which player do you think could have been good if it werent for injuries.

Bill Walton could have been a top 10 player all time he got hurt.

Antonio Mcdyess, he was a beast before injuries

Shaun Livingston, he was a point guard on the rise before his knee tore into 2

Greg Oden, dude was getting compared to David Robinson and Bill Russell…..

Livingston agreed
and also Jay Will

Penny and GHill were mvp candidates before injuries hit them. Jay Williams was also gonna be good.

Dejaun wagner awww man

Penny Hardaway was the man he could do everything and he was sooooooooooo exciting to watch

TMac. He should be in his prime right now, instead he is a shell of his former self.

For the sake of a discussion:

Kenny George
Len Bias (not really an “injury”, but you get the point..)

What about Jamal Mashburn?

I remember in like 96 or something around there, Jordan said Penny was the closest thing to him. Penny was killing people with his game.

wow T-Mac was UNSTOPPABLE in his prime, uncanny, in his prime better than Kobe in his prime IMO

i know im getting some negatives for that

Somebody already said it but, T-MAC. Guy should have been unreal. Could have challenged Kobe every year for the title of the best SG in the game. Could have had a couple MVP awards and a few scoring titles. Thats my opinion tho.

yeah, he was one of the top 5 sf’s in the league when he got hit hard with injuries. He had a great offensive game.

there was like one season when he was in orlando where i thought he might have been better then Kobe. But that ended up being his best season when he led the league in scoring and Kobe was not in his prime yet. Prime Kobe was easily better then the best TMac we’ve seen. Kobe’s been killing him for about 6 years now.

Id say Livingston and Hardaway. Yea, liked them when they were healthy..

A.Sabonis, B. Walton, Hill, Penny, S. Bowie, J. Williams, G. Oden and Scott May all would have had much better careers had it not been for injuries. Sabonis and Walton might have been really special centers. Scott May was before most people’s time, but was a really good player. Player of the year on undefeated ’76 Indiana NCAA Championship team. Similar to son Sean, but much better.

Grant Hill, Shaun Livingston, and T-Mac
I heard something like, Grant Hill was the LeBron James before there was a LeBron James.
T-Mac was a beast and still could’ve been.
Shaun Livingston was beginning to look like the real deal before the injury…

He was amazing while in Houston, but dropped off. Mostly due to injuries. Also, Jermaine O’ Neal was a beast until…Injuries. Saddest thing to see, Injuries take a promising Career

Grant Hill wasn’t really all that much like James, but was awesome in his own right. He did everything very well and was always a class act. He would have been a perenial all-star and MVP candidate.

Idk about the LBJ B4 LBJ thing. What makes Lebron so special is his size and speed. Alot of players play like Lebron but not many can do what he does because they lack the stregnth, size, or speed to do it. However, I do agree that Hill was going to be an MVP.

Wait what does that tell you if Kobe “wasn’t in his prime” when Tmac was dominating the league but he’s older than Mac, and played with much better players than Tmac has ever had on his side, it should have been easy for him to score and dominate the league with those guys on his squad(that was 1 of the 3 championship Laker teams)…Tracy saw doubleand triple teams on a nightly basis, still scored 32 a night with great all around #’s and took a team of role players to the playoffs…he was better than Kobe and still would be had it not been 4 the injuries!!!

Other than him:
McDyess
Grant Hill
Franchise

Wouldn’t have just been good, they all would been borderline great if not for injuries…now its not a given that any of them will make the Hall of Fame, Tmac has the best shot at it!!!

Tmac had one year where it was arguable. Kobe was sharing the spotlight with the best player in the league at that time and had to play a little more team oriented while Mac got to do whatever he wanted on a bad team. Even then, I don’t think Mac was better. With that said, Kobe’s had about 4 or 5 years that were better then Mac’s very best season. You can argue the injuries all you want, but Mac was never better then Kobe. He’s never played with the same desire as Kobe at either end of the court.

J-Will and Grant Hill no doubt about it.Hill would have been legendary if it weren’t for injuries

Peja Stojakovic

had it not been for all of those knee injuries, he would’ve been one of the top center in the NBA in his prime.

Oden would be good if not for injuries and if he didn’t bulk up so much

nuff said

Drazen Petrovic would have been a legend without a doubt. He was the first great international NBA player.

omg laphonso ellis

penny hardaway. he was like the second coming of magic johnson and MJ. he was very exciting to watch. i also like livingston. he was already an emerging star. injuries hurt their careers. penny would’ve been a HOF. livingston a stud.

There’s no way he’s had 3 or 4 years better than Mac’s year…02-03 is the only year comprabale, but that was a championship team Kobe played for while Tmac did that all by himself, who were his sidekicks, Drew Gooden, Mike Miller, Juwan Howard, I could go on for days with these nobody’s he played with!!!
He had the ball in his hands literally every posession that year and only averaged 2.5 TO’s…Kobe had a year where he averaged 4 c’mon now, Kobe’s worst team wasn’t as bad as Tmac’s best in ORL, Kobe has made horrible decisions his whole career, Tmac’s playmaking abilities are great, Kobe only got assists because he played in Phil’s system, so the guys he was passing 2 would be shooting WIDE OPEN shots…they year Phil wasn’t here Kobe couldn’t do s**t with the team!!!
As many points as Mac scored in his career he is so unselfish and takes care of the ball, can’t say the same 4 Kobe, no matter how many other good, borderline star players he has on his side…
Plus all this talk about Kobe being a lockdown defender needs to stop, he plays defense in the olympics and maybe for a few 2 min stretches in games…but I’ve gone to the Laker game every time Tmac came to town since ’01, and Tracy tears him up every single time(minus the time he got injured), the same Kobe who couldn’t guard Paul Pierce in the 08 finals, the same one who couldn’t do anything with Melo this year, even Brandon Roy lights him up!!!
Dude is so overrated as a defender, no way he shoulda made the all defensive 1st team over CP3 this year, that was retarted!!!

Damn I went on for a long time, but I think I made some valid points, I’m already expecting some Kobe lover to come and start taking points away like crazy, but whatever, I’ve seen it up close for a whole decade(I’ve been going to Laker games since the late 90’s)…I could go longer about this, but I’ll save it for a later post!!!

you´re right with drazen,he was one in a million.

danny manning,he was a great talent with bad luck.

i think tmac can still come back but they need to trade him to the blazers just becuz they can get up and comin 2
i think tmac can put them over the hump in 2 greatness hes a vet and still young

amere,hill,penny hardaway,,tracy ,francis,livingston

t mac cant come back

at the start of the season we could see the old tracy wasnt there anymore now with another injury its even worse plus addthe age factor…we will miss him tho

Len Bias i would have like to see play to i saw a documentary about him last year
he looked like a beast

if you count addiction as a injury i would have love to see a drug free shawn kemp

Grant Hill, Penny and TMac could have been Hall of Famers. I’ll even put Larry Johnson in there before his back gave out and had to change his game.

Drozen, Mcdyess, L. Ellis, J Will, Kenny Anderson could have been stars.

I think Bobby Hurley would have been a solid pro too.

drew bledsoe… oh wait this is nba… then Hill had the best chance of having a really great career. Tmac still has had a great one even with the injuries

Danny Manning. Coming out of Kansas he was a beast. He got drafted #1 to the Clippers and tore his ACL during his rookie season. He went on to have a decent NBA career, but was never the same after that.

Jay Williams- i thought he was going to be a great point guard

Drazen petrovic-great shooter

dajuan wagner – had a pretty good rookie season before the colon disease

Steve Francis- Was great till he left houston and got injured

Jay Williams
Shaun Livingston
Kenny George.. who knows? he could have had a shot
Allan Houston?

The diffrence between Kobe and McGrady is DEFENSE……

Kobe has passed just as much as Mac does. He was playing in all-star games and going deep in the playoffs without Phil. If you are gonna talk about the one season where Rudy T coached, Both Kobe and Lamar missed a bunch of games, Butler was’nt a star at that point, and that left Atkins, Brian Cook, Chris MIhim, and Luke Walton to lead the team for long stretches. 33 wins with that group is an accomplishment.

Kobe has just put 4 straight seasons together that were all better then TMac’s best year. Being a leader and playing defense does count. And I remember very specifically games in the las 6 season’s where Kobe shutdown Tmac, so I would take that Kobe has never outplayed him bs elsewhere.

Nobody is even sure TMac will be in the hall of fame. Nobody is talking about him as the next Jordan. He has never won a title, MVP, or even got out of the first round. If you want to convince yourself that Mac would be better then Kobe if healthy, then I’m sure you might find one or two people around here to give you some points.

Larry Johnson could have been in the conversation of best SF’s ever, That dude dominated the game before his back injuries. He was still good but he couldve been great.

I think D Wade will be on this list someday. He takes a beating and cant stay healthy an entire season. So much of his game relies on his athletic ability and his height will catch up with him when he loses his hops.

Wade is like AI in that way. When a smaller player drives to the basket, his body is going to take a beating. I’m shocked “The Answer” isn’t on this list. I hope Wade is never on it. He is a grat and exciting player, and a classy one at that.

Baron Davis could’ve been all-time great.

How has he had 4 straight better seasons when he averaged less points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, and more turnovers?!?

Without Phil Kobe never went deep into the playoffs…that Rudy T year he was just out for his own, how the hell do you take 27 shots a game for a season, not even Gilbert does that and he’s the biggest gunner in the league..but u say he passes as much as Tmac, that’s BS, he’s been selfish his whole career, why u think they didn’t beat Boston…its his supporting cast that makes the difference, not him!!!
If you put Kobe on those Orlando teams Tmac had they wouldn’t have made the playoffs because he wouldn’t trust the teammates and just jack up double teamed fadeaways like that year he did when the Lakers didn’t make the playoffs…u plug Tmac in for Kobe and those are still championship Laker teams!!!
Kobe couldn’t shoot the 3 ball even though he was young, Tmac has been hitting em double teamed since he went to ORL, lets not forget that playoff series against Utah where Kobe single handedly lost it with all those airballs on open shots!!!

And Tmac has NEVER scored less than 20 playing against Kobe, so how was he shut down?!?

I THOUGHT WHEN THE HOUSTON WAS ON THER WINNING STREAK IN 08 THAT MCGARDY HAD LESS THEN 20 GOING AGAINST THE LAKERS HE STRUGGLED ALOT TAHT GAME BUT HE MADE GREAT PLAYS FOR OTHERS

Penny and T-Mac!! these guys were damn near unstoppable in their prime. I wish penny had not gotten hurt becuz he was somewhat of an idol for me when i was little. and the T-Mac who dominated 4 the orlando magic was also a fav player of mine. He was the most exciting guy in the league and tho he never made it out the 1st round he put on a show for years

Penny & Grant Hill. Both were on their way to SUPER Stardom then injuries hit them both and they were never the same after. Its a shame because they were great before the injuries

who would have been better? Hill or Penny?