Rate every season of top 10 players ever

[70sFan]

To make the thread less complicated, let's use the top 10 from 2020 project:

2020 List
1. LeBron James
2. Michael Jordan
3. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
4. Bill Russell
5. Tim Duncan
6. Wilt Chamberlain
7. Magic Johnson
8. Shaquille O'Neal
9. Hakeem Olajuwon
10. Larry Bird

I'd like to see the ranking of every season from every player on this list using similar tiers to the ones Ben Taylor uses (feel free to change it if you need):

GOAT season
All-time season
MVP season
Weak MVP season
All-nba season
All-star season
Sub all-star season
Roleplayer

I would add a tier of "low all-nba level" to differentiate a clear third team level players from regular all-stars, but it's up to you.

[OhayoKD]

Pretty big ask, but okay

To make the thread less complicated, let's use the top 10 from 2020 project:

2020 List
1. LeBron James
2. Michael Jordan
3. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
4. Bill Russell
5. Tim Duncan
6. Wilt Chamberlain
7. Magic Johnson
8. Shaquille O'Neal
9. Hakeem Olajuwon
10. Larry Bird

I'd like to see the ranking of every season from every player on this list using similar tiers to the ones Ben Taylor uses (feel free to change it if you need):

GOAT season
All-time season
MVP season
Weak MVP season
All-nba season
All-star season
Sub all-star season
Roleplayer

I would add a tier of "low all-nba level" to differentiate a clear third team level players from regular all-stars, but it's up to you.

For simplicity I'll go era-relative and I'm going to take out Bill Russell with an acknowledgement that however you break his years down, he's got a near unassailable(as in you can't really make positive arguments against him) case for having the most valuable prime.

Am also going to use "weak mvp" to designate a typical MVP season so I can have some differentiation at the top

With that out of the way...

GOAT season - 2009, 12/13, and 2016 Lebron, 72 and 77 Kareem, maaaybe 64 and 67 Wilt

All-Time - 2010, 2015, 2017, 2020, 2018 Lebron, 71 and 74 Kareem, 92-95 Hakeem, 02/03 Duncan, 88-90 MJ, maaybe 62 Wilt, and 2000 Shaq

MVP - 2014 Lebron, 99,05, and 07 Duncan, 01 Shaq, 91 and 96 MJ, 87-89 Magic, 86-88 Hakeem, 86 Bird, 73 Kareem

Weak MVP - 70, 75-76, and 78-80 Kareem, 1992-93, 97-98 MJ, 98, and 2000-2001 Duncan, 98, 02-04 Shaq, 84, 85, and 87 Bird, 86, 90-91 Magic, 2006/2022 Lebron, 89-91 Hakeem, 65 Wilt

All-NBA - 94-97, 05 and 06 Shaq, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2019, and 2021 Lebron, 04 and 08 Duncan, 81-83 Kareem, 83-85 Magic, 66, 68/69, and 72 Wilt, 86 and 95 MJ, 85 and 96-98 Hakeem, 80 Bird,

All-Star - 04 Lebron, 85 MJ, 84-86 Kareem, 04, 13/14 Duncan, 93 Shaq, 80 Magic, 88-90 Bird, 99 Hakeem

Sub All-star - Wizards MJ, 9-12 and 15 Duncan, 08 Shaq, 91 Bird

Role Player - 09-11 Shaq, 16 Duncan, 87/88 Kareem, 96 Magic, 2001 Hakeem

HM - Garnett wasn't listed, but his 04 is "all-time" worthy. 77 Walton, 64 Oscar, 19/22 Giannis can also get pretty high. If you want justification for a specific season, feel free to ask

[rk2023]

This would be a very fun spreadsheet project methinks! Am aware there was a project ranking top 12 prime years of pantheon candidates, but I see the similarities and differences between the two topics.

I'd be happy to lead an initiative of such committee voting (once the weekend starts) through Google Sheets & Tableau / Google Data Studio if people are intrigued by the idea of participating. Such could be a very resourceful input for the greatest careers / top 100 project too, at-least that is my guess.

Too hard for me to answer at the top of my head / right now. If anyone's interested, a reply on this thread and-or PM would be greatly appreciated!

[70sFan]

This would be a very fun spreadsheet project methinks! Am aware there was a project ranking top 12 prime years of pantheon candidates, but I see the similarities and differences between the two topics.

I'd be happy to lead an initiative of such committee voting (once the weekend starts) through Google Sheets & Tableau / Google Data Studio if people are intrigued by the idea of participating. Such could be a very resourceful input for the greatest careers / top 100 project too, at-least that is my guess.

Too hard for me to answer at the top of my head / right now. If anyone's interested, a reply on this thread and-or PM would be greatly appreciated!

That's a good idea for the new project actually. I am willing to do that as well, if we get enough people.

[OhayoKD]

This would be a very fun spreadsheet project methinks! Am aware there was a project ranking top 12 prime years of pantheon candidates, but I see the similarities and differences between the two topics.

I'd be happy to lead an initiative of such committee voting (once the weekend starts) through Google Sheets & Tableau / Google Data Studio if people are intrigued by the idea of participating. Such could be a very resourceful input for the greatest careers / top 100 project too, at-least that is my guess.

Too hard for me to answer at the top of my head / right now. If anyone's interested, a reply on this thread and-or PM would be greatly appreciated!

That's a good idea for the new project actually. I am willing to do that as well, if we get enough people.

You'll probably need to make this exercise simpler if you want a large sample of people. Something like "rate the top 5 seasons of every top 10 player" for example

[70sFan]

This would be a very fun spreadsheet project methinks! Am aware there was a project ranking top 12 prime years of pantheon candidates, but I see the similarities and differences between the two topics.

I'd be happy to lead an initiative of such committee voting (once the weekend starts) through Google Sheets & Tableau / Google Data Studio if people are intrigued by the idea of participating. Such could be a very resourceful input for the greatest careers / top 100 project too, at-least that is my guess.

Too hard for me to answer at the top of my head / right now. If anyone's interested, a reply on this thread and-or PM would be greatly appreciated!

That's a good idea for the new project actually. I am willing to do that as well, if we get enough people.

You'll probably need to make this exercise simpler if you want a large sample of people. Something like "rate the top 5 seasons of every top 10 player" for example

That's the point though, we always focus on the best seasons but I am interested in the evaluation of Duncan's 2008-10 years for example.

[s0ciety]

Surely not a definitive list, but tried my best.


GOAT seasons
67 Wilt
77 Kareem
89/90/91 Jordan
00 Shaq
03 Duncan
09 LeBron

All-Time seasons
60/62/64/65 Russell
62/63/64 Wilt
71/72/74/76/79/80 Kareem
84/86 Bird
87 Magic
88/92/93/96/97 Jordan
93/94 Hakeem
01 Shaq
02 Duncan
10/12/13/14/16/17/18 LeBron

MVP seasons
59/61/63/66 Russell
66/68 Wilt
73 Kareem
85/87/88 Bird
86/89/90/91 Magic
87/98 Jordan
94/99/02/03 Shaq
95 Hakeem
99/01/04/07 Duncan
06/08/20 LeBron

Weak MVP seasons
58/67/68/69 Russell
60/61/65 Wilt
70/78/81 Kareem
80/82/83/84/85/88 Magic
81/82/83 Bird
85 Jordan
86/87/88/89/90/97 Hakeem
95/98/04 Shaq
98/05/06/08 Duncan
05/07/11/15 LeBron

All-NBA seasons
57 Russell
69/71/72/73 Wilt
75/82/83/84/85/86 Kareem
80/90 Bird
81 Magic
85/91/92/96/99 Hakeem
93/96/97 Shaq
00/09/10/12/13/14/15 Duncan
19/21/22 LeBron

All-Star seasons
70 Wilt
87 Kareem
91 Bird
05/06/09 Shaq
11 Duncan

[Gregoire]

GOAT seasons:
67 Wilt
77 Kareem
89 Jordan
90 Jordan
91 Jordan (GOAT overall peak)
92 Jordan
00 Shaq
09 LeBron

[rk2023]

1. LeBron James
2. Michael Jordan
3. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
4. Bill Russell
5. Tim Duncan
6. Wilt Chamberlain
7. Magic Johnson
8. Shaquille O'Neal
9. Hakeem Olajuwon
10. Larry Bird

GOAT season
All-time season
MVP season

I'll give this a try at the "Strong MVP" tier and higher for each one of the players. This is just my opinion at the day, and such a classification of tiers of-course is subjective and varies by each posters' interpretation. If people disagree, more than open to hear differing views

For framework/criteria: I'm using similar methodology as ElGee/Ben's CORP model in assessing player goodness. Also worth stating that within the 'All-Time' and 'MVP' tiers, not each season is the same and some may be 'better' than others (like 1974 Kareem > 1984 Bird, for example). I'm more on the loose / flexible end when using these labels too FWIW.

GOAT Seasons:

Spoiler:

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: 1977
Michael Jordan: 1989-91
LeBron James: 2009, 2012, 2013
Shaquille O'Neal: 2000

All-Time Seasons:

Spoiler:

Bill Russell: 1960-66
Wilt Chamberlain: 1964, 66-68
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: 1971-74, 78-80
Magic Johnson: 1987-91
Larry Bird: 1984, 86-87
Michael Jordan: 1988, 92-93, 96
Hakeem Olajuwon: 1989-90, 93-95
Shaquille O'Neal: 2001-02
Tim Duncan: 2002-03, 2007
LeBron James: 2010, 14, 16-18, 20

Strong MVP Seasons:

Spoiler:

Bill Russell: 1958-59, 67
Wilt Chamberlain: 1960-62, 65, 72
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: 1970, 75-76
Magic Johnson: 1984-86
Larry Bird: 1981-84, 88
Michael Jordan: 1987, 97-98
Hakeem Olajuwon: 1986-88, 92
Shaquille O'Neal: 1994-95, 1998-99, 2003
Tim Duncan: 1998-99, 2001, 2004-06
LeBron James: 2008, 11, 15

Again, I'm unsure if there are given years I may have missed here and there, but that's my opinion for the most part. As a fun project (granted, with its limitations in methodology), I'll try to create a points-system to score each 10 of these players' primes. I'm aware longevity is another piece to the career puzzle that isn't factored in here, just to clarify. Assuming a GOAT season is worth 3 points, All-Time is worth 2, and MVP is worth 1 - here is how these ten players 'prime-qualities' stack up (below).

Ranking (Note, Longevity and era-adjustment for such not factored in):

Spoiler:

1. LeBron James: 24 points
T-2. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: 20 points
T-2. Michael Jordan: 20 points
4. Bill Russell: 17 points
5. Hakeem Olajuwon: 14 points
T-6. Wilt Chamberlain: 13 points
T-6. Magic Johnson: 13 points
T-8. Tim Duncan: 12 points
T-8. Shaquille O'Neal: 12 points
10: Larry Bird: 11 points

[f4p]

GOAT seasons
09 LeBron (probably greatest ever)
91 Jordan
67 Wilt

All-Time seasons
10/12/13/16/17/18 LeBron
88/89/90/93/96 Jordan
71/74/77 Kareem
62/64/65 Wilt
00/01 Shaq
94/95 Hakeem
64/65 Russell
03 Duncan
86 Bird
87 Magic


MVP seasons
14/15/20 LeBron
92/97/98 Jordan
72/73/76/80 Kareem
59/60/61/62/63/66 Russell
90/93 Hakeem
01/02/07 Duncan
63/66/68 Wilt
95/02/03 Shaq
85/86/88/89/90 Magic
84/87/88 Bird

Weak MVP seasons
07/08/11 LeBron
86/87/95 Jordan
70/75/78/79/81 Kareem
58/67/68/69 Russell
86/87/88/96/97 Hakeem
99/04/05/06 Duncan
60/61 Wilt
94/96/98/99/04 Shaq
83/84/91 Magic
81/82/83/85 Bird

All-NBA seasons
05/06/19/21/22 LeBron
85 Jordan
82/83/84/85/86 Kareem
57 Russell
89/91/92/99 Hakeem
98/00/08/09/10/12/13/14/15 Duncan
69/71/72/73 Wilt
93/97/05 Shaq
80/90 Bird
80/81/82 Magic

[euroleague]

I'm just going to do peak/near peak seasons. No point to do rookie years and such, imo. All rankings include playoffs.

GOAT Standard: Led the team to a dominant ring while also setting multiple team records. Defined an era in terms of both team and individual dominance. Set records in terms of individual dominance. Exception made for 62 Wilt, who set far more than "multiple" records.
GOAT: 00 Shaq, 62/67 Wilt, 91/92/93 MJ

All-Time Season: Two options... led team to a dominant season and victory while having a clearly best in the league level of play, helped to define an era in the NBA from individual dominance, and set some records. If they lost in the season, but set more records, can also be here.
All-Time: Wilt 64/68, Shaq 01, LeBron 09/12/16, Duncan 03, Magic 87, Bird 84/86, MJ 90/96, Hakeem 93/94, Kareem 72/77, Bill Russell 62/63/64/65

MVP season: Best player in the league for both playoffs and regular season, or by far the best in one of the playoffs/regular season while still being strong in the other.
MVP: Wilt 60/61/63, Lebron 13/15, MJ 97, Bird 85, Kareem 74, MJ 88, Bill Russell 60/61/66,

[ShaqAttac]

idk all da seasonss but best szns ever prob go

1. russ
2. mikan
3. bron

puttin russ loweer than wilt n mj is craazy but whatevs