What is the greatest weapon in NBA history?

Kareem's Sky Hook

MJ's fadeaway

Bird's clutch

Bill Russel's mind

Last edited by GH33 on Fri Jan 18, 2008 10:57 am, edited 1 time in total.

I don't know if you could really classify the latter two options as "weapons" per se, at least not in the same context as the first two since two are actual offensive moves and the others refer more to a mental ability.

My instincts as a Michael Jordan fan make me want to pick his fadeaway but I can't go past Kareem's skyhook. Such a unique and graceful shot that he'd make from the post or even out to 15 feet away.

thanks for your reply Andrew,

maybe i should have put wilt's strength and shaq's power,,,

what do you think??

updated: did anybody deleted Magic's No look in the Poll??

Definitely the fade away.

Kareem's skyhook. A really difficult shot to block, helped Kareem get a bazillion points, and imo, easier to score than a fadeaway.

Can't decide between Kareem's skyhook and Shaq's ass.

How about Wades fouls.?

How about Wades fouls.?

Definitely gotta second that.

Also, Donaghy's dolla bills.

I think what else that should be in the poll is the ff:

Dr J in game dunks
AI's crossover
Shaq's powerhop
reggie miller's weaving through screens
olajuwon's dream shake


But, between MJ's fadeaway and kareem's skyhook... I'd say they are about even... beause each will require you to have certain physical attributes to execute.

Using the fadeaway would need for you to sometimes be strong enough to bump your defender,. And then you could be judged a foul. Plus, you would need to be quicker than your defender. And a decent enough ball handler. some leaping ability is required to get away farther from your defender and good upper body strength to get a good lift on the ball.

Using a hook shot, is really nice. Because you have you entire body to hide the ball from your defender, and a free arm to get your defender off balance. But then again you need to be about as tall as the opposing team's post defenders. And you would need a good ball handler to feed you the ball after you have established good position.

I think both shots require special physical abilities to execute. As both moves are geared at exploiting physical mismatches.

So, robert swift isn't going to become the next kareem if he practiced the sky hook all summer long. And larry hughes won't magically become the second coming of jordan because he practiced on his fadeway.

You have to go with Kareem's Skyhook, it was unstoppable

I'll go with Gerald Wallace's fierce defense

cheating here, but i'd say kareem's skyhook and mj's fadeaway.

why kareem's skyhook? it's an unblockable shot, the guy had an incredible wingspan making it virtually impossible to alter it. centers around 7 feet were not as abundant as they are today.

why mj's fadeaway? just because you knew it was coming. if a defender played mj a certain way (apparently he could feel how the defense played him through the opposition's legs), he could've faded to the opposite direction or utilized an up and under maneuver which was part of his offensive repertoire.

This is the greatest weapon in NBA History : http://youtube.com/watch?v=8BjhfwVY_p8

The greatest weapon is kwame brown's turnover ratio and kobe's shot attempts

Ain't everyone forgetting something? TRASH TALKING should be high on your list. Almost every good player playing now are excellent at mouthing off. Jordan and pippen destroyed stockton and malone with it, after basketball barkley and kenny smith made a career out of it, reggie miller did it, kg does it, yao ming's first american words since going stateside was "and one". Hahaha

trash talk is an amazing weapon if you have the ability to back up it. thing with trash talking is, almost everyone does it. even the worst players i see at pick up games will run thier mouth to no end. its like people just cant stop themself. for instance a few players from the chargers are running thier mouth about thier upcoming game with the pats. so really trash talking is a great weapon that can easily back fire on you at any time unless you have the ungodly talent of being able to constantly back it up.


as for the original question i think the most unstopable "weapon" has to be the sky hook. the thing that seperates the sky hook from mjs fade away is, the sky hook is linked forever with kareem. its almost like you cant say one without saying the other, while lots of players have mastered the fade away. granted mj is probably one of the best ever (some may say the best ever) in how he used the fade.

Kermit Washington's fist. Just ask Rudy T's face.

good one^^..lol

why kareem's skyhook? it's an unblockable shot, the guy had an incredible wingspan making it virtually impossible to alter it. centers around 7 feet were not as abundant as they are today.

Hell yeah. No doubt Kareem's sky hook was the deadliest shot in NBA history and a thing of beauty to watch. In all my years of following Kareem, I never saw anyone block it(someone told me Artis Gilmore did, but I can't confirm it).

Ain't everyone forgetting something? TRASH TALKING should be high on your list. Almost every good player playing now are excellent at mouthing off. Jordan and pippen destroyed stockton and malone with it, after basketball barkley and kenny smith made a career out of it, reggie miller did it, kg does it, yao ming's first american words since going stateside was "and one". Hahaha

Trash talking is only a weapon to those who are phased by it. In my 6 years of ball playing, i had more than a few things said to me. But i didnt listen, played my game, and trash talk didnt phase me. However one of my teammates once got a tech because he was trash talked and said something back the ref heard. This ended up getting him benched by our coach: succesfully taking him out of the game as the trash talker wanted. I think in my games the biggest weapon against me was dirty players not getting called. (in wheelchair ball this includes grabbing wheels, sticking feet in spokes, pushing someone sideways who doesnt hae their hands on their wheels, hell even the "flop" was present; if a chair went down, a foul was called on somebody) I'd be fouled constantly and talk to the ref calmly and never get a call. I would get so frustrated i often times had to come out of the game in order to not get in a fight

Anyway, as for real weapons Kareems Skyhook wins due to the reasons everyone already stated: a unblockable shot from a guy that tall. Not a damned thing you can do, no matter how many times you do it. At least for all of NBA history

As for currently; I'd say the not just flops but all tic tac fouls being called if a player is smart (flopping is intelligent if you get the call...as dirty as it is) can be exploited for massive advantages.

Hell yeah. No doubt Kareem's sky hook was the deadliest shot in NBA history and a thing of beauty to watch. In all my years of following Kareem, I never saw anyone block it(someone told me Artis Gilmore did, but I can't confirm it).

It's a question that a lot of analysts have raised over the years but you do have to wonder why few other big men have tried to emulate it. Obviously to say that any centre could make such devastating use of it as Kareem would be to sell his abilities short but being such a difficult shot to defend, you'd expect more post players to develop their own version of it.

As for currently; I'd say the not just flops but all tic tac fouls being called if a player is smart (flopping is intelligent if you get the call...as dirty as it is) can be exploited for massive advantages.

Quite true. The practice of lowering the shoulder to draw a light bump before completing a layup, especially when being chased down on a breakaway is deadly in the hands of the league's best slashers. Still, if it works they'd be foolish not to take advantage of it, no matter what labels you want to give to the strategy.

Kermit Washington's fist. Just ask Rudy T's face.

Also Marcus Camby's Fist hit his own coach Jeff Van Gundy

Did he break Van Gundy's face so bad that it needed facial reconstruction? Don't think so.

nah, it was funny cause he was supposed to hit a heat player, gave him a black eye though

@topic

SKYHOOK! ! !

Your sig might be one of the funniest ever