Injuries are the worst thing that could happen to an NBA player. Unfortunately over the years, numerous players have been victims of some gruesome injuries and that has either cut their careers short or simply held them back from performing at their best.
Players like Derrick Rose, Tracy McGrady, and Penny Hardaway come to mind when we talk about athletes whose careers have been ruined due to injuries.
Before getting injured, Rose was the youngest regular-season MVP in the history of the NBA. Tracy was a phenomenal scorer and went toe to toe with the likes of Kobe Bryant.
As for Penny, he was blossoming into a great star that even went to the NBA Finals. Former NBA player Horace Grant even talked about picking Hardaway over Kobe if he wasn’t injured.
But what if, the above-mentioned superstars and many others never got injured? Instagram page NBA Buzz also wondered about this and created a post featuring those players.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CUJriVvMiM_
The starting five of the team feature: Derrick Rose, Penny Hardaway, Tracy McGrady, Bill Walton, and Yao Ming. Apart from the phenomenal starting five, the bench had Brandon Roy, Greg Oden, Jay Williams, Ralph Sampson, Danny Manning, Grant Hill, Shaun Livingston, Sam Bowie.
Just at the first look, you can tell that if a team of this caliber is ever assembled it will certainly go deep in the postseason and probably win a few NBA championships as well.
But as we know it, most of these NBA stars never got to hit the prime of their careers and eventually retired earlier or resorted to becoming role players.
Of course, the fans lauded the post and left some amazing comments on it. A few of them suggested players that were missing from the list as well.
“Fletchthagreat: “Penny Hardaway ! Shaq said he would of won rings with penny if it wasn’t for injury”
Michaelmann4: “Brandon Roy is that lethal to be in this list”
Mt91: “Demarcus Cousins, Chris Webber”
Jayjuarez92: “Bill Walton still won a championship”
Roccobalistreri: “Bryant Reeves is a must on this list!”
Iamyoungcannon: “Yao Ming was a Monstar”
Jbiz007: “Brandon Roy was a mini Kobe before injuries… Grant Hill was LBJ before LBJ also..”
Sirlau7: “TMac is a hall of famer, I would replace him with Brandon Roy”
Ynrnkoryy: “Even tho he still had a lengthy career you can add Dwight Howard to this list.”
Cptmaykel: “Where’s Arenas and Webber?”
Jat.nyc: “Dwight Howard, Demarcus Cousins, Sam Bowie, Greg Oden, Gary Payton (we should all know why)”
Eliscott34: “This team would go crazy where is Richard jeff”
Grantdillon_: “As much as I love Penny, B Roy should be in that starting spot.”
Most fans believe that Brandon Roy deserves to be on the starting five instead of Penny. Additionally, DeMarcus Cousins could have been added to the bench.
Apart from that, most of the team looks good. Imagine if this team was in the current NBA? Would they win the championship? Well, there is hardly any doubt about that.
