Each week during the NBA 2024-25 season, we will dive deeper into some of the biggest scenarios in the league in order to determine whether the trends are more based in fact or fiction in the future.
(Last time: Does Nikola Jokić take advantage of the biggest statistical season of all time?))
Fact or fiction: the NBA is without future face
Friday’s match between the Boston Celtics and the Cleveland riders will not only present the two best teams of the Eastern Conference, but also Jayson Tatum and Donovan Mitchell, the most recent members of a club who only understands 55 players in the history of the NBA – Six times stars selections at the age of 28.
This comes at the same time as another wider conversation in the weeks that followed the stars break, when each of the best players in the league was requested: Who will become the next face of the NBA?
“This is something that we, as players, do not really have control,” said Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, goalkeeper of Oklahoma City Thunder, as if someone was supposed to answer this question better. “It is literally for the world to decide, and who the world gravitates will become natural.”
Asked a similar question, if he considers himself one of the best candidates to become the face of the NBA, the Timberwolves goalkeeper of Minnesota, Anthony Edwards, said: “No, not really,” joking “, that’s why they got Wemby.”
This conversation, the one that was in sight Espn And Tnt And FS1 And Podcasts of former players And the media ecosystem that nourishes them, distracts us from what’s going on before our eyes: Tatum and Mitchell are great of all time in their prime numbers and, as contributors to the collection richest in History, they wear the League coat right away.
Tatum and Mitchell are not accepted as serious MVP candidates, even if a defending captain and the other lead his team at a rate of 68 victories. Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokić, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Dončić are more commonly taken into account in the best active player in the game, although Tatum has an argument to include among them. But there, we are going to fall into the same trap.
Because if everything we discuss is: “Who will be the next LeBron James?” Or “Victor Wembanyama become the face of the NBA?” The careers of players like Tatum and Mitchell are the forest that we will miss for the trees.
It may be because James, Stephen Curry and Kevin during the hung for so long. Whether it is a conscious decision or not, we do not want to give in “the face” of the NBA to anyone until it has gone, so we underestimate the other greats of the game – the generation between them and which is the next.
Mitchell is about to join Curry, Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain and John Havlicek as the only players to carry out a team at 68 regular season victories. We can answer them in two ways: 1) Holy S ***, Mitchell and her riders could join this list! or 2) Mitchell and his Cavs are an anomaly. I will let you decide which one has chosen the wider intelligentsia NBA. (Tip: this is the way the product decreases the product.)
Mitchell is one of the 10 guards to record his statistical curriculum vitae (12,000 points, 2,000 rebounds and 2,000 assists) as 28 -year -old and six times. The others: Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Kyrie Irving. However, you want to measure the achievements of the biggest players in the game, Mitchell finds a way among them.
Because it belongs.
But it does not completely feel Like one of these greats of all time, he cannot lead Cleveland to a championship, at least the story goes. But what if he did it? Would you accept it among them? Tatum did it, and the perception of him barely moved. While people wondered if Jaylen Brown, the MVP of the finals, was the best player in Boston, they missed most of the pleasure of living a legend in real time.
Make no mistake: Tatum is a legend. The list of players to record 13,000 points, 4,000 rebounds and 2,000 assists at 26 years old only understands him and LeBron. Tatum has The most in playoffs of all time (2,711) at his age.
The Celtics superstar finds its way even shorter lists that his riders’ counterpart. Consider this: from 2006 to 2000, undoubtedly the best four -year section of Kobe Bryant’s career, while he was a MVP candidate among the first three each year, won two titles and reached a third NBA final, he collected on average 28.4 points (out of 46/35/85 of shooting), 5.7 rebounds, 5.2 seated sleeves in 38.
Likewise, in the past four seasons, including this one, when Tatum has made the first All-NBA team each season (and, yes, it will arrive for a fourth consecutive time in spring), it has on average 27.7 points (out of 46/36/84 shooting), 8.4 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 1.6 combined blocks and interceptions in 36.2 minutes. He made two NBA finals, won one and still has a championship to defend this year.
It’s true: Tatum last Four Seasons compare itself favorably in Bryant best Four Seasons and Tatum is 27 years old – The age when legends are really starting to flourish, before Bryant won his only MVP – Monday.
When Tatum tells journalists, “I am very accomplished at a young ageBut the truth is that I imagine myself as one of these guys – LeBron, Steph, KD. I want the next generation to consider me that: “Listen to the man.
Otherwise, listen to what James and Durant and Curry, these grown -ups of all time, said about Tatum at 23, 24 and 25 years old – Before He won his first championship, calling him “Elite” “” ridiculous “and” supreme talent “.
But does Tatum have the impression that his career is appreciated? “Honestly, no,” he said when he asked this question by the Washington Post. “If you have removed the name and face of all my achievements and you say to yourself:” This is what this player has accomplished at 26 “,” People were talking about (me) very differently. “”
It is probably not because of the fans, since The tatum n ° 0 jersey classified third Behind James and Curry on the recent list of the best NBA sellers. It is because of the voices around the game.
When he was asked for the responsibility that has just been the face of the league, James said on Thursday: “Why do you want to be the face of a league when all the people who cover and talk about our game on a daily basis on everyone? Having this responsibility is just weird. It is a strange energy.”
We spend all this time asking ourselves who will be the next face of the NBA when we have Tatum And No doubt four players better than him. So instead Debate Why cannot be the international face of Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokić, Antetokounmpo or Dončić. Or even Wembanyama before you have the chance to be 21 years old.
We also have good players of American origin. We barely mentioned Edwards. Two others, Tatum and Mitchell, face each other on Friday, and if you do not look – if you are wondering who is the next one – you will miss a pair of legends, among the faces of the NBA today.
Determination: Fiction. The NBA has many faces of the future.