When the NBA Top 75 Best Players of All-Time was announced, the list was filed in alphabetical order, so as to not draw attention to the rankings, but rather the actual players on the list. A smart move by the NBA. However, ESPN has decided to take this list and rank them because ESPN loves ranking players in the incorrect order.
I will say it loud and say it proud: STOP RANKING BILL RUSSELL INSIDE THE TOP 10. There are a lot of older players on the NBA 75, and I could sit here for days and argue over who should and should not be on this list, because it was certainly controversial; but I’ll be damned if anyone could sit here with a straight face and tell me Bill Russell is a top 10 player all-time, it just isn’t right. No disrespect to Bill whatsoever, he was a great player in his time, the Finals MVP is named after him for a reason, but he didn’t even average 20 ppg ONE TIME and he wasn’t putting up Wilt numbers, and thats why Wilt (even though he is an older generation player) gets to stay in the top five.
ESPN’s Top 10:
- Michael Jordan
- LeBron James
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
- Magic Johnson
- Wilt Chamberlain
- Bill Russell
- Larry Bird
- Tim Duncan
- Oscar Robinson
- Kobe Bryant
Outside the top 10:
Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Durant, Hakeem Olajuwon, Julius Erving, Moses Malone, Steph Curry, Dirk Nowitzki.
It is wild how low Steph is on this list, and he is only the second Point Guard we see inside the top 20!
My Top 10, which is unanimously better:
- LeBron James
- Michael Jordan
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
- Magic Johnson
- Wilt Chamberlain
- Larry Bird
- Tim Duncan
- Kobe Bryant
- Hakeem Olajuwon
- Shaquille O’Neal
My top five doesn’t change but I do switch LeBron and MJ, fight me. Oscar and Bill land outside the top 10 with Durant, Erving, Malone, Steph and Dirk. I’m sorry but I just cant have them in my top 10, both great players of their time, but Hakeem and Shaq are just better. Shaq deserves top 10, call it bias or whatever you want, but he was the single most dominant player that has ever existed, there was quite literally no one who could stop prime Shaq except prime Shaq. Hakeem managed to shut him down during their finals matchup, which is a reason he is at nine, but I wouldn’t consider that prime Shaq, even though he was still unbelievable. For me personally, Kobe and Duncan had such similar careers you can place them in any order right next to each other, but I think it’s foolish to not have them within a spot of one another.
That’s my list and I’m sticking to it. Yell at me on Twitter @_JohnGrimaldi
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