Let the web-based outrage commence! NBA2K16 announced their top 10 overall rated players Tuesday via Twitter, and it’s bound to cause some serious backlash. There’s no surprise at the very top of the list. Most people who still have their wits about them believe LeBron James is the best all-around player in the league. But the order from there on out is debatable.
It’s also unavoidable. NBA2K16 will feature three separate cover athletes, and you guessed it: Those three players are Stephen Curry, Anthony Davis, and James Harden, i.e. Nos. 2, 3, and 4 on their top ten list, respectively. Kevin Durant has fallen all the way to fifth, which is somewhat understandable given his injury-plagued season in 2014-2015, but does it make any sense to rank him above Russell Westbrook, who in his absence posted one of the most impressive streaks of triple doubles in modern NBA history?
And what about Carmelo Anthony, who like Durant was injured most of last season and whose Knicks have been mired in basketball futility for several years now? ‘Melo is like the Downton Abbey of the NBA: used to be really good but hasn’t really been that good for a while yet somehow still gets nominated for all sorts of Emmys every year. Is he anymore deserving than, say, someone like Kawhi Leonard, for instance? What about Marc Gasol? And surely Paul George would make this list had he been healthy, no? Why was he precluded when other injured stars were not? Should these or any other unnamed players knock anyone off this list?
Obviously, a list like this is designed primarily to build up the hype in anticipation of the official NBA2K16 release on September 29, so it’s a win-win for the video game makers regardless of what you think. Try to keep that mind before firing off your angry missives via social media today.
(via @NBA2K)
