[dudo670Participant]

This word has got to be the most overused word in the history of sports. Ok, that was hyperbole, but it drives me nuts how overused this word is. A once-in-a-generation player is different from a superstar or a franchise player.

For instance, Karl-Anthony Towns is not a once in a generation player. Anthony Davis is not. Durant is not. Westbrook is not. LeBron is. A generational player is a guy who is drafted by a team and by himself changes the landscape of the organization for the next decade. The goal of basketball is to win, not see who puts up the best numbers.

Joel Embiid is a once in a generation player. In just 30 games, he has already completely changed the direction of the 76ers and as long as he is healthy he will continue to do so. 

A generational talent only comes along every decade or so. I hate how people take away from the actual once in a generation players in order to give a guy like Towns the distinction (and to be honest I don’t even think Towns is as talented as Jermaine O’Neal or Derrick Coleman, and neither of those guys were even considered franchise players). Durant is a great player but he didn’t come in as a rookie and tear the league apart. Heck even his second year they only won 3 more games than his first year. 

So can we stop using this word so much? Like I said, I think it takes away from the truly transcedent players. A once in a generation player is a guy who (if he’s not healthy ala Bill Walton) has all-time great written all over him.

[BeastMode716Participant]

 & prove your point that he is incredibly rare w/ facts & there are a Lot of facts to support how great Embiid is & can be

I don’t get why you need to trash KAT & the Unibrow who are also potentially Hall of Fame players

 

[binetParticipant]

 Hall of Fame and generational talents are different though… 

Tim Duncan is a generational talent, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili are going to the HoF.

Stephen Curry is a generational talent, Green and Klay are going to the HoF (and it’s not too early to say this).

Some very good players or vets right now are locks for the HoF and not generatioanl talents (Pierce,CP3, Gasol…)

A career is long though, KAT, Unibrow, even Antetokounmpo could end up generational talents, and nothing is certain with Embiid. Though being the best Center in the league as a rookie certainly helps.

 

 

 

[dudo670Participant]

 to defend LeBron. I’ve kind of been a LeBron hater my whole life and every year its the new "player x is better than LeBron" when in reality LeBron has been the best player in the game for at least 5 or 6 years (if you wanna say Kobe was on top when he was winning). These kind of guys only come around every so often which is why they are special. Also I wouldn’t really say I trashed on AD and Towns. I just said they aren’t generational talents, I think Davis is a franchise player and KAT will end up making his share of all-star teams but they don’t change the direction of a franchise. I mostly used Embiid as evidence because he’s currently showing everyone the impact of a once-in-a-generation talent.

[JDB12Participant]

 In my opinion Durant is a once in a generation talent. We’ve never seen a 6’11” player with legitament guard skills and sharpshooting ability. Yes, there have been point forwards near his height like a Hedo Turkoglu, but Durant possesses the quickness, and ball handling of a guard, with shooting ability that’s been arguably the best in the league since he’s been in the NBA.  Yes, Brandon Ingram is in the league now and is compared to Durant, but I think we all know he’s not as good in pretty much any part of his game as Durant was at that age.  I know the term is "once-in-a-generation-talent," but that doesn’t mean that there can’t be two of them in the league at the same time.  Like LeBron, KD turned his team around into a playoff team in the same amount of years LeBron did. Yes, he had a young Westbrook, Harden, Green and Ibaka to help him during that turn around, but they (Westbrook, and Harden) weren’t anywhere near where they are now back then.  So in my opinion Durant is a once-in-a-generation type player.

[Jr. ROXASParticipant]

Other guys you mentioned no. Durant is. He actually should be one of the poster boys of what people describe generational talent. 

[Jr. ROXASParticipant]

Also, if you describe a generational talent as someone who can "change the landscape of an organization for the next decade", then how can you be so sure that Joel Embiid is a generational talent if he didn’t even finish ONE season???

How can you be so sure the Sixers would keep winning in years to come. You are now assuming they would win a lot of games in the future to support your claim that Embiid is a generational talent. Don’t get me wrong, I want the Sixers to taste success, but saying Embiid is a generational talent using your desccription what a generational talent is makes your argument flawed.

KD basically basically changed the whole vibe around the Seattle.OKC franchise once he got there. They almost took out the Lakers as an 8th seed in his 3rd year. Yet, Embiid hasn’t even been in a playoff series yet and you’re calling him a generational talent.

 

 

[Dazzling Dunks and Basketball BloopersParticipant]

When you talk about "generational talents" you are getting into some pretty rarified air. The list of players in the past 30 years or so that I’d continue to be truly generational talents are as follows: 

Michael Jordan

Shaq

Duncan

Bryant (although I kind of went back and forth with this one)

Lebron

Possibly Durant or curry

Guys like Karl malone, Barkley, Hakeem, wade, Dirk etc. are all legends and easy first ballot HOFs but I don’t consider them to be true generational talents. 

Am I ready to throw around that term with embiid after just half a season? No way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dudo670Participant]

be a tad premature on Embiid, there’s always a guy like Kobe who took some time to develop but he also came straight out of HS, but for the most part historically generational talents have shown immense talent and flashes of greatness as a rookie.

Overall I just think too many guys are given the tag "potential generational talent" because they either have a unique skill set or are just putting up monster numbers on bad teams. If you define a generation to be 20-25 years then there really should only be 2-3 so called generational players each generation imo.

[bigjah8Participant]

 I agree but Durant definitely is a generational talent

[Author]

Posts