Choose your Mount Rushmore of Basketball Players

[Patches Perry]

I tend to go MJ, Kareem, LeBron

4th is half of Russell's face, half of Wilt's face. I go either way depending on the day. Russell has the greatness, Wilt has the excellence. Hard to prioritize which one should be rewarded on Rushmore.

[MartinToVaught]

This one's easy, no need to overthink it: Russell, Kareem, Duncan, LeBron.

[LAL1947]

This one's easy, no need to overthink it: Russell, Kareem, Duncan, LeBron.

When someone say things like "no need to overthink it" so matter-of-factly and then proceeds to put Tim Duncan over Michael Jordan...

[LAL1947]

4th is half of Russell's face, half of Wilt's face.

This is a good idea TBH. Like Two-Face from Batman.

If we extended this idea to the positions of Point Guard, Shooting Guard, Forward and Big... who would everyone chose to be their Two-Face for each? Here's mine.

PG: Jerry West (he's the logo) and Magic
SG: Mike and Kobe
FW: Lebron and Larry
Big: Wilt and Russell

[picko]

I'd go with something slightly different:

1. Mikan
2. Russell / Wilt
3. Magic / Bird
4. Jordan

If I was picking just a top four players then I'd have Jordan, LeBron, KAJ and (probably) Russell. But a Mount Rushmore should be something distinct from that and given that the career of some players are tied so closely with another it doesn't make sense to include one without another. Russell's career is interesting in large part because of Wilt (and vice versa), Magic's career is tied so closely with Bird's that it doesn't make sense to disentangle them.

So my Mount Rushmore represents the four distinct phases of the NBA from birth to mainstream and the players who were the most instrumental in achieving that.

[SeattleJazzFan]

mj, lebron, kareem, giannis.

sure, giannis isn't there yet, but i'm saving the space for him.

[sp6r=underrated]

Assuming 4 Faces

Russell/Kareem/Jordan/Lebron

Assuming 5 Faces

Russell/Kareem/Two Face (Magic/Bird: reviving the NBA assures them of next spot)/Jordan/Lebron

[penbeast0]

We need Mikan to represent all us nerdy post players with glasses!

[Ambrose]

This is tough because you can interpret it in a number of ways.

Best players
Most influential players
Most popular players
Players who best define the league
Best player of each era
etc.

Each of those results in a different group of four. For me personally I think I'd choose Magic/Bird/Jordan/LeBron.

[SeattleJazzFan]

This is tough because you can interpret it in a number of ways.

Best players

Best player of each era


Each of those results in a different group of four. For me personally I think I'd choose Magic/Bird/Jordan/LeBron.

if you do anything besides these two you're overthinking it. it really is about best player and one way to determine that his to use dominance in their own era.

[Ambrose]

This is tough because you can interpret it in a number of ways.

Best players

Best player of each era


Each of those results in a different group of four. For me personally I think I'd choose Magic/Bird/Jordan/LeBron.

if you do anything besides these two you're overthinking it. it really is about best player and one way to determine that his to use dominance in their own era.

I tend to overthink quite often

[countryboy667]

Wilt gets pathetically underrated once again by the supposedly wise heads here.

If it weren't for Wilt, there might well BE no damned NBA as we know it today, with its gaggle of arrogant prima donnas getting grossly overpaid for playing what is essentially a silly-ass kid's game of ZERO importance in the greater scheme of things (and by disgustingly kissing ChiCom ass at that!) If there's an NBA Mount Rushmore, Wilt should be the FIRST one on it because the game would NEVER have achieved the stature it has achieved without his eye-popping achievements--possibly even might not have survived other than as a niche curiosity for a small community of afficionados like Lacrosse or Polo.

With all due apologies, as a person who has been a fan since those early days, believe me people didn't come to NBA games in the 1960s when the league was still in its fledgling state to see Bill Russell, talented as he was--no, they came to see Wilt score a zillion damned points and do the other incredible, outlandish, unheard of things he did.

No other player in the history of the NBA has had the degree of impact on the game that Wilt had. As Wilt himself said, they didn't change the rules to hamper Michael effing Jordan the way they changed them to hamper him.

Give me CREDIBLE reasons why you think I'm wrong--if you can.