Your All Time Team

[Timdawgg]

My All Time Team would be:

Stockton
Jordan
Bird
McHale
Hakeem

My basis just the best at the the purest definition of each position.

Magic & Shaq off the bench and the rest is pure FUN....

Dunking Bench Team:

Kobe Bryant
Clyde Drexler
Dr.J
Dominique Wilkins
Blake Griffin

(Blake for sake of potential and the fact that he could wind up being the best dunker ever)

[ACF]

PG - Stockton
SG - Jordan
SF - Bird
PF - Russell
 C - Olajuwon

[zerophase]

I would probably go with:

Magic
Jordan
Bird
Duncan
Shaq

I would actually make a case for Gary Payton over Magic though cause he's much quicker. His defense would make this team nearly unstoppable. Also Duncan over Hakeem is basically a wash. I'd take either one.

[2short]

PG : Gary Payton (A little after Prime/veteran leadership)
SG : Jordan (Prime)
SF : Kevin Garnett (Prime)
PF : Hakeem (Prime)
C : Bill Russell (Prime)

6th Man : Larry Bird

I'd want to create one of the greatest defenses of all time if I could. Having KG in his prime, I'm sure he'd somewhat be able to handle opposing forwards. If the chance that he'd be driven on, Russell and Hakeem can move over from their positions and help out. A Jordan and Payton combo is lethal on defense, and will easily trigger fast breaks. Larry Bird as 6th man will go in for KG more than he'll play SF, and tune the offense when Jordan rests. If these players played together, they'd be one of, if not the greatest defensive squad ever to play the game of basketball.

On the offensive side, we can let Jordan do his thing. I don't like how most teams have Magic and Larry and Jordan, they need the ball to be most effective. Well, we can't have Magic and Larry and Jordan holding the ball at the same time and shooting, passing, and making a hustle play all together. That would be too much teamwork.

So I have Jordan as the player who dominates the ball and does it best, and Russell who is the player that doesn't need the ball to dominate, and Hakeem, who's offensive capabilities add a force inside. Payton is a solid all around player, and past his prime, won't need the ball as much. He and Larry can combine to be a Scottie Pippen, Larry will be his passing, Gary will be his scoring. Then there are the 3 big men, who can dominate through offensive boards. We'd have to look for post players often and give and go. I think this would be able to beat most teams of any era on the defensive end, as each of them are defensive masterminds.

your starting team has no outside range and only jordan could really beat his man off the dribble

[BASS_THUMPER]

kenny anderson
dana barros
paul pierce
antoine walker
tony battie

[Eja117]

PG Magic
SG Jerry West
SF Bird
PF Kareem
C Russell

Backups
PG Oscar Robertson
SG MJ
SF DR J
PF Duncan
C Wilt Chamberlain

11th man Rodman
whipping boy to carry bags - Lebron

[Celtics17]

This has to be one of the easier questions to answer for me. First, I start Wilt at center and Russ at power forward. It's not because Russ couldnt match up against todays centers either. That idea is ludicrous as it's today's centers who could not match up against him. Then, I start Larry at small forward, MJ at shooting guard and Magic at point. There is not a team out there that can match that.

Do you really think a young Shaq really overpowers Wilt? Guess again. In fact, that too should be reversed as Wilt was much, yes I did say much, stronger then Shaq. No team could score inside against Wilt and Russ or rebound. What player in the leagues history could beat both Wilt and Russ out for rebounds.

Next, you throw in Larry and Magic's basketball IQ and Michael's ability to score at will as if it's really needed with Wilt already on the team and you have an invincible squad.

I'll take Isaih Thomas as my backup point and Big O as my backup shooting guard, Kareem as my backup center and I'll go with Kevin McHale as my backup power forard over Duncan. At small forward we need some more 'air' so give me Dr.J!!

[Celtics17]

Sorry but I have to change my mind on the 2nd team small forward. I am going with scottie Pippen. He has to be on of the most versatile defenders of all time and I hate that the man never gets the credit he deserves. Pippen may have benefitted from playing with Jordan but if you took Pippen off of the Bulls and put him on Jordan you would see MJ look not nearly as good at times.

[Celtics17]

I did forget the 11th and 12th men I guess. My team needs some attitude off the bench. Wilt was an incredibel physcial specimen and if mad too heck from noone. That being said, I want someone who could just get downright in your face and back it up. Give me Moses Malone and Dennis Rodman for those roles.

I'm gonna have to take Chuck Daly as my coach too. His brand of hard hitting ball is what my team will play. Throw Shaq at us if you want but dont forget my team has Wilt and Moses and even Larry could be nasty when needed although in a different way. If you really get us mad, MJ will drop double nickles on you and Russ will walk away with 15 blocks while Wilt hauls in 35 rebounds.

[TheTruthFot18]

Easy answer:

Magic
Jordan
Bird
Duncan \
Russell


All Time Team from my era:

Chris Paul
Kobe Bryant
Lebron James
KG
Shaq


Now the team I'd just love to watch 

Rondo
DWade
Durant
Josh Smith
Dwight Howard

[Jon]

Magic
Jordan
Bird
Russell
Chamberlain

Yeah, Russ wasn't technically a power forward, but at his size and with his athleticism, he could certainly play there. 

And by putting position somewhat aside with Russell, it allows for likely the 5 greatest players of all time to be in the same starting lineup. 

[greg_kite]

Since I was basing a lot of my judgement on stats and relatively small clips I watched some youtube of Wilt vs Kareem and Wilt vs Russell.  I think Wilt would have to be on any all time team.  He was such a beast.

And for people saying Russell would be a better athlete with modern medicine, if that's the case can you imagine what Wilt would have been like?

I wish there was more footage of the 60's with Wilt and Russell.  Just watching a game of Wilt vs Kareem was fascinating.  For all Wilt's knocks for not being a team player, he seemed pretty unselfish towards the end of his career.  He was getting old but still keeping up with MVP caliber Kareem and looked every bit as strong and athletic.

If anyone has any good links for Wilt I'd love to see them (or Russell for that matter).

[Edgar]

kenny anderson
dana barros
paul pierce
antoine walker
tony battie

6th man blount?
 

[Celtics17]

Yes Wilt was a beast and it's too bad he has such a bad reputation for being selfish. It's funny how Jordan was a similar player as far as number of shots taken and yet he is not viewed that way. Wilt averaged close to as many assists from the center postiion as Jordan did and yet he is viewed as selfish. Most of the time it's by people who never saw him play or at least didnt realize that he had to score so much.

Russell played with at least 7 or maybe even 8 other Hall of Fame players where Wilt maybe with three or so and only a few shorts years at the end of his career. What amazes me is how so many people discount what he did as just playing in a so called watered down league compared to today. Does anyone think Perkins would have slowed Wilt or Kwame Brown or for that matter any center playing today?

[ImShakHeIsShaq]

Alright, we all know people have the "All Time Greatest" players.  Bill Russell is sometimes considered the greatest center ever, but realistically, could he stop Shaq in his prime?

What I'd like to see is everyone's all time starting 5.  You have to consider how they could match up with other created starting 5s.  You can mix positions if you want, like putting Russell at the 4 since he'd probably be a PF if he played today because of his size.  So I'll start:

PG:  Jordan
SG:  Kobe
SF:  Durant
PF:  Hakeem
C:  Shaq

Pretty much any lineup can be beaten depending on the matchups, but you need to create a team that would be beaten by the least amount of teams.

Please entertain me with this game!

I don't think much of this game, because I think that the alltime team is pretty much set, with the only real question at powerforward, though some might argue over the center:

Russell
Duncan
Bird
Jordan
Johnson

The comment you make about Russell vs Shaq is just so pointless and tiresome, in my opinion.  If we were really to have various all-time teams face off against each other, we'd have to give them all equal advantages.  We'd have to assume that the old-timers would have the fitness and training advantages that today's players have.  Thus, I think you'd see Bill Russell playing with a body more akin to Dwight Howard, combining speed, jumping ability and endurance with power.  Russell would come into this knowing that he'd have to add bulk to cope with the likes of Shaq.  At the same time,  Shaq would have to cope with Russell's speed and endurance.  We'd also see old-timers who would have the opportunity to pick up skills of later generations.  To assume that an old timer couldn't, for example, become a strong three shooter is silly.  If Larry Bird were in the game today, his threes would be even more deadly.

Thus the only consideration that would divide different eras is height, and that might require folks changing positions.  But mostly, the truly greats make height surprisingly less relevant.  Just as Magic would be point guard, despite his ridiculous height, Russell would be center, despite giving up pounds and height.

If it seems a little bit too artificial to imagine old-timers having a chance to 'catch up' with today's stars in terms of physical training and skills, just consider how artificial the whole concept of having stars from different eras play each other is.  Russell's strength was in his mind, and still today that would give him a tremendous advantage.

That's not good enough... Dwight can't handle and old Shaq (Dwight never did much against Shaq and when he did play well Shaq's old butt matched him)... now, imagine Shaq in his prime.