RealGM

After reading so many all-time greats' lists and endless (also somewhat especulative) discussions I am conviced that listing the all-time greats by tiers is much more accurate and representative.

In most cases, it's more fitting to say that A, B and C player have a very similar level than justifying without bias that it needs to be C, A, B or B, C, A in that order necessarily, for example.

With that said, I'll try to come up with an accurate Top 25 all-time players' list divided by tiers. There's no order in my tiers.

I took into consideration individual dominance, team success, peak, longevity and historical relevance (pioneering, innovation, etc).


Tier 1
Michael Jordan


Tier 2
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
LeBron James (3)


Tier 3
Bill Russell
Wilt Chamberlain
Shaquille O'neal
Larry Bird
Magic Johnson
Tim Duncan (9)


Tier 4
Jerry West
Kobe Bryant
Oscar Robertson
Hakeem Olajuwon (13)


Tier 5
Julius Erving
Kevin Garnett
Dirk Nowitzki
Elgin Baylor
Rick Barry
George Mikan
Karl Malone
David Robinson (edited)
Moses Malone
Charles Barkley
Stephen Curry (edited)
Kevin Durant (25)

Honorable mentions (could be seen as the next tier): John Stockton, Isiah Thomas, Patrick Ewing, Arvydas Sabonis, Scottie Pippen, Bob Pettit, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, Sam Jones, Bill Walton, James Harden and Bob Cousy.

Thoughts? Do your own Top 25 by tiers!

Thomas is pretty underrated. Beat Bird, Magic, and Michael in the playoffs... was a bad foul call in 88 away from a three peat.

How many "tiers" thread do we need? And still, no set criteria used for the selections.

bstein14 wrote:Thomas is pretty underrated. Beat Bird, Magic, and Michael in the playoffs... was a bad foul call in 88 away from a three peat.

Completely overlooked him. Hm. Thanks

An Unbiased Fan wrote:How many "tiers" thread do we need? And still, no set criteria used for the selections.

No criteria? I explained it

Very nice. You even have Mikan in there

I have 3 tiers, I think.

Top 3: Wilt - MJ - LeBron

Next 7: Kareem - Russell - Magic - Shaq - Bird - Olajuwon - Duncan

Next 15: Oscar - D Rob - KG - Dr J - West - K Malone - Kobe - Curry - Durant - Dirk - Moses - Barkley - Wade - Stockton - CP3

I expect Curry to crack the 2nd tier before all is said and done.

Tier 1 - Players that have better case than Jordan so they need to be discredited so that he can be on top - Kareem for most complete case in comparasion to everyone else, Wilt because of records that can't be broken, Russell because he won most rings, Hakeem with MVP DPOY FMVP season, multiple 5x5 games, quadriple doubles , 2 rings and better record vs Bulls because it's shows that Jordan wasn't superior over all players from his generations and Shaq because of how dominant he was and because of his peak.

Tier 2 - NBA Cash Cows - Jordan, Kobe , Lebron, Magic , Bird

Tier 3 - I. Thomas, Dirk, Duncan , KG, Barkley, Malone, KD, , Steph, West, Iverson, Nash, Walton, Dr J, Moses Malone, Barry

Don't see how Steph isn't in the top 25

Tier 1
Michael Jordan
Bill Russell


Tier 2
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
LeBron James
Wilt Chamberlain


Tier 3
Shaquille O'neal
Larry Bird
Magic Johnson
Tim Duncan
Kobe Bryant
Hakeem Olajuwon


Tier 4
Jerry West
Karl Malone
Oscar Robertson
Moses Malone
Kevin Durant
Julius Erving


Tier 5
Steph Curry
Kevin Garnett
Dirk Nowitzki
Elgin Baylor
John Stockton
Isiah Thomas
David Robinson
Charles Barkley

Tier 1
MJ
LBJ

Tier 2
Kareem
Wilt

Tier 3
Magic
Shaq
Kobe
Russell
Bird
Duncan
Olajuwon

LeBron is in the first tier with MJ. There's always so much recency bias on this board.

Kobe should be in tier 3

Tier 1
Michael Jordan

Tier 2
LeBron James
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Bill Russell
Tim Duncan
Wilt Chamberlain
Larry Bird
Magic Johnson
Shaquille O'Neal
Hakeem Olajuwon

Tier 3
Jerry West
Oscar Robertson
Dirk Nowitzki
Charles Barkley
Kobe Bryant
Julius Erving
Elgin Baylor
Moses Malone

Tier 4
Isiah Thomas
John Stockton
Scottie Pippen
Bob Pettit
George Mikan
Steph Curry

Honorable Mention
Kevin Garnett
Karl Malone
David Robinson
Dwyane Wade
Rick Barry
Kevin Durant
Bob Cousy

No one below 40 should be allowed to vote on a all time list poll

Wilt should be tier 1 in everyone’s list just for the work he put in off the court.

bstein14 wrote:Thomas is pretty underrated. Beat Bird, Magic, and Michael in the playoffs... was a bad foul call in 88 away from a three peat.

His game 6 performance at the Forum in those Finals remains one of the greatest ever in my books.

Good list OP, as mentioned Isiah should be in tier 5(i'd remove Mikan for his spot). So should Stockton(I'd replace Rick Barry). Steph Curry has already proven enough to make tier 5, personally i'd put him in tier 5 over David Robinson. As for the honorable mention list, i know Westbrick is getting a lot of grief lately..but if Oscar is in tier 4 he deserves an honorable mention tip for tier 5 based on his seasons of triple doubles. I'd add Maravich as well to the honorable mention list. I'd remove Sabonis as well, i don't care about hi Euro stats and he only had 7 average seasons in the NBA with 12points/7 rebounds, more a "what if" myth(if he joined earlier) imo.

Why is it always round numbers and multiples of 5 or 10? How come nobody ever asks "Top 37 all-time by tiers"?

Decent list. What's your rationale for Wade over Curry?