He's a real deal too

Shabazz Muhammad's name has been mentioned on more than one occasion in this blog. Muhammad a senior has been mentioned in several publication as the the number one high school player. Another player of note is junior guard Ishmael Wainwright, Raytown South High School. Wainwright earlier this year verbally committed to Mizzou and then de-committed. "Ishmail Wainwright, 6'6" 215, Raytown, MO, Raytown South, 2013 - Wainwright is a hard nosed, big bodied athlete who does all of the little things to help a team win. He will most likely never be a big scorer, but he has enough ball skills and shooting ability to earn your respect. Where he excels is on the defensive end of the floor. He uses his strength, length, and athletic ability to lock down his man and accepts the challenge of guarding your best player. He is the type of guy that won't wow you with stats but help a team win." (ipowers, nbadraft.net, 7/26/2011) After accessing his strengths and weaknesses ESPN.com said, "Wainright has a college ready body, long arms and soft hands. His physical qualities alone make him an elite level prospect, but his feel for the game on both ends of the floor and fundamentals will allow him to be one of the better players in 2013 class." (ESPNU Super 60 2013)

The Malone/Barkley clone
I've have stated on more than one occasion why must we gauge an unknown player by comparing him to a well know player? Sports is the only area we use this criteria, we don't say "Larry repairs PC's in the same manner as John." Why can't we just say _______ is a good player and leave it alone. Example St. Johns has a top-50 class of '12 incoming recruit named Ricardo Gathers. The AAU coach of this young man provided the following quote. "Louisiana Elite AAU coach Scooter Owen says Gathers (6-6, 235) is a cross between Hall of Famers Karl Malone and Charles Barkley. "That's huge," Gathers told The New York Post. "Those are a couple of NBA Hall of Famers. I understand what he's saying. Those guys knew rebounding wins games just like defense. I go into every games trying to get at least 10 rebounds." (Staff report, Sporting News, Aug 2, 2011) I will be following the progress of Gathers to see if this praise is justified.

This is easy

Who is the best player in the NBA? We could argue this point till the cows come home, doesn't matter if it's football, baseball or table tennis. We have no method of qualification especially athletes of differing eras. Example, was Wilt Chamberlain better than Moses Malone or Shaquille O'Neal? Three centers in three different time periods in an ever-changing (defenses, number of teams etc.) NBA. The more time elapses the more we "forget." This holds true especially at times when all we have to judge are black and white film and record books. Don't get trapped in this argument it will never be concluded so that all parties agree.

Will any team ever come close?

The '71-'72 Lakers won 33 games in a row an amazing feat by any set of standards. There were 16 other teams in the NBA at the time of the win streak, a smaller number than the 30 teams of today. I think it was better basketball, a smaller number of teams meant very few bad teams. Back then the regular season was still 82 games as today and this Laker team won 69, 33 of them in a row. They lost to the Golden State Warriors on October 31, 1971 their next lost occurred January 9, 1972. They were 14-0 in November, 16-0 in December and 3-0 in January before losing to the Kareem Abdul Jabbar/Oscar Robertson Bucks in early January. They culminated the season by winning the NBA Championship over Walt Frazier and the Knicks. How this all came together is interesting, injuries forced Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor out of the lineup. Baylor would retire shortly thereafter and the team took off like a rocket from that point on. This Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain and Gail Goodrich led team set a regular season win record that stood for many years until it was eclipsed by the Jordan Bulls. Just for grins the MLB record is 26 games in a row by the 1916 New York Giants. Due to the limited number of games played versus the major sports the streak is much shorter in the NFL and accomplished over two seasons. It's 25 by the Indianapolis Colts '08-'09. (date events, Basketball reference.com) (date events, baseball & football, Wikipedia.org)

What you see depends on what you're looking for. Source Unknown