The NBA's Elite: The Best Players Of The 21st Century, For You To Now Own

Hey there NBA fans.  As sports enthusiasts, we all love a good debate.  Well this bad boy is my argument brought to the table (in eBook form no less). 

This book focuses on the great players of this century.  Who really were great?  Who were overblown?  Who didn't get the respect they deserved?  Without going into too much detail on how they were graded, (plenty of time to discuss that in the book) we see who achieved what, and just how prestigious we, as fans, feel that that achievement really is.


Go ahead and clink the above link and give it a read.  You may find it insightful, humorous, thought-provoking, or just a plain excellent read overall.  You can find other titles by yours truly by clicking here.        

Here's a sample, talking about Kobe Bryant in the 2008 season:

Kobe flew off the handle in the summer prior to the ’08 season.  He was demanding to be traded, criticized the front office for not trading for Jason Kidd the previous season, and essentially looked to be soon wearing a different uniform.  Fortunately for the Lakers’ fans, there was no way a prestigious team like the Lakers would trade away a superstar after just trading Shaq in 2004 (which was immensely controversial then, and to this day).  Kobe was all they had going for them from a team perspective, and more importantly to the front office, a business perspective as well. 

 

The first thing they did to shut him up- I mean help convince him that Lakerland was the place for him, was to re-sign his old teammate and one of his best friends in the NBA, Derek Fisher.  (Fisher is also a great locker room guy, so he would positively affect more than just Kobe.)  Fisher was a bit past his prime, but a definite upgrade from Smush Parker and Jordan Farmar (Farmar was just heading into his second season at this point, after spending most of his rookie year in the D-League.)  This essentially cooled the situation down because you didn’t hear too much guff from Kobe beyond that point. 

 

Less than a month into the season, perennial underachievers Brian Cook and Mo Evans were traded for a young, unproven Trevor Ariza.  (Ariza played solid enough before getting injured after 24 games.  It wasn’t until the following season that this trade paid dividends for the Lakers.)  That wasn’t the big trade news from the Lakers that season though.  Not even close.  On February 1, 2008 in what was considered the one of the biggest hijackings in NBA history the Lakers acquired…

 

Pau Gasol and 2010 2^nd round pick

For

Kwame Brown, Aaron McKie, Javaris Crittenton, Marc Gasol, 2008 1^s round pick, and a 2010 1^st round pick

 

Kwame was already a punchline, all Crittenton did in his NBA career was learn not to piss off Gilbert Arenas and just pay his gambling debts, Aaron McKie had only played in ten games that season, and Marc Gasol had yet to play in the NBA.  Pau Gasol then became the best “Robin” in the NBA for the next three seasons with the Lakers going to the Finals all three of those years and won two of them.  Pau was even considered the most skilled big man in basketball until Dirk redeemed himself in 2011.  (Remember how I said Dirk was defined by that playoff series?  I wasn’t lying.  Once Pau got into a large market and got to show off his skills much more frequently he was the new “golden boy” of the big men.)