Who are your top NBA players all-time?

[bluzman61]

Mine are 1) Wilt Chamberlain - No one changed the fabric of the game more than he did. He AVERAGED over 50 points a game one season. 2) Michael Jordan - Fantastic all-around player and one of the fiercest competitors the game has seen. 3) LeBron James - Nearly as great an all-around player as Jordan. It's scary to think he's not even CLOSE to retiring. 4) Bill Russell - THE best defensive player ever, he's one of VERY few that could hold Chamberlain to reasonable numbers. 5) Oscar Robertson - Great all-around player and one of only TWO players to AVERAGE a triple double (points, rebounds, assists) for an entire season. The other is Russell Westbrook, perhaps THE best all-around player, other than LeBron, currently in the league. So there's my top choices, what are yours?

 

[rightwinger]

Wilt
Jordan
Lebron
Kareem
Magic

 

[bluzman61]

Nice picks, rw, thanks for your post. Incidentally, Magic would be my #6 pick, Kareem #7. And rounding out my top ten would be Larry Bird (8), Hakeem Olajuwon (9) and Tim Duncan (10). Just missing my top ten - Jerry West, George Mikan, John Stockton, Karl Malone and Kobe Bryant.

 

[Sunni Man]

Larry "The Legend" Bird, best clutch shooter ever. ...

 

[Hellbilly]

Wilt
Jordan
Lebron
Kareem
Magic

Can’t argue with that, although I would add Bill Russell

 

[Sunni Man]

Larry Bird vers Magic Johnson rivalry helped save the NBA by turn it into a global sport. ...

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

Hakeem Olajuwon.....

 

[rightwinger]

Nice picks, rw, thanks for your post. Incidentally, Magic would be my #6 pick, Kareem #7. And rounding out my top ten would be Larry Bird (8), Hakeem Olajuwon (9) and Tim Duncan (10). Just missing my top ten - Jerry West, George Mikan, John Stockton, Karl Malone and Kobe Bryant.

My next 5

Bird
Malone
Shaq
Kobe
Russell

 

[22lcidw]

Nice picks, rw, thanks for your post. Incidentally, Magic would be my #6 pick, Kareem #7. And rounding out my top ten would be Larry Bird (8), Hakeem Olajuwon (9) and Tim Duncan (10). Just missing my top ten - Jerry West, George Mikan, John Stockton, Karl Malone and Kobe Bryant.

My next 5

Bird
Malone
Shaq
Kobe
Russell

I would add "The Doctor" to that.

 

[Frankeneinstein]

Mine are 1) Wilt Chamberlain - No one changed the fabric of the game more than he did. He AVERAGED over 50 points a game one season. 2) Michael Jordan - Fantastic all-around player and one of the fiercest competitors the game has seen. 3) LeBron James - Nearly as great an all-around player as Jordan. It's scary to think he's not even CLOSE to retiring. 4) Bill Russell - THE best defensive player ever, he's one of VERY few that could hold Chamberlain to reasonable numbers. 5) Oscar Robertson - Great all-around player and one of only TWO players to AVERAGE a triple double (points, rebounds, assists) for an entire season. The other is Russell Westbrook, perhaps THE best all-around player, other than LeBron, currently in the league. So there's my top choices, what are yours?

Back in the 70's I was big into basketball so naturally that's where I look to for "all- time" greats...
Chamberlain
Clyde
Pistol Pete
Dr. J.
Oscar Robertson
My favorites anyway [probably forgetting quite a few]
...was a big Knick fan and saw them take out the lakers twice, I also loved the ABA, went to more of those games than NBA

 

[ReinyDays]

Roger Murdock ... ha ha ha ha ... I have absolutely no love of the Lakers, but Kareem was good ...

Meadowlark Lemon? ...

 

[JoeMoma]

Meadowlark Lemon

 

[rightwinger]

Roger Murdock ... ha ha ha ha ... I have absolutely no love of the Lakers, but Kareem was good ...

Meadowlark Lemon? ...

Surely you don’t expect us to believe that

 

[ReinyDays]

Surely you don’t expect us to believe that

Yes ... I do ... and don't call me Shirley ...

 

[bluzman61]

Roger Murdock ... ha ha ha ha ... I have absolutely no love of the Lakers, but Kareem was good ...

Meadowlark Lemon? ...

Meadowlark WAS a wonderful player and fun to watch, but he never played in the NBA. At least not that I KNOW of.

 

[DGS49]

Sorry, but I have a problem with listing Shaq in this august company.

Couldn't dribble. Couldn't shoot. Strong as an ox. His success in every game was determined entirely by how much the refs would let him get away with. If they let him push his defender around, he was unstoppable...but that's not basketball, that's football.

Nice fellow, lots of success, but not, strictly speaking, a basketball player.

 

[bluzman61]

Sorry, but I have a problem with listing Shaq in this august company.

Couldn't dribble. Couldn't shoot. Strong as an ox. His success in every game was determined entirely by how much the refs would let him get away with. If they let him push his defender around, he was unstoppable...but that's not basketball, that's football.

Nice fellow, lots of success, but not, strictly speaking, a basketball player.

But Shaq DID have a presence in the middle, a HUGE presence. And he WAS a decent rebounder. Also, he sort of changed the fabric of the game late in his career when other teams adopted the crazy "Hack A Shaq" strategy. Where they would foul him EVERY time he touched the ball, usually late in the game. This strategy worked occasionally, but most times it didn't. For one thing, it put the team over the foul limit, meaning fouling ANY player resulted in free throws. Also, Shaq DID miss a lot of free throws, but made half those shots in his career. So the Hack A Shaq strategy usually gave Shaq's team at LEAST one point, sometimes two. And it always put the opposing over the foul limit. So it was really dumb strategy IMHO. Because of all this, Shaq is my #20 NBA player all-time. If he HAD been a better shooter, he obviously would have finished higher on my list.

 

[bluzman61]

Sorry, but I have a problem with listing Shaq in this august company.

Couldn't dribble. Couldn't shoot. Strong as an ox. His success in every game was determined entirely by how much the refs would let him get away with. If they let him push his defender around, he was unstoppable...but that's not basketball, that's football.

Nice fellow, lots of success, but not, strictly speaking, a basketball player.

But Shaq DID have a presence in the middle, a HUGE presence. And he WAS a decent rebounder. Also, he sort of changed the fabric of the game late in his career when other teams adopted the crazy "Hack A Shaq" strategy. Where they would foul him EVERY time he touched the ball, usually late in the game. This strategy worked occasionally, but most times it didn't. For one thing, it put the team over the foul limit, meaning fouling ANY player resulted in free throws. Also, Shaq DID miss a lot of free throws, but made half those shots in his career. So the Hack A Shaq strategy usually gave Shaq's team at LEAST one point, sometimes two. And it always put the opposing over the foul limit. So it was really dumb strategy IMHO. Because of all this, Shaq is my #20 NBA player all-time. If he HAD been a better shooter, he obviously would have finished higher on my list.

And a recap on my top 10 and a list of my 11-20 picks - 1) Wilt Chamberlain 2) Michael Jordan 3) LeBron James 4) Bill Russell 5) Oscar Robertson 6) Magic Johnson 7) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 8) Larry Bird 9) Hakeem Olajuwon 10) Tim Duncan 11) Jerry West 12) George Mikan 13) John Stockton 14) Karl Malone 15) Kobe Bryant 16) Elgin Baylor 17) Elvin Hayes 18) Moses Malone 19) John Havlicek and 20) Shaquille O'Neal.

 

[bluzman61]

Roger Murdock ... ha ha ha ha ... I have absolutely no love of the Lakers, but Kareem was good ...

Meadowlark Lemon? ...

Meadowlark WAS a wonderful player and fun to watch, but he never played in the NBA. At least not that I KNOW of.

I checked info on him, he NEVER played in the NBA. He went to college for a few years, it didn't say whether he played basketball there. And he went into the military for a couple years after college. He would've been 25 or 26 years old by then, and most likely an NBA team wouldn't have signed a rookie at that age. He DID hook up with the Globetrotters shortly after this. And a legend was born.....

 

[rightwinger]

Sorry, but I have a problem with listing Shaq in this august company.

Couldn't dribble. Couldn't shoot. Strong as an ox. His success in every game was determined entirely by how much the refs would let him get away with. If they let him push his defender around, he was unstoppable...but that's not basketball, that's football.

Nice fellow, lots of success, but not, strictly speaking, a basketball player.

A force to be reckoned with on the court.
Made any team he played for an instant title contender.

How successful would Michael Jordan have been if he was called for traveling and palming the ball?