Kareem Abdul-Jabbar BLASTS Pippen: Neither Jordan/LBJ is the Greatest!

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   LakeShow Tposted 13 years ago

   LoL! This is getting good now. Check this out:
   
   http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_d … nba-wp4090
   
   In a response to Scottie Pippen's comments last week where he proclaimed Michael Jordan the greatest scorer in NBA history and LeBron James as potentially the greatest player of all-time, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has put in his 2 cents on the topic in the form of a "nasty" open letter to Pippen.
   
   In the letter Kareem, in his own seemingly crude and condescending way, is basically claiming that Scottie Pippen's comments are ignorant (and that he needs to educate himself on the history of basketball) to the earlier generations of the NBA. He goes on to say that Wilt is the greatest scorer of all-time because Jordan never scored 100 pts in a game or averaged 50 points per game for a season, as Wilt did. He also states that Bill Russell is the best player of all-time because of his 11 championships.
   
   The attached article really sums it all up pretty nicely, as I don't do it any justice. Juicy stuff.
   
   I can see a big fued on the horizon.

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      Stevennix2001posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      You know, I actually heard about that earlier when I saw ESPN, and I was thinking about opening up a forum on that topic, but you beat me to the punch.  Personally, it sounds like Kareem is a bit bitter, but he's right about Scottie being ignorant with his statement.  However, I still think that what Scottie said was just one of those things where he clearly wasn't thinking when he said it, as he even backed off those statements later on twitter according to espn. 
      
      By the way, you forgot to mention the part where he signed it saying, "Kareem Abdul Jabbar, the nba's all time leader in points."

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         LakeShow Tposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Haha. Like I said, my quick summary does no justice to how juicy this situation has become.
         
         Clearly, Kareem was offended and felt slighted by Pippen's remarks. In fact, I'd imagine Kareem has felt slighted and has been bitter for years now because it seems like very few  do consider him the best scorer of all-time even though he is the NBA's all-time leader by a HUGE margin.
         
         With that said, I can understand Kareem's position, as I have also been guilty of slighting Kareem over the years because I had never seen him play. I had always had him ranked around #9-10 on the NBA's all-time ranks, but when I did some research for the "Top 10" thread I had never realized how high Kareem's points per game averages were. I had just assumed he was the highest scorer because he player longer than anyone else in history. Because of that discovery, I moved him up past Magic and Kobe Bryant into the #3 ranking.
         
         On the other hand, the sarcasm and crudeness of Kareem's comments are not likely to help Kareem's already shaky reputation.

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   S Leretsehposted 13 years ago

   I discussed this very thing w/ Ervin Johnson (not "magic" - the other one) a couple years ago.  I claimed Bird was the best ever. I think he believed Kobe was the best. Kobe played "with a chip on his shoulder" he kept saying.  I couldn't quite figure out what he meant by that.  He played against Jordan and I know his name never came up.

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      prettydarkhorseposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I agree with what you said about Larry Bird, one of my top five best!
      
      But, I can't disagree with what Kareem said.

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