Z's Top 100 NBA Players of All Time

[zjcvols]

This list is based on numbers, how good in your prime were you, longevity, playoff success and overall legacy among your peers. I listed 25 for each post to break it up

1 Kareem Abdul Jabbar
2 Michael Jordan
3 LeBron James
4 Tim Duncan
5 Bill Russell
6 Magic Johnson
7 Wilt Chamberlain
8 Larry Bird
9 Hakeem Olajuwon
10 Shaquille O'Neal
11 Jerry West
12 Kevin Durant
13 Moses Malone
14 Kobe Bryant
15 Steph Curry
16 Oscar Robertson
17 Dirk Nowitzki
18 Kevin Garnett
19 Isiah Thomas
20 Elgin Baylor
21 Karl Malone
22 Charles Barkley
23 Dwyane Wade
24 Julius Erving
25 Giannis Antetokounmpo

 

[zjcvols]

26 John Havlicek
27 Scottie Pippen
28 Bob Pettit
29 Rick Barry
30 David Robinson
31 Willis Reed
32 Walt Frazier
33 Clyde Drexler
34 John Stockton
35 Chris Paul
36 Dave Cowens
37 Kawhi Leonard
38 Gary Payton
39 Patrick Ewing
40 Kevin McHale
41 Bob Cousy
42 Jason Kidd
43 George Gervin
44 Steve Nash
45 Anthony Davis
46 Klay Thompson
47 Paul Pierce
48 Dominique Wilkins
49 James Harden
50 George Mikan

 

[zjcvols]

51 Billy Cunningham
52 Pau Gasol
53 Ray Allen
54 Bob McAdoo
55 Robert Parish
56 James Worthy
57 Sam Jones
58 Wes Unseld
59 Nate Thurmond
60 Reggie Miller
61 Allen Iverson
62 Elvin Hayes
63 Dave Debusschere
64 Hal Greer
65 Dolph Schayes
66 Jerry Lucas
67 Paul Arizin
68 Dwight Howard
69 Tony Parker
70 Bernard King
71 Adrian Dantley
72 Chris Webber
73 Vince Carter
74 Alex English
75 Tracy McGrady

 

[zjcvols]

76 Tiny Archibald
77 Chris Bosh
78 Russell Westbrook
79 Dennis Rodman
80 Joe Dumars
81 Tommy Heinsohn
82 Earl Monroe
83 Dennis Johnson
84 Artis Gilmore
85 Shawn Marion
86 Nikola Jokic
87 Joel Embiid
88 Bob Lanier
89 Bailey Howell
90 Bill Sharman
91 Connie Hawkins
92 Alonzo Mourning
93 Pete Maravich
94 Chauncey Billups
95 Damian Lillard
96 Carmelo Anthony
97 Chris Mullin
98 Jayson Tatum
99 Amar'e Stoudemire
100 Manu Ginobili

 

[TBrown]

Call it recency bias but

Giannis too low

 

[95 Vol Alum]

Please remove Dame Time and put Robert Horry at 100 just on 7 rings alone. TIA

 

[zjcvols]

Call it recency bias but

Giannis too low

I will be shocked if he’s not top 15 when his career is over

 

[zjcvols]

Please remove Dame Time and put Robert Horry at 100 just on 7 rings alone. TIA

6x All-NBA is hard to ignore

 

[The Dog]

DJ is criminally underrated at #83, imo. Everybody forgets he led the Sonics to back-to-back Finals appearances and won a ring and Finals MVP in '79. Then he wins 2 more rings with the Celtics and Bird's praise as one of the 2 best players the Legend ever played with, along with McHale. Plus, DJ was my all-time favorite player until Isiah Thomas passed him after he joined the Pistons following his NC with the Hoosiers

 

[zjcvols]

DJ is criminally underrated at #83, imo. Everybody forgets he led the Sonics to back-to-back Finals appearances and won a ring and Finals MVP in '79. Then he wins 2 more rings with the Celtics and Bird's praise as one of the 2 best players the Legend ever played with, along with McHale. Plus, DJ was my all-time favorite player until Isiah Thomas passed him after he joined the Pistons following his NC with the Hoosiers

The argument for DJ at #83:

- Career 14/5/4 isn’t elite
- Career 44.5% FG (not bad but not great)
- Even in his prime he was a 17/5/5 guy

Amazing defender, one of the greatest. Solid offensive contributor. Finals MVP helps his case. Three rings. Hall of Famer for sure. I had him as high at #72 and low as #90. I thought #83 was a good number.

 

[95 Vol Alum]

6x All-NBA is hard to ignore

 

[zjcvols]

View attachment 381820

Robert Horry is awesome and I would love to have had his career but I can’t put a career 7/5 guy in my top 100

 

[95 Vol Alum]

Robert Horry is awesome and I would love to have had his career but I can’t put a career 7/5 guy in my top 100

I'm just here for the Dame Time troll.

 

[TBrown]

View attachment 381820

💀

 

[TBrown]

Robert Horry is awesome and I would love to have had his career but I can’t put a career 7/5 guy in my top 100

Single man SUPER TEAM

 

[The Dog]

The argument for DJ at #83:

- Career 14/5/4 isn’t elite
- Career 44.5% FG (not bad but not great)
- Even in his prime he was a 17/5/5 guy

Amazing defender, one of the greatest. Solid offensive contributor. Finals MVP helps his case. Three rings. Hall of Famer for sure. I had him as high at #72 and low as #90. I thought #83 was a good number.

I prefer #72, but the stats are lower than I remember. Still, one first team all-NBA, one 2nd team all-NBA and 9 consecutive defensive all-NBA is pretty damn good. But, u probably got him around the right spot and I'm giving him too much love, because DJ was my first NBA hero, when I was 8 years old. Throw in the best team name ever, SuperSonics and my rec team had the same green and yellow color scheme, along with both of us playing PG and u can see where my bias comes from

 

[n_huffhines]

Was Pete Maravich actually good in the NBA or was he all sizzle? He didn't shoot a high % and didn't get as many assists as you would think, and his teams were always dog ****. He averaged 5 topg the first year they started tracking that. Before my time, though.

 

[zjcvols]

I prefer #72, but the stats are lower than I remember. Still, one first team all-NBA, one 2nd team all-NBA and 9 consecutive defensive all-NBA is pretty damn good. But, u probably got him around the right spot and I'm giving him too much love, because DJ was my first NBA hero, when I was 8 years old. Throw in the best team name ever, SuperSonics and my rec team had the same green and yellow color scheme, along with both of us playing PG and u can see where my bias comes from

I mean some of this hard too! I never watched DJ play, I’ve only seen the Boston Finals games he was in so I didn’t see him in Seattle or Phoenix. He was very good tho. Being top 100 is still good

 

[zjcvols]

Was Pete Maravich actually good in the NBA or was he all sizzle? He didn't shoot a high % and didn't get as many assists as you would think, and his teams were always dog ****. He averaged 5 topg the first year they started tracking that. Before my time, though.

He was good but he wasn’t a super duper star some of the older generation make him out to be. He also played on some terrible teams. Won a scoring title and 4x All-NBA

 

[Unimane]

Kobe should be higher than Durant, who is not in the top 15. I would drop Kareem to about 4 or 5, then bump Magic up to #3 behind MJ and LeBron. Kareem was undeniably great, but he retires with one ring without Magic, who was the juice who made the Showtime Lakers go. So, I have a hard time seeing Kareem as #1 if his teammate was the catalyst for the 80s dynasty.

Prime Bird should be ahead of Chamberlain, too. Wilt was excellent, but he feasted on a nascent, less talented league with his height and athleticism around the basket, not doing much else well. Basically, all the stuff Giannis is unfairly criticized for not doing.

And, get Garnett's ass out of the top 20, too. KG above Barkley and Malone?? Oh, hell no. Oscar Robertson might be too low, as well.

Otherwise, not a bad list, in my opinion. Hard to quantify these things.

 

[zjcvols]

Kobe should be higher than Durant, who is not in the top 15. I would drop Kareem to about 4 or 5, then bump Magic up to #3 behind MJ and LeBron. Kareem was undeniably great, but he retires with one ring without Magic, who was the juice who made the Showtime Lakers go. So, I have a hard time seeing Kareem as #1 if his teammate was the catalyst for the 80s dynasty.

Prime Bird should be ahead of Chamberlain, too. Wilt was excellent, but he feasted on a nascent, less talented league with his height and athleticism around the basket, not doing much else well. Basically, all the stuff Giannis is unfairly criticized for not doing.

And, get Garnett's ass out of the top 20, too. KG above Barkley and Malone?? Oh, hell no. Oscar Robertson might be too low, as well.

Otherwise, not a bad list, in my opinion. Hard to quantify these things.

Kobe has have a better resume, but I believe KD is truly a better player. They have the same amount of MVP’s. They have the same amount of Finals MVPs. And Durant was/is a way more efficient scorer.

Michael had a better “prime” but Kareem was an elite NBA player for over 15 years. His overall longevity beats it out. And while Magic was a huge help, Kareem was still the best player on that team through 1985. Kareem has 17 seasons as an elite player. Michael had 11 (injured in 85-86 and played only 17 games in 94-95).

Bird and Wilt is a legit argument. Bird was the best player on 3x title teams. Wilt was once. But Wilt’s sheer dominance and Bird’s short career gave the edge to Wilt.

Garnett was 95% the offensive player that Barkley and Malone was…only KG was better defensively, never played with as good of teammates (while in their respective primes) that Malone and Barkley had…and KG was the best player on a title team. KG was also more durable than Barkley. Slight edge to KG.

 

[Unimane]

Kobe has have a better resume, but I believe KD is truly a better player. They have the same amount of MVP’s. They have the same amount of Finals MVPs. And Durant was/is a way more efficient scorer.

Michael had a better “prime” but Kareem was an elite NBA player for over 15 years. His overall longevity beats it out. And while Magic was a huge help, Kareem was still the best player on that team through 1985. Kareem has 17 seasons as an elite player. Michael had 11 (injured in 85-86 and played only 17 games in 94-95).

Bird and Wilt is a legit argument. Bird was the best player on 3x title teams. Wilt was once. But Wilt’s sheer dominance and Bird’s short career gave the edge to Wilt.

Garnett was 95% the offensive player that Barkley and Malone was…only KG was better defensively, never played with as good of teammates (while in their respective primes) that Malone and Barkley had…and KG was the best player on a title team. KG was also more durable than Barkley. Slight edge to KG.

I've always found KG to be one of the more overrated "all-time greats". He was a very good player in Minnesota, but only about 1 or 2 seasons did I find him to be among the top 4 or 5 best in the league and then he joined the Celtics to chase a ring. On the other hand, I've always found Barkley to be criminally underrated, perhaps because he's the goofy guy for TNT these day. But, he was a great, great player for about 10 years until he got fat in Houston. Dude was leading scorer on the Dream Team. He just had the misfortune of running up against the all-time great dynasties in the East and then had the Jordan Bulls to face once he broke through when Jordan was at his peak.

Kareem and MJ is not a bad argument. It's a subjective argument to figure out these things, so criteria varies for people's lists. I can appreciate longevity, but I also like to consider who I would pick on my team if I could choose anyone. If so, MJ is that guy for me over 70s Kareem. I tend to like guys who can do more things and this often hurts big guys because they need to be fed the basketball, living within a few feet of the basket instead of being effective for all 94 feet of the court.

 

[n_huffhines]

As far as ability

KD > Kobe
KG > Barkley, Malone

Resumes are debatable but you look at what basketball was and what it has become and KG is a superstar in any era and Malone today is a guy who gets some good stats but he's Kevin Love on D in the modern NBA. Barkley would have been so unstoppable today and could have hung on D, but the consistent effort was never really there. You could hide Chuck but teams would hunt Malone's heavy feet.

 

[The Dog]

76 Tracy McGrady
77 Tiny Archibald
78 Chris Bosh
79 Dennis Rodman
80 Joe Dumars
81 Tommy Heinsohn
82 Earl Monroe
83 Dennis Johnson
84 Artis Gilmore
85 Shawn Marion
86 Bob Lanier
87 Bailey Howell
88 Bill Sharman
89 Connie Hawkins
90 Alonzo Mourning
91 Pete Maravich
92 Chauncey Billups
93 Damian Lillard
94 Carmelo Anthony
95 Chris Mullun
96 Dave Bing
97 Amar'e Stoudemire
98 Nikola Jokic
99 Manu Ginobili
100 Ben Wallace

Quick fact with Stoudemire being #97, he was the first Rookie of the Year, that came straight from high school. I loved Stoudemire, injuries killed his potential rise on this list

 

[zjcvols]

Quick fact with Stoudemire being #97, he was the first Rookie of the Year, that came straight from high school. I loved Stoudemire, injuries killed his potential rise on this list

Amar’e in 2005 before his micro surgery: 26/9, shot 55% from the field and averaged 1.6 blocks per game

Going against prime Duncan in the WCF he put up 37/10 and shot 56% from the floor. He was a freak