What 25 players would you add for the 75th year?

[CircleCitysportsfan]

This is a list based on the BEST EVER, not a HOF list... Is Klay Thompson better than Dominique Wilkins for example?

I had forgot about Dominique. Now that I look back there was controversy over him not being selected.

[CircleCitysportsfan]

You stole my thread OP I was going to create this topic but wanted to wait about another week to do it.


Here is my list.

Dominique Wilkins
Dennis Rodman
Artis Gilmore
Yao Ming
Lebron James
Allen Iverson
Giannis
Kobe Bryant
Jason Kidd
Stephen Curry
Chris Paul
Gary Payton
Tim Duncan
Kevin Garnett
Dirk Nowitzki
Kevin Durant
Russell Westbrook
Steve Nash
Ray Allen
Paul Pierce
Tracy McGrady
Vince Carter
James Harden
Reggie Miller
Dwayne Wade

Sorry lol. I had considered Mcgrady, but his injury history kept me from putting him on. Reggie Miller is my all time favorite player but I didn't see how was an overall better player than any of the other guys.

[righterwriter]

5 of each.

G: Nash, Curry, Kidd,Payton,Paul
G: Kobe, Wade, Ray Allen, Manu,Harden
F: Lebron, Durant, Giannis,D Wilkins,Pierce
F: Kg, Tim D, Pau, Dirk, A davis,Rodman
C: Dwight, Shaq, Yao,Artis,Ben Wallace,Jokic

Pretty good list. I'd just replace Manu with Klay Thompson.

[deadfeather]

1. Kobe
2. Lebron
3. AD
4. Steve Nash
5. Westbrook
6/7. Gasol brothers
8. Dwight
9. Rodman
10. Payton
11. Robert Horry
12. Derek Fisher
13. Melo
14. Eddie Jones
15. Goodrich
16. Mikan
17. Artest
18. McAdoo
19. Mychal Thompson
20. Rambis
21. Lamar Odom
22. Michael Cooper
23. Byron Scott
24. Rick Fox
25. Mikkelsen

[Paddy Brosso]

1) LeBron James 2) Tim Duncan
3) Kobe Bryant 4) Kevin Garnett
5) Dirk Nowitzki 6) Kevin Durant
7) Stephen Curry 8) Dwayne Wade
9) James Harden 10) Russell Westbrook
11) Steve Nash 12) Jason Kidd
13) Chris Paul 14) Gary Payton
15) Dominique Wilkins 16) James McAdoo
17) Paul Pierce 18) Giannis Antetokounmpo
19) Reggie Miller 20) Ray Allen
21) Pau Gasol 22) Dwight Howard
23) Tony Parker 24) Manu Ginobili
25) Allen Iverson

Imo the following players should receive some consideration: Artis Gilmore, Yao Ming, Dikembe Mutombo, Ben Wallace, Dennis Rodman, Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter, Carmelo Anthony...

[Knightfall]

You stole my thread OP I was going to create this topic but wanted to wait about another week to do it.


Here is my list.

Dominique Wilkins
Dennis Rodman
Artis Gilmore
Yao Ming
Lebron James
Allen Iverson
Giannis
Kobe Bryant
Jason Kidd
Stephen Curry
Chris Paul
Gary Payton
Tim Duncan
Kevin Garnett
Dirk Nowitzki
Kevin Durant
Russell Westbrook
Steve Nash
Ray Allen
Paul Pierce
Tracy McGrady
Vince Carter
James Harden
Reggie Miller
Dwayne Wade

Sorry lol. I had considered Mcgrady, but his injury history kept me from putting him on. Reggie Miller is my all time favorite player but I didn't see how was an overall better player than any of the other guys.

Don't be sorry. It a great topic and great minds think alike. Haha

[OdomFan]

I'd rather wait for the 80th year so that it can be 30 players instead but I get it if the NBA decided to do it now.

Anyway I agree with many list already made. Definitely should include as many retro guys from all the decades as possible that didn't get to be part of the 1997 50 greatest ceremony.

Dominque for sure, Gary Payton, Jason Kidd, Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, Ray Allen, T-Mac, Vince Carter, Kevin Garnett, etc.

It would be nice if they could get quite a few of the 50 greatest from that 97 ceremony to attend the ceremony and welcome the new guys to the club.

[LAL1947]

In 96-97 season the NBA came up with a list of the top 50 players off all time to coumarate the anniversary. What about adding an additional 25 players for the 75th year anniversary? My list is not in any order, it's not scientific, just names that popped into my head at the time. Who would you add? Who would you remove?

1. Kobe Bryant
2. Tim Duncan
3. Lebron James
4. Dirk Nowitski
5. Kevin Garnett
6. Ray Allen
7. Chris Bosh
8. Carmelo Anthony
9. Dwight Howard
10. Kawhi Leonard
11. Jason Kidd
12. Steph Curry
13. Kevin Durant
14. James Harden
15. Giannis antetokounmpo
16. Chris Paul
17. Russell Westbrook
18. Klay Thompson
19. Allen Iverson
20. Paul Pierce
21. Anthony Davis
22. Damian lillard
23. Dwayne Wade
24. Steve Nash
25. Nikola Jokic

From your list, I'd remove 7 players: Allen, Bosh, Klay, Dame, Giannis, AD and Jokic.
The last 3 are too young to be on this.

And replace them with:
- Dominique Wilkins
- Reggie Miller
- Dikembe Mutombo
- Tracy McGrady
- Chris Webber
- Vince Carter
- Yao Ming (might as well get them global $$)

[JoseRizal]

Quite disappointed to scroll on the lists and not include the only RS MVP never to be voted in the 50 greatest players, Mr. Bob McAdoo. Such a tragedy before, hopefully not this time...

[ReddoverKobe]

McGrady love is wild. Did he ever get out of the first round? I'm sorry but at some point if you are so great you win a damn playoff series. I'll take Klay over him. Its not close to be honest

[og15]

Someone needs to tell me why Vince is getting his named mentioned so many times. I get he is a very popular player but on the court wise, his name doesnt deserve to be in this discussion.

Wasn't only me thinking the same thing then. I like Vince, a lot, but he didn't do anything special in his career outside of playing for so long vs other guys to be getting so much mention.

I'm thinking the same with TMac, yes, great peak, but....

[cupcakesnake]

From your list, I'd remove 7 players: Allen, Bosh, Klay, Dame, Giannis, AD and Jokic.
The last 3 are too young to be on this.

And replace them with:
- Dominique Wilkins
- Reggie Miller
- Dikembe Mutombo
- Tracy McGrady
- Chris Webber
- Vince Carter
- Yao Ming (might as well get them global $$)

I agree with some of these.
But I can't see any argument for keeping Giannis and Ray Allen off in favor of Tmac, Webber and Carter.
Giannis just led a team to the title, and absolutely dominated in the finals. He's clearly already eclipsed those guys. Compare his 2x MVP, FMVP, DPOY to those guys who combined for zero of any of those awards. At age 26, Giannis already has more playoff series wins (7) than Vince (6) and Tmac (0) combined and as many as Webber did in his whole career (7). At age 26 Webber had never won a playoff series. Even if Giannis retired tomorrow, he'd probably be ahead of these guys.

Ray Allen is a little closer. At different points in time Tmac, Vince, and Webber were each considered better than Ray Allen. But Ray Allen wasn't far off from any of their peaks (except maybe Tmac who had those 2 insane years), but he was so much better over his career. Regardless of how you feel about his game, Webber was basically done being a good NBA player at age 29. For Tmac it was 27. Vince played more games than Ray Allen, but go look at their career numbers and tell me Vince was better than Allen overall. Then go look at how many playoff games they played (Ray Allen played 83 more!). I think these 2 guys are pretty comparable, but when you factor in Allen's multiple championships and playoff performance to Vince rarely being a big factor in the playoffs tilts it clearly in Allen's favor.

[Winsome Gerbil]

Someone needs to tell me why Vince is getting his named mentioned so many times. I get he is a very popular player but on the court wise, his name doesnt deserve to be in this discussion.

I considered Vince's long LONG post prime run to be more absurd than impressive -- I never have been a fan of giving guys credit for just refusing to quit and move on. But that said, he did it for SO long that he actually realistically did bump his status on an all time list. He has his spectacular youthful moments where he was legit Top 10 elite, if not MVP caliber, and then on top of that he's got 25728pts over 1541gms. Both Top 20 all time.

I actually view at least 4-5 players who might make a Top 75 in that same light:

Carter 25728pts 2AllNBA (0/1/1)
Pierce 26397pts 4xAllNBA (0/1/3)
Miller 25279pts 3xAllNBA (0/0/3)
Allen 24505pts 2xAllNBA (0/1/1)
English 25613pts 3xAllNBA (0/3/0)

You compare that to guys like Melo (6x All NBA), Wilkins (7x All NBA) etc., and it's clear what a stature break there was between the above players and the next tier of greats. The longevity guys bootstrapped their names up there just by hanging on and racking up career numbers late into their 30s. They were never MVP candidates or guys who could do what Giannis did last year.

[Winsome Gerbil]

From your list, I'd remove 7 players: Allen, Bosh, Klay, Dame, Giannis, AD and Jokic.
The last 3 are too young to be on this.

And replace them with:
- Dominique Wilkins
- Reggie Miller
- Dikembe Mutombo
- Tracy McGrady
- Chris Webber
- Vince Carter
- Yao Ming (might as well get them global $$)

I agree with some of these.
But I can't see any argument for keeping Giannis and Ray Allen off in favor of Tmac, Webber and Carter.
Giannis just led a team to the title, and absolutely dominated in the finals. He's clearly already eclipsed those guys. Compare his 2x MVP, FMVP, DPOY to those guys who combined for zero of any of those awards. At age 26, Giannis already has more playoff series wins (7) than Vince (6) and Tmac (0) combined and as many as Webber did in his whole career (7). At age 26 Webber had never won a playoff series. Even if Giannis retired tomorrow, he'd probably be ahead of these guys.

Ray Allen is a little closer. At different points in time Tmac, Vince, and Webber were each considered better than Ray Allen. But Ray Allen wasn't far off from any of their peaks (except maybe Tmac who had those 2 insane years), but he was so much better over his career. Regardless of how you feel about his game, Webber was basically done being a good NBA player at age 29. For Tmac it was 27. Vince played more games than Ray Allen, but go look at their career numbers and tell me Vince was better than Allen overall. Then go look at how many playoff games they played (Ray Allen played 83 more!). I think these 2 guys are pretty comparable, but when you factor in Allen's multiple championships and playoff performance to Vince rarely being a big factor in the playoffs tilts it clearly in Allen's favor.

Ray Allen doesn't have multiple championships. He was ON multiple championship teams.

As noted one of the most overrated guys of all time. He was no better than the 3rd option on "his" championship teams. He was Jrue. He wasn't even a starter in Miami. He was the guy who brought the doughnuts.

And yeah, he was pretty far off from guys like Webber and TMac at their peaks, both of whom were First Team All NBAers and getting MVP votes. Webber was even the main guy on a major title contender.

The longevity is his argument, and it is what it is. Depends whether you look back at a guy who was good for a long time and gush over him, or gush over the legit great next to him who burned out. I always recognize the greatness. Good guys are far more common, and that one happened to hang on longer or shorter doesn't move them that far for me. Ray can sneak onto the list same way Carter can, but he shouldn't be talked about in the same light as guys who were clearly better and more highly regarded than him in his own career. In an era people like to insult as lacking talent he could barely sneak onto a pair of All NBA teams. He was a high level All Star, but not a true franchise guy. He needed to be part of a group of stars to really make any significant noise.

[cupcakesnake]

From your list, I'd remove 7 players: Allen, Bosh, Klay, Dame, Giannis, AD and Jokic.
The last 3 are too young to be on this.

And replace them with:
- Dominique Wilkins
- Reggie Miller
- Dikembe Mutombo
- Tracy McGrady
- Chris Webber
- Vince Carter
- Yao Ming (might as well get them global $$)

I agree with some of these.
But I can't see any argument for keeping Giannis and Ray Allen off in favor of Tmac, Webber and Carter.
Giannis just led a team to the title, and absolutely dominated in the finals. He's clearly already eclipsed those guys. Compare his 2x MVP, FMVP, DPOY to those guys who combined for zero of any of those awards. At age 26, Giannis already has more playoff series wins (7) than Vince (6) and Tmac (0) combined and as many as Webber did in his whole career (7). At age 26 Webber had never won a playoff series. Even if Giannis retired tomorrow, he'd probably be ahead of these guys.

Ray Allen is a little closer. At different points in time Tmac, Vince, and Webber were each considered better than Ray Allen. But Ray Allen wasn't far off from any of their peaks (except maybe Tmac who had those 2 insane years), but he was so much better over his career. Regardless of how you feel about his game, Webber was basically done being a good NBA player at age 29. For Tmac it was 27. Vince played more games than Ray Allen, but go look at their career numbers and tell me Vince was better than Allen overall. Then go look at how many playoff games they played (Ray Allen played 83 more!). I think these 2 guys are pretty comparable, but when you factor in Allen's multiple championships and playoff performance to Vince rarely being a big factor in the playoffs tilts it clearly in Allen's favor.

Ray Allen doesn't have multiple championships. He was ON multiple championship teams.

As noted one of the most overrated guys of all time. He was no better than the 3rd option on "his" championship teams. He was Jrue. He wasn't even a starter in Miami. He was the guy who brought the doughnuts.

And yeah, he was pretty far off from guys like Webber and TMac at their peaks, both of whom were First Team All NBAers and getting MVP votes. Webber was even the main guy on a major title contender.

The longevity is his argument, and it is what it is. Depends whether you look back at a guy who was good for a long time and gush over him, or gush over the legit great next to him who burned out. I always recognize the greatness. Good guys are far more common, and that one happened to hang on longer or shorter doesn't move them that far for me. Ray can sneak onto the list same way Carter can, but he shouldn't be talked about in the same light as guys who were clearly better and more highly regarded than him in his own career. In an era people like to insult as lacking talent he could barely sneak onto a pair of All NBA teams. He was a high level All Star, but not a true franchise guy. He needed to be part of a group of stars to really make any significant noise.

I'm not a Ray Allen fan so I'm kind of laughing that I find myself here defending him.
Some of the stuff you say is possibly true sure, but you take it outside the context of comparing him to McGrady, Carter, and Webber. I never said Ray Allenw as the best player on a championship team. But his playoff accomplishments are not found lacking when you compare him to McGrady (zero playoff series wins), or Carter (6 playoff series wins in 22 seasons). In his Milwaukee and Seattle years, Ray Allen wasn't too shabby in the playoffs (check out 2005 and 2001). The first year in Boston, he scored 20ppg on 50/52/86 splits in the Finals at age 32. In his mid 30s the decline from star player to shooting specialist is pretty steady, but he manages to stay relevant for the rest of his career. His shot against San Antonio in 2013 is a defining playoff moment.

Again you can take away from that all you want (if I was comparing him to a player I thought was better, I'd be finding all the angles to attack Ray Allen), but remember, the context here is Webber/McGrady/Yao. Tmac had some bad luck with team talent and injury, but at the end of the day, he just has zero playoff resume aside from some heroic number piling up in first round sweeps. His 7 game series against Detroit (where he blew a 3-1 lead) is his biggest playoff accomplishment. At the same age (32) Ray Allen was putting up 20ppg in the finals, McGrady was completely washed, playing 15mpg for Atlanta (coincidentally he lost to a 36 year old Ray Allen who was still somewhat relevant then.) The next year McGrady was sitting on the Spurs bench watching the much older Ray Allen be the 4th best player in Miami. Houston's only playoff series win during the McGrady era, came with him injured. Vince has a better resume that stacks up fine against Allen, minus Allen being a bigger contributor in his late career. Webber was the face of those awesome Kings teams, but minus a couple great series against the Mavs and that classic 7-game series against the Lakers, Webber was a bit of a choke artist. He has 5 playoff series in his prime where he shot under 43%, it's not super inspiring stuff. If you were a Webber fan in the early 2000s, you remember the frustrations. Really inefficient player.

[dautjazz]

Definitely am not on board with Yao. He was an elite big for maybe 4 years, of which he was often injured in 3 of those years. In today's NBA he would of had half the All-Star games, and often times he didn't earn the honors, was simply voted in by China, not to mention it was the weakest period for centers in NBA history (well stretching back to pre-Russell/Wilt)

[Capn'O]

You guys are forgetting Zo

Anyone removing Giannis is out of their minds. He's already very high on the list.

[Duke4life831]

Someone needs to tell me why Vince is getting his named mentioned so many times. I get he is a very popular player but on the court wise, his name doesnt deserve to be in this discussion.

I considered Vince's long LONG post prime run to be more absurd than impressive -- I never have been a fan of giving guys credit for just refusing to quit and move on. But that said, he did it for SO long that he actually realistically did bump his status on an all time list. He has his spectacular youthful moments where he was legit Top 10 elite, if not MVP caliber, and then on top of that he's got 25728pts over 1541gms. Both Top 20 all time.

I actually view at least 4-5 players who might make a Top 75 in that same light:

Carter 25728pts 2AllNBA (0/1/1)
Pierce 26397pts 4xAllNBA (0/1/3)
Miller 25279pts 3xAllNBA (0/0/3)
Allen 24505pts 2xAllNBA (0/1/1)
English 25613pts 3xAllNBA (0/3/0)

You compare that to guys like Melo (6x All NBA), Wilkins (7x All NBA) etc., and it's clear what a stature break there was between the above players and the next tier of greats. The longevity guys bootstrapped their names up there just by hanging on and racking up career numbers late into their 30s. They were never MVP candidates or guys who could do what Giannis did last year.

I don’t know. Ya it’s impressive that he played so long, but the last 9 years he was basically a bench player. The last 7 of those he wasn’t really getting even 20 minutes per game. I don’t think that is strong enough to really prop up his resume compared to other all time greats.

And it’s not like his prime was all that dominant. Only 2 All NBA teams, not one 1st team, one 2nd and one 3rd. He was only top 10 in MVP voting one time and he was 10th that year.

The 25 players to be added aren’t just the top 25 players in the last 25 years. It also includes guys that just missed out on making the 50 team. Even if was just the top 25 of the last 25, I don’t see the argument for Vince.

Popularity wise, ya of course. But actual basketball on court impact, no he’s not up there.

[Kent]

No Dwight Howard? He has a much longer list of individual awards list than McGrady, Carter, Yao, Miller. He has made as many or more All-Star teams, more All-NBA selections(most 1st-Team), much more All-Defensive teams, more major awards(3x DPOTY), lead the league in more major stat categories(5x Reb, 2x Blk, 1x FG%). He was also the closets to win MVP out of these players. In my opinion in his prime was a better player and imp[acted winning more.

Howard can replace Rodman.
Rodman is not even in the Hall of Fame. Miller and McGRady are.

Rodman actually IS in the HOF.

Grizzly Adams DID have a beard.

[Optms]

McGrady love is wild. Did he ever get out of the first round? I'm sorry but at some point if you are so great you win a damn playoff series. I'll take Klay over him. Its not close to be honest

I get your point but you cannot say that and then all of a sudden mention Klay freaking Thompson.

T-Mac was an MVP level player for several seasons, and arguably the best player in basketball in 2003. Klay literately isn't half the player Tracy was and has been carried his entire career by Curry. So he's not a good example. Was he ever even a top 10 player for any one season? I don't think so.