#3 NBA Player Peak Of All-Time According to InsideHoops

[RazorBaLade]

Lebron James, he had a very long peak of historic stats, productions, milestones, records, triple doubles, domination, mvps, fmvp, championship, potms, all-star mvps, rotys, 1st all-nba & 1st all-defensive honors and playoff runs and so on.....

what i love most about your posts is it leaves nothing to opinion. this is what it is. when im done reading, i feel like you cant imagine a contrary opinion and feel bad for having one

[OldSchoolBBall]

Err, this is easily Kareem. Geez...

[ShaqAttack3234]

These look more like primes than peaks, in fact some are almost exactly these players primes.

For reference when I say a year like '78, it refers to the '77-'78 season.

Anyway, peak really implies a short period when you get to your absolute best, while prime is a longer period when most comes together in terms of skills and maturity that comes with experience while still being young enough to have most of your athleticism.

Myself and many others consider peak to be a player's best season, though I've seen some refer to a couple of seasons, which I find reasonable too because if you look at Jordan, he maintained his level in both '90 and '91. Most seem to go with '91 because of the championship, Isometimes lean towards '90 because they relied on him more and he also had the 3 point shot in addition to everything else. But those are the differences on paper, watching the games, I can say that his skill set and level of play were pretty much the exact same both years with '92 up there too.

Prime Shaq- '98-'02 (5 seasons)
Prime Jordan- '89-'93 (5 seasons)
Prime Magic- '87-'90 (4 seasons)
Prime Bird- '85-'88 (4 seasons)
Prime Kobe- '03-'09(7 seasons)
Prime Barkley- '88-'93(6 seasons)
Prime Hakeem- '93-'96(4 seasons)
Prime Wade- '06-'11(6 seasons)
Prime T-Mac- '01-'05(5 seasons)
Prime Robinson- '93-'96(4 seasons)

A few of them are debatable by a year, for example, you could extend Shaq's to '03, extend Magic's to '91, start Bird's earlier in '84, start Barkley's a year later in '89.

But the point is, there's a difference between prime and oeak.

[kurple]

wilt

[joeyjoejoe]

Tough one between wilt and the dream but goin with olajuwon

[Hittin_Shots]

Wilt

[imdaman99]

I'll go with Hakeem. He prevented my Knicks from winning it but I let go of that grudge.

[Stern]

Wilt

[Yung D-Will]

What the hell is Kobe's peak 06? 08?


Anyhow that's irrelevant because Kobe's greatness is embedded into the length of his prime, in terms of peak play guys like Hakeem, Shaq, LBJ, Bird ext all trump him pretty easily.

So I vote Hakeem.

[KG215]

But the point is, there's a difference between prime and peak.

But this isn't something that has a set in stone definition. Some people view a peak as a 2-3 stretch sandwiched by another 2-3 years on each side of more "prime" seasons.

I think most people get that there's a difference, but it's just how we personally interpret the difference between the two and, ultimately there's really not a wrong answer. Well, unless you start trying to say someone had a 12 year prime and 8 year peak.

[Vertical-24]

Wilt "the Stilt" Chamberdick

[Andi]

If we're taking rings and "dominance" into account, it has to be 93'-95' from Olajuwon, hands down.

[BlackJoker23]

hakeem

[Poochymama]

Wilt Chamberlain

[Young X]

Hakeem