Most Athletically Gifted Players Ever Per Position (Top 5)

[BAMAFREAK]

Iverson probably needs to be on each list. His body control, agility, pace, and speed were elite. He also was an elite football player and probably could’ve been an all pro at WR or corner.

[Bklynborn682]

WIlt was more athletic than Shaq, he was an overall natural athlete, competed in high jump and other track and field events before turning pro in basketball.

A 50 something Wilt showing rookie Shaq (who was 301 lbs) his old man strength:

Watch on YouTube

Shaq is a freak himself and right behind Wilt. He never had Wilt's devotion to his body/fitness though.

This clip gets me every time. He just low-key punks Shaq at center court and Shaq looks shook.

The only problem I have with this is Shaq has talked about meeting Ewing the very first time (which happens in this clip) Shaq grew up idolizing Patrick (why he wore #33 in HS, and college) and when Shaq went to shake pats hand, Ewing gives him a dismissive/half hearted fist pound. Which I truly believe was what Shaq thought he was going to get from Wilt as well. Now if Shaq had been prepared for a power shake lol I highly doubt he gets shook like that.

[Mogspan]

PG: Simmons, Russ, D-Rose, AI, Fox

SG: MJ, Wade, T-Mac, Kobe, Oladipo

SF: LeBron, Pippen, Kawhi, KD, Dr. J

PF: Rodman, Giannis, KG, Zion, Griffin

C: Wilt, Shaq, AD, Hakeem, D-Rob

Honorable Mentions: Muggsy Bogues, Nate Robinson, Anthony Edwards, Andre Drummond, Dwight Howard

[Mogspan]

No Julius Erving is criminal for such list...

I'd consider Artis Gilmore for centers list.

My first thought was Dr J. As for me I'll go with

PG
Ben Simmons
Russ
Rose
Webb
Bogues

If people don't accept Ben I'll go with Ja. Pre knee injury CP actually warrants a look imo

SG:
Jordan
Iverson
Wade
Antman
Carter

SF:
Bron
Dr. J
Baylor
Nique
David Thompson (maybe I'm cheating not putting him at SG)

Otherwise I like Melo for his strength and first step.

PF:
Zion
Giannis
Amare
Barkley
Blake

C:
Shaq
Wilt
Russell
Robinson
Dwight

Very good list overall, but Rodman has to be included. MJ, Isiah, and Phil Jackson have all said that Dennis is the best athlete they've ever met/coached. He's in the HoF despite being an addled drug fiend with no shooting talent because he's perhaps the most versatile defender ever and the best rebounder of all time after Drummond.

[Heej]

No Julius Erving is criminal for such list...

I'd consider Artis Gilmore for centers list.

My first thought was Dr J. As for me I'll go with

PG
Ben Simmons
Russ
Rose
Webb
Bogues

If people don't accept Ben I'll go with Ja. Pre knee injury CP actually warrants a look imo

SG:
Jordan
Iverson
Wade
Antman
Carter

SF:
Bron
Dr. J
Baylor
Nique
David Thompson (maybe I'm cheating not putting him at SG)

Otherwise I like Melo for his strength and first step.

PF:
Zion
Giannis
Amare
Barkley
Blake

C:
Shaq
Wilt
Russell
Robinson
Dwight

Very good list overall, but Rodman has to be included. MJ, Isiah, and Phil Jackson have all said that Dennis is the best athlete they've ever met/coached. He's in the HoF despite being an addled drug fiend with no shooting talent because he's perhaps the most versatile defender ever and the best rebounder of all time after Drummond.

Honestly man it was between Rodman and Barkley for me. Idk Zion and Giannis are freak of freaks. Amare and Blake are probably the most agile+explosive roll finishers in NBA history. Plus Blake had insane body control for his size. I feel like Barkley himself was a force of nature.

Who else you taking Rodman definitively over? He's really my honorable mention. He's not any worse than them. I just personally can't put rodman over Zion Giannis and imo Blake as far as pure raw athletes go. Even though it sounds crazy to say because he's really one of the all time great freaks. Idk interested in your takes on that.

AD could be an egregious error too since he's basically on par with Giannis. PF seems to have the highest concentration of super freaks because I haven't even mentioned KG

For SF I forgot to add James Worthy. He's probably the safest #5 most athletic SF of all time.

Also what about Connie Hawkins? Could he be an honorable mention for the PF spot?

[Mogspan]

My first thought was Dr J. As for me I'll go with

PG
Ben Simmons
Russ
Rose
Webb
Bogues

If people don't accept Ben I'll go with Ja. Pre knee injury CP actually warrants a look imo

SG:
Jordan
Iverson
Wade
Antman
Carter

SF:
Bron
Dr. J
Baylor
Nique
David Thompson (maybe I'm cheating not putting him at SG)

Otherwise I like Melo for his strength and first step.

PF:
Zion
Giannis
Amare
Barkley
Blake

C:
Shaq
Wilt
Russell
Robinson
Dwight

Very good list overall, but Rodman has to be included. MJ, Isiah, and Phil Jackson have all said that Dennis is the best athlete they've ever met/coached. He's in the HoF despite being an addled drug fiend with no shooting talent because he's perhaps the most versatile defender ever and the best rebounder of all time after Drummond.

Honestly man it was between Rodman and Barkley for me. Idk Zion and Giannis are freak of freaks. Amare and Blake are probably the most agile+explosive roll finishers in NBA history. Plus Blake had insane body control for his size. I feel like Barkley himself was a force of nature.

Who else you taking Rodman definitively over? He's really my honorable mention. He's not any worse than them. I just personally can't put rodman over Zion Giannis and imo Blake as far as pure raw athletes go. Even though it sounds crazy to say because he's really one of the all time great freaks. Idk interested in your takes on that.

AD could be an egregious error too since he's basically on par with Giannis. PF seems to have the highest concentration of super freaks because I haven't even mentioned KG

For SF I forgot to add James Worthy. He's probably the safest #5 most athletic SF of all time.

Also what about Connie Hawkins? Could he be an honorable mention for the PF spot?

The way I see it, the offensive superiority of guys like Blake and Charles is largely a skill and effort difference; the defensive superiority of Dennis is largely an athletic difference. Dennis didn't take basketball seriously until he had a freakish growth spurt after high school, yet he carved a Hall of Fame career for himself by having an incredible combo of endurance, strength, speed, and reflexes.

I said years ago that Ben Simmons might be the best athlete in the history of Mankind. He's like a taller, more fluid version of LeBron, who himself said that Ben could be better than him if he wants to. Unfortunately, he doesn't.

[nate33]

PG Westbrook - possibly the GOAT athlete in NBA history. It's totally insane how he moves.
SG Jordan - not much to debate here. It's like a human being's DNA was spliced with a leopard.
SF Wilkins - I think he is quicker and more explosive than Lebron.
PF Zion - easily the best combination of strength and explosiveness I've ever seen. Barkley is second.
C Wilt - the guy was elite at everything he did. Basketball, track, volleyball. Just a total freak.

Honestly, the only tough one is SF between Dr. J, Wilkins, Lebron, Pippen and others.

[kendogg]

A handshake is not evidence lol I feel that gets posted a lot and always thought it was satire. Anyways, I don’t know why people bring up bench press numbers like it’s super relevant to basketball

Wilt was more athletic, Shaq was basketball stronger, wilt was more explosive, faster and jumped higher, not as quick footed and coordinated just from the little film we have

I don’t know if I believe he could genuinely grab change from the top of the backboard, although I don’t really care either way lol.

For most of his NBA career, he very likely could not grab coins off the top of the backboard, but he could get very close. There is footage of him getting near the top on a 0-step block attempt.

Watch on YouTube

But in college at KU he was only 220 lbs. Then he spent a year with the Globetrotters where he allegedly grabbed coins in front of crowds. A fair amount of people have claimed to witness it. Rookie year he reported to training camp at 258lbs. Sophomore year, 290, slimming to 275 by season start. For most of his career aside from the last few years with the Lakers, he fluctuated between 290-310 for his playing weight.

With the extra weight he certainly lost a bit off his vertical reach. But also remember Wilt had a 9'6" standing reach, which is 2 inches longer than Shaq if you account for modern footwear, and 4 inches longer than Dwight. And while Wilt had a hefty upper body and arguably as strong as Shaq, Shaq had a stronger lower body. Wilt couldn't really fight much for position in his day due to rules but Shaq fully abused his leg strength pushing people around in the paint to get better position. But Wilt's legs were much longer, and when he cocked his knees he could really pogo. Dwight could dunk on a 12-foot rim, which means his reach was at least 12'6". To grab a coin off the top of the backboard, your max reach would have to be probably about 13'2" or maybe slightly higher.

When you look at it like that, and combined with the video evidence it's really not that unreasonable that a pre-NBA Wilt who weighed 220-230lbs be able to jump that high. It is certainly unfortunate that there is no video of his Globetrotters games.

[Owly]

But in college at KU he was only 220 lbs. Then he spent a year with the Globetrotters where he allegedly grabbed coins in front of crowds. A fair amount of people have claimed to witness it.

Even Wilt himself, no stranger to ... hyperbole, we'll say ... cast doubt on eyewitnesses after the fact, being surprised how many people "saw" his 100 point game relative to he attendance ...

[MyUniBroDavis]

A handshake is not evidence lol I feel that gets posted a lot and always thought it was satire. Anyways, I don’t know why people bring up bench press numbers like it’s super relevant to basketball

Wilt was more athletic, Shaq was basketball stronger, wilt was more explosive, faster and jumped higher, not as quick footed and coordinated just from the little film we have

I don’t know if I believe he could genuinely grab change from the top of the backboard, although I don’t really care either way lol.

For most of his NBA career, he very likely could not grab coins off the top of the backboard, but he could get very close. There is footage of him getting near the top on a 0-step block attempt.

Watch on YouTube

But in college at KU he was only 220 lbs. Then he spent a year with the Globetrotters where he allegedly grabbed coins in front of crowds. A fair amount of people have claimed to witness it. Rookie year he reported to training camp at 258lbs. Sophomore year, 290, slimming to 275 by season start. For most of his career aside from the last few years with the Lakers, he fluctuated between 290-310 for his playing weight.

With the extra weight he certainly lost a bit off his vertical reach. But also remember Wilt had a 9'6" standing reach, which is 2 inches longer than Shaq if you account for modern footwear, and 4 inches longer than Dwight. And while Wilt had a hefty upper body and arguably as strong as Shaq, Shaq had a stronger lower body. Wilt couldn't really fight much for position in his day due to rules but Shaq fully abused his leg strength pushing people around in the paint to get better position. But Wilt's legs were much longer, and when he cocked his knees he could really pogo. Dwight could dunk on a 12-foot rim, which means his reach was at least 12'6". To grab a coin off the top of the backboard, your max reach would have to be probably about 13'2" or maybe slightly higher.

When you look at it like that, and combined with the video evidence it's really not that unreasonable that a pre-NBA Wilt who weighed 220-230lbs be able to jump that high. It is certainly unfortunate that there is no video of his Globetrotters games.

Yeah if wilt was low 200s pre NBA I probably believe he could then, with an unlimited run up. Pretty sure someone in summer league can too right?

I’d believe 12ft9 though in terms of his playing career. I think his head is at the rim in these videos, maybe a tad bit higher, which would put it at 35-36 in most of these jumps. The last video is tough because he’s jumping away

Dwight max reach was 12ft6 but it was measured in a sports science lab and he got a full run up from the three point line

Unless nba combine testing has changed throughout the years an nba max vert is measured off a three step, but that’s different from a 3 step approach jump (or 15 foot). The last two steps wilt took in these videos into the jump (the penultimate steps) count as two steps, a 0 step very would be a standstill standing vertical. Looks like it’s about 35-36 inches here and most of these he gets pretty good extension on his penultimate because there’s a lot of space

I would believe that wilt could get change off the top of you’re talking like an unlimited approach but off of one step like I’ve heard before is probably BS.

The one thing I’ve heard that might contradict that is that he could consistently dunk on a 12 foot rim but it was a struggle, in his KU days, which would be really weird if he had a 13ft3 max touch at that time but not weird at all if it was 12ft9 or something around there

I would say Shaq had more basketball strength than wilt and was less stiff, while wilt was far more explosive

[Heej]

Very good list overall, but Rodman has to be included. MJ, Isiah, and Phil Jackson have all said that Dennis is the best athlete they've ever met/coached. He's in the HoF despite being an addled drug fiend with no shooting talent because he's perhaps the most versatile defender ever and the best rebounder of all time after Drummond.

Honestly man it was between Rodman and Barkley for me. Idk Zion and Giannis are freak of freaks. Amare and Blake are probably the most agile+explosive roll finishers in NBA history. Plus Blake had insane body control for his size. I feel like Barkley himself was a force of nature.

Who else you taking Rodman definitively over? He's really my honorable mention. He's not any worse than them. I just personally can't put rodman over Zion Giannis and imo Blake as far as pure raw athletes go. Even though it sounds crazy to say because he's really one of the all time great freaks. Idk interested in your takes on that.

AD could be an egregious error too since he's basically on par with Giannis. PF seems to have the highest concentration of super freaks because I haven't even mentioned KG

For SF I forgot to add James Worthy. He's probably the safest #5 most athletic SF of all time.

Also what about Connie Hawkins? Could he be an honorable mention for the PF spot?

The way I see it, the offensive superiority of guys like Blake and Charles is largely a skill and effort difference; the defensive superiority of Dennis is largely an athletic difference. Dennis didn't take basketball seriously until he had a freakish growth spurt after high school, yet he carved a Hall of Fame career for himself by having an incredible combo of endurance, strength, speed, and reflexes.

I said years ago that Ben Simmons might be the best athlete in the history of Mankind. He's like a taller, more fluid version of LeBron, who himself said that Ben could be better than him if he wants to. Unfortunately, he doesn't.

I respect that take. And yeah absolutely agree on Ben. His fluidity and the speed he moved at is absolutely insane. Only guy I've ever seen that size who legit moved like a guard since Magic and now Luka. Hell Luka might be less fluid than Ben too.

[LewisnotMiller]

I'm not so interested in ranking guys, but I feel like David Thompson, Clyde Drexler and Kevin Johnson are obvious additions, at least in terms of being mentioned.

[MyUniBroDavis]

The thing with Zion is he’s athletically regressed a ton since he came into the league but he’s still pretty ridiculously physically dominant. He honestly didn’t look quite as athletic in Duke vs high school either in terms of explosiveness, his junior year he was huge but a lot leaner

A guy that’s 285 at 6ft6 with a 45 inch 15ft approach max vert is honestly kind of absurd, it would be the second or third highest in combine history, and from what I remember they didn’t take the highest of the 3 jumps they took his third jump because the other two he cleared the vertec

(It handicaps one foot jumpers like lavine who hit 39.5 inches but 46 inches with a full approach, Zions real max vert is probably closer to 48 in the Duke years, and honestly he probably hit 50 in highschool)

Read on Twitter

Watch on YouTube

;pp=ygUVWmlvbiBibG9jayBoaWdoc2Nob29s

On that 8-10s block, you see that in the Twitter image above he was jumping forward, and leaning forward as well. It’s clearly not just the angle because it was on a block on a dunk attempt and his head is where the ball was at the dunk attempt

Him jumping perfectly straight up, it takes 42 inches for Zion to get his head to the rim, 45 inches to get 3 inches above, and thats not counting the angle he was at mid air and that he wasn’t even jumping straight up, so 48-50 is probably fair

The highest recorded vertical jump ever is 52 inches and highest officially recorded one is 50.5 inches (not nba)

As it is, we genuinely have a guy that can average a highly effecient 30-8-5 if he stays healthy relying mostly on ridiculous athleticism and finishing touch, despite probably doing worse than Shaq in terms of taking care of his body lol

[Harry Palmer]

Because Hakeem’s perceived peak was after his physical peak, I think people forget what he was. When he was drafted 1st it was not for the dizzying array of post moves, it was sheer athleticism of every kind. Linear, integrated, motor skills, etc. covering every physical ability.

Here’s some rookie year clips:

Watch on YouTube

There are more in college, etc. but it’s more how different in style his play was than is fixed in minds. And though these clips mainly emphasize his hugely underrated linear (strength, speed, leaping) athleticism we all know about his integrated athleticism bring possibly GOAT. And there’s something to be said for the fact that these lists are only really looking at one. But anyways, just some food for thought.

Here’s the college reel. It’s worth noting that just months before these begin he picked up a basketball for the first time in his life. When he got to Houston from Nigeria, in their first session with him, they explained dunking, and one coach got on a chair and dunked it, and told Hakeem that was how it’s done. So Hakeem took the ball, got on the chair and dunked it.

Not long later Phi Slama Jama was a thing.

(Strongly recommend clicking on the short link)

https://youtube.com/shorts/gQgfwv32Cmg?feature=share

Watch on YouTube

His being drafted over MJ has little to do with the skills we associate now, he was just pure super freak. If you read scouting reports from back then…in Jordan’s draft class, mind…you might be surprised at who was often listed as the best athlete. And lastly, the power. Guys known for their power at either end of his career (Moses early, Shaq later) said he was the strongest guy they ever faced, though Shaq later said things about Yao that would have you believe in at least some respects he’d changed his mind, and obviously people like Wilt were higher but Shaq never faced them. Except for that handshook, lol.. But in college, and early in the NBA ‘power’ would have been the word most associated with him. He was was never super jacked, but more w/e the African version of country strong is. People compared his torso to tensile steel, it was so much denser than you’d think. Imo his later version is part getting older/carrying such a load for so long but I also think he got smarter, realizing that he just needed to get high enough to do what he wanted, that playing above the rim all the time for him with those arms was a lot of wasted motion, and often called for goaltending. And on offence, for example the Dreamshake was developed as his way of getting away from the auto-double coming, although as he developed it more and more he used regardless.

Anyways, not even sure where I’d put him, but just for consideration.

[MyUniBroDavis]

I wanna ask to confirm, was shaq a reported 12ft5 jump off a standing jump or a running jump?

If it was a standing jump he’s probably like a few inches off the top of the backboard off a max jump

When it comes to checking nba players max jumps, it’s annoying that the 15 foot approach was the maximum they’re allowed in the combine. We don’t neccessarily have most guys max jumps because especially with one foot jumpers that’s not really enough room for a full approach. Lavine did his max jump off one foot, and hit iirc 41.5, and then 46 inches on a team work out where he got three steps in.


It’s not unheard of or anything, it’s obviously not common but especially if it was when he was 250 it’s not impossible, that kao guy can get a finger over the top (he’s not very good tho lol)