RealGM

Who least deserved it and who was the biggest snub?

Nothing against these players, but If I had to take out some of the top 50 it would probably be (in no particular order):
Nate Thurmond - Great defensive Center.. kind of the Deke of his era with less defense but more offense.
Paul Arizin - hard to compare 50's, I guess I don't know that much about him though...
Lenny Wilkins - Great solid PG, but solid in the sense of lets say a Chauncey Billups, I think several of our PGs from our era have had better careers/peaks.
Pete Maravich - sort of lousy NBA career for a player of his caliber

and replace them with:
Tim Duncan
Kobe Bryant
Kevin Garnett
Jason Kidd/Gary Payton/Lebron James

Tesla wrote:Nothing against these players, but If I had to take out some of the top 50 it would probably be (in no particular order):
Nate Thurmond - Great defensive Center.. kind of the Deke of his era with less defense but more offense.
Paul Arizin - hard to compare 50's, I guess I don't know that much about him though...
Lenny Wilkins - Great solid PG, but solid in the sense of lets say a Chauncey Billups, I think several of our PGs from our era have had better careers/peaks.
Pete Maravich - sort of lousy NBA career for a player of his caliber

and replace them with:
Tim Duncan
Kobe Bryant
Kevin Garnett
Jason Kidd/Gary Payton/Lebron James

Wasn't the list made in the mid 90s? So pretty much everyone you said wasn't in the league or developed enough to deserve getting into the list.

At the time Bob Macadoo was by far the biggest snub and there wasnt really a good reason for him not to be on the list. I think he was the only mvp not on it. Shaq at the time probably didnt deserve it (his 2nd year or so?).

I think the 3 worst guys on there are Dave Bing, James Worthy, and Robert Parish.

Snubs (circa 96) would include Gary Payton, Bob McAdoo (how did an MVP miss the list???), Alex English, Bob Lanier

Dr Mufasa wrote:I think the 3 worst guys on there are Dave Bing, James Worthy, and Robert Parish.

Snubs (circa 96) would include Gary Payton, Bob McAdoo (how did an MVP miss the list???), Alex English, Bob Lanier

You gotta be kidding me? Worthy won finals mvp and carried that team in the finals.

Mustachio wrote:
Wasn't the list made in the mid 90s? So pretty much everyone you said wasn't in the league or developed enough to deserve getting into the list.

Yeah in 1996, I didn't mean to count TD/KB/KG , etc as snubs, just that they are shoe-ins in the top 50 list if you were to remake one now. I guess the biggest snub at the time would be Artis Gilmore, although I'm not sure if snub is the right word...

Tesla wrote:Nothing against these players, but If I had to take out some of the top 50 it would probably be (in no particular order):
Nate Thurmond - Great defensive Center.. kind of the Deke of his era with less defense but more offense.
Paul Arizin - hard to compare 50's, I guess I don't know that much about him though...
Lenny Wilkins - Great solid PG, but solid in the sense of lets say a Chauncey Billups, I think several of our PGs from our era have had better careers/peaks.
Pete Maravich - sort of lousy NBA career for a player of his caliber

and replace them with:
Tim Duncan
Kobe Bryant
Kevin Garnett
Jason Kidd/Gary Payton/Lebron James

Nate Thurmond is the Rodney Dangerfield of this site.

Tesla, I would think you would know better. Research what both Wilt and Kareem said about him. Without belittling Deke, it's still a considerable insult to Nate, possibly the third best defensive big in the history of the game (with a decent if not spectacular offensive game to boot) to call him "the Deke of his era."

IMO, the most egregious and indefensible snub is easily Artis Gilmore.

Thurmond by all accounts is really really good, especially defensively, but he has no business being considered a better center than Gilmore (who is not on the top 50).

Deke is in my mind in contention for being the greatest defensive center of all time, although I personally would have late Wilt as #1, then Russell, then you have Deke/Hakeem/Thurmond/Drob/Zo etc... Defensively, there is little doubt in my mind that Deke isn't on Thurmond's level defensively, personally I think Deke is better in that regard, while Thurmond enjoys the offensive advantage, although I don't think Thurmond was spectacular at that end, at that efficiency he was good, not spectacular.

Maybe Alonzo might be a better comparison, I don't know, but there are several of players not on the top 50 list that I consider having a better career/peak than Thurmond.

Tesla wrote:Paul Arizin - hard to compare 50's, I guess I don't know that much about him though...

He was the first player to really use the jump shot successfully. That's like saying Naismith doesn't belong into the HOF. ;)

A good read about him:

http://www.nba.com/history/players/arizin_bio.html

writerman wrote:

Tesla wrote:Nothing against these players, but If I had to take out some of the top 50 it would probably be (in no particular order):
Nate Thurmond - Great defensive Center.. kind of the Deke of his era with less defense but more offense.
Paul Arizin - hard to compare 50's, I guess I don't know that much about him though...
Lenny Wilkins - Great solid PG, but solid in the sense of lets say a Chauncey Billups, I think several of our PGs from our era have had better careers/peaks.
Pete Maravich - sort of lousy NBA career for a player of his caliber

and replace them with:
Tim Duncan
Kobe Bryant
Kevin Garnett
Jason Kidd/Gary Payton/Lebron James

Nate Thurmond is the Rodney Dangerfield of this site.

Tesla, I would think you would know better. Research what both Wilt and Kareem said about him. Without belittling Deke, it's still a considerable insult to Nate, possibly the third best defensive big in the history of the game (with a decent if not spectacular offensive game to boot) to call him "the Deke of his era."

IMO, the most egregious and indefensible snub is easily Artis Gilmore.

THIS.

/end thread.

I decided to arrange the list of "50 Greatest" by position; not a ranking, ordered alphabetically. You would assume it would divide evenly across each position, into a "Top 10" per position. The panel clearly favored the forward/center position.

Point Guards

1. Nate Archibald
2. Bob Cousy
3. Walt Frzier
4. Magic Johnson
5. Oscar Robertson
6. John Stockton
7. Isiah Thomas
8. Lenny Wilkens

Shooting Guards

1. Dave Bing
2. Clyde Drexler
3. George Gervin
4. Hal Greer
5. Sam Jones
6. Michael Jordan
7. Pete Maravich
8. Earl Monroe
9. Bill Sharman
10. Jerry West

Small Forwards

1. Paul Arizin
2. Rick Barry
3. Elgin Baylor
4. Larry Bird
5. Billy Cunningham
6. Julius Erving
7. John Havlicek
8. Scottie Pippen
9. Dolph Schayes
10. James Worthy

Power Forwards

1. Charles Barkley
2. Dave DeBusschere
3. Elvin Hayes
4. Jerry Lucas
5. Karl Malone
6. Kevin McHale
7. Bob Pettit

Centers

1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
2. Wilt Chamberlain
3. Dave Cowens
4. Patrick Ewing
5. Moses Malone
6. George Mikan
7. Shaquille O'Neal
8. Hakeem Olajuwon
9. Robert Parish
10. Willis Reed
11. David Robinson
12. Bill Russell
13. Nate Thurmond
14. Wes Unseld
15. Bill Walton

Minge wrote:IYou would assume it would divide evenly across each position, into a "Top 10" per position.

Why? That is the list of the 50 greatest players, not the list of the best 10 on each position.

parish, pippen, worthy

McAdoo wasn't the only MVP not to make it; two time ABA MVP Mel Daniels was snubbed too as part of the NBA's pattern of trying to pretend that the ABA didn't exist (same reason he and Gilmore aren't in the HOF). I think it comes down to two things: (a) there is no real constituency that might constitute new fans for the ABA (whereas equivalent Euros and Women players are making the Hall) and (b) they are afraid of stirring up press about the ABA in case another new American lead tried to break into their moneymaking monopoly.

Bill Walton would also be on my questionable list . . . Daniels would admittedly be marginal but has about as good an argument as McAdoo.