The 96 Bulls took advantage of NBA expansion into Canada with Toronto and Vancouver. That diluted the league even more and gave them 4-5 easier wins. The 1996 Bulls had Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Dennis Rodman and were motivated as hell. Their center combination was Luc Longley and Bill Wennington. The 1997 Bulls were better than 96 Bulls because they had Brian Williams(Bison Dele) who actually gave them a post-presense. Toni Kukoc, Steve Kerr and Ron Harper were good role players, but the NBA wasn't as good in 1996 as it was from 1984-1993. Hell Seattle won 64 games in 1996 with Kemp and Payton. I wouldn't put the 96 Bulls in my top 3. They won the most games because the NBA had 29 teams and Michael Jordan was motivated.
It tells me West was damn good (which he certainly was) and belongs in the discussion of all-time great guards. But it's by no means a knock on Robertson, which is how you seem to interpret it. It's Russell's opinion, and I'm sure many of his contemporaries might give West a slight edge over Robertson as well.
I don't disagree with any of this. I agree with your point. Magic Johnson is the greatest PG of all-time IMO. Oscar is an all-time great in my top 10, but I think Jerry West and him are too close to determine who is better. I think Oscar is behind Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant and Jerry West and Oscar I would give the advantage to Oscar slightly.
I also think that if Magic cared about averaging a triple double, he would have gone for the stats and won fewer games. This is not to say that Oscar lost games in order to pad his stats (the term triple double had not yet been coined I believe). Just that matching Oscar's feat was not a goal of Magic's. And I think that if you took Magic's numbers over a 5 year period, it may have averaged out to a triple double.
All I know is that there have been many great guards to play the game, some of whom today would be classified as pure point guards, others as mainly shooting guards, and many, like West and Robertson, best described as combo guards. And some of these guys even played various roles for their teams as their careers evolved.
OK, I know Shuttlesworth and Teen Wolf, but please enlighten me on who the others are.
Sorry but Hustler has to be on the Mount Rushmore of movie basketball players. Nard nailed that role. I would also put Moses Guthrie on that Mt. Rushmore as well.
Sidney Deane is Wesley Snipes' character in White Men Can't Jump; Jimmy Chitwood was the star of Hickory High in Hoosiers.
