NBA Twitter is a beautiful place where entertainment and debate reign, and great ideas can be found. Recently, the team at NBAMath organized a #TimeMachineDraft in which 30 personalities from around NBA Twitter selected an ultimate roster comprised of individual seasons from NBA greats. Let’s take a look at the top 15 picks:
1. 1988/89 Michael Jordan (Bryant Knox of Bleacher Report).
2. 2012/13 LeBron James (B/R’s Andrew Bailey).
Who else was going to be selected in the top two? The Jordan-LBJ debate has been going on for several seasons now and with James showing no signs of slowing down, it’ll likely continue for quite some time. I wouldn’t determine whether GoodFellas or The Departed is the better film without seeing how each movie ended. With LBJ still playing at a high-level, I’m not ready to pick between the two.
3. 1971/72 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Former Bulls beat writer Sean Highkin).
4. 1986/87 Magic Johnson (HoopsHype’s Bryan Kalbrosky).
5. 2015/16 Stephen Curry (CBS Sport’s Adi Joseph).
You could talk me into these three in any order, though if I were picking third, I might pull the trigger on Curry, a player who looked like his 2015 self during Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals this week.
6. 1999-00 Shaquille O’Neal (T.J. McBride of Mile High Sports).
This pick might be too low or just right. Does this theoretical league play 82 games? When you pick a player, do you get him in peak form or how he looked prior to opening night of a given season? That might influence my pick in this spot. However, if we’re taking a Shaq season, this is probably the best one.
7. 1985/86 Larry Bird (NBAMath’s Coach Adam Spinella).
8. 1993/94 Hakeem Olajuwon (RotoBaller’s Justin Carter).
9. 1963/64 Wilt Chamberlain (NBAMath’s Tony East).
It would be fantastic to see each of these Hall-of-Famers play against each other in their respective primes. Also, can you image any of these players floor, surrounded by the long-range shooting in today’s game?
10. 2002/03 Tim Duncan ( The Score’s Chris Walder).
11. 2013/14 Kevin Durant (B/R’s Tyler Conway).
Two very underrated seasons. Not sure which moment was more emotional for basketball fans: Durant making his MVP speech or Popovich speaking about Duncan after the big man retired.
12. 2003/04 Kevin Garnett (NBAMath’s Tom Rende).
13. 2008/09 Chris Paul (B/R’s Dan Favale).
Two players who have had heard their fair share of criticism. Add being partially responsible for Durant’s signing in Golden State to their haters’ lists.
14. 1993/94 David Robinson (HoopsHype’s Alex Kennedy).
15. 2016/17 Kawhi Leonard (Nylon Calculus’ Krishna Narsu).
Leonard was my selection for the 2016/17 MVP award after putting up a great, efficient season. Russell Westbrook – whose 2016/17 campaign was also selected in the first round of this Twitter draft – won the actual award after averaging a triple-double for the season.
I’m not sure I’d take a player who took over 2,000 shots and committed 438 turnovers in a season with my top pick in this kind of draft, but then again Westbrook provided special moments over and over again during his lone MVP campaign.
So tonight’s Community Shootaround is all about which player had the best NBA season in history and which ones are severely underrated.
Think 2006/07 Dirk Nowitzki should have gone higher in the draft? How about a season from Kobe Bryant? What about Charles Barkley, Anthony Davis or Grant Hill?
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below. We look forward to what you have to say!
“… should have went…” Where on earth do you find your writers?
Nice life, criticizing English on quick Sports posts.
Good thing your Peters handy or else you’d have nothing to play with.
How is the 61-62 season not Wilt’s choice – 50 PPG 25.7 RPG? AND his best FT% of his career.
I suppose 1989 was the year that Jordan caught a viral infection, because he could not be allowed to catch a cold.
Any Shaq achievement needs an asterisk. This is due to the unofficial Shaq-inspired rule, called “big man has a right to get going”, in effect whenever Shaq knocked people down after he caught the ball in the post. The rule left when he retired.
I gotta like Olajuwan ’94 because he was on the comeback trail and just did not stop until his team was #1. It was a surprise title, then he backed it up next yr. It was a different style of team where the PF Horry could drift around the 3pt line because Olajuwan dominated the paint. Mad Max could gamble all he wanted too, his mistakes were covered. Kenny Smith was almost invisible at PG, someone tell him that. No, he admits it was easy for him that year, he mostly just entered to Olajuwan.
He was pretty much on the trading block previously, his career in stagnation.
No Kobe is surprising for sure but there are several others that could easily slot in.
61-62 Oscar Robertson
72-73 Tiny Archibald
66-67 Rick Barry or 74-75 Rick Barry
73-74 Bob McAdoo or 74-75 Bob McAdoo
60-61 Elgin Baylor
79-80 Julius Erving
86-87 Kevin McHale
02-03 Tracy McGrady
05-06 Allen Iverson
Plus Moses Malone, Jerry West, Bill Russell, Pete Maravich, George Gervin. It’s really hard to them down.
I’d like the look of AD’s 17-18, clear MVP
Harden will be MVP. Simple way to figure it out… Box Plus Minus + Win Shares + Value Over Replacemebt Player, literally every mvp led in these 3 for the last 15 years, as far as I went back to check.
Glad to see the correction. Thanks.
Your first sentence is grammatically incorrect. There’s no subject for glad. Who’s glad? You’re glad? I’m glad? The writer of the article is glad?