Blake Griffin: Cherry on Top of the Most Loaded Crop of Talent in NBA History

A few days ago, I updated my Facebook status with a video of Blake Griffin dunking (with authority) over Pau Gasol. I added a comment that proved to be fairly controversial within my circle of NBA watching friends: "Blake Griffin is the cherry on top of the most loaded crop of talent in the history of the NBA."

I thought we, as NBA fans, were all in agreement on this issue. How wrong I was….

Let me be clear. I'm not saying that anybody is better than Michael Jordan, Larry Bird or Magic Johnson. I'm not saying Griffin is a better dunker than Vince Carter. I'm simply saying that the NBA has never been so loaded with talent. And I absolutely stand by that.

In fact, it's not even close. I count 16 NBA superstars that can carry an NBA team to a Conference Finals with a decent support system. SIXTEEN!

Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul, Derrick Rose, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Dwyane Wade, Dwight Howard, Griffin, Russell Westbrook, Carmelo Anthony, Dirk Nowitzki, Deron Williams, Rajon Rondo, Kyrie Irving, Steve Nash and Kevin Love.

Just to prove how loaded the league is right now, here's a list of second bananas (a player that can be your second-best option in a championship run): Chris Bosh, Gasol, Andrew Bynum, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Ricky Rubio, Stephen Curry, LaMarcus Aldridge, Eric Gordon, Rudy Gay, John Wall, Amare Stoudamire, Paul Pierce, Andre Iguodala, Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, Brandon Jennings, Zach Randolph and Danny Granger. 

How else does a player like Anthony enter his eighth year in the league with only one top-10 spot in NBA MVP voting (No. 6 in 2010)? How does Williams enter his sixth year having never cracked the top eight in MVP voting?

It's simple. The competition for such a prestigious award is tougher than ever. Because while Mark Price was a very good player to have on your team, it's silly that he was in the top 10 in MVP balloting four times. It's absolutely crazy that he has an All-NBA First Team on his resume (1993). 

The talent level in the NBA right now is underrated. In contrast, while I think Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time, I think that his six championships are overrated (his last three definitely are).

That was a very special ball club that played in Chicago in the 1990s, but their competition was almost non-existent, as the period between 1993 and 2003 was incredibly thin in talent. There is no way that the 1994 and 1995 Houston Rockets would win an NBA Championship today. They would struggle to even make the playoffs. It's not a coincidence that while Hakeem Olajuwon's talents peaked between 1988 and 1990, he didn't start racking up awards/titles until 1993 through 1995. 

Just take a look at the All-Star games of that era: Dana Barros, Tyrone Hill, Tom Gugliotta, Terrell Brandon, Wally Szczerbiak and Chris Gatling were All-Stars?

Nash and Nowitzki, both former NBA MVPs, each have only one more All-Star start than the likes of B.J. Armstrong, Kenny Anderson, Antonio Davis and Anthony Mason. Phenomenal players like Westbrook, Williams, Rondo and Love will likely go their entire careers without starting a single All-Star game. Derrick Coleman, Dan Majerle and Antoine Walker would never make an All-Star game today, much less start in one. 

With so much top-notch talent in the league right now, players are understanding that their only real chance at winning multiple championships is by getting some help.

I'm as guilty as anyone for undercutting LeBron when he decided to team up with Wade. But let's be honest: even if he won a championship in Cleveland, his legacy will be damaged if he doesn't win at least three titles. He didn't have a superstar to play with like Durant and Westbrook have with each other. He didn't have a second banana, let alone two like Kobe does. And if I provided a list of third-tier NBA talent, he probably wouldn't have had that either (the closest would've been Anderson Verejao). 

It's easy to say Michael, Bird and Magic didn't need help to win titles (they had plenty of help). But Magic and Bird were each other's only competition, and Jordan didn't have any rivals when he won six. And that's because the league wasn't nearly as loaded with talent as it is right now. 

While I've focused on comparing the top players of yesterday and today, it's really the third- and fourth-tier players that make all the difference.

Prior to the 2011-12 NBA season, ESPN had a great running feature that created a ton of buzz called #NBARank where they ranked the top 500 players in the league. Check out the No. 51 to 100 spots, and you'll understand why I'm so adamant that the league is so much more loaded today than ever before. Guys like Al Jefferson and Kyle Lowry would've been ranked so much higher in 1995 or 2001. 

So, I'll say it again. We are currently witnessing the most loaded crop of talent in the history of the NBA. And we're on the cusp of one of the most loaded NBA drafts of recent memory. How could you possibly disagree?