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Jul 21, 2015
2:26:25pm
Which one of those carried a less talented team?
Wilt only won with 3 Hall of Famers on the roster. As my previous post indicated he never carried a team to a title.

Magic impressively won 5 titles. The first title he won he was the 3rd leading scorer and 2nd on the team in assists. Of course Kareem Abdul Jabbar who I have ranked #2 on my list was the leader.
His 2nd title he was the 3rd leading scorer again and doing better at 9.5 apg. It did help that he still had HOFers in Jamaal Wilkes and Kareem leading the way.
His 3rd title was won with Kareem, Worthy, Wilkes and McAdoo (all in the HOF).
His 4th title he was finally the leading scorer. Kareem was on the team, but aging. Worthy was in his prime as was Byron Scott and AC Green. So far this is the one where he had the least amount of talent and he still had 2 HOFers with 2 other borderline HOF guys with him.
His 5th and final title was won with the same cast, although both Scott and Worthy overtook him in scoring. Kareem was a year older, but effective.

I would say Magic was the best player on the last two teams. Hard for me to put him ahead of Kareem on any of the first three, but the argument could be made. That being said, Magic played with some of the best talent the league has ever seen.

Bird? He came into the league with a ton of talent. They won a title in his 2nd year with HOFers Archibald, McHale and Parish.
His 2nd title came with Parish, McHale, Walton and DJ... again all Hall of Famers.
His last title came with Parish, McHale and DJ.

So which one of these guys led worse group of players to the championship? The answer is Tim Duncan. His first title he played with a 33 year-old Robinson. Then Sean Elliott or Avery Johnson was the next best player.
His next title he played with a 37 year-old Robinson (8.5 ppg). Tony Parker (probable HOF-only 20 this year), Stephen Jackson and Malik Rose were the next 3 in scoring.
His next title came with Parker, Ginobili and Bruce Bowen. His 4th was very similar with only Parker and Ginobili scoring in double digits besides himself. Clearly he was by far the alpha on the first 4 championship teams.
Finally his final title was won with Parker, Ginobili, Leonard and some solid role players. I believe this was still Duncan's team, but certainly a case could be made for Parker.

Duncan won 5 titles and had the worst talent to play with of these groups.
kimdaddy35
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