and it’s a real shame too. The basketball these players could play together, anyone would happily pay for.
