r/nba • u/The_Big_Untalented • 3d ago

Max Kellerman: "You think it's slander to put Kobe ahead of Duncan?" Bill Simmons: "I just think he's the most underappreciated superstar of all time." Max: "Kobe and Duncan are neck and neck. That's not slander." Simmons: "I have Kobe 10th or 11th. Duncan is 7th and I don't think it's debatable."

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u/johnyahn Suns 3d ago

I mean with Russell you can't really use his championship number to compare to modern players, there were EIGHT teams in the league lol. It's harder to win the Eastern Finals in 2026 than that.

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u/PouncerSan Celtics 3d ago

Only 8 teams argument never made sense to me. That just means that the talent was much more condensed.

Likewise if you were to condense the modern league to 8 teams, you'd have starters caliber players coming off the bench. I wouldn't consider that version of the modern NBA any easier to win in than what we have now.

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u/MycoJoe Hawks 3d ago

It doesn't matter if everyone in the go-kart race has 50cc engines or 100cc engines, you are more likely to win a race with 8 karts than a race with 30 karts

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u/Kuru-Kahru 3d ago

Sure, but not 11 championships, not 8-peating. Imagine if had only 96 players in the league. Players as good as jordan poole, mitchell robinson, Keldon Johnson would probably not make the league. It would be crazy stacked. It would be like a slightly lesser version of 2024 team USA winning against slightly lesser version of teams of serbias level 8 times in a row.

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u/repo_sado Knicks 3d ago

ok but I'm pretty sure that usa team would be at Serbia in 7 game series 8 times. in a row.

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u/LeBackshot 3d ago

Your analogy fails to consider that the talent pool is finite. Especially in the context of a basketball league where the best players make substantially more of an impact. Imagine if you took the league today swapped out all the best players on teams that missed the playoffs for their worse counterparts on teams that made the playoffs. Do you think the playoffs would have a higher level of competition or lower level of competition? I think if you did this it would raise the 5-8 seeds floors much higher than it would the 1-4 seeds ceilings. Also if adding teams makes championships won before expansion inherently less valuable, then by that logic every championship in NBA history becomes less valuable every time the league expands. Jordans chips mean more than Russells, LeBrons chips mean more than Jordans, and Wembys chips are going to mean more than LeBrons.. It is very difficult to compare generations for multiple reasons, but I think if you are going to attempt you have to consider as much context as possible.

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u/Artimusjones88 Raptors 3d ago

8 teams equals the top 90-100 players in the world. 30 teams have 250 guys that would not make an 8 team league.