The term No. 1 or No. 2 can change depending on the situation.
When it comes to No. 1 in NBA history, Michael Jordan will usually be the first person to come to mind. However, if you go into detail and look at the No. 1 in each position, you may see another name mentioned. Stephen Curry will be mentioned as the No. 1 in 3-point shooting, John Stockton will be mentioned as the Point Guard's No. 1, and even Dennis Rodman, who is a little far from the No. 1 player in rebounding, is not strange at all.
These details are expected to deepen and diversify as the history of the NBA gets longer and the number of people who have become legends beyond stars increases. However, purely as for the No. 1 player, I think the person who makes all the competitors who will compete for the top and the 2nd and 3rd in the history or contemporary times would be the most suitable. This is because the more they fail to surpass themselves, the more shining and solid the status of the No. 1 player becomes.
There are many reasons why Jordan is called the "basketball emperor," but all of those who competed at the same time made him the second-in-command image. Without Jordan and the Chicago Bowles, the strongest team in the Eastern Conference at the same time would have been Reggie Miller's Indiana Pacers or Patrick Ewing's New York Knicks.
Ewing displayed performance on par with Hakeem Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets in the final as well. Ewing might have won the title had it not been for John Stax's poor performance. However, he was ranked as the lowest among the four major centers in future generations because he failed to hit the endpoint at every critical juncture. If he had just one or two more wins, the situation would have been different.
Ewing and Knicks constantly clashed with the Bulls for the Eastern Bloc, but despite successful fighting, they often lost. Most of them were decided by a small margin. The same applies to the Pacers afterwards. Miller, a franchise star, was always up against the price of Jordan, but ended up with no win as he drank a bitter cup of defeat.
The same holds true in the Western Conference. Clyde Drexler was nicknamed "Glider" and enjoyed elegant and flamboyant air combat. As he is equipped with various attack options including shooting and breaking through, he was highly anticipated as the best highlight swingman to succeed Julius Erving. However, he failed to retain his image as the No. 1 shooter and swingman due to Jordan's presence, which was similar but more powerful. More than anything else, his loss in the final was painful.
Without Jordan, Drexler and Miller are players who could compete for the top spot in shooting guard. In terms of career alone, it is difficult to choose between the two better shooting guards. However, Jordan is meaningless. He has no choice but to remain in the second place at the same time. The same applies to Charles Barkley, a former superstar.
The series that led the Phoenix Sons to the final was an opportunity to elevate Barkley's status to the highest. As his performance was at its peak, he could have been known as the best power forward of his time if he added a victory. However, despite his stellar performance at the time as Jordan, the Suns were defeated by the Tim Bulls. Eventually, he handed over his power forward No. 1 image to Karl Malone, who is ahead of the curve in accumulation. (Thim Duncan is currently considered the No. 1 player.)
The Utah Jazz John Stockton-Carl Malone duo is one of the players who Jordan has swallowed. Their pick-and-roll plays are like symbols that make both of them shine at the same time. He dreamed of the best by advancing to the final for two consecutive seasons, but was blocked by Jordan in both games. Stockton and Malone are both legends with tremendous accumulation records, but if they had won in their careers, their rankings would have been higher than ever.
He is not as good as Jordan, but there is still a player today who makes his competitors No. 2 in many areas. He is Nikola Jokic (29, 211 centimeters), the starting center of the Denver Nuggets. He has been building his career by step, including two regular season MVPs, one championship, and one final MVP, and is considered one of the best players in many areas, including performance and competitive edge.
Jokic, the best center and the best player, is enjoying his prime as a ruler of the modern era, and some players become second in line with such performance. European players have been gaining momentum in the NBA lately. Even if players make the best 5 in European players, they are not lagging behind American players at all or have an advantage.
It is natural that Jokic from Serbia is the No. 1 player in European leagues. If it were not for Jokic, the No. 1 player in European leagues would have been Luka Doncic (25, 201 cm) from Slovenia. He has been accumulating accumulated records for his age as well as his performance, and his presence is so great that some people call him white LeBron. 토토사이트
Just as Jokic is at the peak of his performance as an all-round passing center, Lithuanian son Domantas Sabonis (28, 211 centimeters) is one of the best players in such a game. Numerous white centers were also defeated when they faced African-American centers with athletic ability. Sabonis is different. He is dominating African-American centers by banking on his strength and skills. If not for Jokic, he is capable of becoming one of the best centers in European leagues and No. 1 white centers in the future.
Joel Embiid (30, 213 cm tall) is disappointing, too. As the modifier "second Olajuwon" indicates, he is the best big man who is comparable to the four centers in the 1990s. Nevertheless, he is not in mourning position. This is because of Jokic who is currently in the same position. From 2021 to 2022, he performed as the MVP of the regular season, but he lost to Jokic for the second consecutive year.
It is true that Embiid was the MVP, but he did a great job even if Jokic did a great job. He was named MVP last season after close competition, but Jokic led his team to the championship and even won the final MVP. Embiid, desperate, was close to being MVP this season and wondered if he would be tied with archrival Jokic with two. However, injury has hampered him, and chances are high that Jokic will become the final winner of the MVP race, which he dropped out.