Naming all-time great NBA players is not an easy task by any means. There have been thousands of players who have flaunted their talents in the league over the years. But even among them, there are simply some players who are better than others. These players are considered the true greats of the game.
But as we mentioned earlier, it is not easy to figure out such players. As a result, sometimes fans believe that a player might be considered a great player, but the said player could be overrated as well.
Recently Redditor u/Numani99 asked this very question via a post on Reddit. Here is what the question was:
“I know some people will say that an all time great cannot be overrated but I disagree. Players can be amazing and still be overrated by the media and / or fans. Also in this convo we are only taking into account the top 25-30 guys all time, not just every other superstar.”
This post managed to get over 6000 comments in just over a day. This is quite a huge number, but we cannot mention each and every question in our post. So here are some of the best comments posted by NBA Fans below this post:
_coed_: “Tracy mcgrady not winning a single playoff series is one of the most embarrassing accomplishments by a great player in league history.”
Hairy-Hovercraft-82: “Michael Jordan is not overrated but his surrounding cast was under-appreciated.”
TheName9696: “A lot of people believe that Magic and Bird have never had bad Finals games, which is definitely false.”
Peixie11: “Anthony Davis.He’s a very very good player no question, but he shouldn’t be in the NBA75. No way.”
Gwhitney20: “Allen Iverson was 6 feet, maybe 160 pounds wet and led a team where Mutumbo and Aaron Mckie were his supporting cast to the finals AND won one game against Kobe and Shaq. He should not be mentioned in this thread.”
BootStrapWill: “Magic Johnson by a country mile. Dude gets drafted to a team with not only the best player ever at the time, but also 2 other hall of famers, a DPOY, and a 4x all star. He wins a Championship and FMVP as a rookie despite clearly not being the best player in that series, but the media absolutely loved the guy. That’s actually one of two FMVPs that he didn’t deserve.”
domingodlf: “Classic answers we always see here are Melo and AI. Basically most inefficient volume scorers who didn’t do much else.”
International-Eye837: “People are saying ai but like he had no scorers beside mckie off the bench and no spacing and went to the finals. Just all defensive players around him.. people say the east was weak but ai’s sixers were the only team that whole playoff run to steal a game off of kobe and shaq’s lakers.”
Ravens181811: “Dame has no business being a top 75 player. Kobe has no business being on anyone’s top 5 list, let alone top 3 (which I have seen).”
SethFnnRollins: “I would probably say Chris Paul everybody calls him a Point God but I can name a handful of point guards that I’m taking over him. He hasn’t won anything gets injured in the most important moments.”
dubidubidoorafa: “Most overrated all-time has to be Carmelo Anthony based on how people always talk about him. Heck I’m not sure he’s clear above Paul George or Jimmy Butler, let alone Paul Pierce, Scottie Pippen, Kawhi, or Drexler.”
Lavinesanity: “Kobe because he played in LA with an aesthetic playstyle.”
natedawg247: “Chris Paul for sure.”
RealWanheda: “This is the inverse of what you asked but Scottie pippen is vastly underrated. I’d argue Scottie is top 20 all time.”
NationofNick: “Since ive seen some similar caliber players on here, Damian Lillard. He can shoot but that’s about it. Gets exposed every post season.”
Additional_Wear_0202: “Scottie Pippen, he’s much closer to wherever you would rank Paul George or Jimmy Butler than a top 20 or 30 player ever.”
uwuzzz: “Hate to say it as a Spurs fan but David Robinson, sure he was always great and I think took the Spurs to the playoffs every year he was healthy but idk that anybody ever really considered them a championship level team like the Jazz, Supersonics, and Rockets of the 90’s.”
ReplacementNo2162: “Nobody has Reggie in their top 25. Reggie himself was somewhat surprised he got in the top 75 list.”
hondajvx: “If Reggie Miller played today he would be one of the greatest players of all time. Back on his day people thought he shot too many threes.”
FlyingMocko: “TMac, Melo and AI as far as the 2000s generation goes. They’re the definition of “style points”. People overrate them because they were “pure hoopers” and have great highlights more so than actual winning basketball.”
susfrusstruss: “Bob Cousy … he played against firemen!!!”
TheMadDogVachon: “Probably Oscar Robertson. How he gets routinely put as a top 10/15 player blows my mind.”
desertratrunner: “100% Anthony Davis, a no show when it matters.”
SmikleJordan: “John Stockton. Had longevity and was able to play with Karl Malone for most of his career. He consistently had loaded rosters & was never able to win it all. In my opinion he’s glorified for his massive assists/steals record which doesn’t paint the whole picture.”
DCT715: “I actually think Moses is underrated.”
xboxdingleberry: “I think Steph has had immeasurable impact on the game, but hearing all these warrior fans say he’s already top 5 is ludicrous. Over magic and all this shit, gross.”
klonomania: “Wilt Chamberlain. Lots of empty stats, but only started winning once he actually stopped producing them. All that needs to be said about how much Chamberlain’s points were actually worth is that Stephen Curry will overtake him on the all-time points leader chart for the playoffs in whatever his next playoff series after these Finals are. Curry will have played at least 20, possibly up to 25 playoff games less than Wilt.”
cjwest23: “Dwyane Wade. His whole legacy hinges on one of the biggest officiating atrocities of all time (’06 finals), 1 truly incredible year (’09), and then Bron showing up to lead him to a couple more championships.”
CoolRun3: “Wilt. Dude put up monster numbers and was an absurd talent. Just not a winning player. It’s not that he didn’t win stuff. Just not nearly as much as he could. Best example is that the dude never fouled out. He just cared about not fouling out more than help his team and contest shots (for reference read: the book of basketball). In my mind that’s why he is much to overrated.”
jjack1616: “Klay I don’t see why he’s so upset about not making the top 75 team now when he didn’t make all nba and lost his money I was mad with him.”
As it is very evident from the comments section of the Reddit post, fans have different opinions about this question and it is very hard to get a consensus answer about the same.
But even among the above-mentioned players, Anthony Davis, Damian Lillard, and Tracy McGrady were a constant mention. Apart from them, CP3 was also tagged as overrated by a lot of fans.
Well, at the end of the day, there is no way for us to find a definite answer to this question. But what we can do is bring the opinion of NBA fans to you.
