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Who is the best basketball player of all time?
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Abdul-Jabbar was the greatest collegiate player of all time

The history of U.S. college basketball is as storied as that of the NBA, and Abdul-Jabbar (then Lew Alcindor) was college basketball's greatest champion.
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The Argument

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, known as Lew Alcindor during his college years, had already accomplished an all time great basketball career before he ever played in the NBA. Starting on the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) freshman basketball team in 1966, Alcindor set the single-game scoring record for the school in his very first game. Once eligible to play on the upper class team in 1967, he went on to win national championships all three years he played (1967-1969), being named a First Team All-American all three years, the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA championship tournament all three years, and the national player of the year twice out of three years each by the Associated Press, the United States Basketball Writers Association, and Sporting News. Alcindor's impact on college basketball was so enormous that he even changed the rules: his dunking was so dominant in 1967 that the move was banned for the next decade. Many great professional players have played under the NCAA system, but Kareem Abdul-Jabbar stands above them all for his achievements at the college level.

Counter arguments

Premises

[P1] Abdul-Jabbar had the greatest achievements of any college basketball player. [P2] Therefore, he is the greatest of all time.

Rejecting the premises

References

This page was last edited on Thursday, 12 Mar 2020 at 08:49 UTC

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