I'm guessing it'll go like this... 1. Michael Jordan 2. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 3. Magic Johnson 4. LeBron James 5. Larry Bird 6. Wilt Chamberlain 7. Bill Russell 8. Tim Duncan 9. Shaquille O'neal 10. Hakeem Olajuwon Although I seriously question how ESPN could think Wilt was greater than Bill, especially after reading Bill Simmon's book.
Lebron is no. 1 all time in VORP and he is 31. He is a 4 time MVP. He has more 1st team all NBA than Hakeem. Been to the finals 6 times. He is no1 in BPM. He has more win shares than shaq and magic. He will probably no 1 in playoff wins shares at the end of the year. He will probably be top 10 in scoring by the end of the year. He will probably be no. 1 in play off scoring in a few years. Other than whole rings argument I think you can make a legit case he is already top 5. Both his advanced and counting stats say he is a top 5 all time player.
yeah his playoff totals are crazy. he's actually already played more playoff minutes than michael jordan. if the cavs make deep playoff runs the next 2 years, then lebron could be 1st in playoff scoring, 3rd in assists, 3rd in steals, and 7th in rebounds. if the cavs stay together and keep making deep playoff runs in the east for another 5 or so years and then lebron plays until he's 38-40, his playoff totals are going to be absurd. he could get to 1st in steals, 2nd in assists, and 4th in rebounds. granted, those would take lots of deep runs and still putting up huge stats in his upper 30's. and he would need to stay healthy.
Dirk was a fantastic player who finally won a ring and had lots of playoff success, but I don't think he was better than David Robinson and KG.
Numbers don't measure defense. and Robinson and KG are amongst the greatest ever. How was Dirk defensively?
Also very UNDERated using that stat is, Yao Ming! Yao is #22 all time in WS/48. That's right above Bill Russell and tad behind Larry Bird. Win shares is another imperfect stat. By the same measure we'd have to say Hakeem is overrated (though Hakeem's DEFENSIVE Win Shares is GOAT level) It still does show that Yao had a great effect on helping his team win games (and actually supports what member "what" said, for once)
The Top 10 in each position has to be respected, since those Top 10's are taken from the all-time rank. Therefore, Russell is ahead of Shaq on the all-time list.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">12x NBA All-Star & NBA MVP Hakeem Olajuwon is No. 10 in all-time <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBArank?src=hash">#NBArank</a>. <a href="https://t.co/Qd4zvAgz6b">pic.twitter.com/Qd4zvAgz6b</a></p>— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNNBA/status/697091461741940736">February 9, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I think Olajuwon should have been higher--I'm a big Duncan fan, but I think Olajuwon was even greater. That said, the top-ten is all pretty much flawless players, so you can pretty much argue them in any order--the differences between them are minor.
I'm OK with 10. The only guy above him who I'd argue should be lower is Shaq. I'd prefer Hakeem over Russell but Russell has too much cultural significance attached to his on-court accolades and most writers unconsciously recognize that. The rest - Bird, Magic, MJ, Kareem, Wilt, Lebron, Duncan - you can live with them being higher than Hakeem. Hakeem will always be #1 in my heart
Yeah, I guess. Still looks they went the on-the-surface ranking route rather than the a more deep analytical route. I think 10 is pretty much the lowest you could possibly put him without doing some extreme mental jiu-jitsu. At least he was ranked higher than Kobe.
So far right now 10-6 is Dream Shaq Duncan Russel Larry Legend Top 5? Magic James Wilt Kareem Jordan ?
I think James could be as high as #2. Abdul-Jabbar is a lock for a top-three spot, IMO. Chamberlain could honestly be ranked anywhere in the top five, though it's quite unlikely anyone but Jordan gets #1. I think Magic slots in at #5...he wasn't the defensive player that Jordan and James were and he wasn't clearly better than either offensively, and I think both centers have greater claims to dominance than Magic.
