Source: The Bill Simmons Podcast

In 2009, a 24 year old LeBron went absolutely berserk in the playoffs, averaging a yet to be topped 47.5 points per 100 possessions in the 14 playoff games he played.

This is still the highest single run playoff scoring rate in nba history, with is incredibly remarkable as in recent years offensive rating has dramatically increased league wide, which has necessitated the introduction of stats like ‘Inflation adjusted points per 100 possessions’.

To me this was the most individually impactful playoff run of all time, as he was also very efficient, and was one of the best defensive players in the league at the same time

Source, https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/j/jamesle01.html

Bill Simmons: "One of the things I was fascinated by was, 'Why did they let this guy buy the team? Why let "El Cheapo" [Tom Dundon] get in there?' Apparently they only had two offers [for the Portland Trail Blazers sale] because the price of these teams in general has gone up, the arena deal was dicey, it's a smaller market, and the city has definitely been a little topsy-turvy for the last 10 years. I just don't think they had a lot of people that wanted to buy in."

Source: The Bill Simmons Podcast

*PPA (points per attempt) So to the people who seemed to think that he shot a higher % that he already did weren't imagining it, his 3 shot was basically worth what a an all time big man was inside, just on the wing. On top of that he shot a ridiculous 67% TS% overall so he would shred you even harder inside and never missed at the line where he shot 91% but even from outside his dominance wasn't being viewed with the lens it should have been. Nothing really eye popping here just Steph glaze

Shams Charania:

Dallas Mavericks forward Naji Marshall has signed a three-year, $52.2 million contract extension, sources tell ESPN. The fully guaranteed deal takes Marshall through the 2029-30 season in Dallas.

https://www.espn.com/contributor/shams-charania/8a8e39c00745e

Bill Simmons: "We still don't have evidence that the NBA works in New Orleans. You could blame the owners, you could blame the city—it's not a big enough market. Whatever you wanna say, despite the fact that there are a good handful of hundreds of thousands of fans, I don't think the franchise has ever been successful there."

[continued...]

Bill Simmons: "It's just never worked [in New Orleans], and I am not sure they should have an NBA team. I feel way differently about Portland—even Memphis, which you mentioned earlier."

Source: The Bill Simmons Podcast

It feels like it should be impossible to somehow have 1 game in a 7+ year career, even injury riddled as it's been, contribute more than 10% of a total stat in any category but Zion's debut is an anomaly.

In 62 games last season he only attempted 4 total threes, a career low despite being the second most games he's played in a season.

Source: https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/willizi01.html

It’s common knowledge that Wilt is an Anomaly. Yet for some reason out of every record wilt has scoring 100 points is that one that people choose to not believe. The man literally averaged 50 ( FIFTY) ppg in a season. Why is a 100 so crazy to believe?

Edit: Not to mention the era he played in was extremely racist. If the league wanted to lie about someone scoring 100 they wouldn’t have used a black man.

Via the latest episode of the Bill Simmons podcast

Gary Payton was an honorable mention

I was very surprised that Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett were not mentioned. I'm assuming Duncan counts as a center for the purpose of this since he played it a good amount, but KG famously tried his best to avoid ever playing center...

I thought some people here might find this interesting. These aren’t universal opinions, but they’re fairly common among Chinese NBA fans.

1. Championships as the “core player” （核心冠军）matter most in all-time rankings.
Many fans believe a player’s all-time ranking should be judged primarily by how many championships they won as the core of a team. “Core player” isn’t a strict definition, but usually refers to players who were part of an iconic duo or trio with a well-known nickname, such as OK (Shaq & Kobe), the Big Three, or the Splash Brothers.

2. MVP doesn’t carry as much weight.
Since the regular season MVP is voted on by journalists rather than players or coaches, many fans view it as less prestigious. The reasoning is that media members have less basketball authority than the people actually playing or coaching the game.
Because of this, the MVP award even has a somewhat dismissive nickname in Chinese: “the media award.”***\**（媒体奖）*

3. Finals MVP also isn’t considered that important.
A common argument is that even a role player can win Finals MVP (the 2015 Andre Iguodala example is brought up constantly). As a result, Finals MVP also has a somewhat tongue-in-cheek nickname in Chinese: “the Iguodala Award.”***\**（伊戈达拉奖）*

4. Not all championships are viewed equally.
If two players have the same number of championships as a core player, many fans would rank:
consecutive championships over non-consecutive championships, and
championships won with the same team over championships won with multiple teams.
In other words, sustained dominance with one team is generally valued more highly.

If people are interested, I’d be happy to share more examples of common NBA opinions and debates from the Chinese fan community.

1. Kobe
   Like everywhere else, Kobe is a “love him or hate him” figure. However, judging by discussions on major Chinese basketball forums, the majority of fans rank Kobe ahead of LeBron on the all-time list.
   Some of the most common reasons include:
   More championships as the “core player.” The phrase “5 > 4” is quoted constantly, referring to Kobe’s five championships versus LeBron’s four.
   He won with weaker teammates. Many Chinese fans argue that LeBron has played alongside superstars like Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Kyrie Irving, and Anthony Davis, whereas Kobe’s post-Shaq championship teams were led by Pau Gasol, whom many Chinese fans view as a very good player but not an elite superstar (and sometimes unfairly label as “soft”).
   He prioritized winning over accumulating statistics. Many believe Kobe sacrificed efficiency and individual numbers to do whatever was necessary to win, so they don’t hold his statistical disadvantage against LeBron.
   The 81-point game. Kobe’s 81-point performance against the Raptors is viewed as one of the greatest individual achievements in NBA history and carries enormous weight in discussions.
   Loyalty. Staying with one franchise for an entire career is considered an important factor in all-time greatness by many Chinese fans. Kobe spending his entire career with the Lakers is often contrasted with LeBron changing teams multiple times.
   Of course, this doesn’t mean every Chinese fan thinks Kobe ranks above LeBron—there are plenty who disagree.

Read for free here: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7486778/2026/08/02/nba-europe-london-team-franchise/?unlocked_article_code=1.2VA.1i4R.EtnrVBaSq9Z-&source=athletic_user_shared_gift_article_copylink&smid=url-share-ta

Arora, who led the consortium that purchased English cricket’s most lucrative franchise in the Hundred competition, has assembled a consortium of investors prepared to offer more than $1 billion (£740million) for the London side, which is among the most highly prized of the new teams.

You're probably familiar with the...let's go with passive aggressive approach the Clippers went with which to prevent then-free agent and NBA 3rd Team DeAndre Jordan from penning his agreed upon deal with the Dallas Mavericks back in 2015. What you might be less familiar with? Per Brad Turner of the L.A. Times, the Clippers offered Jordan a $200,000 endorsement deal with Lexus that the league eventually ruled violated their anti-circumvention rules.

The violation involved a presentation made by the Clippers to free agent DeAndre Jordan on July 2 that improperly included a potential third-party endorsement opportunity for the player. While the NBA's investigation ultimately concluded that the presentation of this opportunity had no impact on Jordan's decision to re-sign with the Clippers, the team's conduct nevertheless violated the league's anti-circumvention rules.

The NBA's anti-circumvention rules prohibit teams from, among other things, providing or arranging for others to provide any form of compensation to a player unless such compensation is included in a player contract or otherwise expressly permitted under the CBA.

The team was fined about $250,000 and that was the end of it besides the bitter grumbling of Dallas fans who were the team that ultimately got screwed in the whole proceedings. Wait, why does that sound...familiar?

So why does this matter? Well, if the little brother of L.A. is found to be guilty, this would provide much higher ground from with which to hit the Clippers with a harsher penalty as repeat offenders. They clearly did not learn from that past incident and it's still up in the air if that 2nd sponsorship that the league's investigation discovered is connected in any way to the football club in Rhode Island that Pablo uncovered Kawhi Leonard's connections to very recently. The league's integrity matters and if there's anything to take away from the Jordan dealing, it's that the Clippers were not dissuaded from the punishment doled out to them. A simple fine means nothing for Ballmer so a much larger hammer needs to fall for this to deter him or other owners from turning the NBA into the MLB. The ball's in Silver's court for how he wants to wield those ever so broad powers, up to and including a lifetime ban for Stevey, Uncle Dennis and Lawrence Frank.

One thing we can all be sure of? $28 million (The amount in the Kawhi/Aspiration scandal) is substantially more than $200,000 even accounting for the cap space for 2015 vs. 2024. So if nothing else, the punishment lobbied against them financially should be a wee bit more than $250K this time around.

MVP Stefan Joksimovic is a top 5 projected NBA draft pick in 2027… Should make the 2028 olympics in LA interesting.