To be in the top 5 means you could make a claim to be the best their ever was. You had very few holes in your game, dominating was an after thought, you were a measuring stick to most, if not all players in your era, MVP's, championships, incredible stats, 20,000 hoes, 6 women at once, you name it, they done it. So without further adieu...
5. I can see some of the current stars of the NBA chatting in the barbershop talking about Wilt Chamberlain. 'Man if I played back then, I would have averaged 50 points in a season, I would have dropped a 100 points in a game, probably would have led the league in assist too, just for the hell of it.' The oldest barber in the shop goes 'well you young fellas need to read up on your history books, cuz Wilt don' did all of that and then some' and one of them responded 'well he should have' and that's how I see Wilt's legacy. No matter how much Wilt dominated he would never get the credit he deserved. Would Shaq had done the same thing if he was in the league at the same time, maybe, but more? Doubtfully. Wilt never averaged less than 18 rebs a game even when he was at the end of his career and averaged only 14 points a game. He shot an all time single season high of .727 from the field. I saw when Jordan averaged 37.7 ppg in his 3rd year in the league and I saw when the league made significant rule changes to increase scoring, and the refs weren't quite sure how to referee with the new rules, and Kobe averaged 35 with Allen Iverson averaging 33, but 50.4 ppg and the next season 44+ ppg is insane. Wilt's stats are video gameish, which is why we are so quick to knock him, but tell me who else put those numbers up.
Why he's not higher: When push comes to shove, I stick to my number 1 philosophy. NBA SUPERSTARS WIN CHAMPIONSHIPS PERIOD. The most dominant player to ever play any sport was Wilt Chamberlain and there isn't any real argument against that. However dominant and the best are 2 different things and the fact that he has only 2 championships can't go unnoticed, I have no doubt that Wilt could not be guarded by this guy, but this next guy was all about winning and no one ever won like this next cat...
4. Bill Russell played 13 years in the NBA and won 11 championships. The 2 best team leaders in the history of the NBA are Bill Russell and #3 on my list. A lot of people knock Russell for not being a more prolific scorer but that's just people who needs petty argument to justify the players they want to put ahead of Russell. Anyone that knows anything about hoops, knows that Russell could have scored more if he wanted too, but his team didn't need that from him so he didn't. You know why... 11 'chips in 13 years. He was all about winning. The only time Russell ever averaged more than 18 points in a season was in the playoffs where he averaged up to 22 points cause that's what winners do, they fill in the blanks of whatever that team lacks. 11 'chips and 13 years. If everyone knows that defense win championships how could you not have the best defensive center ever who just happened to grab 20 rpg and score between 16 and 18 points a game. Sure he lost the individual battles to Wilt but he won over 66% of their head to head meetings. In the end I can't ignore 11 'chips in 13 years.
Why he's not higher: Several years ago I was compiling this list and I had Russell at number 9. Here are a list of players that Russell played with during his career: Bob Cousy, Sam Jones, John Havlicek, Frank Ramsey, KC Jones, Bill Sharman, Ed McCauley, Tom Heinsohn, did I miss anyone? That's a butt load of talent son. All are in the hall of fame, that's clearly more hall of famers than anyone else had that's in my top 25. In the end I had to move him up cause out of all those hall of famers he played with only one can say they won 11 'chips. That being said, the league was still very much into the developmental stage, not enough teams, general unacceptance of black players, no shot clock, no 3 pointers etc. and I wonder just how many titles Russell would have had going up against Doc and Moses, Bird, and these next 2 dudes.
3. The chances of someone ever being better than 'You Know Who' is probably the same as the chances of someone being a better point guard than Magic Johnson. No one on this list made players better than Magic Johnson. He single handedly salvaged #2 on my list career, As much as we celebrate Lebron James, 'You Know Who' and who ever else you may have as an all-time great. No one was better as a rookie than Magic. Dropping 42 points in a game 6 championship clincher, ...on the road,... with #2 on my list out with an injured ankle... against Dr. J... and he played center. That's the best performance in a NBA championship game ever and he was a rookie! Magic's 1st 10 years in the league he played in '10 chips and one of those he didn't play in cause he tore up his knee. He was built like a power forward and handled the rock like he was 6'0. He was the 1st point guard match-up nightmare. We always say their will be never be another 'You Know Who' well when have we ever had another Magic Johnson. The closest thing to him was fucking Penny Hardaway. no, no, no, Lebron dosen't count cause he plays small forward. Magic only won 3 MVP's cause that's all that was asked of him, before #2 got old, Magic supressed his game so his teammates could thrive, taking over only when he needed to, then Kareaam got older and Pat Riley said Magic score more... BOOM 3 MVP's. That my friend is doing whatever you want to do on the basketball court and Magic wanted to win and that's why he has 5 'chips
Why he's not higher: As great as Magic was defensively he easily was the worse defender in my top 10, yes even worse than Bird. No one remembers that in 1984 'Tragic' Johnson (That's what they called him after the 1984 championship against Boston) single handedly lost the Finals against Boston. I swear to you he played so bad, that to this day I am not convinced that he did not purposely throw the series. If he had won that, he would have had 6 'chips. The same amount as 'You Know Who' and we all know that 'You Know Who' would have kept playing til he got number 7, so indirectly Magic forced 'You Know Who's' early retirement. Which is an automatic strike against him. I went back and forth between Magic and #2 but no way I can deny the most unstoppable shot in the history of the NBA.
2. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has 6 titles and 6 MVP's, his skyhook and Mariano Rivera's cut fastball are the 2 most unstoppable single tricks in sports. (Rivera gets the nod cause that's all Rivera had. I mean Kareem has scored without the hook but Rivera nope, straight cut fastball homie) He's the NBA all-time leading scorer, if he wanted too he could have gotten 2 more years out of that body. In basketball, centers are the 1st to break down, the pounding of such a large frame running up and down the court, thrown in with the physicalness of playing in the post, just wears a body down, but not Kareem. It's almost as if he changed his name from Lew Alcindor just so he could trick nature into starting over with a rejuvenated body when he turned to Kareem. 'Um Lew it says that your body is suppose to start breaking down now', "Nope, I'm not Lew Alcinder, I'm Kareem"...'Er, okay' He was the NBA Finals MVP in 1985, 16 years after he entered the league, I guarantee you that's longer than the entire career of most of the people that's in the top 25. Right up until he retired no matter what team he was on, when they needed a basket, they went to Kareem's skyhook.
Why he's not higher: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had a mid to late 70's run where he was just really good. He wasn't dominant, just very good, it wasn't until Magic came that Kareem got rejuvenated. Magic put a spark in Kareem's career and I can't ever call someone number 1 if they hit a lull in their career, I mean it almost made me move him to number 3. He's still number 2 on my list and yes I could nitpick that he wasn't very physical which allowed him to prolong his career yada, yada, ultimately I just can't ever put him in front of this guy...
1. Okay, Okay, I lied I'm gonna talk about Jordan, but I ask you, would you rather read about my 26th best player in Bob Cousy or have me talk about just a couple of finer points of MJ? I know right!!! He was 5x's MVP but probably should have won 3 more if the writers weren't so tired of giving it to him every year. MJ was a career 50% fg shooter, Kobe's single season career high was .469. Jordan shot 50% from the field 80 % from the free throw line, was the leading scorer in the league (yearly) and was 1st team all defense (yearly) all while winning practically 6 titles in a row. That's Basketball perfection. Even if someone like Lebron or maybe even Durant gets 6 titles or more they still wouldn't go down as better than MJ, cause Jordan won 6, but he conceivably gave up at least 3 more. The 1st 2 were in his fucking baseball hiatus and his last one was when Krause pretty much disassembled that team after their 6th championship, cause his ego got in the way, and if any of you think they were too old, I will remind you that the Knicks with Grandmama Larry Johnson, Latrell Sprewell and Allan Houston represented the East that year (1999) which the Bulls clearly would have won and yes I would take Jordan and #17 over David Robinson and Duncan. They also would have to be the Finals MVP every year they won and they are already in the hole cause they both lost in the finals something that every player on this list has done in the top 10 except for Duncan and Jordan. Can anyone actually even imagine Jordan making it to the finals only to lose. He would explode, I mean phsyically combust as soon as the final horn blew or he would actually turn into Superman and spin the world in reverse so he could play the finals agin like Christopher Reeve did in the 1st Superman movie to save Lois Lane. Jordan is the best ever and someday it would be nice to see someone better than Mike cause I would hate to be a really old man knowing that the best basketball player I ever seen play was 50 years ago. I miss you Mike.
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