Note: Updated for Toni Kukoc’s 2021 Hall of Fame selection.
The modern NBA is a verifiable United Nations of players, with many of its brightest stars hailing from overseas: Giannis Antetokounmpo from Greece, Luka Doncic from Slovenia, Joel Embiid from Cameroon, Rudy Gobert from France, just to name a few. However, their paths to basketball stardom were paved by the pioneering foreign players of the 1980s and early 1990s, such as Sarunas Marciulionis, Arvydas Sabonis (whose son Domantas is now an NBA star in his own right), Drazen Petrovic, Vlade Divac, etc. Notably, during the 1990s, Toni Kukoc from Croatia and German-born Detlef Schrempf were key components of championship-caliber teams for the Chicago Bulls and Seattle SuperSonics, respectively, and early prototypes for today’s long and versatile European players. As basketball becomes more and more of a global game, let us look back on the 1990s and ask:
As one of the world’s hockey superpowers, Russia (and before that, the Soviet Union) has historically been renowned for producing explosive and high-scoring forwards, e.g. Alexander Mogilny, Pavel Bure, Sergei Fedorov, Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, etc., just to name a few. Nevertheless, the country has also had its share of firepower from the blue line – in fact, outside of Sweden’s Nicklas Lidstrom and Borje Salming, the two highest-scoring European-born defensemen in NHL history both hail from Russia (and share the same given name): Sergei Gonchar and Sergei Zubov. The two Sergeis were among the elite defensemen of the late 1990s and 2000s, particularly when it came to quarterbacking the offense – while Zubov is a recent Hall of Fame inductee and Gonchar remains on the outside looking in, their careers are nevertheless comparable in statistics and achievements, thus bringing about the question:
During World War II, many of MLB’s biggest stars lost years of their playing careers to military service, e.g. Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Bob Feller, etc., just to name a few. Two of the most productive first basemen of the 1930s, Hank “Hammerin’ Hank” Greenberg and Johnny “The Big Cat” Mize, both served in the war effort for three plus seasons during their prime and consequently, their overall career numbers were impacted greatly by the prolonged absence. Nevertheless, when they were in the lineup, the duo were among the best first basemen to ever play in the major leagues – in addition to thinking about what could have been, let us compare these two great sluggers and ask:
With the NFL becoming more and more of a passing league, there has been no shortage of outstanding wide receivers since the turn of the 21st century. In addition to the no-doubt Hall of Famers like Randy Moss, Larry Fitzgerald, or Calvin Johnson, the recent group of top-flight pass-catchers has tremendous depth and includes underrated, but highly prolific and consistent receivers like Brandon Marshall and Reggie Wayne. While Marshall and Wayne were never quite THE best receivers in the league, each one was an annual 1,000-yard pass-catcher and a weekly fixture in fantasy football starting lineups; with their careers largely overlapping in the 2000s and 2010s, it is only natural to line them up side-by-side to compare and wonder:
Who was better – Brandon Marshall or Reggie Wayne?
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