Bleacher Report Top 100, 2025

[durantbird]

Your thoughts? https://bleacherreport.com/articles/25223594-brs-top-100-nba-players-all-time-ranked

1. Michael Jordan
2. LeBron James
3. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
4. Magic Johnson
5. Bill Russell
6. Shaquille O’Neal
7. Tim Duncan
8. Larry Bird
9. Wilt Chamberlain
10. Stephen Curry
11. Kobe Bryant
12. Hakeem Olajuwon
13. Kevin Durant
14. Oscar Robertson
15. Jerry West
16. Kevin Garnett
17. Nikola Jokić
18. Dirk Nowitzki
19. David Robinson
20. Julius Erving
21. Moses Malone
22. Karl Malone
23. Dwyane Wade
24. Giannis Antetokounmpo
25. Charles Barkley
26. Elgin Baylor
27. Isiah Thomas
28. Scottie Pippen
29. John Stockton
30. Chris Paul
31. John Havlicek
32. Kawhi Leonard
33. Jason Kidd
34. James Harden
35. Steve Nash
36. Allen Iverson
37. Bob Cousy
38. Bob Pettit
39. Clyde Drexler
40. Patrick Ewing
41. Rick Barry
42. George Gervin
43. Walt Frazier
44. George Mikan
45. Anthony Davis
46. Kevin McHale
47. Elvin Hayes
48. Russell Westbrook
49. Paul Pierce
50. Dominique Wilkins
51. Ray Allen
52. Dwight Howard
53. Gary Payton
54. Reggie Miller
55. Bill Walton
56. Dolph Schayes
57. Luka Dončić
58. Willis Reed
59. Tracy McGrady
60. Carmelo Anthony
61. Bob McAdoo
62. Pau Gasol
63. James Worthy
64. Damian Lillard
65. Vince Carter
66. Joel Embiid
67. Dennis Rodman
68. Robert Parish
69. Kyrie Irving
70. Wes Unseld
71. Chris Bosh
72. Paul Arizin
73. Hal Greer
74. Dave Cowens
75. Manu Ginóbili
76. Alex English
77. Pete Maravich
78. Paul George
79. Grant Hill
80. Nate “Tiny” Archibald
81. Dikembe Mutombo
82. Bob Lanier
83. Jimmy Butler
84. Adrian Dantley
85. Sam Jones
86. Tony Parker
87. Alonzo Mourning
88. Draymond Green
89. Earl Monroe
90. Chris Webber
91. Chauncey Billups
92. Lenny Wilkens
93. Jayson Tatum
94. Bill Sharman
95. Dave DeBusschere
96. Joe Dumars
97. Bernard King
98. Klay Thompson
99. Dave Bing
100. Artis Gilmore

[Benjammin]

Paul George and Jimmy Butler... Yeah no.

Sent from my Pixel 9 Pro XL using Tapatalk

[OldSchoolNoBull]

A number of things jump out at me:

1. I think Durant is too high.
2. I actually think Duncan is more appropriately placed here than on ours...maybe one of the only places where I think this list got it right over ours.
3. But I don't agree with the gap between Duncan and Garnett on this list. They're too far apart when their statistical profile does not suggest such a gap.
4. Mikan is much too low in an era-relative context.
5. I disagree with Karl Malone over Barkley, but at least the gap is smaller here than on our list.
6. Dominique is waaaaaay too high.
7. I like seeing Baylor get a little more love here than on ours.
8. Surprising seeing Walton that high given his brevity.
9. Surprising seeing Luka that much higher than Tatum given one has a ring and the other doesn't.
10. Isiah at 27 and Iverson at 36 is sure to ruffle some feathers around here.
11. The sheer number of players that they've included that we didn't and vice-versa. It's 16 spots.

Players on their list but not ours:
Dave Bing
Klay Thompson
Bernard King
Joe Dumars
Lenny Wilkins
Earl Monroe
Nate Archibald
Grant Hill
Pete Maravich
Hal Greer
Chris Bosh
Kyrie Irving
Carmelo Anthony
Alex English
Chris Webber
Dave DeBusschere

Players on our list but not theirs:
Nate Thurmond
Bob Davies
Ben Wallace
Bobby Jones
Rasheed Wallace
Kyle Lowry
Rudy Gobert
Larry Nance
Sydney Moncrief
Kevin Johnson
Shawn Marion
Jack Sikma
Al Horford
Horace Grant
Billy Cunningham
Gus Williams

I think leaving Moncrief, the Wallaces, Gus Williams, and Cunningham off is pretty glaring, while I think especially Melo, Klay, Bing, and probably Pete and maybe Monroe don't belong.

[penbeast0]

Unsurprisingly, compared to my personal preferences, one factor leaps out. Volume scoring is overrated by them, defense underrated. Inefficient volume scoring does not lead to NBA titles. In fact, the best defensive team in the league has won a greater percentage of titles than the best offensive team and dominating the ball without producing efficiency doesn't even produce particularly good offense.

Some notes off the top of my head:

Top 10, I have Russell and Wilt significantly higher and Curry drops into the next group.

10-19, reasonable picks, challenges would be more quibbling than major, Mikan should be in this group if not at the bottom of the top 10

20-29, Wade, Elgin, Isiah are too high for me

31-39, Where is Frazier, significantly better player than Jason Kidd. Kawhi, Kidd, Iverson, Drexler way too high, Havlicek and Cousy are lower for me as well.

40-49, Ewing, Frazier, Mikan way too low

50-59, Nique, Tmac too high for me, Walton WAY too high; I don't think he played enough to make my top 100 for career though his one peak season is top 20 most likely.

60-69 Anthony not in my top 100, Embiid and Irving both shaky -- they play well enough to be top 50 but they have both immaturity and availability issues that are serious.

70-79 Never that impressed by Bosh, I'd say top 200 rather than top 100, Maravich may have actually been a negative in his career despite his ridiculous flair and talent. He just didn't play to win.

80-89 Tiny is another short peak guy, if I'm putting a short peak guy in I'll have Moncrief and I'm not sold on him either. Not sure Hill or Monroe were ever as good as their rep.

90-100 Artis should be much higher, maybe not top 50 but if not, top 60. Bing another scorer who didn't elevate his team much though a classy human being from everything I've heard.

[Special_Puppy]

Isiah over Chris Paul is egregious

[Cavsfansince84]

I think Magic is always a bit overrated in any of these lists that different media sites put out every so often. He's almost always like top 7 if not top 4 in them and idk why exactly other than he's easy to like and a lot of the people who do these lists grew up on him(along with Bird and MJ). I don't think these sites use much of a consistent methodology either. I think its usually like 3-4 people who just sit down and do it in a few hours. So this one is about what I'd expect given what they usually are.

[One_and_Done]

Bad list, but I've seen worse. My top guys would be something like:

1. Lebron

2. Duncan
3. Kareem
4. Shaq

5. Magic
6. Jordan
7. Curry
8. KG
9. Hakeem
10. Bird

11. KD
12. Jokic
13. Giannis

14. Dirk
15. K.Malone
16. D.Rob
17. Nash
18. CP3

After that a bunch of guys are all close; Wade, Harden, Dr J, Barkley, etc.

[penbeast0]

Bad list, but I've seen worse. My top guys would be something like:

1. Lebron

2. Duncan
3. Kareem
4. Shaq

5. Magic
6. Jordan
7. Curry
8. KG
9. Hakeem
10. Bird

11. KD
12. Jokic
13. Giannis

14. Dirk
15. K.Malone
16. D.Rob
17. Nash
18. CP3

After that a bunch of guys are all close; Wade, Harden, Dr J, Barkley, etc.

Even with recency bias accepted, don't agree with this as a list of guys most likely to get you rings today which is what your stated criteria is.

[OhayoKD]

Bad list, but I've seen worse. My top guys would be something like:

1. Lebron

2. Duncan
3. Kareem
4. Shaq

5. Magic
6. Jordan
7. Curry
8. KG
9. Hakeem
10. Bird

11. KD
12. Jokic
13. Giannis

14. Dirk
15. K.Malone
16. D.Rob
17. Nash
18. CP3

After that a bunch of guys are all close; Wade, Harden, Dr J, Barkley, etc.

Even with recency bias accepted, don't agree with this as a list of guys most likely to get you rings today which is what your stated criteria is.

I think longevity is playing a significant factor here.

[cpower]

60. Carmelo Anthony
this is so bad.

[One_and_Done]

Bad list, but I've seen worse. My top guys would be something like:

1. Lebron

2. Duncan
3. Kareem
4. Shaq

5. Magic
6. Jordan
7. Curry
8. KG
9. Hakeem
10. Bird

11. KD
12. Jokic
13. Giannis

14. Dirk
15. K.Malone
16. D.Rob
17. Nash
18. CP3

After that a bunch of guys are all close; Wade, Harden, Dr J, Barkley, etc.

Even with recency bias accepted, don't agree with this as a list of guys most likely to get you rings today which is what your stated criteria is.

While that's not an entirely accurate summary of my criteria, as was noted longevity is an issue here. For instance, if Kawhi had been healthy I'd have him top 10.

[Warspite]

Bottom 50 is pretty bad.

Wow has DRob/DrJ/Moses dropped.

Dwayne Wade? He and Earl Monroe are the same player. Jimmy Butler and Grant Hill are head scratching.

[trelos6]

60. Carmelo Anthony
this is so bad.

Carmelo is a tough player to rank on a career list. We know he was a volume scorer and not much else.

He’s #12 on the NBA/ABA all time scoring list with 28,289 points. He was too in love with the midrange, so his rTS% is at his peak around +2.5%, but typically league average or below. Still, he was a decent volume scorer, and should probably be in consideration in the 90’s, though I personally have him around 130.

[penbeast0]

Bottom 50 is pretty bad.

Wow has DRob/DrJ/Moses dropped.

Dwayne Wade? He and Earl Monroe are the same player. Jimmy Butler and Grant Hill are head scratching.

No, Wade had far more primacy, Earl only had it early on in Baltimore but the Knicks were always Frazier's team. Earl was healthier but never peaked at Wade's level.

[TheGOATRises007]

Wilt is too low.

I don't really see a strong argument for him not being in the top 5 honestly.

The gap between Duncan and KG is too large.

I think Jokic is better than KD + Hakeem is better than Kobe.

You can nitpick more things, but that's the case with any top X list. All opinionated anyways.

[TheGOATRises007]

Bottom 50 is pretty bad.

Wow has DRob/DrJ/Moses dropped.

Dwayne Wade? He and Earl Monroe are the same player. Jimmy Butler and Grant Hill are head scratching.

Stop it.

Wade is the far superior player.

[f4p]

i suppose as far as overrating the things these list usually overrate and underrating the things they usually underrate, this isn't as bad as expected.

[Elpolo_14]

The don't really agree with the list. The top 10 is okay I might have move some player among them but it overall depends on personal Criteria so I do not judge. But 15 Downward the list seem inconsistent by criteria or metric they wanna value or take into consideration. Some Popular player who should not even SNIFF the top 100 are rank in here ( some of them are so high too ).

There elite player who get rank low or not even in the list not because they don't have enough accomplished or impact but their name are not well known.

[daoneandonly]

Neither Kevin is better than Jokic or Dirk

[RCM88x]

Understandable that outside of the top 25-30 the list gets worse. Don't think it's reasonable to expect people to keep interested that long and do the necessary research to have a proper list. Top quarter is okay even if I have some issues with it.