Originally Posted by SeriousSummer
Here's my list, but it really only goes to 21 and it's divided into groups:
1. Wilt Chamberlain
2. Michael Jordan
3. Kareem Abdul Jabbar
4. Oscar Robertson
These are the four greatest players of all time. Pick any of them as your number one player, but nobody else is in their league.
5. Magic
6. Bird
Magic and Bird brought the league back from nowhere and fall just behind the great Pantheon above. Again, it's a matter of opinion who is better, but one is five and one is six.
7. Shaq
8. Russell
9. Duncan
10. Kobe
11. Hakeem
12. Moses Malone
13. Jerry West
14. Dirk
15. Dr. J
16. Karl Malone
17. Charles Barkley
18. Bob Petit
19. Elgin Baylor
20. David Robinson
21. John Havelicek
This is a big group of players, fifteen in all, who are in the third rank of excellence. There is a lot of room for discussion as to what order they should go in, but they all fall just short of the big six but they all have both individual and team performances that place them among the truly elite, but just short of the first six. The one really often over looked player in this group is Bob Petit, probably because he retried 45 years ago, so I'm sure a lot of you don't remember him--even if you're old enough, the NBA wasn't really televised much, if at all, in those days. Petit averaged better than 26 points and 16 rebounds for his career. BTW: I would have put Dirk in the next group, not this one, before this year.
22. Bob Cousy
23. Rick Barry
24. Walt Frazier
25. John Stockton
26. George Mikan
27. Reggie Miller
28. David Thompson
29. Jason Kidd
30. Bernard King
31. LeBron James
32. Bill Walton
33. Artis Gilmore
34. Wes Unseld
35. Kevin McHale
This is an off the top of my head listing of other players who fall into the next grouping. There are probably another dozen or more (Marevich, Sam Jones, Dwayne Wade, Pippin, etc.) that you could add. These players either lack championships (Bernard King, Lebron) and MVPs (Stockton, Gilmore), weren't the best player on their own team (McHale, Pipin), didn't have longevity (Walton) or sustained excellence (Wade--the GOAT don't play on fifteen win teams). Some of them revolutionized the game in their own time (Cousy, Mikan), but their reputation seems to exceed their skills.
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