The NBA’s Best
Best Overall
1st team
Magic Johnson
Michael Jordan
Larry Bird
Tim Duncan
Bill Russell
2nd team
Isaiah Thomas
Kobe Bryant
Julius Erving
Karl Malone
Wilt Chamberlain
Shooting: Jumpshot
1st team
Steve Nash
Reggie Miller
Chris Mullin
Dirk Nowitski
Jack Sikma
2nd team
Mark Price
Ray Allen
Glenn Rice
Bob McAdoo
Hakeem Olajuwon
Most Athletic
1st team
Magic Johnson
Michael Jordan
LeBron James
Shawn Kemp
Wilt Chamberlain
2nd team
Oscar Robertson
Vince Carter
Dominique Wilkins
Charles Barkley
Hakeem Olajuwon
Passing
1st team
Magic Johnson
Michael Jordan
Larry Bird
Karl Malone
Wilt Chamberlain
2nd team
John Stockton
Kobe Bryant
LeBron James
Kevin Garnett
Kareem Abdul Jabbar
Defensive
1st team
Gary Payton
Michael Jordan
Scottie Pippen
Dennis Rodman
Dikembe Mutumbo
2nd team
Alvin Robertson
Michael Cooper
Ron Artest
Ben Wallace
Hakeem Olajuwon
Just came across this, a few disagreements:
1)Best Overall Center (always a tough argument), but how do you not go with at least Hakeem before Bill? Whole package vs defensive specialist..
2)Maybe it’s too early, but Derrick Rose and Dwight Howard should be on most athletic 1st team.
3)Finally, passing center: Vlade Divac (easy and obvious. Look into Wilt’s background sometime) and Chris Webber as 2nd team PF.
thanks. great article.
Chris, it is hard for me to disagree with anyone that says Olajuwon is the best at anything, but in the course of history he is not as good as Wilt, Russell, or Shaq (Shaq is the only player that one could argue that he is better than). He is higher in blocks and is the only center in the top ten for steals, but blocks weren’t recorded for the whole period of Wilt and Russell’s careers, and Shaq was a more dominant force though he was less skilled.
Rose and Howard were only left off because it is so early in their careers. Good call
Vlade didn’t make the list because he just wasn’t great. He was a good pro, but he never dominated.
They are using Michael Jordan’s name value and the Los Angeles Media Market to boost their ratings by comparing LA’s own Kobe Bryant to His Airness. This is truly a foolish comparison when you look underneath the microscope and put their bodies of work (stats, accomplishments,etc.) into perspective. I have seen the video that you are talking about with the ESPN Kobe/MJ Comparison where they say that seen though Jordan has a higher scoring average, Kobe was the more established player at that same age because of his 5 rings. All they care about and can talk about are his 5 rings. That is all they think about. Who cares if he has 5 rings? Bill Russell has 11!!! Ten fingers and a toe, double what Kobe has. Russell has more rings than Magic and Larry have combined (8). Kareem and Jordan have 6 rings each. Each of these players have the same amount and more than he does, but no one makes near as big of a deal as ESPN does. It is all about the dollar, and they will push whatever they have to down our throat without any perspective at all to get paid, and boost ratings. It was horrible to see how they did not even mention anything about Kobe winning 3 of those rings with Shaquille O’Neal as the leader of those teams. Three of Kobe’s rings have Shaq’s name on them. That is part of putting those wins in perspective, because clearly his best years as a Laker were with Shaq. Once he started to hog the ball more and take away from the post, the Lakers started to fall apart. For the record, I am a LAKERS FAN, not a Kobe fan, but a LAKERS and BASKETBALL fan. I am a realist and I tell it like it is and how I see it, and the way I see it, Kobe cannot even hold Jordan’s sneakers.