Rooms Over Ladders.

Over the past few weeks we, here in Sport City have engaged in this "GOAT" talk. At the tail end of last night's show we took it from the gridiron to the hardwood by having the conversation start about NBA greats. One of sport city's contributors has CONSISTANTLY said that conversations like this are viewed wrong. He goes on to say that instead of the "ladder" mentality that we've all adapted (where there's one person above and below the other), but a "room" mentality (where there's a room and each player that qualifies for that room is there). The more I think about it, the more I start to understand what he's saying. When you start to look over the landscape of the game, you notice the era and game evolve. You also notice, that preferences and bias tend to take over before film and stats are considered.

I honestly believe that the classic "ladder" mentality is the reason for that. It starts to cloud our judgement and place men in places where they don't belong. For example the late great Kobe Bryant might get a spot higher on some ladder's than than Larry Bird. When if you actually look over the totality of what was done you'll see that Bird shot better from the floor, averaged the same, and played in a less games to do it.

I can feel the anger brewing in some of yall as you were reading that last statement, and that's GOOD. If we adopt the "room" mentality Kobe and Larry would be in the same spot together and based off the numbers I gave you'd see why, and not feel that way. Since I'm speaking about "rooms" I would have 5 rooms broken down like like this.... Goat, this room would be reserved for the men that have the stats and have carried the game. Hall of fame, this room is created for the men that will inevitably get enshrined in Springfield one day but have not carried the game. Stars, this room is reserved for the men that are flashy and put fans in seats. The men in this room tend to have a thrill for the dramatic and are electric. Potential, this is the room with the most people. Every rookie comes into the league automatically defaults to this category. This is also the place where players land that have shown flashes but hasn't yet made the move into a star. Finally, the last room would be the bust room. These players can't get themselves together and will eventually work themselves out of the league. A good portion of these players find themselves in other leagues and overseas.