For a brief moment, Thaddeus Young was an all-time great

This past season, before our very eyes, Thaddeus Young became a legend while playing for the Indiana Pacers. Somehow, we glossed right over it.

One small moment is often not enough time to capture what is truly happening. In the new day and age, people take videos of concerts so they can remember a moment. Let’s remember a moment involving Thaddeus Young from back when the Indiana Pacers played the Atlanta Hawks on February 28th.

Thaddeus Young happened to be playing his 800th career game that night, which is a fantastic feat on its own. Only 383 players, out of the thousands that have suited up to play in the NBA all-time, have made it to 800 games total. Thad joined the club, so it was appropriate to give him some love that evening.

Perhaps a simple “congratulations, Thad!” message would have got the job done. Maybe a cute graphic, or a video of some of his best highlights, could have gone along with it. Instead what we got to see was this:

https://twitter.com/FSIndiana/status/969012390158262272

My jaw hit the floor.

Am I really seeing this? Is this real? Is Thaddeus Young a top-five all-time player?

This visual flashed across the screen and it was gone in the blink of an eye. I had to sit there and process what I had just seen. Are the producers of this broadcast trying to insinuate that Thad is as good as the other four players in that illustration? Or is that just a useful image to really understand how good Young’s career has actually been?

Either way, I sat there silent for a moment. And then, like anything, I fact checked it.

Sure enough, it is true. Heck, even if you take away the 800 game criteria, you only add two players to the list, and they are both former Pacers. Well, sorta. One is Clark Kellogg, who is definitely a former Pacer, and the other is Kawhi Leonard, who is technically a former Pacer.

Still, this is fascinating. Between Young, Kellogg, and Leonard, the Pacers should be known for their ability to breed players who become members of the elusive 13.5/5.9/1.4/49%/30% club. It is a rare group.

Thaddeus Young Kawhi Leonard Indiana Pacers — SAN ANTONIO, TX – October 30: Kawhi Leonard #2 of the San Antonio Spurs moves the ball against Thaddeus Young #30 of the Brooklyn Nets at the AT&T Center on October 30, 2015, in San Antonio, Texas. (Photo by Chris Covatta/Getty Images)

But back to Thad. We need to really delve into this. Karl Malone, David Robinson, Charles Barkley, and Hakeem Olajuwon all met most of the criteria, but they couldn’t sink the outside shot quite like Thad can.

Detlef Schrempf (more former Pacers!), Pau Gasol, Paul Millsap, and Chris Bosh could do almost as much as Thad, but they couldn’t quite nab the steals he could.

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Then you have Shawn Marion, Clyde Drexler, and Scottie Pippen, three great players to be sure. But none of that trio finished 49% of their field goal attempts in their career, something Thaddeus Young has been able to do.

Chris Mullin (another former Indiana Pacers ball player) and Jeff Hornacek were certainly great players, too. But they just couldn’t make the impact on the glass that Thad has had over his 800+ game career.

There have been a lot of NBA players who have put on a jersey, but this analysis has shown us that only four players are of Thaddeus Young’s caliber. Ever.

Obviously, I’m kidding around. Many players in the history of the game are superior to Thad. But going down the rabbit hole of that graphic made for a cool exercise, and it allowed us to immortalize Young one more time.

Jokes aside, surpassing all of those statistical benchmarks is immaculately impressive. Even if they are arbitrary numbers, only five guys have crossed them all for a reason: it’s difficult to do.

So difficult, in fact, that it is only four players again! Unfortunately, between that game and the present time, Thaddeus Young’s points per game average dipped to 13.4 points per game. Sadly, his run as an all-time great is over. Despite not being an all-timer, we should enjoy Thaddeus Young while we have him. The glue guy will only be around for so long in an Indiana Pacers uniform.