During the 2022 NBA All-Star Weekend, the NBA’s 75 best players were invited to gather in Cleveland to continue the celebration of the league’s 75th anniversary.
We saw living legends Shaquille O’Neal, Michael Jordan, Bob McAdoo, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Isiah Thomas, Julius Erving, Oscar Robertson and Dennis Rodman rub elbows, joke and reminisce then watch the the league’s current superstars, future Hall-of-Famers and fellow NBA 75 members LeBron James (24 points and game-winner), Steph Curry (16 threes and 50 points) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (30 points and 12 rebounds) lead Team LeBron to the thrilling 163-160 win over Team Durant at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.
Seeing Curry, LeBron, and Giannis on the court and seeing past superstars Hakeem Olajuwon, Bill Russell, Jerry West, Allen Iverson, Magic Johnson, George Gervin, and Patrick Ewing watching from the sidelines was surreal.
| RANK | PLAYER |
|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Jordan |
| 2 | LeBron James |
| 3 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar |
| 4 | Magic Johnson |
| 5 | Wilt Chamberlain |
| 6 | Bill Russell |
| 7 | Larry Bird |
| 8 | Tim Duncan |
| 9 | Oscar Robertson |
| 10 | Kobe Bryant |
| 11 | Shaquille O'Neal |
| 12 | Kevin Durant |
| 13 | Hakeem Olajuwon |
| 14 | Julius Erving |
| 15 | Moses Malone |
| 16 | Stephen Curry |
| 17 | Dirk Nowitzki |
| 18 | Giannis Antetokounmpo |
| 19 | Jerry West |
| 20 | Elgin Baylor |
| 21 | Kevin Garnett |
| 22 | Charles Barkley |
| 23 | Karl Malone |
| 24 | John Stockton |
| 25 | David Robinson |
| 26 | John Havlicek |
| 27 | Isiah Thomas |
| 28 | George Mikan |
| 29 | Chris Paul |
| 30 | Dwyane Wade |
| 31 | Allen Iverson |
| 32 | Scottie Pippen |
| 33 | Kawhi Leonard |
| 34 | Bob Cousy |
| 35 | Bob Pettit |
| 36 | Dominique Wilkins |
| 37 | Steve Nash |
| 38 | Rick Barry |
| 39 | Kevin McHale |
| 40 | Patrick Ewing |
| 41 | Walt Frazier |
| 42 | Gary Payton |
| 43 | Jason Kidd |
| 44 | Bill Walton |
| 45 | Bob McAdoo |
| 46 | Jerry Lucas |
| 47 | Ray Allen |
| 48 | Wes Unseld |
| 49 | Nate Thurmond |
| 50 | James Harden |
| 51 | Reggie Miller |
| 52 | George Gervin |
| 53 | Clyde Drexler |
| 54 | Pete Maravich |
| 55 | Earl Monroe |
| 56 | James Worthy |
| 57 | Willis Reed |
| 58 | Elvin Hayes |
| 59 | Nate Archibald |
| 60 | Sam Jones |
| 61 | Dave Cowens |
| 62 | Paul Pierce |
| 63 | Robert Parish |
| 64 | Hal Greer |
| 65 | Lenny Wilkens |
| 66 | Paul Arizin |
| 67 | Dennis Rodman |
| 68 | Russell Westbrook |
| 69 | Carmelo Anthony |
| 70 | Dolph Schayes |
| 71 | Anthony Davis |
| 72 | Billy Cunningham |
| 73 | Dave DeBusschere |
| 74 | Dave Bing |
| 75 | Damian Lillard |
| 76 | Bill Sharman |
We all have our opinions and biases as to why we would place Isiah Thomas over John Stockton or Drexler over James Harden, but we’ll spend our time speaking to what we believe as the most-glaring mistakes. That mistake being including less-accomplished active players.
Premature to include Lillard, Davis
We’re obviously not talking about Steph, LeBron, Giannis or Chris Paul. All of whom are Hall of Fame locks and arguably top five in their positions in all time. On top of that, all four were named to the NBA All-Star Team this season. Whom we’re talking about is Damian Lillard and Anthony Davis. Both were included in the NBA 75 official list, but weren’t even voted on as an NBA All-Star this season – which you can see as just a coincidence or evidence that their inclusion was obviously premature.
We opine that there are way too many accomplished players in the seventy-five years that the NBA has been in existence to include Anthony Davis and Damian Lillard. Not that AD and Dame won’t be worthy when their careers are all said and done, but their current numbers and accomplishments simply doesn’t justify their inclusion.
Davis doesn’t even have 15,000 points in his career and Lillard stands at ~17,500 points. If Lillard and Davis were to retire tomorrow, their inclusion would most-certainly be questioned especially in the face of excluding Dwight Howard, Manu Ginobili, Vince Carter, Alex English, Klay Thompson, Adrian Dantely, Alonzo Mourning, and Dikembe Mutombo. We would argue that Howard and Ginobili deserves a spot over Davis and that Klay has a resume better-suited for the list than Lillard.
As with these type of lists with individual player rankings across different generations, there’s no way of putting together a perfect list. ESPN recognizes this and speaks to the pitfalls of ranking so many great players. Even though there’s never going to be one list we can all agree upon, it’s an interesting exercise that pushes the arguments and discussions about how we quantify greatness.
The post The Full List: ESPN’s ranking of the NBA’s Top 75 Players (#1-76) appeared first on Interbasket.
