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I was thinking about how much impact Europeans have had on the NBA recently.
We currently have an arguable top 3 NBA player ranking of 3 Europeans in Jokic, Luka.and Giannis

This got me wondering when the last time the best player in the NBA was white. I thought of Dirk and Larry Bird as probably the best 2 white players to grace the court before Jokic and Luka, with Steve Nash or Kevin McHale probably filling out the top 5 of the last 40 years?
Am I missing anyone?
So who are the top 10/15 white guys of the last 40 years in the NBA...and..
Who are the current best 10/15 white players IN THE NBA.

History ?

- Bird
- Nowitzki
- Stockton
- Jokić
- Jerry West
- Dončić
- Maravich
- Havlicek
- Dražen Petrović
- McHale

Bonus :
- Pau Gasol
- Mikan
- Cousy
- Mullin
- Pettit
- Bill Walton
- Rick Barry
- Steve Nash


Current :

- Jokić
- Dončić
- Sabonis
- Porzingis
- Chet
- Markkanen
- Şengün
- Franz Wagner
- Giddey
- Reaves/Bojan Bogdanović

Talent-wise, Drazen Petrovic should be in the history list

User_friendly wrote:Talent-wise, Drazen Petrovic should be in the history list

Unacceptable to forget him. My bad.

User_friendly wrote:Talent-wise, Drazen Petrovic should be in the history list

I never saw him play. He was MVP contender level good?

last 40 years:

Luka
Jokic
Dirk
Nash
Bird
John Stockton
Pau Gasol
Chris Mullin
Mark Price
Kevin McHale

HM: Kevin Love, Marc Gasol

Current:

Luka
Jokic
Tyler Herro
Alperen Sengun
Lauri Markkanen
Porzingis
Chet Holmgren
Vucevic
Franz Wagner
Sabonis

robbie84 wrote:

User_friendly wrote:Talent-wise, Drazen Petrovic should be in the history list

I never saw him play. He was MVP contender level good?

Yes I think so.
He arrived to NBA in a difficult era for an european, and he died young. But I think he could have been

Would have been nice to see Arvydas Sabonis in the NBA in his prime. He didn't join the league until he was in his 30's and averaged 16/10/3 when he was 33.

He averaged 24/12 in the 92 Olympics.

Don’t forget Gola, Petit, Cunningham, Bradley and Barry.

This thread might be derailed, but some good white guys currently, even Americans have Chet and Flagg coming, in recent times, US had some absence of good white players, before Chet, I guess the best one was Herro for a while? Love before that? Gordon Hayward.

Not the best, but I like Payton Pritchards game. I think he is one of those guys who would be great in Europe, or on 3x3. I remember, during summer, that these American guys have these rec league games, Pritchard played with bunch of randoms, and against Euroleague Mike James and bunch of randoms, remember watching extended highlights of that, the latent level of these NBA/kind off NBA level guys and the rest was crazy, Pritchard and James were cooking everyone, and they guarded each other a lot, but were still cooking each other.

Godymas wrote:Current:

Luka
Jokic
Tyler Herro
Alperen Sengun
Lauri Markkanen
Porzingis
Chet Holmgren
Vucevic
Franz Wagner
Sabonis

Avdija is better than Herro and Vucevic.

User_friendly wrote:

robbie84 wrote:

User_friendly wrote:Talent-wise, Drazen Petrovic should be in the history list

I never saw him play. He was MVP contender level good?

Yes I think so.
He arrived to NBA in a difficult era for an european, and he died young. But I think he could have been

Not remotely. Players who sadly die young always get overrated. Len Bias, etc.

robbie84 wrote:

User_friendly wrote:Talent-wise, Drazen Petrovic should be in the history list

I never saw him play. He was MVP contender level good?

More All NBA level.
And I am going to say that Manu was better, actually

nate33 wrote:

Godymas wrote:Current:

Luka
Jokic
Tyler Herro
Alperen Sengun
Lauri Markkanen
Porzingis
Chet Holmgren
Vucevic
Franz Wagner
Sabonis

Avdija is better than Herro and Vucevic.

defensively, yes, but he is not nearly as consistent on offense despite having a few good games this year. but deni was someone i was thinking of putting on, but then again is an Israeli really a true "caucasian" Sengun already kind of stretches it with Turkey, Israel is more of the middle east and brown people type

"Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Jalen Brunson, Aaron Gordon, Michael Porter Jr, Julius Randle, Devin Booker, LaMelo Ball, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Rudy Gobert"

-Stephen A Smith, probably

Godymas wrote:

nate33 wrote:

Godymas wrote:Current:

Luka
Jokic
Tyler Herro
Alperen Sengun
Lauri Markkanen
Porzingis
Chet Holmgren
Vucevic
Franz Wagner
Sabonis

Avdija is better than Herro and Vucevic.

defensively, yes, but he is not nearly as consistent on offense despite having a few good games this year. but deni was someone i was thinking of putting on, but then again is an Israeli really a true "caucasian" Sengun already kind of stretches it with Turkey, Israel is more of the middle east and brown people type

Avdija's father is Serbian, if that matters.

And "a few good games" has been going on since Christmas. He has averaged 17, 8 and 3 on a .609 TS% since December 29th (in 32 minutes a night). Per 36, that's 19, 9 and 4.

Since February 2, he actually has averaged 19, 9 and 4 per game because the coaches finally started giving him 34+ minutes a game.

The guy is an extremely consistent scorer now. He has scored 14 or more points 15 of the last 16 games (the one he missed was because Lebron elbowed him in the head and he couldn't play the 2nd half).He has also been the third-best rebounding non-center in the league (behind only Luka and Amen) since February 2nd.

nate33 wrote:

Godymas wrote:

nate33 wrote:
Avdija is better than Herro and Vucevic.

defensively, yes, but he is not nearly as consistent on offense despite having a few good games this year. but deni was someone i was thinking of putting on, but then again is an Israeli really a true "caucasian" Sengun already kind of stretches it with Turkey, Israel is more of the middle east and brown people type

Avdija's father is Serbian, if that matters.

And "a few good games" has been going on since Christmas. He has averaged 17, 8 and 3 on a .609 TS% since December 29th (in 32 minutes a night). Per 36, that's 19, 9 and 4.

Since February 2, he actually has averaged 19, 9 and 4 per game because the coaches finally started giving him 34+ minutes a game.

The guy is an extremely consistent scorer now. He has scored 14 or more points 15 of the last 16 games (the one he missed was because Lebron elbowed him in the head and he couldn't play the 2nd half).He has also been the third-best rebounding non-center in the league (behind only Luka and Amen) since February 2nd.

you're probably right, i'd swap out Vucevic for Deni on that list. Vooch is basically the same numbers for the season. 18-10, but his efficiency has been god awful this year (no clue what happened there)

so yes, Deni Avdija should make the cut over Vucevic

Bruce Clark formerly known as Caitlin clark

threads like this should be locked immediately just saying

nate33 wrote:

Godymas wrote:Current:

Luka
Jokic
Tyler Herro
Alperen Sengun
Lauri Markkanen
Porzingis
Chet Holmgren
Vucevic
Franz Wagner
Sabonis

Avdija is better than Herro and Vucevic.

Caruso is better than all three.