Naismythology

Naismythology

Overall, I have to say I’m pretty satisfied with how the top ten turned out here. Pretty much the consensus top ten, and probably the order I’d actually put them in, too, although I know some people are gonna quibble with the 4-8 section probably. Anyway, let’s not waste any more time.

10. Kobe Bryant - 691.8
- Career - 652.5
  - 1997-2016
  - LAL
  - 172.7 Win Shares
  - 4.203 Adjusted MVP Award Shares (11 top five finishes, 1 win: 2002 - 5th, 2003 - 3rd, 2004 - 5th, 2006 - 4th, 2007 - 3rd, 2008 - 1st, 2009 - 2nd, 2010 - 3rd, 2011 - 4th, 2012 - 4th, 2013 - 5th)
  - 11x All-NBA First Team Selection (2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013)
  - 2x All-NBA Second Team Selection (2000, 2001)
  - 2x All-NBA Third Team Selection (1999, 2005)
  - 18x All-Star Selection (1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016)
  - 9x All-Defensive First Team Selection (2000, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
  - 16.8 Championship Win Shares (5 titles - 2000 LAL, 2001 LAL, 2002 LAL, 2009 LAL, 2010 LAL)
  - 6.1 Finals Win Shares (2 Finals losses - 2004 LAL, 2008 LAL)
  - 0.2 Conference Finals Win Shares (1 Conf. Finals loss - 1998 LAL)
  - 2x Finals MVP (2009, 2010)
- Peak - 731.1
  - 2006-2010
- Other achievements
  - 3x All-Defensive Second Team Selection (2001, 2002, 2012)
  - 4x All-Star Game MVP (2002, 2007, 2009, 2011)
  - 2x Olympic Gold Medalist (2008, 2012)
  - 20,000 Point Club (33,643; 4th all-time)
  - 5,000 Assist Club (6,306; 33rd all-time)
  - 8 retired by the Los Angeles Lakers
  - 24 retired by the Los Angeles Lakers
- Kobe Bryant has a, well, let’s just say “complicated” legacy. He went from superstar wunderkind to selfish ballhog, to (somehow) the hardest working underdog in sports, to perennially injured elder statesman of the game.
- Two of those transitions are fairly easy to pinpoint: the rape accusations/trial made it easy to not like him combined with forcing Shaq out of LA right around the same time, put him on everybody’s “do not like” list - if he wasn’t there already. The last one was easy to pinpoint too, as he was just always hurt for his last few years in the league. It’s the transition to “hardworking underdog” that’s a little difficult to discern, but I’ll try my best here. The Lakers traded for Pau Gasol during the 2008 season, and the Lakers started winning again, making it back to the Finals in 2008. But I wouldn’t say Kobe came “all the way back” into the public’s good graces until the 2008 Olympics. The United States had assembled a really great team that year after a disastrous 2004 showing. (The 2008 roster, for reference, was Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Bryant, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Jason Kidd, Deron Williams, Chris Paul, Tayshaun Prince, Michael Redd, and Dwyane Wade.) Aside from Kidd, Kobe was the “old man” on the team, yet he still emerged as the guy that all of the young players who were perceived as having more talent deferred to. They won the gold and all of a sudden it was “Kobe leads Team USA to gold with talented youngsters.” Add two more titles despite not necessarily having the best statlines in every game, and Kobe was back as “hardworking underdog.” (Make no mistake though, Kobe was supremely talented. He also seemed like he worked incredibly hard, but this perception that he had to work for every inch he ever got is mind-blowing to me.)
9. Shaquille O’Neal - 703.4
- Career - 603.4
  - 1993-2011
  - ORL, LAL, MIA, PHO, CLE, BOS
  - 181.7 Win Shares
  - 4.380 Adjusted MVP Award Shares (8 top five finishes, 1 win: 1994 - 4th, 1995 - 2nd, 1998 - 4th, 2000 - 1st, 2001 - 3rd, 2002 - 3rd, 2003 - 5th, 2005 - 2nd)
  - 8x All-NBA First Team Selection (1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006)
  - 2x All-NBA Second Team Selection (1995, 1999)
  - 4x All-NBA Third Team Selection (1994, 1996, 1997, 2009)
  - 15x All-Star Selection (1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009)
  - 13.8 Championship Win Shares (4 titles - 2000 LAL, 2001 LAL, 2002 LAL, 2006 MIA)
  - 6.9 Finals Win Shares (2 Finals losses - 1995 ORL, 2004 LAL)
  - 4.4 Conference Finals Win Shares (3 Conf. Finals losses - 1996 ORL, 1998 LAL, 2005 MIA)
  - 3x Finals MVP (2000, 2001, 2002)
- Peak - 803.5
  - 2000-2004
- Other achievements
  - 2x SEC Player of the Year (1991, 1992)
  - Rookie of the Year (1993)
  - 3x All-Defensive Second Team Selection (2000, 2001, 2003)
  - 3x All-Star Game MVP (2000, 2004, 2009)
  - 1x World Cup Gold Medalist (1994)
  - 1x World Cup MVP (1994)
  - 1x Olympic Gold Medalist (1996)
  - 20,000 Point Club (28,596; 8th all-time)
  - 10,000 Rebound Club (13,099; 15th all-time)
  - 32 retired by the Orlando Magic
  - 34 retired by the Los Angeles Lakers
  - 32 retired by the Miami Heat
  - College Basketball Hall of Fame Inductee (2014)
  - FIBA Hall of Fame Inductee (2017)
- Even though it happened during the 2024 season, and all my stats are through the 2023 season, I threw Shaq’s jersey retirement by the Orlando Magic into his other achievements list just because it’s cool and it doesn’t change the point total. He now joins Wilt Chamberlain (Warriors, Sixers, Lakers) and Pete Maravich (Hawks, Jazz, Pelicans) as the only players with their jersey retired by three teams. (Note that Maravich never played for the Pelicans, obviously. He played for the New Orleans Jazz for his prime years and went to LSU, so he gets the Jazz jersey retirement and the “New Orleans” jersey retirement. Not sure what happens if they move. It’s going to be awkward. Anyway, back to Shaq.)
- I think we can all agree that Shaq, at his peak, was almost certainly one of the 3-5 most dominant players to ever pick up a basketball. His size combined with his speed (yes, he was fast) and move set (yes, he had moves - not Hakeem-level moves, but he had moves) made him a uniquely unstoppable force. One of the fun things about watching a Shaq game in around 2000 was seeing how long a defender could play without absolutely losing his mind in frustration. This clip of Chris Dudley losing it after being treated like a ragdoll is emblematic of Shaq’s dominance.
- I think we can also all agree, though, that Shaq probably left a lot on the table in terms of historical greatness. His work ethic and “playing himself into shape” left a lot to be desired. He seems very sensitive about this fact now, or hasn’t fully comes to grips with it. I don’t know if he regrets it, but it’s pretty hard to say he did everything he could to be the best basketball player he could possibly be.
- Fun fact: Shaq just last weekend played a set as “DJ Diesel” at The Royal Grove in Lincoln, Nebraska (which is not a big venue) and they oversold tickets by about 200-300, so a lot of people did not get in. (I did not go because I knew it was going to be a clusterfuck. Also, I’m almost 40.)
8. Larry Bird - 719.1
- Career - 601.0
  - 1980-1992
  - BOS
  - 145.8 Win Shares
  - 5.724 Adjusted MVP Award Shares (9 top five finishes, 3 wins: 1980 - 4th, 1981 - 2nd, 1982 - 2nd, 1983 - 2nd, 1984 - 1st, 1985 - 1st, 1986 - 1st, 1987 - 3rd, 1988 - 2nd)
  - 9x All-NBA First Team Selection (1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988)
  - 1x All-NBA Second Team Selection (1990)
  - 12x All-Star Selection (1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992)
  - 12.0 Championship Win Shares (3 titles - 1981 BOS, 1984 BOS, 1986 BOS)
  - 5.8 Finals Win Shares (2 Finals losses - 1985 BOS, 1987 BOS)
  - 5.1 Conference Finals Win Shares (3 Conf. Finals losses - 1980 BOS, 1982 BOS, 1988 BOS)
  - 2x Finals MVP (1984, 1986)
- Peak - 837.2
  - 1984-1988
- Other achievements
  - 2x MVC Player of the Year (1978, 1979)
  - 1x Consensus College Player of the Year (1979)
  - Rookie of the Year (1980)
  - 3x All-Defensive Second Team Selection (1982, 1983, 1984)
  - 1x All-Star Game MVP (1982)
  - 1x Olympic Gold Medalist (1992)
  - 20,000 Point Club (21,791; 36th all-time)
  - 5,000 Assist Club (5,695; 48th all-time)
  - 33 retired by the Boston Celtics
  - 1x Coach of the Year (1998)
  - 1x Executive of the Year (2012)
  - College Basketball Hall of Fame Inductee (2006)
- This is going to be a bit of a winding road, but bear with me, it’s going somewhere.
- I am not a psychologist or sociologist or anything like that, just a historian by training, so this is just based on my own interactions with the world, but it seems like racism comes in two broad types, which I think of as “explicit” and “implicit.” “Explicit racism” is like “I hate black people,” or “all Mexicans are dirty thieves,” or “there’s no such thing as a good Portuguese,” or something like that. These people (generally) know they’re racist and they’re (generally) proud of the fact. “Implicit racism” covers itself in phrases like “just stating the facts” or “no smoke without fire.” Implicit racists are horrified that anyone could ever consider them racist and get highly offended when their racism is called out.
- I’ll give you an example: I have an uncle who is very “salt-of-the-earth,” teetotaling, church every week, very concerned about sinning and being an upstanding, moral person (and making sure everyone else does the same). He’s also white, like almost everyone else in my family, and he’s also very implicitly racist. One time, he was telling me about his granddaughters’ basketball team and their coach and said “he (their coach) is a black guy, but he’s a good guy.” Now I missed the next bit of the conversation because my brain immediately went “WHOA!” and snapped to attention, and tried to replay other interactions I’d had with this guy to see if he’d ever said anything else extremely racist, and I went into high alert wondering if I was going to have to get into a fight or something. But nope, he just carried on talking about his granddaughters’ basketball team, as if he hadn’t just said something incredibly racist. And in his mind, he hadn’t said anything racist, because he was being “complementary” of the guy, but if the coach had been white, he never would’ve felt the need to add “but he’s a good guy.”
- Anyway, this same uncle told me one time that Larry Bird was his favorite player and the Celtics were his favorite team. That’s not an unreasonable statement from someone living in Nebraska. Favorite teams are from all over here, and generally just come down to who was good when you started watching a given sport. When I asked him why Bird was his favorite, he told me, “he played the game the right way.” Now that’s a red flag in itself, but when I asked him what he meant by that he said “well, you know, he didn’t trash talk or showboat or show other players up by being ‘flashy.’” To be clear, Larry Bird absolutely did all of those things. He was the king of trash talk, and definitely did everything he could to demoralize the other team, like scoring with his left just to fuck with people or intentionally finding the other team’s best defender to score on him and send a message. He just did all of those things “while white” so people who didn’t like that “style of play” because it was “too black” just assumed he didn’t do them. (This is also a guy who says he prefers college hoops to the NBA for the same “showboating” reasons, so I assume implicit racism is the real reason behind basically everyone who says that.)
- Anyway, that’s a long way to say don’t take it for granted that old-timers know what they’re talking about with basketball (or sports) in general (or, fuck it, let’s just say life in general), because 95% of the time it’s just “conventional wisdom” that’s actually “coded racial biases” coming through.
- Regardless, here’s ten minutes of Larry Bird being a bad, bad man on the court and making people look like fools if you want to wash the racism talk out of your head.
7. Magic Johnson - 721.8
- Career - 635.2
  - 1980-1991, 1996
  - LAL
  - 155.8 Win Shares
  - 5.104 Adjusted MVP Award Shares (9 top five finishes, 3 wins: 1983 - 3rd, 1984 - 3rd, 1985 - 2nd, 1986 - 3rd, 1987 - 1st, 1988 - 3rd, 1989 - 1st, 1990 - 1st, 1991 - 2nd)
  - 9x All-NBA First Team Selection (1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991)
  - 1x All-NBA Second Team Selection (1982)
  - 12x All-Star Selection (1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992)
  - 16.2 Championship Win Shares (5 titles - 1980 LAL, 1982 LAL, 1985 LAL, 1987 LAL, 1988 LAL)
  - 11.1 Finals Win Shares (4 Finals losses - 1983 LAL, 1984 LAL, 1989 LAL, 1991 LAL)
  - 3.0 Conference Finals Win Shares (1 Conf. Finals loss - 1986 LAL)
  - 3x Finals MVP
- Peak - 808.4
  - 1987-1991
- Other achievements
  - 1x NCAA champion (1979)
  - 1x NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player (1979)
  - 2x All-Star Game MVP (1990, 1992)
  - 1x Olympic Gold Medalist (1992)
  - 5,000 Assist Club (10,141; 7th all-time)
  - 32 retired by the Los Angeles Lakers
  - College Basketball Hall of Fame Inductee (2006)
- And, for balance, here’s about nine minutes of Magic Johnson doing some of the wildest shit with a basketball you will ever see.
- One thing I really wish we could’ve seen was Magic (and Bird) play about five more years each. Bird seems like he probably got the most out of his career, but it’s hard to tell since he injured his back paving his mom’s driveway. Magic, though, definitely still had plenty left in the tank when he had to retire due to HIV. A lot of people nowadays seem to think his career was naturally coming to a close anyway (because Kareem’s career had already ended), but Magic was still very much in his prime. His final season was in 1991, where he finished second in MVP voting (after having won three of the previous four) and had just lost the NBA Finals where the Lakers had replaced Kareem with a young Vlade Divac and still had James Worthy, Byron Scott, A.C. Green, Sam Perkins, and Elden Campbell. They could have contended for a while yet.
6. Tim Duncan - 744.5
- Career - 687.2
  - 1998-2016
  - SAS
  - 206.4 Win Shares
  - 4.277 Adjusted MVP Award Shares (9 top five finishes, 2 wins: 1998 - 5th, 1999 - 3rd, 2000 - 5th, 2001 - 2nd, 2002 - 1st, 2003 - 1st, 2004 - 2nd, 2005 - 4th, 2007 - 4th)
  - 10x All-NBA First Team Selection (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2013)
  - 3x All-NBA Second Team Selection (2006, 2008, 2009)
  - 2x All-NBA Third Team Selection (2010, 2015)
  - 15x All-Star Selection (1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013)
  - 8x All-Defensive First Team Selection (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008)
  - 19.6 Championship Win Shares (5 titles - 1999 SAS, 2003 SAS, 2005 SAS, 2007 SAS, 2014 SAS)
  - 2.5 Finals Win Shares (1 Finals loss - 2013 SAS)
  - 5.4 Conference Finals Win Shares (3 Conf. Finals losses - 2001 SAS, 2008 SAS, 2012 SAS)
  - 3x Finals MVP (1999, 2003, 2005)
- Peak - 801.7
  - 2001-2005
- Other achievements
  - 2x ACC Player of the Year (1996, 1997)
  - 1x Consensus College Player of the Year (1997)
  - Rookie of the Year (1998)
  - 7x All-Defensive Second Team Selection (1998, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2015)
  - 1x All-Star Game MVP (2000)
  - 1x Teammate of the Year (2015)
  - 1x Olympic Bronze Medalist (2004)
  - 20,000 Point Club (26,496; 16th all-time)
  - 10,000 Rebound Club (15,091; 6th all-time)
  - 21 retired by the San Antonio Spurs
  - College Basketball Hall of Fame Inductee (2017)
- This is mostly tongue-in-cheek, so please take it in the spirit it’s offered, Spurs fans, but Duncan kinda, sorta, marginally cheated the system to get here. Tim Duncan was a center. You can tell me he was a power forward all you want, but I watched that man’s entire career, and he was a center. The Spurs just happened to play two centers at once and so everyone called him a power forward for most of his career. Why does that matter? Well, for on court play, it doesn’t matter at all. For awards, though, it does. Specifically for the All-NBA team. Throughout the league’s history, centers have historically gotten screwed because there were only two (later three) center slots on the All-NBA team, and, historically, a lot of the most dominant players were centers. Bob Lanier was a top ten player in the league for a solid half decade or more and never made the All-NBA team because Kareem was always in his way along with a handful of other Hall of Fame centers. In the 1990s, if they hadn’t had the third team, one of Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, or Patrick Ewing would’ve always been left off. And as soon as Shaq entered the league, one of them always was.
- So Duncan comes in, says “screw that” and, by virtue of playing alongside David Robinson, gets to be a “power forward” for basically his entire career. In his ten All-NBA First Team selections, nine of them were as a forward. (His last First Team selection was in 2013, where he actually was in the center spot.) Who was the center on the First Team in those nine seasons? Shaq seven times, Alonzo Mourning once, and Amar’e Stoudemire once. Now I’m sure he would’ve beaten out Mourning and Stoudemire for the first team nod, but I’m highly skeptical he would’ve gotten the first team slot over Shaq, at least not all seven times. So there you have it: Tim Duncan is a filthy, dirty cheater who gamed the system to enhance his own personal glory through a loophole.
- Obviously I’m kidding. The Spurs were formidable opponents that I greatly feared throughout the 2000s, and Tim Duncan was awesome. Other than his bug-eyed shock at every foul he ever committed, I have absolutely no criticisms of the guy.
5. Wilt Chamberlain - 771.7
- Career - 692.8
  - 1960-1973
  - PHW/SFW, PHI, LAL
  - 247.3 Win Shares
  - 6.751 Adjusted MVP Award Shares (10 top five finishes, 4 wins: 1960 - 1st, 1961 - 4th, 1962 - 2nd, 1964 - 2nd, 1965 - 5th, 1966 - 1st, 1967 - 1st, 1968 - 1st, 1972 - 3rd, 1973 - 4th)
  - 7x All-NBA First Team Selection (1960, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1968)
  - 3x All-NBA Second Team Selection (1963, 1965, 1972)
  - 13x All-Star Selection (1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973)
  - 2x All-Defensive First Team Selection (1972, 1973)
  - 6.8 Championship Win Shares (2 titles - 1967 PHI, 1972 LAL)
  - 12.1 Finals Win Shares (4 Finals losses - 1964 SFW, 1969 LAL, 1970 LAL, 1973 LAL)
  - 12.0 Conference Finals Win Shares (6 Conf. Finals losses - 1960 PHW, 1962 PHW, 1965 PHI, 1966 PHI, 1968 PHI, 1971 LAL)
  - 1x Finals MVP (1972)
- Peak - 850.6
  - 1964-1968
- Other achievements
  - NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player (1957)
  - Rookie of the Year (1960)
  - 1x All-Star Game MVP (1960)
  - 20,000 Point Club (31,419; 7th all-time)
  - 10,000 Rebound Club (23,924; 1st all-time)
  - 13 retired by the Golden State Warriors
  - 13 retired by the Philadelphia 76ers
  - 13 retired by the Los Angeles Lakers
  - College Basketball Hall of Fame Inductee (2006)
- Every Wilt Chamberlain statistic and story sounds made up. He’s the Paul Bunyan of basketball. Or Bill Brasky? Neither of those are particularly current references, but I can’t think of a more recent one at the moment. Anyway, guess which of these I made up: he once averaged 50.4 points per game and 24.7 rebounds per game in 48.5 minutes per game over 80 games played in a season (keeping in mind a regulation basketball game is 48 minutes long); he is said to have slept with 20,000 women; he claimed to have fought a mountain lion bare-handed in the Arizona/New Mexico desert once when his car broke down; he has an FBI file for making threats in an airport/on a plane; after basketball, he became a professional volleyball player and was inducted into the league’s Hall of Fame; he tried to fight Muhammad Ali; he tried to play in the ABA but was blocked from doing so by the courts because he was still under contract with the Lakers; or, the Nets offered him a contract at age 50. The answer: I didn’t make any of those up. Those are all true (or claimed by Chamberlain to be true) things that happened.
4. Bill Russell - 851.5
- Career - 776.0
  - 1957-1969
  - BOS
  - 163.5 Win Shares
  - 7.769 Adjusted MVP Award Shares (11 top five finishes, 5 wins: 1958 - 1st, 1959 - 2nd, 1960 - 2nd, 1961 - 1st, 1962 - 1st, 1963 - 1st, 1964 - 3rd, 1965 - 1st, 1966 - 4th, 1967 - 3rd, 1969 - 4th)
  - 3x All-NBA First Team Selection (1959, 1963, 1965)
  - 8x All-NBA Second Team Selection (1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1968)
  - 12x All-Star Selection (1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969)
  - 1x All-Defensive First Team Selection (1969)
  - 25.7 Championship Win Shares (11 titles - 1957 BOS, 1959 BOS, 1960 BOS, 1961 BOS, 1962 BOS, 1963 BOS, 1964 BOS, 1965 BOS, 1966 BOS, 1968 BOS, 1969 BOS)
  - 1.2 Finals Win Shares (1 Finals loss - 1958 BOS)
  - 0.7 Conference Finals Win Shares (1 Conf. Finals loss - 1967 BOS)
- Peak - 927.0
  - 1961-1965
- Other achievements
  - 2x NCAA champion (1955, 1956)
  - 1x NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player (1955)
  - 1x All-Star Game MVP (1963)
  - 1x Olympic Gold Medalist (1956)
  - 10,000 Rebound Club (21,620; 2nd all-time)
  - 6 retired by the Boston Celtics
  - 6 retired by the NBA
  - 2x NBA champion as coach (1968, 1969)
  - College Basketball Hall of Fame Inductee (2006)
  - FIBA Hall of Fame Inductee (2007)
- One thing to note about Russell’s two titles as a coach is that he was a player-coach for those seasons. I don’t think we can fairly add them to his “ring count” like someone might do with Jerry West or Pat Riley. But he’s still got 11, so, I think he’s fine.
- Another thing to note, which I’ve seen people have misconceptions about before, is that Russell only has one All-Defensive team selection and no Finals MVPs. This is, of course, only because neither of those awards existed until Russell’s final season (1969). Jerry West famously won the 1969 Finals MVP even though he lost the series, but even if they had perfected the “Finals MVP is the best player on the winning team” formula already, it probably would’ve gone to John Havlicek that year. Russell, who also coached the team that year, played himself and Havlicek every minute of every game in that series - the next highest minutes per game for the Celtics in that series was Em Bryant at 33.3 mpg. But much like George Mikan not having any MVP awards, the only reason is because the award didn’t exist until the final season of their careers.
3. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - 935.7
- Career - 954.6
  - 1970-1989
  - MIL, LAL
  - 273.4 Win Shares
  - 10.096 Adjusted MVP Award Shares (15 top five finishes, 6 wins: 1970 - 3rd, 1971 - 1st, 1972 - 1st, 1973 - 2nd, 1974 - 1st, 1975 - 5th, 1976 - 1st, 1977 - 1st, 1978 - 4th, 1979 - 4th, 1980 - 1st, 1981 - 3rd, 1984 - 4th, 1985 - 4th, 1986 - 5th)
  - 10x All-NBA First Team Selections (1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1986)
  - 5x All-NBA Second Team Selections (1970, 1978, 1979, 1983, 1985)
  - 19x All-Star Selections (1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989)
  - 5x All-Defensive First Team Selections (1974, 1975, 1979, 1980, 1981)
  - 13.4 Championship Win Shares (6 titles - 1971 MIL, 1980 LAL, 1982 LAL, 1985 LAL, 1987 LAL, 1988 LAL)
  - 10.4 Finals Win Shares (4 Finals losses - 1974 MIL, 1983 LAL, 1984 LAL, 1989 LAL)
  - 9.0 Conference Finals Win Shares (4 Conf. Finals losses - 1970 MIL, 1972 MIL, 1977 LAL, 1986 LAL)
  - 2x Finals MVP (1971, 1985)
- Peak - 916.9
  - 1970-1974
- Other achievements
  - 3x NCAA champion (1967, 1968, 1969)
  - 3x NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player (1967, 1968, 1969)
  - 1x Consensus College Player of the Year (1967)
  - 1x College Player of the Year (1969)
  - Rookie of the Year (1970)
  - 6x All-Defensive Second Team Selection (1970, 1971, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1984)
  - 20,000 Point Club (38,387; 2nd all-time)
  - 10,000 Rebound Club (17,440; 3rd all-time)
  - 5,000 Assist Club (5,660; 49th all-time)
  - 33 retired by the Milwaukee Bucks
  - 33 retired by the Los Angeles Lakers
  - USBL champion as coach (2002)
  - College Basketball Hall of Fame Inductee (2006)
- One thing that I don’t ever think will be topped is that Kareem finished top five in MVP voting 15 times, including every year of the 1970s. (LeBron has done it 14 times, and I don’t see him doing it again, but he’s proven me wrong before. And LeBron almost did it for the entire 2010s, but missed it in 2019.)
- Another thing to note is that, historically, Kareem was rarely thought of as being in the “Greatest of All Time” conversation until relatively recently. I’m going to call it the Kareem Corollary to my Unified Theory of Understanding Basketball through the Lens of Charles Barkley’s Ringless Fingers. Chuck has no rings. Chuck gets clowned for having no rings. Jordan has six rings. Jordan is GOAT. Hang on, who else has six rings? Kareem! Kareem is GOAT-adjacent. (It’s a little bit more complicated and nuanced than that, but not by much.)
2. Michael Jordan - 937.4
- Career - 875.3
  - 1985-1993, 1995-1998, 2002-2003
  - CHI, WAS
  - 214.0 Win Shares
  - 8.114 Adjusted MVP Award Shares (10 top five finishes, 5 wins: 1987 - 2nd, 1988 - 1st, 1989 - 2nd, 1990 - 3rd, 1991 - 1st, 1992 - 1st, 1993 - 3rd, 1996 - 1st, 1997 - 2nd, 1998 - 1st)
  - 10x All-NBA First Team Selection (1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998)
  - 1x All-NBA Second Team Selection (1985)
  - 14x All-Star Selection (1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2003)
  - 1x Defensive Player of the Year (1988)
  - 9x All-Defensive First Team Selection (1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998)
  - 26.7 Championship Win Shares (6 titles - 1991 CHI, 1992 CHI, 1993 CHI, 1996 CHI, 1997 CHI, 1998 CHI)
  - 8.0 Conference Finals Win Shares (2 Conf. Finals losses - 1989 CHI, 1990 CHI)
  - 6x Finals MVP (1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998)
- Peak - 999.6
  - 1989-1993
- Other achievements
  - 1x NCAA champion (1982)
  - 1x Consensus College Player of the Year (1984)
  - 1x ACC Player of the Year (1984)
  - Rookie of the Year (1985)
  - 2x Olympic Gold Medalist (1984, 1992)
  - 20,000 Point Club (32,292; 5th all-time)
  - 5,000 Assist Club (5,633; 51st all-time)
  - 23 retired by the Chicago Bulls
  - 23 retired by the Miami Heat
  - FIBA Hall of Fame Inductee (2015)
- Look, before you all come after me for having Jordan in second, let me just first say that I grew up in the 90s, and Jordan was the most dominating, inevitable force in basketball I have ever seen. The second threepeat wasn’t his most physically imposing, but it was the most I have ever felt that a basketball game’s result was a foregone conclusion. (Until the 2017 Warriors, that is.)
- However, the man quit, in his prime, twice. I’m not placing any value judgment on that one way or another or whether he had good reasons for doing so or whether he was justified or anything like that. But the simple fact is, he didn’t play for most of five years, when he could have, and we have to take that into account.
- Even if he’d only played “average” basketball for those years (I’m talking Wizards years levels of “average”), he’d be first on this list. But he’d lose some mystique, so maybe it works out better for him this way. Who knows.
1. LeBron James - 991.1
- Career - 1000.0
  - 2004-2023
  - CLE, MIA, CLE, LAL
  - 255.1 Win Shares
  - 8.823 Adjusted MVP Award Shares (14 top five finishes, 4 wins: 2006 - 2nd, 2007 - 5th, 2008 - 4th, 2009 - 1st, 2010 - 1st, 2011 - 3rd, 2012 - 1st, 2013 - 1st, 2014 - 2nd, 2015 - 3rd, 2016 - 3rd, 2017 - 4th, 2018 - 2nd, 2020 - 2nd)
  - 13x All-NBA First Team Selection (2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020)
  - 3x All-NBA Second Team Selection (2005, 2007, 2021)
  - 3x All-NBA Third Team Selection (2019, 2022, 2023)
  - 19x All-Star Selection (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023)
  - 5x All-Defensive First Team Selection (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013)
  - 20.0 Championship Win Shares (4 titles - 2012 MIA, 2013 MIA, 2016 CLE, 2020 LAL)
  - 21.2 Finals Win Shares (6 Finals losses - 2007 CLE, 2011 MIA, 2014 MIA, 2015 CLE, 2017 CLE, 2018 CLE
  - 7.0 Conference Finals Win Shares (2 Conf. Finals losses - 2009 CLE, 2023 LAL)
  - 4x Finals MVP (2012, 2013, 2016, 2020)
- Peak - 982.2
  - 2009-2013
- Other achievements
  - Rookie of the Year (2004)
  - 2x Olympic Gold Medalist (2008, 2012)
  - 1x Olympic Bronze Medalist (2004)
  - 1x World Cup Bronze Medalist (2006)
  - 3x All-Star Game MVP (2006, 2008, 2018)
  - 1x All-Defensive Second Team Selection (2014)
  - 20,000 Point Club (38,652; 1st all-time)
  - 10,000 Rebound Club (10,667; 32nd all-time)
  - 5,000 Assist Club (10,420; 4th all-time)
- Here’s the wildest LeBron stat I can come up with: on Basketball Reference, it lists a player’s position by whatever he played the most at in a given season. So if a guy played the most minutes at point guard one year, he’s listed at point guard. If he played the most at shooting guard, he’s listed as a shooting guard. If it’s tied, he’s listed as PG/SG. You get the idea. LeBron is the only player in the history of basketball with at least one season at every position. (Giannis has four positions but is missing a year at center.) LeBron has two years at point guard (2020-2021), one at shooting guard (2004), 12 at small forward (2005-2012, 2015-2017, 2019), five at power forward (2013-2014, 2018, 2023-2024), and one at center (2022).
- And it’s not like he sucked at any of those positions. His career averages are 27.1/7.5/7.4. His averages at point guard: 25.2/7.8/9.2. At shooting guard: 20.9/5.5/5.9. At small forward: 29.0/7.8/7.6. At power forward: 27.1/7.8/7.6. At center: 30.3/8.2/6.2.
- I guess my point is: do you want specific dominance or all-around greatness with your “greatest basketball player of all-time.” I don’t think there’s a wrong answer, but there are different ways to look at that question.

And that’s all I’ve got for this series. Thanks to everyone for reading. It took me a lot longer than I anticipated this time. (I wasn’t planning on doing a profile for all 250 players when I started, but once I got going, I figured why not.) I’ll have an update on the 2024 standings, probably Wednesday at the latest with a few small tweaks based on feedback from you all (mostly about how I’m calculating how much ABA stuff is worth; that always beguiles me.) But expect big jumps from Luka, Jokic, SGA, and most of the Celtics this year. Otherwise, it’s just editing and then hopefully a book by the start of next season.

Top 250 Players (Careers + Peaks): #10-1 (OC)

Top 250 Players (Careers + Peaks): #10-1 (OC)