Top 10 Basketball Players of All Time
#1 Will SHOCK You!
Ok yea so I couldn’t help but put a clickbait title on this one. But I do think my GOAT is going to be a bit controversial to say the least (SPOILERS: it’s neither Jordan nor LeBron). And I’m not simply writing this to be controversial: I genuinely believe there’s a really obvious player that we’ve left out of the GOAT conversation for far too long, and we need to give him his due. But before revealing who I’m talking about, I thought it would be fun to do a Top 10 list. So without further ado, the 10 greatest basketball players of all time:
Honorable Mentions
There are 5 players I wanted to make sure to mention before diving into my top 10. One active player just missed the cut for me:
11. Nikola Jokic (2015- ): I really should have called this the “Top 11 Basketball Players of All Time”, but no one reads “Top 11” lists. So instead, the Joker is my first honorable mention. I firmly believe he’ll be in the Top 10 by the end of his career, but I had a tough time putting someone there who’s spent less than a decade in the Association. Still, he’s been on a historic offensive stretch over the last 4 years, winning MVP in 3 of those seasons and an NBA Championship in the other. At this point he’s the undisputed “Best Player in the World” (although Luka Doncic and potentially Victor Wembanyama are quickly coming for that title). He’s the 2nd best offensive center in NBA history (more on #1 later), the best passing big man of all time (and arguably a Top 10 passer regardless of position), and one of the best rebounders in the league. And although he is far from the league’s highest volume scorer, he’s easily its most efficient, with an eFG% of over 60% in each of the last 4 seasons.¹ Unless he retires in the next couple of seasons to focus on ponies, he’s pretty much a lock to finish his career in my Top 10. He’s already the greatest European basketball player ever.
- Moses Malone (1974–1995): In my opinion, Moses is one of the most underrated players in NBA history. Although he’s not in my Top 10, he’s close. And I rarely hear his name discussed among the other greats on this list. He is, by a wide margin, the greatest offensive rebounder ever. He is the only player in NBA history to average over 7 ORBs in a season, and he did it twice. He averaged over 6 ORBs in 2 other seasons, giving him 4 of the top 5 offensive rebounding seasons of all time. His 7,382 career ORBs are by far the most ever, with 2nd place Artis Gilmore a full 2,500 behind him at 4,812. Although Moses was never an elite post player, it didn’t matter: he finished his career averaging over 20 points per game, in large part due to the sheer number of rebounds he was getting on the offensive end. And he wasn’t a bad defensive rebounder either: he led the league in total rebounds 6 times. He also won 3 regular season MVPs, and in 1983 won both regular season and Finals MVP. Each of the 9 players with at least 3 MVPs are at least an honorable mention, but of these 9, Moses is the one I see the least on other people’s lists. That disrespect needs to end.
- Karl Malone (1985–2004): NBA GOAT debates typically revolve around 3 things: peak, longevity, and championships. For instance, Nikola Jokic certainly has a Top 10 peak in NBA history, but his lack of longevity keeps him just outside that discussion for me. Karl (somehow no relation to Moses) Malone is the polar opposite. Much has been made of his failure to win a championship, and there was no point in his career where he was even in consideration as the Best Player in the World. But as far as longevity goes, he’s one of the Top 5 players ever. He’s still the 3rd leading scorer in NBA history (up until recently he was #2, before an obvious member of my Top 10 passed him). He’s also the 7th leading rebounder in NBA history, won 2 MVP’s, and was first-team all-NBA an astounding 11 times in a row. He’s not a Top 10 player of all time, but he’s damn close.²
Notable Omissions
There are 2 more guys I did not consider for my Top 10, but who I need to mention. These are 2 guys I routinely see on other people’s Top 10 lists, but who simply do not belong in this discussion. I want to make it clear that I am not trying to disrespect these 2 players (both of whom are all-time greats in their own rights), but rather the sports media apparatus that consistently overate them. These 2 guys are:
- Tim Duncan (1997–2016): Duncan is solidly a Top 20 player ever, and is in the discussion for the greatest defensive player in NBA history. He also won 5 NBA Championships. So how could he not make my Top 10? A few reasons. First of all, as I’ll continue reiterating throughout this list, not all Championships are created equal. Robert Horry won 7, but was never close to being the best player on any of those teams. Duncan won 5, and was the best player on 4 of those teams, clearly making him a better all-time player than Horry. But he was NEVER the best player in the world at any point in his career, which is something that can’t be said about most of the guys in my Top 10. He also didn’t make a single All-NBA first-team (or even score 20 PPG in a season!) during the entire second half of his career. And while he was a good offensive player, he was never a dominant one. As anyone willing to be honest about the NBA knows, being an elite offensive player trumps being an elite defender every day of the week (which is why I already consider Jokic to be a better player than Duncan). None of this is said to disrespect Duncan, or to take away from his incredible list of accomplishments. Again, he’s easily a Top 20 player in my opinion. But I personally can’t justify putting someone who was never the best player in the world, and who averaged less than 20 PPG for his career, in my Top 10.
- Bill Russell (1956–1969): Russell’s career is a more extreme version of Duncan’s, which in my mind makes him the most overrated player in NBA history. Much like Duncan, he is arguably the greatest defensive player of all time. He is also the 2nd leading rebounder in NBA history, and he won a staggering 11 Championships! How could he not be in my Top 10? Here’s why: because, unlike even Duncan, Russell wasn’t a good offensive player, or even a mediocre one: he was a genuine liability on the offensive end of the court. Russell was never the leading scorer on any team he played for. In fact, he routinely finished 3rd or 4th on his own team in PPG. And this is despite playing over 42 minutes a game for his career, far more than any of his teammates. He also never shot better than 46% from the floor. People will defend him by saying it was more difficult to score in the era he played in, but then proceed to downplay the gargantuan and efficient scoring numbers of another player from his era (more on him later). Here’s the facts about Russell: he is one of the greatest rebounders and defenders in NBA history. He was also a crucial member of a dynasty that won an astounding 11 NBA championships in his 13-year career. But he also played on what was, by far, the most stacked dynasty in NBA history. The Steph/KD Warriors had the 2nd and 3rd best players in the league, as well as a couple other guys who were borderline top-20. We all acknowledge how unfair that team was in comparison to the rest of the league. But if Bill Russell was indeed the 2nd best player of his era (in my opinion guys like Oscar Robertson and Jerry West push him to 4th or 5th), he was teammates with 5 or 6 guys who were also in the Top 10-to-15. And despite winning 5 MVP’s, there is no legitimate argument that he was ever the best player in the world at any point in his career (MUCH more on that later). Would the Celtics of the 60’s have won 11 titles without Russell? Probably not. But they still might win 5 or 6. Russell’s rebounding and defense alone make him a Top 50 player ever, which shows just how dominant he was in those 2 categories. Again, none of this is meant as disrespect to a guy who was genuinely one of the greatest basketball players to ever live. He’s a Top 50ish player, which is still incredible. But people who try to put him anywhere near the Top 10 because “hE’s GoT eLeVeN rInGs” simply don’t know anything about basketball.
And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: the objective Top 10 basketball players of all time. I’m sure no one will have any disagreements with this list:
10. Hakeem Olajuwon (1984–2002): Olajuwon is the third guy whose name gets thrown around as the greatest defender in NBA history, along with Duncan and Russell (there’s a 4th guy who should be given consideration here, but we’ll get to him later). And this is well earned: he won 2 Defensive Player of the Year awards, finished top-5 in voting 6 other times, and is the only player in NBA history to win Defensive Player of the Year, league MVP, and Finals MVP in the same season. He was also a better offensive player than Duncan (and MILES ahead of Russell). He finished his career averaging nearly 22 points per game, and was still averaging 20 into his mid 30’s. He led the Association in blocks 3 times, and finished his career with more than 3 per game. He’s the only player in NBA history with at least 200 blocks and 200 steals in the same season. So why is he only 10th on this list? Several reasons. First, he was only the undisputed “best player in the world” for 2 years of his career (and that was because an even greater player “retired” to play minor league baseball). Second, despite being an excellent scorer, he was not an all-time great offensive weapon, certainly not compared to the 9 guys ahead of him on this list.³ But this is only nitpicking a guy who is still one of the Top 10 basketball players ever, and someone who will always be rightfully considered an all-time great.
9. Kobe Bryant (1996–2016): First, let’s get this out of the way: Kobe has one of the most toxic fanbases of any player in basketball history. Despite putting him in my Top 10, many people will see it as disrespectful that I have Kobe this low on my list. Because of his insane fan base (and not because I want to disrespect Kobe), I have to clarify why he’s not in the same stratosphere as guys like Jordan or LeBron. First, we’ll look at ring count. Jordan has 6, Kobe has 5, LeBron (as of the time of this writing) has 4. So obviously Kobe is better than LeBron! Case closed, right? This type of dishonesty is why I can’t stand Kobe fans. When you look at how many rings each of these guys won as the best player on their teams, Kobe’s count drops to 2 (whereas LeBron’s and Jordan’s remain unchanged). Furthermore, when you look at rings won as the best player in the world, Kobe drops to 0 (again, LeBron’s and Jordan’s remain unchanged). Not all championships are created equal. I don’t understand why this is so difficult for people to grasp. The other major knock on Kobe is his efficiency stats. Kobe finished his career with an eFG of 48.2%, which is a mediocre number even for his era. Kobe missed a lot of shots. In some seasons, his teams were good enough to overcome this. In many others, they weren’t.
Despite these flaws, Kobe is still an all-time great. First, regardless of efficiency numbers, scoring 30 PPG in 3 separate seasons is incredibly impressive. Kobe won MVP in 2007; he should have won another in 2005 (when he averaged 35 PPG) but finished 4th behind Steve Nash, who is notoriously the worst player to ever win the award. So despite being a “Kobe hater”, I’m the first to acknowledge this as one of the biggest snubs in NBA history. Kobe was the greatest sidekick in basketball history, 3-peating with Shaq in the early 2000’s. While Shaq was this dynasty’s best player, he doesn’t 3-peat without Kobe. When Shaq left, Kobe became arguably the best player in the world for a few years, but couldn’t win a championship without his big man. By the end of the decade, Kobe was no longer the best player in the world (this was now LeBron), but he was the clear #2 and won back-to-back titles to close the decade. While his stretch of being the best player in the world during the mid-2000’s was short-lived (being sandwiched between the Shaq and LeBron eras), he’s still probably the player of the decade when looking at his overall body of work. He was an elite defender, one of the greatest volume scorers in basketball history, a 5-time champion, and one of the fiercest competitors of all time. Overall, this was more than enough for me to include him in my Top 10.
8. Steph Curry (2009- ): This one is really going to piss Kobe fans off. Steph is the greatest shooter in baskeball history, and arguably the most lethal offensive weapon the game has ever seen. He was the best player on 4 championship teams. This might be a controversial statement since he only has 1 Finals MVP, but I believe this is misleading. First, I think everyone acknowledges he should have won the award in 2015 over Iguodala (the only other guy with an argument at this award was LeBron, but if we accept the tradition that Finals MVP should go to the best player on the winning team, there’s no argument for anyone but Steph). Second, while it's true that Durant won back-to-back Finals MVPs, I always considered Curry the more valuable player on those teams. Yes, KD might have scored more points during those title runs, but this was due to the constant attention teams had to pay to Steph. To back up my argument with numbers, Steph’s efficiency numbers (specifically eFG%) have been similar throughout his career, whether or not he was playing alongside KD. Meanwhile, KD’s efficiency numbers increased while playing with Steph. This signals to me that teams were picking their poison and choosing to continue guarding Steph, while allowing KD (a Top 20 all-time player in his own right) to shoot open shots and score more points than his teammate. If you want to disagree with this analysis, fine. But this is my list not yours.
The only 2 knocks on Steph are his defense, and the fact that (much like Kobe) he was overshadowed for most of his career by another all-time great player. Even in 2015/2016, the season when many people thought he might have passed LeBron as Best Player in the World, his team stumbled in the finals to a far inferior Cavs team. That season pretty much shut the door on the notion of Steph as the Best Player in the World, a title that everyone above him on this list held for multiple seasons. As far as defense goes, he was an underrated player for the majority of his career. While the present-day 36-year-old Steph is a genuinely bad defender, Prime Steph was more-than-adequate, and even led the Association in steals in 2015. While it’s certainly true that he was never elite, he was a better defensive player than he gets credit for during his first 3 championship runs. He also has a career eFG of 58.2%, an astonishing number for a high-volume guard and a full 10 percentage points ahead of Kobe. He has changed the game in a way few (if any) players before him have. It's crazy to think Steph was the first scoring champion in NBA history to shoot more 3s than 2s in a season, something that is now commonplace in today’s NBA. Because of a culmination of all these factors, Steph lands at 8 on my list.
7. Shaquille O’Neal (1992–2011): Shaq is the first player on this list who was the undisputed Best Player in the World for several years of his career, which is why he lands here. From the minute Michael Jordan retired for a 2nd time in 1998, Shaq took this title, and held on to it until at least 2002 (and arguably up until 2004/05, when he finished 2nd in MVP voting to, you guessed it, Steve Nash⁴). He has 3 rings both as the best player on his team and in the world, and won a 4th as the sidekick to Dwyane Wade’s epic 2006 playoff run. He won a scoring title, finished his career averaging a double-double, and as of the writing of this article, has the same career eFG as Steph Curry (58.2%, which is kind of funny considering they got to these numbers in polar opposite ways). Because of this, many people consider Shaq “the most dominant Big Man of all time.” In my opinion, this isn’t quite correct. Much has been made of how incredible it is that Shaq is a Top 10 player ever, and was the Best Player in the World for half a decade, despite being notorious for not training in the offseason. He would routinely show up to training camp and preseason out of shape, and even he admits he was over 400 pounds at different points in his career. He was also a notoriously bad free-throw shooter, something that came back to bite his teams in the ass on numerous occasions. Because of this, I think a better moniker for Shaq would be “Most Talented Player Ever” (although Victor Wembanyama is already giving him a run for his money). I think the reason people don’t use this description for Shaq more often is they don’t consider size as being part of a player’s “talent”, which is ridiculous.⁵ There’s a legitimate argument to be made that Shaq would have been the GOAT had he taken his training more seriously. But this list doesn’t grade players on potential, it grades them on accomplishments and success. And despite not working very hard, Shaq’s accomplishments and success still make him the 7th Greatest Basketball Player ever.
5 Magic Johnson (1979–1991, 1995–1996) and Larry Bird (1979–1992): These 2 players’ careers are inseparable. Is it cheating to rank them both as the 5th best players ever? Perhaps. But it’s my list so you’ll have to deal with it. The 1980’s were one of the most unique decades in NBA history: instead of having 1 player who transcended the sport, it had 2. I don’t consider it a knock that neither was ever the undisputed Best Player in the World, since without the existence of the other guy either of them would have easily held this title for a decade. The 2 of them combined to win 8 of the 10 Finals in the 1980’s (only a historic season by Moses Malone in 1983 and the first of back-to-back titles by the Bad Boy Pistons in 1989 kept this from being a clean sweep). In many ways, Bird and Magic were polar opposites; in other ways they were exactly the same. Magic might have been black while Bird was white, but both grew up in poor working-class families in the Midwest. Both took their local State Universities to the NCAA championship game in 1979 (with Magic’s Michigan State Spartans beating Bird’s Indiana State Sycamores 75–64). Both went to storied and iconic NBA franchises, with Bird being drafted by the East Coast Celtics and Johnson by the West Coast Los Angeles Lakers. Each embodied their respective cities: Bird fit in perfectly with gritty, hard-nosed, rough around-the-edges, blue-collar Bostonians; while Johnson (whose real first name is “Ervin”) became “Magic” in the showbiz capital of the world. Magic was arguably the greatest passer of all time, while Bird was the world’s greatest shooter (at least until Steph Curry came around). This was despite both players standing at 6'9", far taller than any “passers” or “shooters” that came before them. Both left a lasting impact on the game, and are credited as being the duo that “saved” basketball after a decline in popularity during the 70’s. For a long time I went back and forth on who to place at 5 and who to bump to 6, but I ultimately decided I couldn’t separate these 2 all-time legends.⁶
4. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1969–1989): This is probably going to be the first true eyebrow-raiser on this list. For many people who aren’t Kobe fanboys, Kareem is the consensus #3 basketball player in history. Let me again be clear: ranking Kareem 1 spot below the consensus is not meant to be disrespectful toward Kareem. Until very recently, he was the all-time leading scorer in NBA history. He won 6 MVP’s, which is still the most ever. He averaged almost 25 PPG over his 20 seasons, and shot a remarkably efficient 55.9% for his career. He is the 3rd leading rebounder in NBA history, behind only Bill Russell and He That Has Yet to be Named. Although he’s not quite in the same league defensively as Russell, Duncan, or Hakeem, he still led the league in blocks 4 times. His skyhook was the most feared shot in basketball history, and is still probably the most iconic of all time. He won 6 NBA Titles, including 2 Finals MVPs. He was the undisputed Best Player in the World for practically the entire decade of the 70s. So why isn’t he higher? There’s a few things that keep me from moving Kareem into the Top 3. For one, as hinted above, he wasn’t the best player on several of his Finals runs (he teamed up with Magic Johnson in the 80’s, and for most of that time Magic was the better player). He also only managed to win 1 Finals in the 70s despite being head and shoulders above his competition. For a long time, he had a case as the GOAT simply based on longevity. But he has since lost that argument to another player, and he’s never been in the discussion for greatest peak. Kareem is solidly the 4th best basketball player ever, but despite his greatness, there’s 3 guys I consider to be unquestionably better.
GOATS
The 3 remaining players all have legitimate GOAT cases. We all have opinions on who the real GOAT is, but before I get to mine, let me just say that the only crazy people in this debate are the people who think any of these guys are WAY better than the others. Anyone who thinks the debate between LeBron and Jordan (or the 3rd player I have extensively hinted at) is over and that one is clearly better than the other is wrong. All 3 guys have legitimate arguments for being #1. I will do my best to clearly state each of these arguments, and which ones I tend to put more weight into. Without further ado, the 3 Greatest Basketball Players of all Time:
3. LeBron James (2003- ): As I stated in my write-up on Karl Malone, the 3 main criteria in the GOAT debate are typically longevity, peak, and championships. And as far as longevity is concerned, LeBron is the undisputed GOAT. He’s the Association’s all-time leading scorer, with over 40,000 points during his career. He’s also the only player with more than 10,000 assists and 10,000 rebounds. He’s a player with no real weakness: he’s an elite scorer and passer, excellent defender, good rebounder and shot blocker, and even has the 8th most steals in NBA history! He’s also an efficient scorer, with a career eFG of 54.7%. He’s even become one of the game’s best 3-point shooters in the twilight of his career. And maybe most importantly, he held the unofficial title of World’s Best Player for well over a decade. If you want to argue that he’s the GOAT for these reasons, I won’t push back.
However, LeBron is “only” #3 on my list, so I need to list the arguments against him. The most obvious is his peak. And while it was an incredible peak, there’s no question the peaks of the 2 guys ahead of him were even better. The tiebreaker for me comes down to his 4 championships, and specifically his failure to win more with the Miami Heat. As I have previously stated, not all championships are created equal. HOWEVER, it is what breaks the tie between Jordan and LeBron. And it's not simply because 6 > 4, but rather the context of these championships. I hold nothing against LeBron for not winning one during his first stint in Cleveland. In many ways, this portion of his career was nearly identical to the beginning of Jordan’s: both became the Best Player in the World almost immediately, but failed to win any championships due to the failure of their front offices in giving them any help. I also don’t fault LeBron for only winning 1 in his 2nd stint with the Cavs since he ran into a Warriors dynasty that was far better than any team Jordan ever played (and yes Jordan fans, this is objectively true. Jordan would not have single-handedly beaten the Steph and KD Warriors). In fact, in my opinion, LeBron’s playoff run that led the Cavs to the 2016 Title was more impressive than any of the individual playoff runs Michael made in the 90’s. But the one stain on LeBron’s legacy that I cannot overlook is his 4-year stint with the Heat. Let me reiterate: not all championships are created equal. This is why, to me, LeBron’s 2016 Title with the Cavs (and even his “Mickey Mouse” ring with the Lakers in 2020)⁷ was more impressive than both of his championships in Miami combined. Michael was not a perfect playoff performer as many of his fans claim, but he certainly never had a performance as embarrassing as LeBron’s during Miami’s 2011 loss to Dallas. LeBron was supposed to be the best player in the world, but in that series he wasn’t even the best player on his own team. Because of how poorly LeBron played, the Heat lost to an inferior Mavericks team, and Dirk Nowitzki (who is another legend but nowhere near my Top 10) made LeBron his bitch. To me, this is the tiebreaker that pushed Jordan over LeBron. Despite several disagreements I have with Jordan fans, he doesn’t have any blemishes on his career as large as this. In a debate this close, I can’t overlook that.
2. Michael Jordan (1984–1993, 1994–1998, 2001–2003): Now that I’ve pissed off LeBron’s entire fanbase, it’s time to piss off Jordan’s. I agree with you all that Jordan is better than LeBron, but your fanbase still pisses me off more than his. The “6–0 vs. 4–6 in the Finals” argument is stupid: as LeBron fans correctly like to point out, making the Finals only to lose is obviously better than not making the Finals at all; anyone arguing otherwise is delusional. There’s also this aura of invincibility around Michael Jordan that makes you all feel as if there’s nothing any player could ever do to pass Jordan in the GOAT discussion (even if they were to do something absurd like average 50 PPG in a season HINT HINT). And finally (and this is not brought up nearly enough), his decision to retire in the prime of his career to play Minor League Baseball is one of the stupidest decisions any athlete has ever made. We don’t make fun of him nearly enough for this. This guy’s a fucking idiot. People like to pretend he won 8 Championships in a row because of this. Would he have? Honestly, I think so. But he didn’t. Much like Shaq and Bird, hypotheticals don’t count. Michael would probably be #1 on my list had he won 8 in a row. But he didn’t. So let’s be clear: Michael was neither perfect nor invincible. He was a human being after all. But at times he seemed as close as was humanly possible.
Michael’s GOAT case is pretty straightforward. Much like LeBron and Kareem, Michael was the undisputed Best Player in the World for over a decade. Unlike Kareem or LeBron, however, he won 6 championships during his prime (as a reminder, Kareem wasn’t the Best Player in the World for the majority of his). Michael is (by a hair) Professional Basketball’s all-time leading per-game scorer, with 30.1 PPG for his career. He won 10 scoring titles in 12 years, and that’s only because, again, he made the worst decision in professional sports history by choosing to play baseball during the other 2 seasons. He has 5 MVP’s, 6 Final’s MVP’s, 10 All-NBA First Team selections, 8 Defensive First Team selections (as well as a DPOY in 1987), and has the 4th most Steals Per Game ever. Only one player has averaged more points in a season than Jordan’s 37.1 in 1986 (and trust me, we’ll get to him). When compared to LeBron, there’s no question Jordan had a higher peak (just as there’s no question LeBron has had more longevity). Again, the tiebreaker for me is Jordan taking full advantage of every Finals opportunity he had, whereas LeBron (despite me not counting his Cavs losses against him) did not. For me, that’s enough to make Jordan my #2.
1.Wilt Chamberlain (1959–1973): And finally, my biggest basketball (and potentially sports) hot take: neither LeBron nor Jordan is the Greatest Of All Time. In my opinion, the real GOAT (and by far the game’s most underrated player) is Wilton Norman Chamberlain. The amount of mental gymnastics people do around this man’s career is exhausting. As I mentioned earlier, only one player has ever averaged more points than Michael Jordan in 1986. The catch: Wilt did it 4 times. In 1959, Wilt’s rookie season, he averaged 37.6 PPG. Had he retired after one year, that would still be the record. Thankfully, Minor League Baseball was not in his plans. He followed up this historic season by averaging 38.4 the next. Then in 1961, he did what no player had ever done before (and possibly will never do again): he averaged over 50 points per game over an entire season. Teams decided during his 4th season to finally put the clamps down on him defensively, and for the first time in his career, Wilt didn’t set the single-season scoring record, averaging a mere 44.8 PPG. By his 5th season he failed to even eclipse Jordan’s 1986 number, finishing with only 36.9 PPG. In short, below is the list of most PPG in a single season in NBA history:
In the first 5 seasons of Wilt Chamberlain’s professional basketball career, he had (at that time) the 5 highest scoring seasons in NBA history. That’s a peak that not only tops Jordan’s, but blows him out of the water. And no, those rebounding numbers aren’t a misprint: Wilt is the NBA’s all-time leader in rebounding, finishing with a career average of just under 23 a game. While we’re at it, let’s take a look at the top 18 rebounding seasons in NBA history:
This of course finally brings us to the elephant in the room: Bill Russell. Of all the NBA GOAT lists I’ve seen, Michael is probably #1 about 60% of the time, and LeBron about 30%. Of the remaining 10%, the guy I most often see at #1 is Russell. This is because of the completely out-of-context “11 Championships” argument. Wilt only had 2. Case closed, right? Only if you’re willing to call Robert Horry a better player than Michael Jordan. Wilt is miles ahead of Russell in almost every statistical category. Russell only tops Wilt in head-to-head wins (which is a team stat, not an individual one), free throw %, and MVP’s (which goes to show how biased people were against Wilt even back then, possibly stemming from the fact that he probably slept with at least half of their wives). When playing against each other, Wilt averaged 30 points and 28 rebounds a game, Russell averaged 14 and 23. If Russell hadn’t had far better teammates than Wilt throughout his career, this wouldn’t be a debate. Quite frankly, given this context, it still isn’t.
I could go on and on about Wilt. About whether the number “100” or “20,000” is more impressive. About how he was arguably the most dominant offensive AND defensive player of all time (DPOY wasn’t an award back then, and All-Defensive teams were just beginning to be selected, but Wilt had more selections than Russell). But I decided to leave you with this: in my opinion, the best season of Wilt’s career (and by extension, the best season in NBA history) wasn’t in 1961 when he averaged over 50 PPG, or even the year before when he set the single-season rebounding record while still averaging more PPG than any other player in history. In my estimation, Wilt’s best season came in 1966, when he averaged a “mere” 24.1 PPG. That season, Wilt won his 3rd MVP (somehow Russell won the award when Wilt averaged 50, because that year he scored an incredible 18.9 PPG, the highest of his career), and finally captured his first NBA title. In a season where Wilt finally had teammates that could match up with Russell’s, he showed the type of player he could have been his entire career if he and Russell had switched places. No longer having to carry the heaviest offensive load in NBA history, he was able to shoot an absurdly efficient 68.3% from the floor, still by far the best FG% by a player with more than 20 PPG in NBA history (even when using eFG, his 68.3% is still higher than the most efficient modern-day 20-point shooting performance: Nikola Jokic’s 66% in 2022). He also averaged 24 RPG, and finished 3rd in the league with 7.8 assists per game (he would go on to lead the league in total assists the next season, making him arguably the 2nd greatest passing big man in history behind Jokic). This means that as his career evolved, Wilt went from being the greatest volume scorer in NBA history to the Association's most efficient scorer ever, and one of its best passers. He would finish his career with the Lakers, winning another championship during a season where he shot nearly 73% from the floor (albeit while averaging 13 PPG), and becoming unquestionably the game’s most feared defender. If you want to argue that he’s not the GOAT because he played in a different era, fine. But literally every player on this list (except Magic/Bird and Jordan/Hakeem) played in different eras from each other player (although several other careers overlapped). If you want to argue this, the logical conclusion is that it's futile to compare any of these guys to each other in the first place. This may be true, but it's no fun. If we want to take part in GOAT conversations at all, Wilt needs to be near the top, and probably #1. Please let me know in the comments why I’m correct about this.
Footnotes
1: I am planning a future article about why eFG% is my favorite measure of offensive efficiency. For now, it’ll suffice to say that eFG% acknowledges that 3-point shots are worth more than 2-pointers, something traditional FG% fails to account for.
2: Much has also been made about how Karl Malone is a massive piece of shit. It’s basically obligatory to mention this any time his basketball career is discussed
3: It's for this reason that I fully expect Jokic to pass him on this list soon.
4: The fact that Steve Nash was not only the worst player to ever win MVP, but arguably had the 2 worst MVP seasons of all time is an absolute travesty. Kobe and Shaq should each have 2 MVP seasons, but instead Nash is the one with 2. Every single person who gave Nash a first-place vote in either of those seasons knows absolutely nothing about basketball and deserves to be fired.
5: Consequently, it irks me when people tell me Steph Curry is not a “talented” player, and simply got ahead through working harder than everyone else. While I don’t want to downplay Steph’s work ethic, it’s hard to take people seriously when they claim the son of an NBA player doesn’t have “talent”. I wrote much more about this here.
6: The only thing I’ll add here: I think Larry Bird might have become the GOAT had he played in today’s era where he was actually allowed to shoot 3s. BUT, hypotheticals are disqualified from these rankings (see also: if only Shaq had worked harder!!)
7: I tease, but let me be clear about something: it is ridiculous to claim that the Lakers title in the bubble was the “easiest” championship of all time. If this championship was so “easy”, why was only one team able to win it? I hope this question illustrates the absurdity of this claim.
