1984 vs. 1996: Which NBA Draft Class Is The GREATEST? 

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

1996 draft class is insanely deep, while 1984 draft has more super-talented names.

The best pick ever made of all time The trumpets in the intro

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.

Ben Wallace should be in the hall of fame

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....

'03 wasn't deep enough to compete with '84 or '96 in my opinion

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

You made an error, the 96’ draft also had 8 championships. Kobe had 5, Ray Allen had 2 and Ben Wallace had 1 with the 04’ pistons.

What's sad is among the top 8 players, the youngest was the one who's passed away. RIP Kobe

2nd pick of this draft class 84 - Bowie 96 - Camby

Kerry Kittles in 96 and Kersey in 84 worth a mention. Both serviceable starting players with 15+ average point seasons.

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 No.1 sg ever Top 5 point guard ever Top 5 pf ever Top 5 center ever

Shareef Abdur Rahim had the most GOAT center name: Shaquille Abdul Hakeem

It would be nice if Oscar Schmidt was mentioned on 84

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.

Seeing Oscar Shmidt in the 84 Draft Hurts, as a Brazilian i'm happy and sad that he didn't join the League

Dope video bro 👌 We got a 2003 vs 2011 draft class in the works.

Stephon Marbury’s slept on, his numbers were insane a few years

Day 1 Of Asking Andy Hoops and Johnny Arnett to make video "How good was Jason Terry Actually/Really"

Andy can you talk about how much of a steal the Charles Barkley to the suns trade was?

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.

Only NBA channel I watch, keep up the great videos!

Damn, this is some great content. Salute sir!

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.

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.

I love MJ, Hakeem and Chuck, but there’s no doubt the 1996 class was deeper and talent was spread out

I loved this video, good work Andy

03 and 09 were pretty cool too

MJ, Hakeem, Barkley, Stockton 4 greats who are perhaps the goats on their respective positions.

Idk why but when i watch you while i eat you make my food taste better Keep up the good work!

Good vid I can tell already bc it’s the legend himself

You just gave ESPN a new bias topic 84 draft class vs 03 draft class

My pick is 1996 draft class cuz i grew up with them and saw their primes. But 1984 class is like a legend for me. I see only videos in youtube how their play.

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.

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

another video which I didn't know I wanted

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.

Hmmm... I feel like 1996 has the edge over 1984 with the depth of the draft and the impacted teams but I see where you're coming from.

You forgott that Peja won the title in 2011 with the Macs ;-)

'84 100% had a MUCH bigger world wide cultural impact and it's not even close. The 90's changed the NBA forever.

1996 All Day! Awesome video bro!

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

1984 is the best class. Thanks Andy!

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

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

84 anyday

Is no one gonna talk about how it looked like Steve Nash’s pass went to the top left corner in the next scene at 2:23?

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.

96 best role players, 84 best Superstars.

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.

The most 🔥 intro music

1984 all the way... No doubt...😍

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.

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

i always love waking up to a new andy hoops video. keep it up

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)

Some how, Andy made numbers fun

84 was the best but I’m gonna say overall it was a tie you could argue both ways but for me it’s all about MJ the goat. A lot of the players in 96 was inspired to play the game because of him to me that’s worth noting. But both drafts where great loaded with great talent that impacted the NBA for years afther

RIP Kobe, nice video andy

I’d go with the 96 draft. So many all stars on that draft

'84 had nine championships. Kevin Willis won one in 2003. '96 had nine, too. Antoine Walker won one in 2006 and Peja won one in 2011.

2011 have many too

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.

That Yelling KOBE n shooting was so true in the 2000's that was his decade non-debatable.

It would be crazy if the 4 from 84 played the 4 from 96

1984

1996 draft is extremely loaded and could beat any modern All-Star selection

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.

that question is hard

How many from each class lasted 10 years? That's another measure of success.

Barkley's I am not a role model commercial is so iconic and still holds up today tbh.

That one guy who disliked must think 2003 is the greatest draft class

U should do 2011 vs 2003

Nice video bruh

Ben Wallace also won a championship in 2004.

84: Better 96: Deeper

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.

I love the 96 class a lot more

It's obvious that the greatest draft class will be the 1984 class. But 1996 class was the most stacked class.

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

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.

If Duncan had listened to Jerry West and turned pro in 1996...

Hey andy it’s my birthday today and for It I just wanted to give you a big thanks for some inspiration in my RU-vid career so far I’m still a very small youtuber but one day I will be big I can feel it, maybe we can colab one day!!

1984 is the best draft class of all time the players from 1984 made 1990s the best Decade of all time

I would have liked to see the 03 comparisons at least

I never knew about the 5 second rule ! I think in all due fairness this needs to be a huge factor when decisions are made from here on . If the rules change like that then it’s hard to compare anything . Baseball is easy to compare the greats ........ unless they are taking shots of steroids in the ass , but still when you compare eras now we need to know the rules of that era .

1984 was top-heavy but 1996 was really deep. They even had ben wallace who went undrafted in that year

You should just do these three classes comparison 1984,1996 and 2003 all together.

I think 2003 draft have a case but the way that the top 3 players really played together made them cuestionable, it's like we would remember how good was the class because of the Miami Big 3, and just that. Also, the impact that LeBron and Wade on and off court is comparable to the impact of the top 4 in 1984 and 1996, but even with the good and talented class, there's no more impressive legacies more than D-Wade and Bron.

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.

STOJAKOVIC ahh one of my fav players

I think we are going to look at the 2018 draft as a top 3 draft of all time it might not reach these other 2 but seriously you have Luka Dončić Trae Young Jaren Jackson Jr. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander This is probably my top 4 atm in the class and then you have guys like Deandre Ayton and Marvin Bagley obviously, Wendell Carter Jr., Collin Sexton, Michael Porter Jr. (could be great we just gotta wait and see with his body) Anfernee Simons is a sleeper this dude pops off he has got talent, Mitchell Robinson also seems like he has something special there, Devonte' Graham has put up almost like this MiP style season and has come out of no where. You could still add some other guys that are set to be solid rotation players like Landry Shamet, Kevin Huerter, Lonnie Walker etc. And then wild cards like Knox and Bamba could be good players too though I really do not know. I'm not claiming all of these guys are going to be super stars or anything like that but to me rn the class seems very deep

The suits in the '03 pic have me dead...

Both had guys who never made all star team but started and helped their teams.

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?

MJ, Olajuwon, Stockton I don’t think no other class can compete with that. Barkley too.

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.

I wonder what you guys think about who was a better player, John Stockton or Ray Allen ? For me Stockton has the edge. I know he didnt win and Allen won twice but on these 2 occasions he wasnt first or even second option. Stockton has all time records in steals and assists. I feel he had bigger impact but I'm curious what you think.