A
friend of mine sent me a picture of a meme he’d found on Twitter. It had six
pictures, each of an NBA player in his prime.
The
three players on the top row were Derrick Rose, Kevin Durant, and Michael
Jordan. The three on the bottom were Allen Iverson, LeBron James, and Kobe
Bryant.
The
caption in the picture read, “Who would win in a 3 on 3???”
Assuming
all of these players are in their prime and injury-free when this 3-on-3
happens, it’s a very interesting question.
If
we’re taking them as they are now, it’s an even more interesting question.
You’d have to put Rose and Bryant in wheelchairs, get Iverson off the street
and cleaned up a little, and have an oxygen mask ready for Jordan.
It
would basically be a game of 1-on-1 between James and Durant, although I doubt
any spectators would complain about that.
But
it’s also fun to imagine some sort of rip in the space time continuum that
allows these six players to play with one another in respective prime years.
It’d be a real-life NBA 2K15.
For
those of you who don’t know anything or don’t care about basketball, much less
professional basketball, you might as well turn away now. You probably won’t
find much about this article very enjoyable.
But
for those of you who even slightly enjoy basketball, by all means keep reading!
I
had to think for a few minutes before I replied to the message, so I analyzed
the pick my friend (who shall remain nameless) gave me as I mulled it over.
He
went with LeBron’s team, and as I say it I immediately realize that Kobe would
want me to call it “Kobe’s Team.” He pointed out the quickness of Iverson,
believing Derrick Rose would be unable to keep up with him.
According
to his logic, the combination of Iverson’s quickness, Kobe’s deadeye shooting,
and LeBron’s best-basketball-player-in-the-worldness, would be too much for
MJ’s not Tune Squad.
Minutes
later, I broke the news to him that I would have to respectfully disagree.
When
I looked at the two trios next to each other, the biggest difference I saw was
the number of willing passers on each team. Michael Jordan, Kevin Durant, and
Derrick Rose are all willing passers.
Even
if you go by matchups, LeBron is a better and more willing passer than Durant,
but Jordan and Rose are way more willing passers than Bryant and Iverson. Really,
all three players on MJ’s squad are more willing teammates in general, making
the players around them better.
In
comparison, the bottom team does more of everything, not just score. The only
player on the top team to truly be a great all-around player is LeBron, while Durant
and MJ both play the boards well, and all three on that team (as mentioned a
moment ago) are willing passers.
The
key matchup is LeBron against Durant. My money would be on LeBron throughout
the course of the game, but Durant will stay right with him, and if KD can
actually win that matchup, then I think Team Jordan easily has the upper hand.
It
would be a close game, but I think the level of teamwork from Jordan, Durant,
and Rose would eventually overwhelm the isolation mentality sure to come
naturally to any team with Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson on it.
It
really is a shame that we can’t see this game play out in real life, it would
really be a treat.
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