For those confused about the comparison at 2:37 - I know that Ben Wallace and Peja won titles too, but I was only comparing the top 4 players of each class (as shown in the image). To make the point that 1984 was more top-heavy
Ben Wallace was never drafted, so he was in a class of his own. 1984 Class could field an entire lineup with solid backups. 1996 class was mostly guard heavy. If they played head to head, nobody would guard Hakeem.
Fun fact: 84 draft also included track and field athlete Carl Lewis who is arguably one of the best athletes of all time. He was drafted by Chicago Bulls with 208th pick. But unfortunately he never played basketball and he was only drafted because of his freakish athleticism.
Peja and Ben Wallace are underrated, especially Peja. Edit: I looked up the 1996 draft and surprised to know that Derek Fisher also in the same draft class....
Peja is a top 20 yugo in the same class as Bodiroga,Paspalje and others..Drajen is considered the top ex yugo player ever..he doesnt even make the list of top 50 nba players and Peja is definetely ranked quite below him..the 1984 draft class has arguably the Goat..the most skilled Center all times,,the most dominant PF all times and the second best pg all times..
@@andreaspapadakis2602 ? are you really saying Barkley was the most dominant PF and stockton the second best pg of all tiem? LAFMFAOFLAFAFMAFIFAJKNKBHACBIUCACSICU IM DEAD
@@andreaspapadakis2602 LMFAO stockton doesnt even make top 5 of all time, hes arguably top 6 and thats without counting LBJ, LMFAO 2nd of all time? LOL JOKE
Raymond Smith how come they had lebron,melo,wade,Chris Bosh and other players, I think this draft is similar to 1984 because 1984 had more superstar names while 1996 were more deeper
2003 and 1984 are very similar drafts. Both have 4 top dawgs. Jordan, Hakeem, Stockton and Barkley---Lebron, Wade, Anthony, Bosh. Depth was an issue in both cases buy they've had some good memorable players. 2003: Chris Kaman Kirk Hinrick Nick Collison David West Leandro Barbosa Kendrick Perkins And if you want, Dahntay Jones, which Lebron said that he is the best teammate ever. 1984: Alvin Robinson Otis Thorpe Kevin Willis And also Rick Carlisle,head coach of the mavs was there
how , d wade carried shaq to a championship LeBron carried kyrie and klove melo was good but never had a good team bosh’s defensive plays were one of the reasons the heat big 3 won those championships
You know, tbf, Stephon Marbury actually had a pretty decent NBA career. Like, he didn't become what we expected him to be when he was drafted, but he was still pretty good. Definitely above average. I remember being sad when he left the Timberwolves, because he and KG had something special
Wallace didn't count, but not because he went undrafted. It's because he isn't part of the "Big 4" Andy was comparing. The Big 4 were Bryant, Iverson, Nash and Allen.
The big four of 84 was incredible no one is denying it John mike Charles and Hakeem however 96 was incredibly deep even if you weren’t a elite player you could be talented roleplayer/All-Star 96 was the best draft class in nba history no one can @me
1984 has the PG with by far the most assists in histoey. A SG who is the undisputed goat. A MVP PF. And a center who has the most blocks in history and is the only player ever to win DPOY MVP and finals MVP in the same year.
1984 : Michael Jordan = 5 MVPs, 6 Finals MVPs, 1 DPOY, 10 Scoring Titles, 3 Steals Titles Hakeem Olajuwon = 1 MVP, 2 Finals MVPs, 2 DPOYs, 2 Rebounding Titles, 3 Blocks Titles Charles Barkley = 1 MVP, 1 Rebounding Title John Stockton = 9 Assists Titles, 2 Steals Titles Alvin Robertson = 1 DPOY, 3 Steals Titles 1996 : Kobe Bryant = 1 MVP, 2 Finals MVPs, 2 Scoring Titles Allen Iverson = 1 MVP, 4 Scoring Titles, 3 Steals Titles Steve Nash = 2 MVPs, 5 Assists Titles Ray Allen = 10x All-Star Jermaine O'Neal = 6x All-Star 2003: LeBron James = 4 MVPs, 3 Finals MVPs, 1 Scoring Title Dwyane Wade = 1 Finals MVP, 1 Scoring Title Carmelo Anthony = 1 Scoring Title Chris Bosh = 11x All-Star Makes it even more disappointing that three of the top players from the '03 class just decided to team up in their primes. BTW, Hall of Famer Oscar Schmidt was also drafted in '84 but chose to play in other countries instead.
You mentioned Marbury's international career, but you didn't mention the greatest player to never play in the NBA, Oscar Schmidt, who was also drafted in 1984.
As a die hard MAVS fan... man was a Great Value version of Klay Thompson. He was a really reallyyy good role player but also a victim of his era.. but if he played in this era? His name would be in alllll them record books. 3&D beast
1984 have two top 5 players all time and 1996 has the 6th best ever snd is more deep. It’d tough to say which one was better but they were both stacked
Speaking of Ben Wallace, have you done a vid/would you consider one, for the best undrafted players? Like a top 10, maybe even comparing the differences to say Bleacher Report, Stadium Talk, etc.
2003 and 1984 are very similar drafts. Both have 4 top dawgs. Jordan, Hakeem, Stockton and Barkley---Lebron, Wade, Anthony, Bosh. Depth was an issue in both cases buy they've had some good memorable players. 2003: Chris Kaman Kirk Hinrick Nick Collison David West Leandro Barbosa Kendrick Perkins And if you want, Dahntay Jones, which Lebron said that he is the best teammate ever. 1984: Alvin Robinson Otis Thorpe Kevin Willis And also Rick Carlisle,head coach of the mavs was there Obviously 2003 has more, but I included guys that weren't anything special, just some good role players that I remember. 1984 is a looong way back so most of the guys in the draft I couldn't even recognize them, feel free to include anyone that I might missed accidentally
you missed Jerome Kersey, Fleming and Sam Perkins of 84 draft class. And although he has not played a single game in the NBA, Oscar Schmidt was picked by New Jersey Nets.
I definitely can see the point for the ‘84 class, the top 4 is insane, but I think ‘96 is overall the better class, by a slim margin, just by how deep it is. No matter where you picked in the lottery you could’ve gotten an all-star it seemed like
Facts. The 84 lineup is just deadly compared to 96 as far as starters but i'd still give it to '96 like u said because of versatility, depth and how many shooters that class has. Its crazy he didnt even mention kerry kittles who could still give the team an extra 17-19 points.
I'll go with 1984 as the best , 1996 second, 2003 third. All really close to each other. I'm going with 84 because Jordan is better than Kobe, Hakeem better than AI, Barkley better than Nash. Top 3 players better on 84.
i think 84 is not quite close to as deep as 03 and 96 is not as super star ladden..give me 03 over all of them....sorry it has like 40 nba players in it...no other draft has even really 30+
LOL, 03 draft class, Wade Lebron, Melo and Bosh. Wade, Lebron and Bosh has to play on the same team to win. Draft class is not as deep as deep compared to 84 and 96.
@@xonfire1 Correct. But still only wade won and only title. Compared to the careers of 84 and 96 draft class, its nowhere near. LBJ might have a great career, he only won once when not playing with bosh and wade. MJ and Hakeem won multiple titles leading their respective teams. Kobe and Allen won multiple rings as well without playing alongside each other.
The class of 1996 was something special. Four of the top 5 draft picks became All Stars, and the one player who wasn't (Marcus Camby) was a great defensive player.
You left off a few people from the 1984 class players like jay Humphries, Vern Fleming, Tony cambell, & Ron Anderson they had nice nba careers even tho they did not win a chip or make a allstar team
He didn't know. He's a younger guy who didn't see these players as a kid. He's just spitting stats. Great channel. He just doesn't remember NBA before 2000.
Video request: Suns 7 sec offense Best 60th pick How good was ak47 (edited: done) How good was mark price Hall of very good part 2 (i think there are a lot of players not hof worthy but had long successful career they should get some love)
Yes but with 1984, literally all 4 of those top guys could be put on an all-time starting five. Hakeem, Stockton and MJ were arguably the top players to ever play those positions, and Barkley wasn’t far behind. 1996, yes, it was deeper. But you’d have to do a lot of convincing to put any of those guys on an all-time starting five, and part of the reason for that is the top 1984 guys being so incredible.
Aside from kobe and nash, none of them are top 50 all time even ai. Stockton is arguably better than him and 1984 has 4. Don't tell me Stockton is not top 50 becausr Stockton's passing inflation is getting out of control now and they forgot that he could have won two if not for mj but since mj was there, he has to suffer the arguments from rusty buckets and some guy who has a name of nba storyteller something like that.
top 4 of 84 draft class can be inserted as starter for all time great team. i dont think you can do that for 96 draft class. 96 is quite deeper though..
Two of the 1996 Class, Iverson and Marbury combined to win the Bronze at the 2004 Olympics, the biggest embarassment in USA basketball history. And that team also had a prime Tim Duncan and a young Wade and Lebron. That alone makes the 84 draft better than 96.
@Harry Engel Uh HELL YES I do. It shows the NBA was a fraud in that era if two of the premier members of that draft class could not beat foreign teams with only one or no NBA players.
1996. 1984 was more top-heavy, 1996 is deeper. That much is established. But overall as a class, Ben Wallace may be the real kicker that puts '96 over the top. Basically, if you were drafter in '96, you'd likely have a better career. The cultural impact is debatable, yes, but I'll say the '96 game has more fingerprints in today's game and I don't see it being erased just yet. The effect of the '96 Big Four is still there while nobody plays like the '84 Big Four anymore, except Jordan. And oh, Jordan was the source of most of the popularity of that '84 batch, while Barkley is still very much relevant today. But Kobe, for all intents and purposes, have at least lived up to Jordan's popularity, while Iverson was a cultural icon as big as anybody in basketball. Nash made the game more popular in Canada and perhaps inspired a generation of Canadian NBA players. Stephon Marbury had become a basketball god in China. So, if the criteria is top-heaviness (1984), deeper talent pool (1996), and cultural impact (1996), I'd take 1996. If there were more criteria, it's something I'd be willing to think about more.
Andy, my pick is 96, more deeper, more guys that accomplished big things, Kobe and Derek Fisher winning 5 titles together with the Lakers, with 7 finals appearances, creating great moments together and individually, Ben Wallace 2 finals, 1 ring, 4 time defensive player of the year, Ray Allen 4 finals, 2 rings, Allen Iverson 1 MVP, Finals appearance, multiple time all star, 2 time all star mvp, Peja played on good Sacramento Kings team, including the 02 team, that had the best record in the nba at 61 wins, and reached the Conference Finals and got a ring with the 2011 Mavs, just think 96 draft had the more accomplished players.
I’m not a religious person but as a young kid growing up 5mins outside of Philly Iverson was everything. AL was literally god in Reebok’s. Watching 7 rows off the court Iverson vs Vinsanity game 2 of the 2001 NBA playoffs is still the greatest live event I’ve ever witnessed. AL had 54pts, Vince dropped 28pts... the next game Vince came back with 50pts and AL followed that performance up in game 5 with a 52pt game. One of the best playoff series of all time in my opinion. Both draft classes are ridiculous either way you go you aren’t wrong.
1984 also has the world's highest scorer in FIBA - OSCAR SCHMIDT- who netted over 49,000 points. Schmidt may have been the best player not to have played in the NBA.
Not obvious. People have a bad habit of overlooking the 1956 "Draft Class of The Rings". Can you find me ANY OTHER draft class that had even 25 rings? (I think there might be ONE). 1956 had AT LEAST 30 - just as players - PLUS Elgin's ring AND 4 coach rings.
If you want to talk rings, 1956 blows EVERY OTHER draft class out of the water. Absolute minumum of 30 rings (Russell, KC Jones, Heinsohm, Naulls), and arguably as high as 35 if you count "coach" rings and Elgin's ring. No other draft class can match that 30, and it's HARD to find another draft class that gets to 25.
Hi Andy, can you make a video about Shareef Abdur-Rahim please because he was an immensely talented star only to play in futile teams and played only 1 playoff series and that was during the twilight years of his NBA Career. Nevertheless, he could have been more recognized had he played in contending teams. He was one of my favorite players ever.
What scares me is that one day we may be talking about drafts that have happened recently or are going to happen in the coming years like we are about the 84 and 96 drafts
Who remembers the 96 draft class Slam magazine cover?? In the back of the magazine they had a section where the writers/reporters gave there predictions on each players career.
Also consider that there were only 23 teams in 1984. Compared to 29 teams in 1996. More teams means more opportunity for average players to have bloated stats. For example Shareef Abdur-Rahim was a 1 time all star and the bulk of his best seasons was being on terrible teams. In 1984, he could have still been on a bad team, but with higher likelihood that he had better teammates.
@@nightdonutstudio only LeBron and wade are elite. Bosh isn't close to Barkley. And Stockton is way better than melo. Also, as good as wade was, olajuwon was better. Regarding Stockton versus melo, Stockton was one of the most efficient players, leading the league in assist to turnover ratio and posting a very high true shooting percentage, while melo was inefficient. And efficiency wins games.
@@noelbate505 In terms of how their career turns out, MJ better than Bron, Hakeem Better than Wade, Stockton better than Melo, Barkley is certainly better than Bosh.
2003 class is good but the best players at their position Best SF, 3rd best SG and a multiple time all star and scoring monster, very versatile big man who is willing to sacrifice for winning good but 96 is more deeper and the 84 class is way more talented
1996 Kobe, Allen, Ray, Steve, Ben, Jermaine, Peja, Zydrunas, Stephon Marbury, and another player that was teammate of Paul Pierce that I don't remember his name are all allstars, this is the draft class with more all stars of the history
The question on the 1984 draft is who would be the fifth best player? You can pencil in Dream, Jordan, Barkley and Stockton. Then, for me, your choice for that fifth guy is one of the following four: Sam Perkins, Alvin Robertson, Otis Thorpe or Kevin Willis.
1996 had the best depth but they didn't produce top position talent like the 84 class. When you got the BIG 4 with 40+ all star selections, 8 MVP awards, and countless accolades, the rest of the gang will surely get unnoticed.
Starters: Stockton. / Iverson Jordan / Kobe A.Robertson / R.Allen Barkley. / J.Oneil Olajuwan / Ben Wallace Bench: Eric Turner. / S.Nash R.Carlysle. / Marbury B.Thompson / Peja S.Perkins. / Abdur-Rahim K.Willis. / M.Camby Starters aren't close but neither are the bench going the other way. Who you give edge to in a 7 game series here?
NBA TV made a good 1984 NBA Draft documentary, but a little disappointing that I wish that documentary should have been 2 hours instead of 90 minutes because the show skipped the borderline all-stars, whom you mentioned some and they tried to make the 1984 NBA Draft class look inferior to the 1996 NBA Draft. Anyways, I choose the 1984 NBA Draft class because I grew up watching them and like you Andy, they made the cultural impact in their era.
The 96 draft class had two of its members, Iverson and Marbury combined to win a Bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics, the biggest embarrassment in U.S. Olympic basketball history. And that team also had a prime Tim Duncan and a young Lebron. The 96 team played in a weaker, low scoring era (early 2000s was the LOWEST scoring period in the shot clock era) 84 had Jordan, Olajuwon, Barkley, Stockton as the best of the class Otis Thorpe, Kevin Willis and Alvin Robertson who were solid and productive players 96 class had Iverson, Kobe, Marbury, Nash, Ray Allen, as the best with Walker, Abdur-Rahim, Kittles, O'Neal and Stojakovic as solid players.
Kevin Willis got a longest playing carrier in the NBA than Vince Carter, he'd retired at the age of 44 (1984-2007) while Vince retired at the age of 43 (1998-2020) but both of them got no rings.
1956. Find me ANY DRAFT CLASS other than that one that achieved even *25* rings - and I'll BEAT IT hands down. Minimum 30 rings even limiting it to PLAYER rings. 31 if you count Elgin's ring for 1972. Add 4 more for COACH rings (2 each Heinsohn and Russell). 84 and 96 only managed 31 rings COMBINED.
I personally think the 2003 draft is the best NBA draft class ever but I had to pick between 1996 and 1984, id pick 1996 because kobe is my 2nd favorite player ever behind lebron. RIP kobe💜💛🙏😭
