the fact ariza horry fisher and cooper made this team over nixon wilkes exel jones ceballos bynum heck even odom elden vlade is pretty sad...like come on bill.stop it...nixon wilkes ceballos exel jones elden bynum odom all avg 17-21 for la...give me that over 13 3 and 3..im sorry....or 7 5 2 1 and 1 which were horrys stats in 2000 and 2001 combined..come on now...you gotta build the best team of the past 40 years not some random hogepodge of guys ..I hate when people do that...its hypocrisy somehow lebron for instance makes the team even though he had no role in his 1 year there yet you gotta give horry credit and then coop and start him?..wtf?...its just a mess..you cant just pick random dudes pick the best dudes then lebron makes it..if you going with sentimentality he doesnt.....totally stupid..its a chance to educate people on these forgotten great lakers and he chooses the dumb ones people online know..smdh….seriously fisher horry weren't even better than fox in 2001 or 2002 real talk cooper was a bench player
nikosvault and forgets that everyone involved in that game shot horribly. Forgets to mention Kobe’s 15 rebounds and clutch passing and defense that sealed the game for the lakers
yeah james worthy over cooper sf .duh...you put magic kareem worthy kobe gasol together with shaq as a 6th man...I dont even know man...no one is beating them....they just fit..worthy kobe gasol kareem magic ..jesus christ thats a perfect 5 skill set wise and three of those guys could really defend
Fuckin A. Big Game James was the man! No way LA wins the 1988 Finals against Detroit without Worthy. That 36-16-10 triple double in Game 7 was beautiful.
2001 fisher and fox and horry lol?...no way...2001 kobe was still young too...and shaq started getting lazy...that bench is horrible....the corpses of mid 90's role players in shaw grant and harper a young ty lue lol a very young devan george raw still and then nobodies like rider mark slava mike and gregg on the 3rd string its a overrated team..
YES!!!!!!!! The wine bottle team was my favorite video you guys made and what got me interested in The Ringer, to see you guys bringing it back warms my soul
Last time I checked, Lakers won 1/3rd of their titles when they were Minneapolis in the 40s and 50s, and part time plumbers, so I guess those don't count either.
@@14thCaptain I know you caught my sarcasm there but I'll play along. Can you check to see how many titles the Lakers have the last 50 years? You know since I'm clearly a moron that can't figure it out.
Most other teams don't have enough legends to do this with because the Lakers and the Celtics are the only teams that had multiple dynasties/sustained peaks
LOLOLOL thats some good shit. I've been a constant reader and fan of Bill Simmons since the AOL days, but I always find it a hoot when someone breaks his balls like that 😂🤣
Probably go with Coop for the starting 2, and haven't watched the whole video... but Eddie Jones would need to get a look at this spot. Especially for the modern game.
C- Kareem- 1980-The Captain knows how to make the most of any scoring opportunity. PF- Karl Malone- 2004- He didn't need the ball, he was hungry and played great defense. He can set picks, rebound, and do the dirty work to help Kareem. He can also score with the best of them. (Besides how can you not have a front court of the three highest scoring players). Think of a Magic/Malone Pick and Roll with Bryant and James on the wings and Kareem under the basket. SF- Lebron James- 2020- I realize he played point guard, but has experience as a small forward. He can do it all and is a great running mate for everyone on this list. (James, Bryant and Johnson are big perimeter players). SG- Kobe Bryant - 2003- His highest 3 point % and young enough to run and play with the team. PG- Magic Johnson- 1987- Really beginning the highest point of his prime.
Watched some of the 1980 finals recently. Kareem in terms of fluidity and ability to rise over the defense and score 2 at will is incredible. I’m not totally sure Shaq was better in 2001.
Alltime Lakers Squad- No LeBron and AD. 1. Magic Johnson, 2. Jerry West 3. Kobe Bryant , 4. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 5. Shaquille O’Neal. Bench- Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain James Worthy, George Mikan, Pau Gasol, Michael Cooper, Byron Scott , Derek Fisher, Lamar Odom, Robert Horry,, Andrew Bynum, Ron Artest, AC Green, Kurt Rambis. Head Coach - Pat Riley
First team: Magic, Kobe, Lebron, AD, Shaq Second team: Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, James Worthy, Pau, Kareem Third team: Fisher, Byron Scott, Lamar Odom, Robert Horry, Wilt coach: Pat Riley no other team in the league is touching this lol
Honestly, there are so many dumb fans who don't know how good Pau Gasol is. For half of 2009, easily an MVP candidate while Kobe was out. He was the best power forward behind Dirk Nowitzki from 2008-2010. Destroyed Dwight Howard, who at the time, was the best defensive player in the league and likely the third best player in the world behind Kobe and Bron. Cannot wait to see his jersey retired so he gets the respect he deserves.
Lakers Water bottle Team. 1. Magic Johnson , 2. Kobe Bryant , 3. LeBron James, 4. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 5. Shaquille O’Neal. Bench- Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, James Worthy, Wilt Chamberlain, George Mikan, Pau Gasol, Anthony Davis, Michael Cooper, Byron Scott, Derek Fisher, Lamar Odom, Rick Fox, Robert Horry, Andrew Bynum, AC Green, Kurt Rambis.
Jason is wrong. Kareem and Pau would eat anybody that the Warriors could throw at them. Durant and Draymond would get pushed around without being able to touch them.
this list is easy magic kobe worthy pau kareem starting all at their natural positions no less bench: 6th man shaq wilkes nixon scott jones odom exel and by today's rules you can have 13 players suit up and play in a game instead of 12 so how about 2012 all star bynum..done ...honorable mentions for the last 40 years of lakers b ball at least lebron ceballos ad but hes not played yet and elden
Bill Simmons Celtics wine bottle team. The 86 Celtics starting 5. Parrish, McHale, Bird, Angie, D. Johnson....everyone else have a seat on the bench! Garnett, P. Pierce, R. Allen, Rondo, Perkins, Maxwell, Walker with red coaching.
starting 5 is easy....2002-2003 mvp finals mvp tim duncan at pf 1994-1995 mvp david robinson at center 2016-2017 kawhi leonard top 3 in mvp voting at sf is a scary frontline with 2008-2009 playoffs in particular top 8 in mvp tony parker at pg and 1981-1982 top 5 in mvp george gervin at sg who avg 32 ppg lol...6th man 2007-2008 manu ..you give pop those 6 guys for 2 years he can go 164-0 and then 32-0 in the playoffs...easily...
Do these guys not understand the concept. He’s building a team not putting the best 5 out there. For instance, Van Lathan arguing about Worthy makes no sense. You have Kobe, Kareem, And Pau where are the touches coming from? On his second team he can run the floor and score off the bench, Bill also mentions he would be a crunch time player. 🤦♂️
this list is easy magic kobe worthy pau kareem starting all at their natural positions no less bench: 6th man shaq wilkes nixon jones james exel ceballos and by today's rules you can have 13 players suit up and play in a game instead of 12 so how about 2012 all star bynum..done ...honorable mentions for the last 40 years of lakers b ball to odom scott cooper vlade and elden ..just cant get you guys into that team as of yet...if I had to choose a 14th-16th man it would be odom scott and elden..cooper and vlade just didn't impress me as lakers stats wise
i don't think the cast understands one ball theory. There are only so many shots and touches to go around and bill put kareem, magic and kobe in the starting five. James worthy does not stand out offensively when you compare him to these all time greats. as a 4th option he would average 13-18 points a game as a play finisher, be unable to space the floor and play mediocre defense. do they really need him? He is without a doubt a better basketball player than michael cooper but with building a team putting the best offensive players together wont make the best squad. Chemistry, roles and egos are important.
Mebbe get Wilmore to read the memo next time. You're supposed to be picking vintages, dude. OR perhaps he's the kind of guy who answers 'pizza' when asked what his fave flavour of pizza is.
Wild that the history is so rich, it was an hour of Laker greats (albeit part comedy) and Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, and Wilt Chamberlain are barely even mentioned.
Ariza is a weird pick. I really liked him but Artest did more to win in the 2010 playoffs than Ariza did in 2009. Especially game 7 in the finals. Everyone points to Kobe's bad shooting night, (everyone had a bad shooting night and other than Odom's 8 points off the bench there were like 5 bench points from each team. I think only one Celtic scored off the bench. It was a VERY tight game.) Artests big 3, and Gasols 19 and 18 night. But Artest had 20 points and had about the only decent field goals percentage that night. Artest really won that game for the Lakers. If your going to put Ariza on, you might as well put Eddie Jones or some other random. I'd probably put Artest in for Ariza and you obviously want Fisher for his leadership and that intangible something and Horry for his almost miraculous ability to hit big shots and win championships. I'm not sure I'd replace anyone. However, if I had one more pick, or maybe even replace Fisher because there is obviously plenty of leadership on this team and hes not a traditional, fast, shifty point gaurd and his defense is suspect or Artest because with Lebron, Worthy, Kobe, Cooper, Artest isnt going to get playing time. The one thing this team is missing, its one hole, is a small, fast, traditional point guard that can pass and score and, this might be going out on a limb here, but the Lakers have never been very successful in finding or fielding such traditional point guards that were actually good so... Nick Van Exel? Yeah, you don't need Artest with Lebron, Worthy, Kobe, Cooper, so replace him with Nick Van Exel. He's not the best player available but he fills a hole no one else does. He could run around with the other teams small, fast, shifty back up point guard, something that Fisher never could, (the amount of times Fisher got smoked by a teams back up point gaurd just because that guy was fast and shifty...) pass, score, shoot and not make a fool of himself running the offense.
to be fair, if you're going to say that the lakers' Minneapolis titles are bullshit, then so are most of the Celtics' titles, since most were won when there were like 2 teams in the league and most of the players were in the NBA as a side-gig...(full disclosure, not a laker fan)
michael cooper is probably in the 23-28 range of best lakers at best if we count davis ... and bill has him that high lol ..like I can name 22 better lakers...lebron magic kobe shaq wilt nixon wilkes west mikan goodrich baylor worthy gasol bynum odom ceballos exel jones scott campbell vlade davis, hes there with fox fisher ariza artest in that mid 20's range imo….
Starting 5 to play in TODAY'S NBA: Shaq, Worthy, Kobe, West, Magic. Off the bench: Wilt, Gasol, Baylor, Odom, Fisher, Cooper, Artest. Lebron and Davis don't count yet.
Lol at blow at 3-1 series to the Suns. The Lakers were trash that year. The fact they won 3 games was a miracle. No one expected them to win that series.
I actually like the comparison of Kareem as Jay-Z. He’s successful and there might be times where guys like Nas might be better. But no one has his body of work.
Pau Gasol is better than James Worthy. Not as a laker, but period. Big Game James should not start over Pau. Without Pau Kobe has 2 less rings. Pau is a top 45 player all time. James Worthy should not be in anyones top 50 unless they are Lakers or "80s was best basketball" af
2005-2008 kobe wasn't mention by these kobe stans over 2010?...this is how you know these people are dumb..2005-2008 kobe was amazing...stop it..just cause you win a title doesnt mean you were at your peak you just had the right team....2010 kobe was not him at his peak neither was 03 neither was 09..it was 2005-2008..anywhere in there he was flawless as a player...trust me I know.....which is why it sad he couldn't win at his peak...if he had the right team around him from 2004-2007 he may have won it all 3 years in a row vs anyone
Some nostalgia bias about James Worthy by a few of these people. The man couldn’t rebound well enough to be a 4 in today’s game and couldn’t shoot well enough to play the 3. Both Gasol and Cooper are better picks
The guy with the glasses is overestimating the 2001 Lakers. Yes they're a good team but you're taking them over a fucking handpicked all-star team from a 40 year period with Magic and Kareem, Pau etc? Lmfao. Yea have fun with Rick Fox. Clown.
He's joking. the dude is a massive, massive spurs fan and that team swept the spurs in the WCF, so he's making a joke about it. Admittedly a long, sorta drawn out joke, but I think it worked alright
