Best Trio in NBA History
80's: Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy
90's: Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant/Dennis Rodman
2000's: Tim Duncan/Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker
The Olajuwon/Barkley/Pippen trio came when they were all far past their prime. Really, the thing with trio's is that it is hard to find one where they are all even close to the same level. Usually, their is one or possibly two that stand out as being on a completely different level than the others. But if you had to choose a trio for any of these past decades, since we do indeed have hindsight, these are the ones, easily.
Going forward, I would say, hmm, tricky, but Miami seems like a safe bet. They will be the best trio as long as they stay healthy or barring some monster trades. It will take a team effort to beat them, but I see no scenario present where there will be a better trio of players. I am not a believer in trading for Dwight Howard without losing Pau Gasol, and I think as a trio, Carmelo/Amare/Paul < James, Wade, Bosh. So, look for big team efforts, but their is not going to be a trio formed in the near future that competes with Miami 1-3.
tough one but ill go with:
2010's: LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh
2000's: Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen
1990's: Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman
1980's: Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy
1970's: Wilt Chamberlin, Gail Goodrich, Jerry West
Best Trio Going Forward: Miami Heat
Yall picked all the best but I will give you a good one....
Alex English, Dan Issel, and Kiki Vandeweghe (w/ David Thompson)
college bonuses: Lethal Weapon 3 of Georgia Tech and O'Neal, Roberts, and Jackson of LSU (who actually squared off in one of the most thrilling games I ever saw)
its too tough for me to choose between Jordan/Pip/Grant or Rodman, Bird/McHale/Parish, Magic/Worthy/Kareem, geez, I mean they all were good at what they did but they did it in different ways. I probably prefer the Lakers trio though because Magic and Worthy were the best on the fastbreak and then in the half court Kareem was murderin with the sky hook.
As far as stacking rings has to be Bill Russell, John Havlicek and Sam Jones. Bill had 11, Hondo had 8 (though 3 of them were after Jones and Russell had retired) and Sam Jones had 10, all of them playing major roles on the team. I guess you could make a trio with Russell and Cousy or Heinsohn as well, Cousy had 6 and Heinsohn had 8. I would say that if you were to go by the best three players to have ever played on the same team together, it would have to be Chamberlain, West and Elgin Baylor, though they never won a ring together.
As is customary with a topic like this, the guidelines are usually broad and left up to a lot of interpretation. But, I think a lot of good trios were named. As far as the 70's goes, while I think that the Chamberlain, West and Goodrich combo comprised possibly the best basketball season ever played with the 1972 Lakers, they did only take home one ring. That was my same sentiment with the Celtics trio, who I for one was never as partial too as the trio of Duncan, Ginobili and Parker. I might say that Cowens, White and Havlicek could indeed have been the best duo of the 70's for the fact that they won two rings. Willis Reed, Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe would be up there for me as well, but I notice that Willis was not as much of a force towards the last few years.
The most disappointing trio probably has to be who All-Time rankings tell us are possibly the three best players ever to be on a team together at the same time, Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor. They lost two 7 Game Finals series in a row before Elgin Baylor basically retired from the game. But, anything less than a championship had to be disappointing for 3 of the best players the game has ever seen. Baylor and Wilt were both on the downside of their careers, and from what I heard their were a lot of conflicting personalities. Truly, this was the trio people brought up the most when Miami assembled their trio this past summer, and like them, anything short of some rings will go down as a disappointment as well.
RUN-TMC was probably one of the cooler nicknamed trio's, though Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin never came to close to winning very much.
As far as the most efficient seasons by trio's, here is a list of some of them:
http://uponfurtherreview.kansascity.com/?q=node/2325
Intersting topic I'll come back with my answer?
Or lets brake it down Best trio into decades of the 80's
Best Trio of the 90's
Best of 2000's
Best Trio going forward
And What trio did not live up to the hype ( right off the bat the Hakeem/Pippen/Barkley one is what i'm thinking)
i'm out gotta go eat lunch.