Our criteria are simple: statistics,
championships and influence on the
game.
We did not recruit any basketball great or call
any expert to give us their opinion. We did our own
research, primarily on NBA.com and magicmetric.com, to
ascertain our findings. NBA.com is the
league’s sanctioned website, complete with relevant
stats and information. Magicmetric.com
is a website that takes statistical information and
processes to create a list of the greatest basketball
players of all time. We surveyed the
information, threw in a little common sense and some
old-school memories.
1)
Karl
Malone – Selected in 1996 as one of the 50 Greatest
Players in NBA History.
Two-time NBA Most Valuable Player (1996-97,
1998-99); one of only nine players inNBA history to win the Maurice Podoloff Trophy
more than once.
Karl Malone is a revolutionary power forward.
2)
Kevin
McHale – If ever there were a player who possessed
the ideal physique for the game of basketball, it was
Kevin McHale.
With his incredibly long legs, McHale presented
an unforgettable image on the hardwood. He used his physical gifts to excellent advantage
during his 13-year career with the Boston Celtics,
becoming one of the best inside players the game has
ever seen and forming, with Larry Bird and Robert
Parish, one of the greatest front lines the game has
ever seen.
3)
Tim
Duncan – David Robinson
turned the San Antonio Spurs into playoff
contenders.
Tim Duncan brought them to the Promised
Land.
Whether or not you and Phil Jax wanna put an
asterisk next to their ’99 title, you can’t deny the
value of their MVP. They call him
boring, discrediting him because he opts for consistency
over flash.
But Tim is only the
second player in the history of the League to be named
All-NBA and All-Defensive in each of his first five
seasons.
4)
Elvin Hayes - One of the most talented
power forwards ever to play the game, Elvin Hayes used
his trademark turn-around jump and aggressive defense to
win a secure place in the NBA record books. Fifth
on the all-time list in games (1,303) and third in
minutes played (50,000), he missed only nine contests in
his 16 years in the league, a tribute to his durability
and conditioning.
5) Kevin Garnett
- At the age of 27, your average NBA
player is just beginning to get acclimated to the
league.
Their collegiate years are recent memories.
They've
either just begun to carve their spot in the league or
just
earned a consisyent role as a squad. Kevin Garnett
is
27. He never went to college. In 1995, when
most ballers
his age were trying to impress recruiters, he was trying
to
make Kevin McHale proud. He's been an All-Star
every
year since his rookie season.
6)
Jerry
Lucas – Lucas wasn’t particularly tall or bruising,
nor was he a great leaper, but his name can be found at
the top of any list of great rebounding forwards in NBA
history.
The 6’8” Lucas hauled down 12,942 rebounds for an
average of 15.6 per game, the fourth-best career mark in
NBA history.
Playing for three
teams in his 11-year career, the Cincinnati Royals, the
San Francisco Warriors, and the New York Knicks, Lucas
tallied 14,053 points (17 ppg) and finished with a lofty
.449 career field-goal percentage.
7)
Dave
DeBusschere – Nicknamed “Big D” for defense,
DeBusschere was a hard-nosed, tenacious forward – one of
the game’s all-time best defenders. He was named to
the NBA All-Defensive First Team in each of the award’s
first six years of existence. DeBusschere was
average in size at 6’6” and 225 lbs., but he possessed a
work ethic that was second to none. During his 12-year NBA
career he represented the epitome of the blue-collar
basketball star.
8)
Spencer Haywood –
On the court, Spencer Haywood was such a devastating
force in his prime that no opponent could defend him or
keep him off the boards. Off the court,
he had a lasting effect on the game of basketball,
largely because he provided the 1970 legal test case
that opened the NBA to undergraduate college
players. At
his best, Haywood was as dominating as they come. As a 20-year-old
rookie in 1969-70, he led the American Basketball
Association in both scoring and rebounding.
9)
Chris
Webber – People like to
say that Chris Webber is soft when it counts the
most.
In doing so, they seem
to skip over the fact that Cwebb can get his on anyone in the League. They say that he
should pound the ball into the paint and stop with all
the finesse jump shots; that he’s not enough of a past
presence, even if he’s always among League leaders in
rebounds and flirts with a triple-double virtually every
game. So ask yourself: Of
all the new-school power forwards who combine inside
strength with a consistent jump, who does it better than
him?
10) Dennis Rodman –
This was not a popular
choice.
Judging from some staffers' reactions, you'd think they
were
being asked to consider Dennis Rodman as their
next-door
neighbor, not as one of the 75 greatest NBA
players of all time. Thing is, a lot of people
wouldn't pick
him for either, for many of the same reasons: the hair
the
tattoos, the piercing, and the partying. What all
that crap
distracted everyone from was the '60s-era rebounding
numbers, the tireless work ethic, the airtight
man-to-man
D and the five rings. You needed to look deep to
see
the real Rodman.