Best Players to Ever Wear Each Number

How are Magic Johnson and Karl Malone tied???

Because Malone was the second leading scorer in NBA history, and is the best big man in the history of the pick and roll. If Johnson doesn't have the same number, there's no way Malone, one of the 10 best players ever, doesn't hold this spot.

Yet, the same goes for Magic: a true winner and the best passer. Ever.

You can either put Magic or Malone for the spot because they're both deserving.

hilarious to see such legends juxtaposed with kwame brown, greg ostertag, hedo turkoglu and pervis ellison. clearly 26, 29, 38 and 39 are open for any above-average player to overtake as the best to ever wear that number.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/friv/numbers.cgi?number=38&year=

go here to play with #'s

only 3 players wore # 39

Shaq is better then Olajuwon? O.o

Number 4 and 34 are the only issues for me.

Dolph Shayes and Sidney Moncrief are better then Dumars IMO

Hakeem over Shaq.

Why should Hakeem be over Shaq? Shaq had better stats and has won two more rings.

And Joe Dumars was a game changer in his own right. This guy was a true basketball player (never complaining to refs, hustling for every ball until there was a whistle, a great individual and clutch player, and a good team player).

Hakeem was the better player, won 2 rings with less talent.

Dumars was alright but that Pistons team was good without him. I feel you could have dealt Dumars for Moncrief and would have gotten better IMO

Well, I see what you're saying knicksboy, but they were all great players and I'm not going to go crazy over where they should be positioned because they are all deserving of their spots.

Hakeem had way more moves, lasted longer (as in consistent stats continously), led way less talented teams to the Championship as well..
He's the only player in history to win the MVP, Finals MVP, & DPOY all in the same season.
All Time Leader in Blocked Shots
Has anyone averaged 14 Boards a game in recent times? I honeslty don't remember..
He only had another All-Star in '95.
Shaq has had Wade, LeBron, Kobe, Steve Nash, Amare, etc. Need I go on?
But, I can understand where you're coming from..
Shaq has been the beast in the middle for some time..

mikki moore is better than kwame

he avg 15 boards in 02-03 to answer rubios question about who has averaged 14 reb recently

Not at all what you were originally going for but I figured I would put together a few all-time teams based on jersey numbers trying to use only numbers that were primarily used for one player's career or prime years.

#33

G Stephon Marbury
G Earl Monroe
F Scottie Pippin
F Larry Bird
C Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

A great team with guys like Patrick Ewing, David Thompson. Grant Hill and Alonzo Mourning coming off the bench.

#23

G Calvin Murphy
G Michael Jordan
F Lebron James
F Wayman Tisdale
C Marcus Camby

An awesome team as well. More depth at the guard position with guys like Frank Ramsey, Lou Hudson and Jason Richardson coming off the bench but weaker up front than Team #33.

#32
G Magic Johnson
G Richard Hamilton
F Billy Cunningham
P Karl Malone
C Bill Walton

An extremely well balanced team with Kevin McHale, Lenny Wilkins and Sean Elliot off the bench.

#34

G Devin Harris
G Ray Allen
F Paul Pierce
F Charles Barkley
C Hakeem Olajuwon/Shaquille O'Neal

With guys like Austin Carr, and Clyde Lovellete coming off the bench and Shaq and Hakeem making an incredible twin towers duo this team would be a force to reckon with.

#21

G World B Free
G Dave Bing
F Dominique Wilkins
F Kevin Garnett
C Tim Duncan

You should have reqired the numbers of years the jersey was worn by each player like a 6 or 7 year min.

somebody always got to make a extra list or something

it's true. I'm borred.

plus go look up hakeem and shaq's numbers when they played in the finals head to head when it mattered most. I go with Hakeem but i guess it is true you cant go wrong with either player

#91 - Dennis Rodman!

if there are ties, then number 33 should be a tie between abdul jabbar and larry bird

No offense to either Malone or Bird, but Magic and Kareem are 2 of my top 3 of all time (with Lebron #1, j/k of course). Kareem was something else. He is everything a center is supposed to be, the prototypes of prototypes. A 7-2 Tim Duncan. He is my definition of a perfect player. Has absolutely no weakness. Magic is the best passer in history, and one of the seminal players of the NBA. I would be willing to say a tie between Magic and Bird, but Kareem is the only player who can actually overtake Jordan in my mind from time to time. I mean the guy averaged ~7 rebounds for the last 8 years for his career and still averaged 11 for his career. 6 championships, all time leading scorer, 3rd rebounder, best passing big man of all time (apologies to Walton and Divac), one of the best post defenders of all time, had the most unguardable go to move in the history of the game playing through the boom that the NBA enjoyed until the peak with Magic and Bird. Kareem Abdul Jabbar has a legit claim for #1, and is probably my favorite player of all time, with his grace, class, intelligence, and social awareness. The Ali of his sport.

Plus point for that. Kareem is second on my all-time list as well. With no flaws to his game. He was the best center in the game for most of his career and was still a top center well into his late 30s. The guy averaged 23.4 PPG on 56.4 FG% and 76.5 FT% at the age of 38!

An unstoppable scorer; 4 times hitting the 30 PPG plateau and scoring more than 21 PPG in 17 different seasons! A career FG% of 56 and a career FT% of 72 made sure teams could not constantly foul him like Wilt and Shaq.

A terrific rebounder who averaged at least 10 boards a game on twelve occasions and averaged at least 16 RPG in four different years.

A great passing center, averaging over 4 APG in 9 seasons, including a career high 5.4 in 1979.

A dominant defender was a 6 time All-Defensive first team and a 5 time All-Defensive second team selection.

Also one of the greatest shotblockers of all time. Averaged over 3 blocks per game in six seasons with a career high of 4.12. Might even still be first on the all time list if the NBA had kept track of block shots for the first four years of his career (which were his most productive years in the league).

6 championships
6 MVP awards
10 All-NBA first team appearances
19 All-Star games

Kareem played at such a high level for such a long time that if anybody were to challenge MJ for the #1 spot right now I'd have to say it would be him.

Others

#55 Dikembe Mutombo
#77. Gheorge Muresan
#91. Dennis Rodman

Also, I'd put Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan about Nique at number #21

Now I see why Greg Ostertag switched from 00 to 39 upon his return to the Jazz. He just wanted to be the best player to have wore #39.

You couldn't have gone to #41? Dirk Nowitzki.

John Wall is the best to wear #2, because he is John Wall.

What number is John Bryant in the summer league?

Kacey, me and my friends got a big kick out of Ostertag changing his number. 00stertag made sense, he had the cheers, he was known for wearing 00, so when he changed his number to 39, we started calling him "39stertag" one of my favorite knicknames for a player ever.

Dude......i have to give you a point just for the time you took to look up all those numbers....lol

fun fact, Michael Jordan once wore number 12, so technically you could put him ahead of stockton

Thnx RUDEBOY1000. It took a lot of research to find all these players and numbers. I could've gone up to 100, but that would've taken too long.

it was one game i believe in like 1990 or somehting. His jersey was stolen before the game and he wore a number 12 jersey. I was just throwing that out there, not really sauggesting he should be ahead of stockton

45-Jordan, And Wade could be number 3.

Tim Duncan is probably a better choice for 21 than Wilkins being the best power forward in history and all...

Didn't Ron Artest wear # 93 while in Sacremento? I think he's the only man to date to wear that number.