Question to members ranking Russell or/and Wilt in their top 5

[HOoopCityJones]

I'd be shocked if more than 10% of the thousands of people here remember watching prime Jordan at an age they had a real understanding of what they were seeing.

Even less for Magic and Bird. Hell anyone short of 32 was a child when Shaq was at his best. The way people here behave I'd bet anything half of us aren't 32.

A couple of the biggest Kobe supporters here I know for a fact were 8 years old when the Lakers first 3 peat ended. There are people here well over 10,000 posts who were eleven or twelve when Kobe started falling off and hate on him everyday as if they watched his whole career.

ISH is filled to bursting with people who have half of their top 10 list full of people they know from highlights and ESPN Classic.

Most of us don't really know our top 10 as well as we know Russell Westbrook and it's always been that way.

But its a problem when two of the most decorated players in the history of athletics slide into prominent positions when we know maybe 15% of what they did as opposed to 25% for someone else who accomplished less?

Ive been watching the Lakers since 96, mind you I was only 6 when I started, but on account of my parents being mad Laker heads I was always in the loop where it pertained to the history of our Team, Mom's favorite player was Kareem, she wore # 33 on her High School Team, Pops came to America at the height of the Showtime Lakers.

I wont pretend I knew much about other Teams around the league aside from obviously Chicago during that time, but hey there was no League pass in the 90's. Even though I grew up watching Shaq, Nick Van Exel and Eddie Jones, I don't consider that my era of Basketball. 1998 is when shit got real for me and Basketball, Kobe was emerging, Shaq just kept getting better and better, Duncan and The Spurs took the title in 99, AI was doing some great things as well and Vince Carter and Kevin Garnett were beasts. 2000's is really my Era, it's not so much I didn't understand as a 6 yr old, it's just once that investment in a Team and it's players has accumulated you start to feel the wins and losses more as you get older, that impressionable age where you're just absorbing history as it unfolds.

So yes, I laugh when people say Shaq carried Kobe during the 3peat, because Ive witnessed when Shaq, Eddie , and Nick were carrying Kobe and it was from 96-98, after that the Kid was the legit second option and perennial closer for The Lakers and even out shined Shaq on some nights.

[Kblaze8855]

I don't take those people and their lists seriously. The difference between MJ/ Bird/Magic and Wilt/Russell is we can access MJ and company's games easily and it's almost impossible to access Wilt and Russell's games.

It being possible doesn't mean people do it. The way people around here talk its obvious most aren't putting in the leg work. They care enough to argue not enough to spend hours forming an opinion with all available data.

People online aren't arguing because they know they are right because they looked into it. They argue because the belief that they are right is stronger than any evidence that says otherwise.

These dudes don't know the truth and have no real interest in finding it. They just want to put how many times someone won something in front of how many times they lost it and post a ****ing emoticon.

Is not about what's rational. They aren't forming their opinions through a rational process.

They're online acting like dickheads because they find it funny to see someone get upset about it or more often they are just bored sitting at a computer with nothing to do for a few minutes and post something about a game they love but aren't going to deeply investigate.

Even here on a place designed to draw hardcore fans most of us just don't care that much. But call one out on it they aren't going to admit it. Admitting you don't know what the **** you're talking about and don't even care enough to attempt to investigate your claims or how they came to be just isn't something likely to happen no matter how true it may be.

[sdot_thadon]

When I look at your GOAT list, I want to know who the best players are from your perspective, not from an old guy who wrote an article about wilt/russell from his own perspective.

I get that, but it's not entirely possible for anyone to have a credible goat list by those standards, for any subject. You can only use what's available, when I say read I don't mean just an article from an old guy. These guys are legends and have books written about them. Articles from the actual time period are especially gems. Like kblaze said, you have to be willing to do the homework. Most of my research was in my teens when I was absolutely obsessed with basketball. That said there is so much more available to learn now than when I was younger, so I still come across new info every so often.

It's amazing when you put it in perspective how hard some of you here argue against players you know nothing about.

[JellyBean]

How many full games of them have you watched and at what time of their career were those games?

None. But I have talked with coaches and family members from that era, as well as read books on Russell and Wilt, and putting up those kinds of numbers that those two did considering the level of travel and number of back to back games, allows me the latitude to place them among my top 5 GOAT list.