LeBron James is "Best Ever" Says Scottie Pippen

Scottie Pippen's latest declaration that LeBron James is the greatest player ever could have some validity. I'm not a LeBron fan at all, but you can't knock his talent. I personally believe that Kareem Adbul-Jabbar is the greatest player to ever play the game of basketball. Who am I to say? Like so many other writers who are sports fans we have our opinions, but it should be the players who should tell us who the best players are.

Sports writers, color analyst sit on the sidelines with their opinions on play-by-play, the rules, the so-called future Hall of Famers, etc., They should shut up and let the ex and current players, and coaches tell us who will advance into immortality. We found out after the latest HOF ballot the "future Hall of Famer" Reggie Miller didn't make the cut. I was just as shocked as most, but let the players tell you, Reggie couldn't play "D" and lacked some other skills to make him a complete enough player to get the vote on the first pass for the hall.

Sports writers also have a tendency to judge talent by the number of rings they win. Hog wash. It's not all about the rings. Rosie Grier never won a ring neither did "Big Mac" Willie McCovey. There have been plenty of players from the past and present that I could choose on my all-time team who may have won one or no NBA title. Because MJ won six (in modern media coverage times) makes him the greatest? Well, Abdul-Jabbar won six also, five on probably the most exciting team in the history of the NBA the "Showtime" Lakers. Additionally, it was the Lew Alcindor, a.k.a., Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who changed the game that we know so well today.

The late Maurice Lucas of the Portland Trailblazers was the most feared power forward in the game, but he was only talked about when he passed away last year. Gus Williams of the Seattle Supersonics could get to the hole anytime he wanted to, but who talks about Gus? A. C. Green was a warrior who answered the bell for more years than 2 two terms presidents, but he won't get too many mentions when it comes to durability and dependability.

The '˜best ever' conversation can get so touchy that we're sometimes forced to categorize greatness by position. Tim Duncan, "Mr. Fundamental" is second behind Abdul-Jabbar at the center position. Shaq would be in the low top 10 closer 10^th because he was just big. He didn't have an outside shot, he couldn't shoot free throws, he couldn't play late in the game when you needed him and he missed a lot of games, but he was measured by his four rings. Scottie is right. LeBron's overall talent, size, athleticism, skills set and confidence put him in a class by himself.