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| Source:NBA-TV- NBA writer Peter Vecsey talking about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. |
"Looking Back: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar NBA Career"
From VN Breyes
If the 1970s and 1980s are the two best decades of the NBA as far as the quality of play, the players, the teams, perhaps not every year of the 1970s, but certainly the 1980s, it's hard to argue that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is not the best player ever, simply because he was the best player from the best era of the NBA. You could argue that Earvin Johnson and Larry Bird were better all around players during the 2nd half of the 1980s, but I don't think you can say they were the best players in the NBA for as long as Kareem was.
I don't think there is a better two-play player than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I think what makes players like Kareem, Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan, Julius Erving, Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, more special than other great players, is because they weren't just great two-way players, but they were dominant two-way players.
Kareem is probably the best offensive player ever, but he's also one of the best defensive players ever. That's why I have him over even his own teammate Earvin Magic Johnson who was certainly the best player in the NBA, at least in the 2nd hall of the 1980s. But Kareem was a better two-way player.
