But............
That's a lot of regular season stuff.
This is what I was talking about when I said people move the goal post on the Superstar argument. I personally think highly of James Harden's game. I think he's going to go down as one of the greatest hoopers ever but for years I've watched fans, media, talking heads and TV pundits always make the argument about playoff success. Guys will have outstanding numbers and people will dismiss all of it because of playoff success or how many Championships they won. Same thing happens with Russell Westbrook, Paul George, Chris Paul, and before last season Anthony Davis.
Hell, the entire media was just talking about Giannis standing amongst the best players in the league like 3 weeks ago. When they were down 2-0 to Brooklyn how many people were talking about how he was a flawed Star player and how his game needed to improve? Now all of a sudden he's taking the crown from LeBron? 3 weeks later!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Did Steph Curry not have to go on a revenge tour this season to remind people of his Superstar status?
You see what I'm talking about? I think James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Anthony Davis, Steph Curry are all amazing players and I like all of them but the goal post on what a Superstar player is gets moved every single season and it's usually done by fans and media in order to tear down certain players just to prop up other ones.
Just like how Kendrick Perkins made it his mission to tear down Giannis this entire playoff run. Now why would Big Perk do that? I'll tell you why. It's because Big Perk has an allegiance to LeBron James. Just like Nick Wright. Whenever those guys like Perk, Nick Wright, SAS, etc, feel like there's another player on LeBron's heels they will start creating narratives about certain guys and fans help make those narratives stick. Like how SAS got into it with KD right around the same time when KD said that he felt like he was the best player in the world. Or how Nick Wright spent the whole season basically dogging Nikola Jokic calling him the worst MVP ever and trying to discredit his entire MVP campaign this past season once it was clear that LeBron was out of the running to win it.
The media likes to try and define what a Superstar player is. I came up with my own definition which is a combination of skill, talent, stats, team success, player awards, playoff performance, and NBA Finals performance. In my opinion on 5 players meet my criteria.
LeBron James
Stephen Curry
Kevin Durant
Kawhi Leonard
Giannis Antetokounmpo