The Sporting News: Greatest 75 Players and Top 10 Peaks in NBA History

[LAL1947]

Came across this nice article by Josh Eberley at TheSportingNews. They have made their own ranked list of the Greatest 75 players and Top 10 Peaks in NBA History. Thought I'd share it here, enjoy and discuss.

NBA's Greatest 75 Players: Ranking The Top 10 Peaks In NBA History

If you had to pick players based on how insane they were at their absolute peak rather than on the totality and success of their careers, how different is the all-time list? Would any names change from those included on the NBA's 75th anniversary team, announced earlier this season and honored at halftime of the All-Star Game in Cleveland?

A collection of over 50 NBA beat writers, national media members, and #NBATwitter stars weighed in to answer exactly that.

1) Michael Jordan
2) Lebron James
3) Kareem Abdul Jabbar
4) Wilt Chamberlain
5) Shaquille O'Neal
6) Magic Johnson
7) Larry Bird
8) Kobe Bryant
9) Bill Russell
10) Kevin Durant

Link to #11-25 | Link to #26-50 | Link to #51-75

#11-25 in order: Duncan, Curry, Hakeem, Oscar, Giannis, Garnett, West, Dirk, Erwing, Kawhi, Barkley, Karl Malone, D. Wade, Moses Malone, D. Robinson.

Some guys who didn't make the NBA's Greatest 75 list have found their way onto this one... like Luka, Jokic, Chris Webber, Vince Carter, Derrick Rose, Klay Thompson, Tony Parker and Pau Gasol.

Their Method:
- Voters were asked to rate players 1-100, with 100 being the greatest possible peak ever and then adjusting their scale accordingly.
- Voters were able to assign multiples of any number and were given a ballot of 259 names. Does 259 sound like a lot? Yes! This league has had no shortage of talent through its initial 75 years. We didn't want to leave any viable candidate out -- and still, we had several individuals ask for names to be added!
- We didn't define "peak" nor were voters asked to think of any one specific year when they were going through their ballots. For example, how would you define LeBron James' peak? Was it early in Cleveland when his athleticism cast him far above his peers? Was it 2013 in Miami after he added a consistent three-ball and became a Defensive Player of the Year candidate? Or was it in 2018 when his basketball acuity had never been more on display? All are worthy answers. For those who asked for more structure behind the word ‘peak,’ they were told, “If you could pick any player in history, with the hopes of winning the title immediately, not knowing the era, rules, coach, or teammates -- who would you choose? Make that player your 100 and adjust accordingly.”
- We averaged the final ratings from all 58 voters and voila... the top 75 peaks.

[Matt15]

Interesting list good to see Kareem make the top 3 and Gasol getting some recognition in the Top 75 as well. Kobe and Durant over Hakeem/Duncan and to a lesser extent Curry/Garnett won’t be very well received here.

[Homer38]

Durant over Duncan,Curry and Hakeem,etc?

Ouch

[Gregoire]

Where is voting panel?

[Dutchball97]

On the whole not too surprising. They seem to be higher on offensive stars like Magic, Kobe and KD and lower on defensive stars like Russell, Hakeem and Duncan.

I'm not too concerned about who the voters are but it'd be nice to see the actual ballots they made this average list out of though. We're already pretty loose on the criteria for what peak is but it seems like they gave these guys even less direction. I wonder which players got relatively consistent placings and which ones got moved all over due to the differing criteria.

[LAL1947]

Where is voting panel?

It's listed at the bottom of the 1st link in the opening post, under Contributors.

[No-more-rings]

It’s sickening how much the media overrates Durant. If he stayed in OKC and remained ringless, I wonder if they’d still rank him that highly. My guess is no. The ranking of Kawhi over Wade is also a weird phenomenon by these sites, and Giannis gets ranked way too high.

[capfan33]

Glad Kareem actual got the recognition he deserves, but putting Durant over Duncan and Hakeem is beyond egregious and precisely why I hate his move to GS. There's no way he's top-10 without those titles, and he shouldn't be.

[Doctor MJ]

I'm disturbed that Bill Russell's blurbs literally says nothing about defense or any specific basketball skill. Doesn't mean the voting base itself is ignorant, but the blurb writer likely isn't someone with a ton of historical knowledge at his command

[sp6r=underrated]

further down the list is always more interesting

Parker peak over Manu is incorrect but classic case of old school stats vs new.
Webber over Mutumbo is incorrect and classic case of overvaluing PPG and not getting defensive impact
Green not being on the list is another good example of defense just not registering for some and offense being limited to PPG/shooting.
Kyrie being on the list when he doesn't even have the best PG peak in Cleveland history is championship bias.
Isiah being 27th and having his peak yrs misidentifies is quintessential championship bias.

[Owly]

fwiw, the list

1 Michael Jordan
2 LeBron James
3 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
4 Wilt Chamberlain
5 Shaquille O’Neal
6 Earvin “Magic” Johnson
7 Larry Bird
8 Kobe Bryant
9 Bill Russell
10 Kevin Durant
11 Tim Duncan
12 Stephen Curry
13 Hakeem Olajuwon
14 Oscar Robertson
15 Giannis Antetokounmpo
16 Kevin Garnett
17 Jerry West
18 Dirk Nowitzki
19 Julius Erving
20 Kawhi Leonard
21 Charles Barkley
22 Karl Malone
23 Dwyane Wade
24 Moses Malone
25 David Robinson
26 Elgin Baylor
27 Isiah Thomas
28 James Harden
29 Allen Iverson
30 Scottie Pippen
31 John Stockton
32 Chris Paul
33 Bill Walton
34 Patrick Ewing
35 Steve Nash
36 Anthony Davis
37 Nikola Jokic
38 Luka Doncic
39 Russell Westbrook
40 Bob Pettit
41 Tracy McGrady
42 John Havlicek
43 Rick Barry
44 Grant Hill
45 Clyde Drexler
46 Dwight Howard
47 Jason Kidd
48 George Gervin
49 Kevin McHale
50 Bob McAdoo
51 Joel Embiid
52 Damian Lillard
53 George Mikan
54 Gary Payton
55 Dominique Wilkins
56 Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway
57 Carmelo Anthony
58 Kyrie Irving
59 Chris Webber
60 Paul Pierce
61 Walt Frazier
62 Willis Reed
63 Vince Carter
64 James Worthy
65 Derrick Rose
66 Ray Allen
67 Pete Maravich
68 Alonzo Mourning
69 Bernard King
70 Bob Cousy
71 Klay Thompson
72 Elvin Hayes
73 Pau Gasol
74 Reggie Miller
75 Tony Parker

just missed
Shawn Kemp
Paul George
Nate Archibald
Draymond Green
Dennis Rodman
Yao Ming
Jimmy Butler
Adrian Dantley
Chris Bosh
Emanuel Ginobili

fwiw, first glance notes
1) As always can't expect consistency from an aggregated lists, by their nature.
2) Many of the criticisms above seem fair.
3) Without info (such as that noted above, ideally with full ballots, ranges, years chosen as peaks even if it wasn't factored into the vote counting, nor the discussion including individuals ranking process methodology that you might get here) there's not much value to the list.
4) It looks first glance (and without ever massively focusing on peaks) ... not great.

[f4p]

i'll never understand why people think parker was better than ginobili. even if you didn't have advanced stats in front of you telling you ginobili was massively better than parker (his 2005 playoff run is great even for a Top 10 ATG), especially with parker not having great playoff stats, he just always seemed way scarier at the end of a big game than parker and was obviously a better defender and passer.

[freypies]

Not a big fan at all of that voting panel to be honest.

[feyki]

A quite populist list.

[asindc]

further down the list is always more interesting

Parker peak over Manu is incorrect but classic case of old school stats vs new.
Webber over Mutumbo is incorrect and classic case of overvaluing PPG and not getting defensive impact
Green not being on the list is another good example of defense just not registering for some and offense being limited to PPG/shooting.
Kyrie being on the list when he doesn't even have the best PG peak in Cleveland history is championship bias.
Isiah being 27th and having his peak yrs misidentifies is quintessential championship bias.

Webber was better than Mutumbo.

[70sFan]

further down the list is always more interesting

Parker peak over Manu is incorrect but classic case of old school stats vs new.
Webber over Mutumbo is incorrect and classic case of overvaluing PPG and not getting defensive impact
Green not being on the list is another good example of defense just not registering for some and offense being limited to PPG/shooting.
Kyrie being on the list when he doesn't even have the best PG peak in Cleveland history is championship bias.
Isiah being 27th and having his peak yrs misidentifies is quintessential championship bias.

Webber was better than Mutumbo.

Don't agree with that.

[sp6r=underrated]

further down the list is always more interesting

Parker peak over Manu is incorrect but classic case of old school stats vs new.
Webber over Mutumbo is incorrect and classic case of overvaluing PPG and not getting defensive impact
Green not being on the list is another good example of defense just not registering for some and offense being limited to PPG/shooting.
Kyrie being on the list when he doesn't even have the best PG peak in Cleveland history is championship bias.
Isiah being 27th and having his peak yrs misidentifies is quintessential championship bias.

Webber was better than Mutumbo.

Mutumbo's peak seasons were better and he had a better career

[JordansBulls]

Durant ahead of Duncan and Hakeem?