[Vivid5292Participant]

 Who’s your top 5 of All-Time in the NBA? If 5 is too hard, give 10 instead. 

My Top 5 in No Particular Order

Magic Johnson

Larry Bird

Michael Jordan

Shaquille O’Neal 

Tim Duncan

The other 5 in the top 10 would be

Kobe Bryant

Hakeem Olajuwon 

Oscar Robertson 

John Stockton 

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 

I didn’t include Lebron James simply because he hasn’t won anything yet. He competes with many of these guys as far as skills and stats are concerned, and he is probably even better than some of these guys in those regards. However, skills and stats mean nothing when you don’t win to prove their worth.  

I included John Stockton because I give him the Jordan pass. He had to take on Jordan and those legendary Bulls in back to back years. Also, Stockton owns two records in the league that will never ever be closed to being reached. Those are probably the only records that will never get broken. 

Thoughts? 

List your Top 5 or 10

[Mr. ChicagoParticipant]

Bill Russell?

[cabbycabParticipant]

 I can only list player that I’ve watched in my generation ( ie no Robertson or Russell or Baylor ect… ).

MJ

Magic

Duncan

Barkely

Olajuwan

 

[Mr. ChicagoParticipant]

Jordan

Russell

Kareem

Magic

Bird

[lukestine13Participant]

 Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Karl Malone, The Pistol just to name a few

[Stojakovicfor3Participant]

Wilt Chamberlain?

[Stojakovicfor3Participant]

Wilt Chamberlain?

[blink3ebfanParticipant]

 My top 5 would be:

1 Jordan

2 Russell

3 Wilt

4 Kareem  

5 Oscar Robertson

My Next 5 would be

6 Magic

7 Bird

8 Hakeem

9 Shaq

10 Duncan

 

I know the Kobe lovers are going to hate but those above 10 players were simply better than him in my opinion. He probably would be 11 on my list. 

As far as your list, leaving Wilt and Russell off are glaring ommissions. The case can be made that they played in an era where they were just physically superior to everyone else and that they would simply be average players today, but I believe that argument is moot. We can’t account for evolution in considering where we rank the players because that is subjective. We can only really look at how they performed against the competition in front of them since that is more objective. With that said, thats why I put Russell ahead of Wilt becuase when they faced each other Russell dominated him statistically and in end result.

Also have to say that you are underrating Kareem a little by not having him in your top 5. He had the most unstoppable and suprisingly never again utilized shots of all time. He was so unique and so unstoppable. For a big man to be as productive and dominant as he was for as long as he was is incredible.

Stockton in the top 10 is also a little far fetched for me. Don’t get me wrong, he’s an all time great. I’d put him in my top 30 probably, but he isnt top 10. He wasn’t the best player on his team ever, let alone in the top 5 in the league. It’s hard to put a player like that in the top 10 players of all time.

Love the subject though and your list is pretty solid.  

[Vivid5292Participant]

 I left some of these guys out just because of how tight the list was. It was my opinion too. I made the mistake on Bill Russell of course. He has the most rings ever of course. But which center do you replace him with on my list and could honestly say he’ll outplay them in their primes? It’s too hard to me, but I’m go with the safe choices to say that Shaq was just too dominant, Hakeem was just too skillful and deceptive, and Kareem’s resume should do all the talking. I’m not taking away from Bill Russell or anything, but his time was different and Idk if he could challenge any of these guys really, at least the centers. You could argue the same for Oscar Robertson, but that would be my mistake and I admit. However, I would then take off Oscar and replace him with Bill. But, again, its kinda hard to take off a guy who did average a Triple double.

[lukestine13Participant]

 second leading scorer of all time  wtf. Sure he never won a title but he and Stockton ran into MJ and those bulls.  Don’t get me started on game 6 of the 98 finals we were robbed i tell ya. but seriously wtf.

[blink3ebfanParticipant]

 Look at the argument I made regarding comparing players from different eras. Its impossible to do so since we don’t have any imperical evidence. Rather we should look at what they did in their era. Russell did more in his era than shaq or hakeem or even kareem did. Evolution is an inevitability so we shouldn’t account for that. If we did than I agree the more modern players should be in the top 10 because they are just so much more physically superior to those from the past

[Memphis MadnessParticipant]

1. Michael Jordan
2. Wilt Chamberlain
3. Magic Johnson
4. Shaq
5. Kareem
6. Larry Bird
7. Bill Russell
8. Oscar Robertson
9. Tim Duncan
10. Kobe Bryant
11. Hakeem Olajuwon
12. Jerry West
13. Elgin Baylor
14. Moses Malone
15. John Stockton
16. Dr. J
17. Karl Malone
18. Scottie Pippen
19. Bob Cousy
20. LeBron James
21. George Mikan
22. John Havlicek
23. Bob Petit
24. Jason Kidd
25. Isiah Thomas
26. David Robinson
27. Walt Frazier
28. Dirk
29. Kevin McHale
30. Kevin Garnett
31. Dominique Wilkins
32. Gary Payton
33. Clyde Drexler
34. Dennis Rodman
35. Dywane Wade
36. Elvin Hayes
37. George Gervin
38. Patrick Ewing
39. Reggie Miller
40. Earl Monroe
41. Sam Jones
42. Tiny Archibald
43. Allen Iverson
44. Willis Reed
45. Dave Debucshere
46. Robert Parish
47. James Worthy
48. Steve Nash
49. Joe Dumars
50. Bernard King

honorable mention: Chris Mullin, Dwight Howard, Shawn Kemp, Dikembe Mutombo, Chris Paul, Dennis Johnson, Dave Cowens

[MJBrownParticipant]

You’ve clearly put a lot of thought into this project of yours so I won’t be too picky even though we would have some major differences evaluated these players’ careers. But I have to ask you one question. How on earth does Iverson fall all the way down to 43? You could easily make an arguement that he is top 5 SG of all time (please don’t tell me he’s a point guard) in a group with Jordan, Kobe and West. There is absolutely no way that Dwayne Wade at this point in his career should be above Allen Iverson (and I’m nowhere close to being and AI fan). Just my opinion.

[Chilbert arenasParticipant]

^Shaq above Duncan and Russell huh…

[Ed ZitiParticipant]

I respect the knowledge of basketball fans on this site.  However, I wish many of you guys had seen Dr. J play the game.  He was that good!

PF Duncan

SF Dr. J

C Kareem

PG Stockton

SG Jordan

 

 

[capecodderParticipant]

 You have to be under 50 to omit either Robertson or Russell

 

[fennisdemboParticipant]

1. jordan

2. magic

3. bird

4. olajuwon

5. thomas

6. o’neal

7. duncan

8. garnett

9. barkley

10. rodman

[delfamParticipant]

 Bill Russell is probably the greatest defensive player of all-time, but he is not top 5. He only averaged around 16ppg which is not very good considering the competition he was going against and his height.

[adumParticipant]

No particular order
Hakeem O
Pistol Pete Maravich
Manute Bol
Reggie Miller
Jason Williams (on kings)

[mj23mj23besteverParticipant]

jordan russell magic bird n the big o

[MJBrownParticipant]

Jordan

Russell

Robertson

Abdul-Jabbar

Chamberlin

 

next 5:

Shaq

Magic

Bird

Kobe

Barkley

 

next 5:

Karl Malone

Elgin Baylor

Tim Duncan

Hakeem

Jerry West

Final 5:

Allen Iverson

Moses Malone

Lebron James

John Havlicek

Walt Frazier

 

This is really tough with so many legends, but I’ll stick with this as a top 20

 

[JoeWolf1]

My top 5 in order

 1. Jordan

2. Kareem

3. Magic

4. Wilt

5. Bird

Not Far Behind

Russell, Robertson, Malone, Malone, Erving, O’Neil, Olajuwon, Stockton

[kevnix5Participant]

Top 5 players in NBA History (not talent wise but what they did during their time in the league)

1. Jordan (GOAT)

2. Russell (can’t argue with the championships, winners don’t care about numbers)

3. Wilt (not the greatest winner but nobody will ever score 100 again and yes I know the competition wasn’t nearly as good as it is now)

4. Tim Duncan (greatest power forward of all time, one of the most fundamental and he’s won championships)

5. Magic (6’8" Point Guard, defended mulitiple positions and on offense played multiple positions)

Top 5 players in terms of Talent

1. Jordan

2. Kobe (not a Kobe fan in the least bit but seriously who else is dropping 80+ in today’s game)

3. Oscar Robertson (triple-double for a season, enough said)

4. Hakeem Olajuwon (best all around big man to ever play in the NBA)

5. Lebron James (this is only based on talent, not based on accomplishments)

[boxn1Participant]

MJ

Larry Legend

The Dream

Big fundamental

Magic

Black Mamba

Zeke

Round Mound of rebound

Human Highlight film

MDE

 

 

[Author]

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