Across all sports, fans and the media alike can be overly reactionary when the season ends. Whichever team wins the championship, their best player is crowned the best in the world or at their position.
This year is no different with the New York Knicks. Jalen Brunson led the Knicks to a dominant Finals run and cemented himself in New York sports history. Since then, people have been putting him into conversations he has no business being in.
Brunson is a great player on a great team; however, at many points during The Finals, he wasn’t the best player on the court for the Knicks, and sometimes he wasn’t even the second-best. The Knicks were able to put such a great team around Brunson because he selflessly turned down a max-money deal to help the Knicks build out a championship-quality roster.
In no way is that statement meant as a slight to Brunson. Every other guy in the league talks about doing anything in their power to win, but will sign a $70 million deal and handcuff their team to mediocrity for the next five years of their contract.
I also don’t hold that issue against players either. I would never turn down millions of dollars offered to me at my job, so why should they?
Unfortunately, a player’s worth is too dependent on team success. A player has to win at some point to be an all-time great, but I also don’t think winning a title automatically makes you a top 5 player in the NBA.
Currently, I think the top five in the NBA go as follows:
- Nikola Jokic
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
- Giannis Antetokounmpo
- Victor Wembanyama
- Luka Doncic
Anyone who doesn’t have Jokic first is crazy. He’s been the best offensive player in the world for nearly a decade, and also has the winning pedigree to back everything else up.
SGA had a tough Western Conference Finals appearance, but has been the lead player on the best team in the NBA over the prior three seasons. Gilgeous-Alexander doesn’t always play the most appealing brand of basketball, which causes many people to underrate him, but he’s clearly the second-best player in the league.
Next up, when Giannis is healthy, he might still be the best player in the world. Of course, between the injuries and playoff chokes, people tend to undervalue him, but at this point, I still view him as the best two-way player in the sport, even above Wemby.
For Wembanyama, he’s the best defensive player of all time, but I don’t think he can take over a game offensively like Giannis. We saw at times during the Finals that, in the biggest moments, Wemby wasn’t able to deliver, but I still came away feeling he was the best player in that series.
Lastly, many have begun comparing Luka and Brunson, with some even saying the Mavs should have kept Brunson over Luka, but those people are insane. Those same people started putting Jalen Hurts in the top-5 QB convo after he won his Super Bowl.
Winning is what creates lasting legacies, but it doesn’t make you the best player in the world. Brunson is great, but he’s a few steps below all of these guys above him.
