The Blue Board

I'm not picking the best five but, rather, going with the 5 that will play the best together. For example, you can't just throw 5 high-volume shooters on the court together because, last I checked, there's only one basketball to go around. You need guys who are comfortable taking the back seat when it comes to scoring.

PG: Magic Johnson
SG: Michael Jordan
SF: Larry Bird
PF: Tim Duncan
C: Hakeem Olajuwon

I picked Larry over Lebron because you need at least one guy on the team who can keep the defense honest by hitting the outside shot. If you have a bunch of guys whose game is built on driving to the hoop, the defense will just play zone all day long to prevent penetration.

Option 2:

PG: Magic Johnson
SG: Reggie Miller
SF: Lebron James
PF: Tim Duncan
C: Hakeem Olajuwon

You need at least one perimeter shooter on the floor to keep the defense honest.

PG: Magic
SG: MJ
SF: LBJ
PF: Duncan
C: Kareem

All great picks. Weird that you have Lyndon B. Johnson starting at the 3.

Saying that there weren't many athletic 6'10" guys in the NBA in the 80's and early 90's... that's what's laughable, and pretty much disqualifies your opinion.

LeBron would destroy Bird on the boards?

Why because he's a better athlete? Is Kevin Love a better pure athlete than LeBron?

You say that Bird wasn't dominant on defense.... LeBron is? They actually have identical steal and block ratios, but whatever you want to think man.

Bird is a consensus top 3 or 4 player in the history of the game, yeah it's crazy to think he might be better than LeBron.

I believe LBJ will eventually earn the nod at SF...but not yet.

PG: Magic (but I have no problem going Oscar, either)
SG: MJ
SF: Bird (I agree with man of troy re perimeter shooting)
PF: Duncan (but I have no problem going Mailman either)
C: Moses (vastly underrated..averaged 20 and 12, and one of the greatest offensive rebounders ever)

Thank you. Finally, someone who gets it.

You can't throw in a bunch of "slashers/inside scorers" and high-volume shooters onto the court and expect them to mesh well. You need a balance. Otherwise, the defense will just play zone defense and clog the driving lanes, forcing the offense to hit the perimeter shots. In football, it's similar to the defense stacking the box, challenging you to pass the ball.

If you have a bunch of high-volume shooters on the court at the same time, you'll have a clash of egos. Luckily, Lebron is a tremendous team player, but the biggest draw-back to his game is his inability to hit the outside shot. If you're going to have Jordan on the court, you need to complement his game by having, say, Bird there, as well.

I really like Nash; he's a tremendous shooter, one of the best faciliators of all-time, and is very unselfish. He's a below average defender, though, and that kills me.

Regarding Lebron, I guess I kind of underrated his outside shooting ability.

You know what? I'm going to replace Magic with Jason Kidd, who's a very good defender, great shooter, and one of the best facilitators. My biggest gripe with Magic is his inability to knock down shots beyond the arc.

C: Jason Kidd
SG: Jordan
SF: James (he's unselfish enough to let MJ to do most of the scoring offensively)
PF: Duncan
C: Hakeem

Easily the worst team ITT

Shawn Kemp was one of the my favs though

Vince Carter, even the young version... sucked

Word...shoulda had him...but Sanka...is more athletic without all the emotional baggage....lol

I had Russell as my Center on page 1. Great passer as well.

Any list w/o William Felton Russell starting at C is a complete joke..

PG - Magic
SG - Jawt'n
SF - LeBron
PF - Karl Malone
C - Tree Rollins