Its hard to come up with just 4 historically great players that have separated themselves from the rest. I view it as there's Michael Jordan, and then there's a bunch of other players who you can argue was the second greatest.
What makes Jordan the best? What makes him #1? 6 finals? 23 buzzer beaters? Scoring titles? What would it take for Lebron to surpass him? Lebron go the MVP trophies. What would it take for kd to pass him? Kd got the scoring titles.
Jordan Russell Kareem Magic Lebron gets Magic's spot without a doubt in my mind as long as he stays healthy to 35 and keeps averaging at least 20-5-5 for his prime.
Would you be kind enough to list it. And Lebron has been robbed of DPOY for the last 2 years and a MVP before that. So far, 4 MVP, 2 nba champs, 2 finals mvp for LBj. And just 3 scoring titles for kd and possibly four this year.
You don't think Lebron is a strong number 2? Or are you just not counting him yet because his career isn't over yet? I don't see any other player except maybe Wilt (tough to compare against such a difference in generation). Statistically, to me, there is very little argument to Jordan, Lebron, and Wilt being 1, 2, and 3.
Statistically, there's Kareem, no? Career leader in points, blocks, and much more, 6 titles, 6 MVPs, 45 all star / all nba / all defense awards. In general though, it always seems kind of insufficient to just look at titles, awards and stats. Magic or Bird simply happened to take those titles and MVPs away from each other, and they retired early. But they were great players with huge impact on the NBA. I don't think they are out of conversation for the 2nd greatest by any means.
Jordan, Magic, Russell, LeBron (assuming nothing catastrophic happens in the next few years) Jordan-GOAT Magic- would be the GOAT if not for the man above Russell- 11 titles, 2 NCAA titles also, that's an awful lot of winning LeBron- carried some absolutely garbage teams in Cleveland far beyond what any one player should have been able to. Dream,Wilt, Kareem, Bird would be next group Big O for all of his eye popping statistics never came close to winning a title as his teams best player.
You're right, Wilt and KAJ should be #3 and #4 depending on your taste, Wilt if you like his higher peak or KAJ if you like his longetivity.
I'm sorry, he'll need to win a ring without 2 other superstars before I put him in that category. This guy smh.
I agree that there are too many players that are close enough talent wise to narrow it down to four beyond Jordan. I'd go with league and public impact. Jordan Russell Magic Lebron Jordan is obvious. I chose Russell over Wilt simply because of the titles and his representation of the celtics and their sheer dominance during that era of the NBA. Russell as a player alone wouldn't sniff this mountain. It's hard to separate Magic from Bird as far as impact for their era, but Magic was the better player and I already put a Celtic, so there's that. Lebron is on it because he's clearly the best player of the current generation and the expectation of continued excellence. If he didn't play another game I'd probably take him off and just put Bird on or possibly Kobe as terrible as that sounds. Someone mentioned LeBrons greatness in taking those Cavs teams to the finals. While I agree he had a less than good supporting cast, it's important to note just how terrible the East was at that time. If you switched conference for Mcgrady's rockets and Lebron's Cavs of the same period, you're very likely looking at a string of first round failures for Lebron and a number of Eastern Conference finals appearances for Yao and Tracy. Such is the luck of the draw. Not taking anything away from Lebron. He was a star then but it's the last few years where he's made the leap to best ever talk.
