If You Could Only Watch One NBA Player's Highlight Film, Who You Taking?
I posed this question last night after LeBron had that absurd first quarter where he reminded everyone he’s the best player in the game. It got me thinking though. All NBA highlights and past games are wiped from the Internet/TV/whatever you watch on. Who is the one person you want to be able to keep? Now, you’ll get to see their scoring, passing, defense, etc. You won’t get to see whole games, just highlights. It’s not limited to just one moment, game, season, but rather their career. The other thing to remember is you’re only getting the good highlights. Don’t have to worry about turnovers, missed shots, etc. Also a reminder, these are NBA highlights only.
I got a bunch of responses and there are a couple of correct answers here. Some of the correct ones include:
Jason Williams aka White Chocolate
An absolute-no brainer here. One of the more fascinating players of our generation who really broke the early internet with his elbow pass in the Rookie/Sophomore game. Shit, I remember being 13 in 2000 when this happened and trying to do it on the driveway. It was a must-try for any kid that was a guard. Between the no look passes, the bounce passes through traffic and absolutely insane handles, he was a popular choice.
Vince Carter
Are you interested in dunks? Well, do I have the guy for you. Between the dunk contests, the in-game dunks and the fact you have 20 years worth of highlights you have another popular answer here. You’ll get some decent handles as young Vince was able to break guys down off the dribble to get to the rim. The real question here though is what dunk of Vince’s is your favorite? Since you can’t say dunking over Weis, you have to go with his dunk over Zo and the Heat.
Michael Jordan
Again, another no-brainer as you are picking arguably the greatest to play the game. You get the dunks and then able to watch him transition into that midrange game. Throw in some of the handles he had – most notably where he made Bird reach when he was on the baseline at the Garden and you have a pretty good all-around tape to watch with no other basketball. The other positive? You may even get the Mariah Carey Wizards dress in a highlight or two.
Advertisement
LeBron James
Between the passing and dunks and overall greatness he’s a popular choice. Similar to Jordan you get to see a variety of different unbelievable plays and the adaptation of James’ game from rookie year to now. Hell, just getting to watch the 4th quarter against the Pistons back when he scored roughly 150 points in a row would be entertaining enough. There are plenty of highlights where you get a lot from James here.
Kobe Bryant
Yeah, I guess I have to include him because so many people suggested him. But, if you’re watching Kobe, wouldn’t you just take Jordan? A similar type player that is just better? Kobe you’ll get a lot of variety as well. From young Kobe with the highlight dunks, to him and Shaq vs the Kings/Blazer and then him and Pau.
Allen Iverson
Perhaps a top-3 popular answer in my mentions was Allen Iverson. The guy who defined lead guard who was a scorer was Allen Iverson. He had the handles and you get to watch him cross Jordan over six ways to Sunday. There’s plenty of individual highlights with Iverson and the fact you don’t have to worry about missed shots makes him an intriguing selection here.
Advertisement
However, my choice is someone a little different. I debated going with LeBron but I’ll go with:
Steve Nash
Now, you may wonder why I would pick Nash here? He can’t dunk. That’s fine, neither could I. I love(d) watching Nash play. I’m a sucker for a dude that gets creative with passing and Nash’s vision was something I could watch on loop forever. Throw in his handles and ability to finish creatively i.e. the going off wrong foot wrong hand layup, he’s my decision. So let me know yours.