I hesitated before starting this post. With apologies to Hakeem Olajuwon, Oscar Robertson, Elgin Baylor, Jerry West and a few others, here’s my TOP 10. This dead horse has been beaten and bludgeoned repeatedly, but even so, I’m going to get my swings in…so here we go.
#10 Shaquille O’Neal– To be that big, and that quick, AND that skilled, should be illegal. Shaq wasn’t just brute strength… as his career progressed so did his footwork, passing, and overall understanding of the game. The strong points on his resume are as follows… 4 championships, 3 Finals MVPs, 1 season MVP (should have been more), and top-10 all-time in scoring. Some criticism would be that his free throw shooting was a HUGE weakness (especially late in games), his conditioning and work ethic were not always on par with his stature and skillset, and most importantly, given the counterpart he had at #7 on this list, they should have doubled the championships they claimed together.
#9 Tim Duncan– Sometimes the quiet ones get forgotten or misplaced, but not in this case. Duncan won as a “twin tower” next to David Robinson, he beat Lebron’s “SUPERTEAM” in Miami (would’ve beaten them twice if it weren’t for a timely Ray Allen 3-pointer), and he was a defensive giant throughout his career. Duncan won 5 championships, 2 season MVPs, 3 Finals MVPs, all-NBA first team 10 times, and all-NBA defensive first team 8 times. Maybe the most fundamentally sound player ever. He could score 40-something one game, then score 10 the next but be equally dominant both games. Whatever it took to win is what he would do. He doesn’t have the stories that Larry Bird has, but he’s definitely on this list.
#8 Larry Bird– I think only Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan have more mythical stories told about them than Larry Bird. Bird wasn’t a leaper, he wasn’t a runner, but he may have had the highest basketball IQ ever. One of the best shooters ever, even before the 3-pointer took over the game. Always in the right place at the right time. And it’s no coincidence that his 80’s Boston Celtics teams produced some of the best basketball we’ve ever seen. Bird won 3 championships, 3 consecutive season MVPs, 2 Finals MVPs, rookie of the year (beating out rival Magic Johnson), all-NBA first team 9 consecutive seasons… I could go on and on. A bad back cut his career short, but there will never be an article like this that doesn’t include Larry Bird.
#7 Kobe Bryant– When you’re mentioned in the same breath as Michael Jordan more than any other player, you’ve done something right. Fierce competitor, unstoppable scorer, lock-down defender, and continued to get better until his body started breaking down. Five championships, 2 Finals MVPs, 1 season MVP (same as Shaq, should have been more), top-5 in all-time scoring, all-defensive team 12 times, a couple scoring titles… lots of accolades. Downside is that, again, he and Shaq should have won more titles, but couldn’t get out of each other’s way. One thing I’ll always respect about Kobe is that he didn’t do the SUPERTEAM thing… he stayed, thru thick and thin, and got to the top of the mountain, fell off but eventually climbed back up without stacking a team full of “ring chasers”.
#6 Magic Johnson– When you come in as a rookie point guard, start at CENTER in place of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, play all five positions in the deciding Finals game AND win Finals MVP in your first season, you’ve set the bar high. Never had the league seen somebody so big be able to run the court and pass so well. He’s another player who could score either 10 or 40 points and completely dominate the game. He won 5 championships, 3 season MVPs, 3 Finals MVPs, all-NBA first team 9 consecutive seasons. Magic could score, pass, rebound, smile, win, lead… he could do everything. And the 5 championships could have been more, given that he lost in the Finals 4 times. Oh, and he and Larry Bird also saved the NBA from collapse in the 80’s, so there’s that.
#5 Bill Russell– I could simply type *ELEVEN CHAMPIONSHIPS* and go to the next spot on the list, but Bill Russell was so much more than that. Russell was the epitome of ‘team player’. You need rebounds? Done? Scoring? Done. Ball movement? Done. Somebody to bang bodies with Wilt Chamberlain? Done. I firmly believe Russell could have chased the individual numbers for points and rebounds and whatever else, but that wouldn’t have produced the wins that his actual play type created. Nobody will ever match his number of championships. If anybody gets to even 6 championships again, I’ll be surprised.
#4 Wilt Chamberlain– Chamberlains individual achievements jump off the page more that any ATHLETE ever… a 100-point game, a 55-rebound game, led the league in points, rebounds AND assists at different times in his career. Speaking of his career, he AVERAGED roughly 30 points and 23 rebounds A GAME. Literally a man amongst boys. He also won 2 NBA championships, 1 Finals MVP, and his individual dominance (along with #3) led the league to change the rules of the game because of him. Chamberlain might be the most individually dominant basketball player ever. If it weren’t for those iconic Celtics teams, Wilt would have a fistful of championships.
#3 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar– I think any of the top 5 on this list can make a case for #1, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s resume can challenge anybody’s. Let’s see… 6 NBA championships, 6 season MVPs, 2 Finals MVPs, rookie of the year, NBA first team 10 times, NBA defensive first team 5 times, the goggles, the skyhook, and he was the NBA’s all-time leading scorer for almost 40 years. The skyhook was and still is the most unstoppable offensive move in NBA history. He dominated on offense, defense, leadership, teamwork… Kareem had no weaknesses.
#2 Lebron James– Recently became the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, which puts him ahead of Jordan, Kobe… everybody. He’s top 5 in assists, which is more than Magic Johnson and Steve Nash. He’s top 35 in rebounds, which is more than David Robinson, Ben Wallace or Dave Cowens. And in season 20, he is still dominant. Lebron has 4 NBA championships, 4 season MVPs, 4 Finals MVPs, rookie of the year, a scoring title, an assists title… I could go on. And the crazy thing is that in year 20, he has barely slowed down. If Lebron turns his current Lakers team around and wins another ring, it’ll be tough to keep him out of the top spot.
#1 Michael Jordan– We have never seen anything like Michael Jordan before or since (Kobe is the closest). He burst onto the scene in 1984, scoring over 28 points per game in his rookie season. Then he scores 63 points against the Boston Celtics in Madison Square Garden in a playoff game in 1986. Then he wins league MVP, the scoring title, AND defensive player of the year all at once in 1987. It took a couple more years to master the art of winning championships, but when he did, he didn’t look back. He ended up with 6 NBA titles, 6 Finals MVPs, 5 league MVPs (should have won more), 10 scoring titles, and a vault of eye-popping dunks and aerial moves that every player emulates to this day. Later in his career he perfected the fadeaway midrange jump shot, that to this day has not been rivaled. There are players with more points, wins and championships, but I don’t think there’s anybody that can surpass Michael Jordan as far as IMPACT. The combination of offense, defense, athleticism, competitiveness, and drive is unmatched.
So that’s my list, and I’m sticking to it. This little exercise has made me want to make an 11-20 list, which will be out in the near future. Too many great players that I’d like to talk about.