Hoopshype's "75 Greatest International Players" list

[GSWFan1994]

To my surprise, Hoopshype published today this list. I thought they would be stopping with the other 5 "top 20 at their positions" lists.

Here's the link if you want to check the players' accolades and reasoning behind the rankings.

Disclaimer: I find this list was a mess. It's hardly satisfactory from a logical point of view. In one moment you think only NBA careers are taken into account, then you flip this by adding non-NBA careers in the middle of some stretch, then you flop again by adding other players without much care in the world. This is, by far, the worst of their 6 lists, IMO.

Speaking as a Brazilian, it's flabbergasting to me that Nenê and Leandrinho are ranked ahead of Oscar Schmidt, lol.

Also, it's worth noting the extreme lack of respect for european players who never came to the NBA (or played there much after their prime), like Sabonis, Petrovic, Meneghin, Bodiroga, Diamantidis (he didn't even get in the top 75!!!), etc.

Summary: this list has no internal coherence; it's both badly done and doesn't make sense in its own logic.

I'm quite sure many people, mainly our europeans posters, will be mad at this list... but don't attack me, I'm only the messenger.

Anyway, here's what you clicked for:

1. Hakeem Olajuwon (Nigeria)
2. Dirk Nowitzki (Germany)
3. Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece)
4. Steve Nash (Canada)
5. Pau Gasol (Spain)
6. Tony Parker (France)
7. Manu Ginobili (Argentina)
8. Nikola Jokic (Serbia)
9. Dikembe Mutombo (DR of Congo)
10. Marc Gasol (Spain)

11. Luka Doncic (Slovenia)
12. Al Horford (Dominican Republic)
13. Rudy Gobert (France)
14. Drazen Petrovic (Croatia)
15. Yao Ming (China)
16. Predrag Stojakovic (Serbia)
17. Joel Embiid (Cameroon)
18. Arvydas Sabonis (Lithuania)
19. Detlef Schrempf (Germany)
20. Vlade Divac (Serbia)

21. Rolando Blackman (Panama)
22. Toni Kukoc (Croatia)
23. Karl-Anthony Towns (Dominican Republic)
24. Nikola Vucevic (Montenegro)
25. Joakim Noah (France)
26. Ben Simmons (Australia)
27. Andrei Kirilenko (Russia)
28. Rik Smits (Netherlands)
29. Goran Dragic (Slovenia)
30. Luis Scola (Argentina)

31. Luol Deng (South Sudan)
32. Zydrunas Ilgauskas (Lithuania)
33. Domantas Sabonis (Lithuania)
34. Andrew Bogut (Australia)
35. Mychal Thompson (Bahamas)
36. Ricky Rubio (Spain)
37. Dino Radja (Croatia)
38. Danilo Gallinari (Italy)
39. Pascal Siakam (Cameroon)
40. Sarunas Marciulionis (Lithuania)

41. Kristaps Porzingis (Latvia)
42. Serge Ibaka (Republic of Congo)
43. Hidayet Turkoglu (Turkey)
44. Nicolas Batum (France)
45. Jamal Murray (Canada)
46. Nenê (Brazil)
47. Mehmet Okur (Turkey)
48. Jonas Valanciunas (Lithuania)
49. Patrick Mills (Australia)
50. Dejan Bodiroga (Serbia)

51. Steven Adams (New Zealand)
52. Andrew Wiggins (Canada)
53. Clint Capela (Switzerland)
54. Leandro Barbosa (Brazil)
55. Jose Manuel Calderon (Spain)
56. Oscar Schmidt (Brazil)
57. Boris Diaw (France)
58. Tristan Thompson (Canada)
59. Juan Carlos Navarro (Spain)
60. Rick Fox (Canada)

61. Bojan Bogdanovic (Croatia)
62. Evan Fournier (France)
63. Marcin Gortat (Poland)
64. Joe Ingles (Australia)
65. Dennis Schroeder (Germany)
66. Nikos Galis (Greece)
67. Predrag Danilovic (Serbia)
68. Swen Nater (Netherlands)
69. Jose Juan Barea (Puerto Rico)
70. Samuel Dalembert (Canada)

71. Vassilis Spanoulis (Greece)
72. Rudy Fernandez (Spain)
73. Deandre Ayton (Bahamas)
74. Jusuf Nurkic (Bosnia-Herzegovina)
75. Tiago Splitter (Brazil)

Also receiving votes:

Sergei Belov
Andrew Gaze
Sarunas Jasikevicius
Dino Meneghin
Dimitris Diamantidis
Dragan Kicanovic
Marco Belinelli
Radivoj Korac
Ersan Ilyasova
Jamaal Magloire
Nemanja Bjelica
Milos Teodosic
Nando De Colo
Andres Nocioni
Kresimir Cosic
Enes Kanter Freedom
Theodoros Papaloukas
Bogdan Bogdanovic
Aleksandar Djordjevic
Buddy Hield
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Zaza Pachulia

Any thoughts?

[wojoaderge]

Yes, it's definitely messed up and incoherent

[gp2015]

As a Canadian:

SGA>Wiggins

[UcanUwill]

Wow, this ones .... terrible. I dont usually like rating these lists, cause its hard to list players like that, but everything outside top 4 of this list is complete non sense.

[TheHartBreakKid]

Interesting list. Not even going to look too deep into it, but in the top 20ish, I think Embiid should be higher (if Luka is going to be 11 Embiid should be around there), and by that same logic but definitely way more controversial, Towns should be higher too....not near Luka/Embiid but higher than what he currently is. It's just about consistency...if we are putting Luka that high cause of his already impressive peak and future potential despite the lack of longevity, I don't know why Embiid and to a lesser extent Towns wouldn't get the same love. Yes Jokic has an mvp and should be ahead of Luka/Embiid, but I don't think he should be 9 spots ahead of Embiid just because of the MVP considering they would be neck to neck if anyone else wins the MVP last year.

Embiid should be higher than Horford and Peja in the Luka/Gobert tier. Towns should be around where Embiid is right now.

Giannis at 3 seems fair. He's too good and accomplished already to not have him ahead of guys like Pau/Parker, but you can't really put him in Dirk/Hakeem level yet without more longevity.

I'll put Manu ahead of Parker due to his international accomplishments.

[Myth]

Their lists are usually decent. This is not one of them.

[realEAST]

Yeah, didn't get past #22 and Toni Kukoc... this list would be better if they just drew names randomly from a hat.

[LivingLegend]

Call me crazy, but I think putting Giannis/Joker that high already is a little bit pre mature over guys like Parker, Ginobli, Gasol given their career accomplishments in the playoffs.

[dhsilv2]

This is just their top 75 i no order right? Like this was just a randomizer?

[Texas Chuck]

I mean they got the top of the list pretty correct if we are counting Dream as an international despite playing on the USA National Team.

I'd have Manu ahead of Parker but that top 10 looks pretty solid. Then yeah they are really inconsistent with how they are handling some of the current International players. Luka ahead of Embiid to that degree doesn't make any sense for instance.

[Mrakar]

I've took a short look at the list, saw Dejan Bodiroga at number 50, closed the list... It is beyond bad...
It would be better if they made "Greatest 75 international players in NBA" list, because this doesn't make sense...

[JJ_PR]

Oscar Schmidt should be in the top 10. This list is a huge disrespect towards him. The guy scored 49,000 points in his overseas career & played until he was 45. Best player to not play in the NBA, ever. He would've been a superstar in this league for sure.

Players from the NBA have been quoted saying that "he's the first player ever that has made us question wether or not he's better than what we have".

[Kvothe22]

Wow, this ones .... terrible. I dont usually like rating these lists, cause its hard to list players like that, but everything outside top 4 of this list is complete non sense.

Its too hard to make a good list Like that, with best International players.

I would Like to see "UcanUwill" list of best 20 International players. His opinion.

[UcanUwill]

Wow, this ones .... terrible. I dont usually like rating these lists, cause its hard to list players like that, but everything outside top 4 of this list is complete non sense.

Its too hard to make a good list Like that, with best International players.

I would Like to see "UcanUwill" list of best 20 International players. His opinion.

Top 10

Hakeem
Dirk
Giannis
Jokic
Embiid
A. Sabonis
Luka
Petrovic
Pau
Nash

11-15th

Galis
Shcimdt
Ginobili
Ming
KAT

Then it gets blurry.

[CoachD]

Sam Dalembert makes the list but OG Anunoby doesn't??

LMAO

[Duke4life831]

I guess its just me, but I still get a chuckle when I see someone like KAT be described as an "international player". When I think international player, I think of players that were born out of the US and didnt go through the usual domestic steps to becoming a NBA player. KAT was born and raised in NJ and lived there until he went to college in Kentucky.

But anyways that aside the list seems pretty random and all over the place.

[BadWolf]

I think dividing players as American and International is bad.
First, is there really a divide between American and Canadian?
Second, European should be it's own category, players come from a common ground and often, if they don't make a jump asap, play together.
Third, players from NCAA and specially those that played HS in USA are basically homegrown too.

[BelgradeNugget]

Interesting list. Not even going to look too deep into it, but in the top 20ish, I think Embiid should be higher (if Luka is going to be 11 Embiid should be around there), and by that same logic but definitely way more controversial, Towns should be higher too....not near Luka/Embiid but higher than what he currently is. It's just about consistency...if we are putting Luka that high cause of his already impressive peak and future potential despite the lack of longevity, I don't know why Embiid and to a lesser extent Towns wouldn't get the same love. Yes Jokic has an mvp and should be ahead of Luka/Embiid, but I don't think he should be 9 spots ahead of Embiid just because of the MVP considering they would be neck to neck if anyone else wins the MVP last year.

Embiid should be higher than Horford and Peja in the Luka/Gobert tier. Towns should be around where Embiid is right now.

Giannis at 3 seems fair. He's too good and accomplished already to not have him ahead of guys like Pau/Parker, but you can't really put him in Dirk/Hakeem level yet without more longevity.

I'll put Manu ahead of Parker due to his international accomplishments.

You obviously don't follow international basketball. You can't compare Embiid and Luka because Luka won Euroleague MVP, championship with Real Madrid, won gold medal on Euro championship with Slovenia, selected as 1st team, led Slovenia to 4th in Olympics.
You also can't compare Jokic and Embiid because now it is clear how much better Jokic is. Diference is like Jokic got 91, 1st place vote for MVP, Embiid got 1. Jokic is MVP, 2 times all nba 1st team, 1 2nd team. Embiid is "If healthy", "If Ben Simmons...", "If Kawhi missed...". The fact is Embiid and Towns are not in top 30 considering what they accomplished/didn't accomplish in basketball. They shouldn't be anywhere near Nikos Galis, Oscar Schmidt, Dejan Bodiroga, Predrag Danilovic, Aleksandar Djordjevic, Vassilis Spanoulis, Arvydas Sabonis, Detlef Schrempf, Vlade Divac, Toni Kukoc, Sarunas Marciulionis...

[Mickey8]

Stojakovic is way too low, he was great in both international competitions and in the NBA, he was voted third in the MVP race in 2003-2004 season .To me he was the better player than Tony Parker. I think Parker was highly overrated player in general. I am going to repeat again, an active players who are not out of their prime years shouldn't be ranked on any lists until they pass that stage, they are in the process of writing their playing resumes .

[theforumblue]

I'm gonna choose to look at it as international players who played in the nba.

Unicorn should be #75.

Jokic should be higher with his mvp.

yao's too high. toni kukoc should be top 20. so should AK47.

eduardo najera doesn't even get a mention?