zitothebrave
Connoisseur of Minors
The top 40:
1) Michael Jordan
2) LeBron James
3) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
4) Bill Russell
5) Magic Johnson
6) Wilt Chamberlain
7) Larry Bird
8) Tim Duncan
9) Kobe Bryant
10) Shaquille O'Neal
11) Oscar Robertson
12) Hakeem Olajuwon
13) Stephen Curry
14) Kevin Durant
15) Julius Irving
16) Jerry West
17) Karl Malone
18) Moses Malone
19) Dirk Notwizki
20) Kevin Garnett
21) Scottie Pippen
22) Elgin Baylor
23) Charles Barkley
24) David Robinson
25) Kawhi Leonard
26) Dwayne Wade
27) Giannis Antetokounmpo
28) John Stockton
29) Allen Iverson
30) Steve Nash
31) Isiah Thomas
32) James Harden
33) John Havlicek
34) George Mikan
35) Jason Kidd
36) Kevin McHale
37) Patrick Ewing
38) Bob Pettit
39) Walt Frazier
40) Chris Paul
Sorry to bring back an old post. But I do admit I find this list amusing looking back.
Stockton is too low. And I think he and Malone are a package deal. No way Malone is as good without Stockton and Stockton needed a quality big man to be his partner.
Personally I'd bump Malone down to 21 and Stockton up to 20
Also Chris Paul should be higher.
Kobe Bryant is the most overrated player in NBA history. He should be down further but everyone values scoring totals so much and big performances, they ignore the people who do it over and over again. I'll list 2 players and their career stats in average and totals.
Player A 47.1% from the field, 18.2 PPG 3 RB 3 Ast 1.1 Stl, totals 25279 Points 4182 RB 4141 Ast 1505 Stl
Player B 44.7% from the field 25 PPG 5.2 RB 4.7 AST 1.4 STL totals 33643 Points 7047 RB 6306 Ast 1944 STL
Seems clear cut, but then look at PER averaging out. Player A is at 18.4 player B is at 22.9. A healthy difference. But the difference between player B and all time leader Michael Jordan is 4.9. Meaning player B is closer to player A than to the greatest ever. Player A is Reggie Miller, who didn't evne make the top 40.
Kobe over Shaw, Oscar Robertson, Hakeem even guys way behind him who're ranked too low in my opinion (David Robinson)
Aside from scoring, no statistic says Kobe is top 10. Even those scoring numbers are inflated by Kobe's tendency to just take shots. He's much more akin to AI or Melo than he is with Jordan and Bird.
His 44.7% from the field is good, but it's not amazing. Michael shot 49.7, LeBron is shooting 50.4, Kawhi is shooting 49.1, Durant is shooting 49.3, Steph 47.6, Scottie Pippen 47.3, Larry Bird 49.6, Magic Johnson 52.0, Malone 51.6 Dirk 47.1.