Most physically gifted by position.
My list is only players I've actually watched. SG was the toughest spot for me to decide on. I decided on Vince because of his arm length and think everything else is close to even besides MJ strength, but I would put MJ ahead over him now that I thought about it little more. I would give Wade a hard consideration of replacing Vince too.
Jordan weighed much more than 200 pounds. He just never allowed his weight to get updated during his career. But Vince might have been stronger. He was certainly taller. But Jordan was much much faster. I'm not even sure if he could jump higher than Jordan or if it was just that Vince was taller with longer arms that allowed him to do such impressive dunks. Jordan was supposed to have had a 48 inch vertical and it is hard to believe that Vince could really beat that.
I'd be willing to bet Jordan was one of the stronger guards in the NBA, past 1990 when he filled out a bit. He bullied a lot of guys in the post and on the glass. You can't get as many points on the block, as he did, and not be very strong for your position. Not to mention people used to foul him all the time as their best bet to stop him and he kept taking the hits and attacking.
jordan behind carter? in what world....physically gifted...jordan was stronger and faster both speed and quickness...hops...arguably just as good but id give carter the edge there and thats it.
also the back up sf should be pippen he was a beast physically at that position...durant is not "physically gifted" hes scrawny as hell lol for sf...hes skilled but not physically gifted.
i agree with the rest though for the most part...theres prob someone more physically gifted than KG but i just cant think of one off the top of my head.
oh yeah you can argue that magic was phsically gifted at his position cuz of how big he was
Agreed. Pippen over Durrant. Durrant is plenty physically gifted, but much more so he has incredible basketball skills. Sure he can dunk hard once he gets a running start. You would hope so being 6' 9" with a huge wing span. But in their prime Pippen would run circles around Durrant and he would regularly dunk over centers (just destroying them) and this in an era where you were going to get hit a lot harder if you went into the paint. Especially if you were going to embarass the defender. Pippen was known as one of the fastestest and best athletes in the NBA, even faster than most of the guards. Durrant doesn't have that kind of speed.
Other than vertical, I don't think Carter compares to Jordan as an overall athlete when you look at speed, quickness, agility and strength. Jordan was one of those player's that was always stronger than what you thought and then when he started hitting the weights, he was literally bullying people around. Teams tried to beat Jordan up and it just didn't work... He was inflicting punishment on them AND still able to stay healthy. We all know Carter didn't like contact and was a sissy. When games got physical, he shot jump shots.
And I think a lot of people are sleeping on Scottie Pippen. He was every bit of the overall athlete that Jordan was with longer arms and bigger hands, which is crazy considering Jordan's hands were huge. Similar to Jordan, once Pippen hit the weights and got up to about 225-230, he was bullying guys around.
I thought about choosing Pip, but I still remember his days before the 96 season when he was still around 210 and was still not quite strong enough.
Actually, as good of athletes as Pip and MJ were, it was actually Dennis Rodman who Phil said was the best pure athlete he coached on those Bulls teams. The guy was fast,quick,good explosion to rebounds, long armed as you can get, and even though he was a bolstering 210lbs himself (probably closer to 230 later in his years) he had some unexplainable strength being able to guard guys like Shaq in the post.
Who are your two by each position most physically gifted players ? This is my list of starters and runners up.
PG - Russel Westbrook, Anfernee Hardaway
SG - Vince Carter, Michael Jordan
SF - Lebron James, Kevin Durant
PF - Kevin Garnet, Shawn Kemp
C - Shaquille O'neal, Dwight Howard