75 Greatest Players of the NBA's first 75 years
Adding to the 50 greatest list of 1996
In 1996, the NBA named the 50 greatest players of the first 50 years of the league.
25 years later, it's appropriate to add 25 names and list the 75 greatest players of the first 75 years. Here are a couple of rules I had:
I'm not taking players off the original list of 50, nor will I add players of the 1940s-80s who were "snubbed" from the original list. The selectors of that list included some players, coaches, and reporters who were part of the league since the earliest years. Many of them are no longer with us. I’m not going to second-guess them. I did, however, consider players who entered the league as early as 1986.
When the 50 list was released, Shaquille O'Neal had played the fewest seasons: 4. Therefore, I'm not selecting a player who's played fewer than four seasons. Luka Doncic seems on course to become an all-time great, a top 20 of all time kind of player, but he's played only three seasons. Remember that Derrick Rose was MVP in his third season and then his career took a turn due to injury, so I'm not going to prematurely put Doncic on this list. I do expect, barring injury, that he'll be on the 100 Greatest list in 25 years.
Adding most of the 25 should be pretty straightforward. We don't require "old-timers" to educate us because it was all televised and in recent memory.
To begin, here are the players drafted since 1986 who've been named First Team All-NBA at least twice, and who aren't on the original list. The first number by each name is his total First Team selections; the second is the total number of times they were First, Second, or Third Team All-NBA:
Lebron James (13, 17)
Kobe Bryant (11, 15)
Tim Duncan (10, 15)
Kevin Durant (6, 9)
James Harden (6,7)
Dwight Howard (5, 8)
Jason Kidd (5, 6)
Dirk Nowitzki (4, 12)
Chris Paul (4, 10)
Kevin Garnett (4, 9)
Steph Curry (4, 7)
Anthony Davis (4, 4)
Allen Iverson (3, 7)
Steve Nash (3, 7)
Giannis Antetokounmpo (3, 5)
Kawhi Leonard (3, 5)
Gary Payton (2, 9)
Russell Westbrook (2, 9)
Dwyane Wade (2, 8)
Tracy McGrady (2, 7)
Anfernee Hardaway (2, 3)
Nikola Jokic (2, 3)
Luka Doncic (2, 2)
That's 23 names.
We'll respectfully remove Hardaway from consideration because his run as an All-Star caliber player was too brief. And we've removed Doncic already.
So we're at 21.
Everyone else on the list except McGrady and Davis has been either league MVP or the best player on a Finals team. I'm keeping McGrady as there have been only 44 players in history with seven or more All-NBA teams to his credit, and he's one of them. Only 39 have been First Team All-NBA four times, and Davis, who won a ring as the 2nd-best player on the Lakers 2020 team, is among them.
We're not taking anyone else off this list, so we're still at 21 with only four slots to fill.
There are plenty of worthy names. Damian Lillard, Paul George, and Carmelo Anthony have each been on six All-NBA teams. Several more have been on five, including Blake Griffin and Chris Webber. They're all either in or likely to be headed to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
I believe Lillard is the strongest candidate for the list, but I shouldn't let recency bias get in the way. What they all have in common is a lack of sustained playoff success.
In contrast, three-time All-NBAer Chauncey Billups led the Pistons to an NBA Championship, another Finals appearance, and six consecutive conference finals appearances.
Another three-time All-NBAer, Reggie Miller, led the Pacers to the conference finals six times and landed in the Finals in 2000.
Four-time All-NBA Pau Gasol was the 2nd-best player on three consecutive Finals teams and back-to-back champions.
4-Time All-NBA Tony Parker was the 2nd-best player on four Finals teams and three champions.
That's 25!
So, incorporating two-thirds of the work done by others, here are the 75 greatest players of the NBA's first 75 years, in alphabetical order.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Nate Archibald
Paul Arizin
Charles Barkley
Rick Barry
Elgin Baylor
Dave Bing
Chauncey Billups
Larry Bird
Kobe Bryant
Wilt Chamberlain
Bob Cousy
Dave Cowens
Billy Cunningham
Steph Curry
Anthony Davis
Dave DeBusschere
Clyde Drexler
Tim Duncan
Kevin Durant
Julius Erving
Patrick Ewing
Walt Frazier
Kevin Garnett
Pau Gasol
George Gervin
Hal Greer
James Harden
John Havlicek
Elvin Hayes
Dwight Howard
Allen Iverson
LeBron James
Magic Johnson
Nikola Jokic
Sam Jones
Michael Jordan
Jason Kidd
Kawhi Leonard
Jerry Lucas
Karl Malone
Moses Malone
Pete Maravich
Tracy McGrady
Kevin McHale
George Mikan
Reggie Miller
Earl Monroe
Steve Nash
Dirk Nowitzki
Hakeem Olajuwon
Shaquille O’Neal
Robert Parish
Tony Parker
Chris Paul
Gary Payton
Bob Pettit
Scottie Pippen
Willis Reed
Oscar Robertson
David Robinson
Bill Russell
Dolph Schayes
Bill Sharman
John Stockton
Isiah Thomas
Nate Thurmond
Wes Unseld
Dwyane Wade
Bill Walton
Jerry West
Russell Westbrook
Lenny Wilkens
James Worthy
James Leroy Wilson writes from Nebraska. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter. If you find value in his articles, subscribe and exchange value for value. Your support through Paypal helps keep him going. You may contact him for your writing, editing, and research needs: jamesleroywilson-at-gmail.com.
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