would you really expect there to be more than 4-5 guys from any given decade that would be included in a best ever debate? i dont think that you could, so i think that this era of players is doing just fine. the 80s did have a number of great players in their prime with bird, magic, mj, moses, dr j, barkley, malone, stockton, etc., but i dont think that the 90s/2000s will suffer too much. shaq, kg, duncan, kobe, lebron, etc. will probably have some unbelieveable numbers when they are done, especially because so many of them made the jump to the nba at the age of 18, and with modern conditioning and injury rehab advances, they can still expect to play well into at least their early 30s, if not significantly later.
for example, kg is just beginning his 10th season in the league right now, at the age of 28. if he plays seven more years, and retires when he is 35 (which i think seems a bit early), he will have played in approximately 1425 nba games. with his career averages at 20.1 points, 10.9 boards, 4.4 dishes, 1.4 steals and 1.8 blocks per game, that gives him career totals of 28642 points, 15641 boards, 6270 assists, 1995 steals and 2565 blocks. Those numbers, which i think are a bit conservative, put him fifth all time in scoring, sixth in rebounds, close to the top twenty in assists, just outside the top ten in steals, and seventh or eighth in blocks. that would seem to correspond pretty well with an all-time best argument, and i think that i could run the same calculations for shaq, duncan, etc.
in twenty years we will probably have a significantly better view of this era, but i think that it will stack up fine when we do make that comparison.
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