Who do you think is the best scorer in the NBA right now? Answer this question in the comments below and you could find yourself featured in the next issue of Dime Magazine…
Any ballplayer who grew up in the ’80s and ’90s wanted to be a great scorer. That first 30-point game (if you were lucky… and good) was like a rite of passage. You’d made it. You had game. You could roll to school with a little swagger in your step, could talk smack in summer weekend AAU tournaments, could ask for more clearouts during playground pickup games. People respected you. They feared you. You’d rock the elbow band on the left, well… just below the left elbow, and maybe even wore No. 23.
If you’re from my generation, it was all about Michael Jordan. And if it was all about MJ, it was all about scoring 30 a night. Later, that filtered into Kobe and Iverson and Stackhouse and VC and McGrady and all the rest of ’em.
Nowadays, the game done changed. You had a stretch power forward — all 6-8 of him — lead the NBA in scoring last season (Carmelo Anthony). You had two top five scorers, both perimeter players, shoot at least 51 percent from the floor (LeBron James and Kevin Durant). You had a 34-year-old guard in his 17th NBA season dropping over 27 points a game (Kobe Bryant). And you had just one true center in the league’s top 10 in scoring average (Brook Lopez).
The game definitely done changed, and with a trio of covers for Dime 73 (you can see them all here), we helped celebrate the next generation of NBA scorers. There’s KD, a 6-9 beanstalk who can shoot from anywhere. There’s James Harden, a free throw magnet who is literally revolutionizing how players get to the rim. There’s also Kyrie Irving, a new dribbling god who is so good with the rock no one cares whether he ever delivers an assist.
Statistical analysis, hard data, basketball blogs devoted solely to numbers, it’s a different world we’re living in, and it certainly affects our perceptions. Just ask Allen Iverson, who’s seen his legacy as one of the NBA’s best scorers repeatedly torn out apart by new-age nerd thinkers. Yet despite that, the talent is so deep it’s impossible to proclaim someone as the game’s greatest scorer.
Is is Kobe? He’s certainly the most talented one-on-one player and shotmaker. Is it Carmelo? He probably scores the easiest. Is it LeBron? He is literally unstoppable going to the rim and has finally improved his jump shot. Is it Harden? First year as a star and he’s already probably the best two-guard in the league. Is it Durant? He might break the all-time record one day. Is it Irving? His ballhandling and shooting ability improves every day. Or is it another name, someone like Lopez or Westbrook or D-Wade when he’s healthy?
We can argue all day, and you know what? That’s a good thing.
Who do you think is the best scorer in the NBA right now? Answer this question in the comments below and you could find yourself featured in the next issue of Dime Magazine…
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