Fan Opnion, the 50 Greatest NBA Players

i dont understand how u can have derrick rose, oj mayo, and kevin durant on this list, its ridiculous. they have been in the league for a combined 4 years. Paul Pierce, Dirk Nowitzki, Allen Iverson (maybe) and Ray Allen (Maybe). The rest of your list is solid, but im not sure about rodman and grant hill, and one more thing. U have to realize these r the best 50 players in the past 50 years, so if u think about it, there should only be about 10-15 players from the 2000’s, u named 51 (many who are still in their first 2/3 years)

good topic, but idk if u can really put in all those guys u said

Vince Carnet is Vince Carter right.

A lot to discuss. Obviously it is way too early to put guys like Mayo and Rose in consideration. Also, I’m not sure about Larry Johnson, the last part of his career he was just a really solid role player. Also, I disagree that Pippen stands out to you as not belonging on the list, but you then include guys like LJ and Rodman for consideration to be included, I would’nt put either of those guys ahead of Pippen. A lot of those guys on the list played in the earlier days and I can’t honestly say I know enough about the guys who played in the 50’s through 70’s except the obvious bigger names.

( Doug Christie ) he was an AMAZING DEFENDER. one of the best defensive minded SG’s to me. i think he had quite a few steals in his career….the guy’s stats never showed what he did. he made some pretty fine passes to bibby, peja, webber, divac. he made kobe actually work his a$$ off in the conference finals of 02.

come on man. pippen was the only other real scorer on the team. without pippen the triangle offense doesnt work and jordan has to play the whole game.

also, if your talking about the top 50 you gotta put in KG, kobe, nash, duncan, and nowitzki only because anyone who wins an mvp has to be considered top 50 especially because only 27 people have won the award. i would say that means lebron too but i dont wanna start a ruckus lol.

i think j-kidd should be in there too. lets be honest, i know they were great in there time but at some point we gotta agree that someone like KG is better than the dave bing’s and such.

but as far as people who shouldnt be on the list..
Arizin
Bing
Cowens
Cunningham
Debusschere
Drexler
Greer
Jones
Parish
Schayes
Sharman
Thurmund

just my opinion tho i never saw them play other than drexler

Did you really just name drop Doug Christie? He wasnt even one of the top players in the league when he played. I agree that Grandma was a great player who is widely forgotten. He was even cool enough to have a nickname/alter ego haha. Anybody remember his on Family Matters.

defensively i’m dropping his name here. he really did cause alot of trouble if you watched

This is a rough list I made of the 50 Greatest Players. I made it on May 8, 2009, without putting all the research in I might have liked to, and hopefully will make a better more concrete one later. It is ranked on career achievement, which includes winning, high lights and statistics from a players career, as well as slight hypotheticals such as the era in which they played and so on. You also had to have played at least ten years or have been retired to make the list, hence certain players not being on it. I made a top 100, but as I said, it was rough and would like to do more research so, here is my 50:

1) Michael Jordan
2) Shaquille O’Neal
3) Bill Russell
4) Wilt Chamberlain
5) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
6) Kobe Bryant
7) Larry Bird
8) Tim Duncan
9) Oscar Robertson
10) Magic Johnson
11) Elgin Baylor
12) Hakeem Olajuwon
13) Moses Malone
14) Julius Erving
15) Jerry West
16) Rick Barry
17) Bob Petit
18) Isaiah Thomas
19) Kevin Garnett
20) Karl Malone
21) George Mikan
22) Bob Cousy
23) Walt Frazier
24) John Havilcek
25) Scottie Pippen
26) David Robinson
27) George Gervin
28) Elvin Hayes
29) Willis Reed
30) Charles Barkley
31) Allen Iverson
32) Tiny Archibald
33) David Thompson
34) John Stockton
35) Bill Walton
36) James Worthy
37) Bill Sharman
38) Earl Monroe
39) Bob McAdoo
40) Dolph Schayes
41) Wes Unseld
42) Dave Cowens
43) Paul Pierce
44) Clyde Drexler
45) Dominique Wilkins
46) Patrick Ewing
47) Pete Maravich
48) Jason Kidd
49) Nate Thurmond
50) Kevin McHale

scratch christie out, my bad. we’re talking about players as a whole

He led the Michael Jordan-less team to 58 wins in 1994. I believe they pushed the Knicks to 7 games in the Conference Finals. What are you talking about. He was the glue that held those Bulls teams together when Jordan would go off on his rants. He was a terrific long armed defender who could guard FOUR positions. He was if not the first, the one who revolutionized the point-forward position. Definitely top 50. Top 5 Small Forwards of ALL TIME

Hal Greer and Jerry Lucas are the 2 that stand out not deserving to be in the top 50. Some are before my time so I can’t judge a Mikan or Petit, but their reputation and stats say they belong just as if someone told me The Babe and Ty Cobb were the best baseball players of all time. Lucas was a better college player than pro and Greer didn’t do much for me though I saw him at the tail end of his career.

Auber, I agree with you on almost all you say, but watched almost every Bulls game for 40 years. Pippen was overrated, but was so much better for the Bulls than Rodman, it’s not even a discussion. Take it from someone that saw every game for a decade….night after night Pippen was far superior. He was the ultimate Robin to Jordan’s batman and did fairly well for the year and half Jordan sat out. He was great defensively. Maybe not as great as Rodman, but pretty close. He did EVERYTHING else much better except rebound. Rodman couldn’t score or keep the defense honest. Pippen was a good shooter who played higher above the rim than his airness himself. He didn’t have Jordan’s hops, but I swear he stayed in the air longer than anyone I’ve ever seen, and by the way I think Pippen was a real jerk, so I’m not a big fan of his personally. He also passed extremely well and was fundamentally very sound.

I think I would also take Worthy off list and add Kobe, Duncan and Garnett.

I agree with you. Pippen in his prime was an mvp candidate when Jordan retired. He might not have been able to single handidly carry a team, but how many guys really could? I was not a Bulls fan, but I respect what Pippen meant to that team.

People forget thats its the Basketball Hall of Fame. Not the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame. College careers have to be taken into account as well. Is this list the best pro players of all time or best basketball players of all time?

I agree mostly with mikeyvthedon’s list, magic should be 2 though, and then Wilt, and then continue. I think that is a good updated version for the most part, but I don’t think paul pierce deserves to be there, I would say Larry Johnson much more than him, I don’t know if Parrish deserves to be up there is Mutombo isn’t, although I think non-scoring centers are kind of taken for granted, defense is in general, Gary Payton has the most first team all-nba’s in history with 9 I think tying Jordan and he didn’t make the list (He could score also). Pippen I believe is deserving though because he was the player that started the bulls to being contenders so there has to be something there. As for Rodman, he is one of the greatest role players of all-time, he wasn’t a five tool player, I mean and Miller isn’t on the list, Mutombo isn’t on the list, I think it all is looked at if you are building a franchise around a player who would be the top 50 you would choose.