The Top 10 NBA Players Ever - #8

This is yet another installment in my list of the top 10 NBA players of all time. It is admittedly a subjective list. Are individual statistics more important than the number of championships a player led his team to? Admittedly, these types of lists will always be contentious.

#8 Shaquille O'Neal
Shaq was far and away the most dominant player of the first half of the 2000s. In his first incarnation in Orlando, in an epic era of legendary centers, Shaq more than held his own. As they began to age, Shaq took over the league. He was an unstoppable force near the paint. He possessed an uncommon court awareness for a man with his finishing ability. He also intimidated opponents from driving to the basket.

Shaq left a generation of bewildered centers in his wake. No player relished having to guard the Diesel. Teams eventually realized that a traditional center couldn't stop Shaq. No one could. So, opposing coaches went with quicker smaller guys or good outside shooters against Shaq in the hopes of getting some offensive production from their own center. The league still has a dearth of low post scoring bigmen as a result.

O'Neal was such a scoring threat from the field, and such a liability at the free throw line, the NBA had to change the rules because opponents would intentionally foul Shaq off the ball late in games. Now, the Hack-a-Shaq tactic with less than two minutes to go resorts in the offensive team getting free throws and possession of the ball. Shaq has led the league in scoring twice and has been in the top 5 7 more times. Shaq, who currently averages 23.8 ppg for his career, has the 5th most points in NBA history. He has the 2nd highest FG% ever (58.2%)

Shaq's playoff numbers are better than his regular season averages. He's averaging 24.5 ppg in the postseason and 11.7 rpg (10.9 in the regular season). He has led his teams to 4 championships and two more NBA Finals. Shaq's clubs have missed the playoffs only twice during his 18 year career (those came when he was rookie and with the 2008-9 Suns when Shaq was 36 years old).

O'Neal won the MVP award in 1999-2000. He has finished in the top 10 in the MVP voting 13 times. He's won 3 Finals MVPs, all during the three-peat with the Lakers. Shaq is an 8 time All-NBA 1st team member. He made the 2nd or 3rd team 6 other times. He was also voted to the All-Defensive 2nd team 3 times.

But Shaq's strongest attribute was the utter devastation he caused on the offensive end. If you wanted to win the title during his prolonged heyday, you needed someone to deal with Shaq. Often times, opponents would use at least three revolving players to guard/foul O'Neal as a desperate ploy to slow Shaq's scoring. It rarely worked. Instead, Shaq was able to display his array of slick post moves coupled with some of the most frightening dunks.

The Top 10 NBA Players Ever - #7

This is yet another installment in my list of the top 10 NBA players of all time. It is admittedly a subjective list. Are individual statistics more important than the number of championships a player led his team to? Admittedly, these types of lists will always be contentious.

#7 Bob CousyBob Cousy revolutionized the NBA. His twisting, twirling, behind-the-back passes were a new phenomenon in a rather stuffy league. The Houdini of the Hardwood was not only an innovator, he was a record-setter, and a winner. Cousy won 8 consecutive assist titles from 1952-3 until 1959-60. He never finished worse than 4th in the league. When he retired, he was the all time career leader in assists.

Cousy described his flamboyant work with the ball as "necessity being the mother of invention." Cousy said that the first time he threw the ball behind his back to a teammate, it was because that was the only option available to complete the correct play. The Cooz often made the right play, which resulted in his team's success. The Celtics won 6 titles with Cousy playing the point. Each of Cousy's Boston teams made the playoffs.

Incredibly, Cousy's assist numbers didn't improve dramatically with the advent of the shot clock. Regardless of the speed of play, Cousy was going to set his teammates up to score. His career assist average was 7.5 per game. He's still 14th all time in total assists and 17th in assists per game. Cousy led the postseason in assists per game for 8 consecutive years. Cousy was clutch. He knew when to pass and when to put the ball in the basket himself. He led all playoff scorers three different seasons, despite not being much of a scorer. His career average was 18.4 ppg. The 6'1" point guard also added 5.2 rebounds a game for his career.

There was no MVP award for much of Cousy's career, but he managed to go home with one, following the 1956-7 season. There was no Finals MVP awarded while Cousy played. However, Cousy was voted to the All-NBA 1st team 10 times and to the 2nd team 2 more times. Cousy was the league's first true point guard, a champion, a trendsetter, and a sensation all rolled into one.

The Top 10 NBA Players Ever - #6

This is yet another installment in my list of the top 10 NBA players of all time. It is admittedly a subjective list. Are individual statistics more important than the number of championships a player led his team to? Admittedly, these types of lists will always be contentious.

#6 Magic Johnson
Magic Johnson's rivalry with Larry Bird helped restore the NBA's popularity and legitimacy upon entering the league in the fall of 1979. In getting the better of that prolonged duel, Magic appeared to reinvent the game. As it turned out, the 6'9" run-and-gun ballhandler was simply a spectacular anomaly.

Magic, who led the league in assists per game in 4 seasons, finished his career with the highest apg (11.2) in NBA history. From 1982-3 until 1990-1, Johnson averaged double-digit apg every year. He also averaged more assists in the postseason than any other player 5 different times (including averaging over 15 a game twice). Magic retired with the record for most career total assists all time. He's currently 4th on the list.

Magic didn't simply wrack up assist numbers. His passes often lifted you out of your seat. Sometimes those dishes were flashy just for the sake of it, but often, Magic was able to find an improbable angle that put his team in a better position to score. Though Magic's best quality was his ability to run the Lakers, he is most remembered for two instances that had nothing to do with his most prominent gift.

As a rookie, with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar injured for Game 6 of the 1980 NBA Finals, Johnson started at center. The rookie, who had led Michigan State to an NCAA title the year before, lifted his team with a 42 point, 15 rebound, 7 assist performance, clinching the championship with a 4-2 series win over Philadelphia. Magic won the Finals MVP, his first of three.

The second happened during the 1987 NBA Finals. In Game 4, with the Lakers up on the Celtics 2 games to 1, the Lakers were down by 1 point in the Boston Garden. With 7 seconds left, Magic faked a jumper in the corner, drove right, and nailed a game-winning sky hook to give the Lakers a 3-1 series lead. Magic won the Finals MVP in that year too.

Magic also won 3 regular season MVPs. He led (or co-led with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) the Lakers to 5 championships in his 13 year career. His teams won the Western Conference Finals 4 more times. He was voted to the All-NBA 1st team 9 times and to the 2nd team on another occasion.

Though Magic was not a superior defender, he managed to lead the league in steals twice. But Magic's greatness was on the offensive end. He averaged 19.5 ppg and an impressive 7.2 rpg for a point guard, but his legend was made running up the floor and feeding his teammates for easy baskets. Magic brought that wonderful combination to the game; not only immensely fun to watch, but he was a certified winner as well.

The Top 10 NBA Players Ever - #5

This is yet another installment in my list of the top 10 NBA players of all time. It is admittedly a subjective list. Are individual statistics more important than the number of championships a player led his team to? Admittedly, these types of lists will always be contentious.

#5 Oscar Robertson
Oscar Robertson averaged a triple double for the first 5 seasons of his career. That included an over 30 points per game average. Strangely, 1961-2 was the only individual season in which he averaged a triple double (and not by a little bit: 30.8 ppg, 12.5 rpg, and 11.4 apg).

While with the Cincinnati Royals, Robertson was plagued by inferior teammates. In an era of stacked teams, the Royals usually rivaled the Pistons for thinnest amount of talent on the squad. Despite leading the league in assists per game 7 times during his 14 year career, the Big O was actually criticized for being too selfish and scoring too much. Robertson led the league in ppg once, in his 8th season (only the second in which he averaged fewer than 30 a game).

Robertson won only one NBA championship in his career. That took place at the end of the 1970-1 season with the Milwaukee Bucks and a young Lew Alcindor. While viewed as somewhat of a playoff underachiever, Oscar averaged the most assists per game in 7 different postseasons. His teams made the playoffs 10 of his 14 seasons in the league. With the Royals, he ran into Wilt's Philadelphia teams and the Celtics; his Bucks contended with Wilt's Lakers and the Knicks, preventing him from winning more titles.

Because of his team's lack of winning, Oscar won the MVP award only once, for the 1963-4 season. But he was voted 1st team All-NBA each of his first 9 seasons and to the 2nd team the two subsequent years. Every young guard who came into the league after Oscar entered in the 1960-1 season, was compared (unfavorably) to the Big O. Robertson quickly vaulted ahead of the great Bob Cousy in the court of public opinion, sometimes begrudgingly.

Oscar finished his career with the most assists in NBA history. He's still 5th all time and has the 4th most apg for a career (9.5). His ppg career average of 25.7 is good for 9th best in NBA history. He also averaged the 3rd most minutes per game in history. Robertson's career FG% (48.5) and FT% (83.8) are testaments to his efficiency. Despite his proficient shooting, opposition coaches wanted Oscar to score, understanding that he was far more dangerous when he was able to get his lesser teammates going.

Robertson's statistics are staggering. During the first part of his career, he took a team devoid of talent and carried them to respectability. In the latter part, he led a great club into title contention every year. He was the best rebounding guard of all time, one of the best passers, and one of the best scorers.

The Top 10 NBA Players Ever - #4

This is yet another installment in my list of the top 10 NBA players of all time. It is admittedly a subjective list. Are individual statistics more important than the number of championships a player led his team to? These types of lists will always be contentious. However, it should be known that this list was compiled with an embarrassing amount of thought.

#4 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was voted the MVP six times. His teams won six NBA championships. His career is a combination of greatness and longevity. There were two defining images of the man. The first, as Lew Alcindor with the Milwaukee Bucks, releasing sky hooks, his electric Afro rustling in the wind. The second, a bald-headed goggle-wearing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar leading his Lakers as something like an elder statesman.

Abdul-Jabbar scored an enormous amount of points. His 38,387 career total is the most in NBA history. He totaled the most points in the league each of his first three seasons. He averaged over 30 ppg four times. He averaged the most points in the league in five different postseasons.

The 7'2" center's patented shot was the sky hook. It was unstoppable, unduplicated, and utterly graceful. Kareem best showed off this weapon in Game 6 of the 1974 NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics. With the Bucks down by 1 in double overtime, Abdul-Jabbar hit a game-winner with 3 seconds left and two Boston men draped all over him.

The sky hook was a shot Abdul-Jabbar always displayed, but its prevalence in his arsenal gained a boost in college. He was so dominant that the NCAA outlawed the dunk to try and stop him. It didn't work. He won player of the year and MOP of the Final Four all three years.

Kareem's NBA longevity served to raise his totals and lower his averages. Kareem played 20 seasons in the NBA. He played the 2nd most games, the most minutes, took the most field goals, and made the most field goals. Despite the fact that blocks weren't kept by the NBA for his first 4 seasons, he has third most in history. But Kareem's career is top heavy in its excellence. He never scored over 30 points a game after his 6th season. He averaged double figure rebounds each of his first 12 seasons (topping the totals list twice), but none of the rest. He averaged at least 3 blocks per game each of the first 7 seasons the stat was kept, but none after.

Abdul-Jabbar averaged under 20 points per game only 3 times in his 20 year career. Those were the last 3 years of his career. Despite that, he put up career averages of 24.6 ppg, 11.2 rpg, and 2.6 bpg. Kareem averaged nearly 56% from the field.

The numbers are impressive, but so are the wins and the accolades. Kareem's teams missed the playoffs just twice during his Medusa-like career. Besides his 6 MVPs, he won two Finals MVPs, grabbed 14 years apart. He was voted to the All-NBA 1st team 10 times. He made the 2nd team 5 more times. He made the All-Defensive 1st team 5 times and the 2nd team 6 times. On both sides of the court, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was one of the best... for a very long stretch.

The Top 10 NBA Players Ever - #3

This is another installment in my list of the top 10 NBA players of all time. It is admittedly a subjective list. Are individual statistics more important than the number of championships a player led his team to? These types of lists will always be contentious. However, it should be known that this list was compiled with a tremendous amount of thought.

#3 Bill Russell
Bill Russell played in the NBA for 13 seasons. He won 11 NBA championships. Defensively, he was what Wilt Chamberlain was on offense. His presence out on the court influenced every single shot taken by the opponent. For a young bigman, facing Bill Russell was like losing a loved one; it caused a temporary melancholy. The mentally strong were able to go on to good careers. Those that weren't faded into oblivion.

Blocks were not recorded while Russell played, otherwise there would be some way to enumerate his impact in preventing the other team from scoring. In an era when every shot from the field counted for two points, the Celtics' opponents tended to shoot a higher percentage of outside shots. Russell once bragged that he didn't have to block every shot. After he blocked a few, you'd be looking for him every time you drove to the basket.

Russell made a conscious effort to ensure the Celtics obtained the ball after he swatted a shot. If you faced Russell's Celtics, a blocked shot wasn't merely a missed field goal, it was a turnover. Despite being a slightly undersized center at 6'9" 215 lbs., he was a rebounding machine. He led the league in total rebounds 4 times. Bill averaged 22.5 per game for his career, the second highest average in NBA history.

Russell was universally respected, mostly because his teams nearly always won. Offensively, Russell averaged a career mark of 15.1 ppg and never averaged even 19 a game in any one season (though he did average over 20 ppg in the 1962 and 1963 playoffs). But he was voted MVP five times. He was named to either the All-NBA 1st or 2nd team every year of his career except for his rookie campaign. He was named to the inaugural All-NBA Defensive team for the 1968-9 campaign, which was his final season.

Wilt Chamberlain usually produced the better numbers than Russell in their head-to-head encounters, but Russell's team almost always won the series. That was largely due to Russell's role among the Celtics' superior talent. He was the heart and the brains out on the floor. He was promoted to player-coach for the final three seasons of his career, which included two championships. In so doing, Russell was the first black head coach of any major American sports team.

Russell was the foundation of the Celtics' success. Though his statistics are rather paltry compared to other players who will grace this list (except for his rebound numbers), Russell is the ultimate winner. He was the leader of the most dominant dynasty in NBA history. He is still the league's best defender of all time.

The Top 10 NBA Players Ever - #2

This is another installment in my list of the top 10 NBA players of all time. It is admittedly a subjective list. Are individual statistics more important than the number of championships a player led his team to? These types of lists will always be contentious. However, it should be known that this list was compiled with a tremendous amount of thought.

#2 Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan was the flashiest player ever to play in the NBA. He was also the best offensive player of his era and quite possibly the best defender of his era as well. Jordan was quite popular throughout his career and has been a world famous figure for the past 25 years. I once got into an argument with a 4 year old about who was the greatest player in NBA history. His argument was that Jordan "won that game," referring to his victorious performance in the movie Space Jam. He left behind a generation of rueful NBA superstars, who blame him for denying them a championship.

His career mark of 30.1 points per game is the highest average in the history of the NBA. He led the league in scoring average ten times and finished third another season. He scored the third most amount of points in a career with 32,292. Though his scoring statistics are quite impressive, they don't tell much of the story. Jordan was clutch. This was best exhibited in Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals. After a steal with 20 seconds left, Jordan drove the ball down the court, waited, and rose above the defender to nail a picture-perfect, championship-winning jump shot.

In the beginning of his career, Jordan redefined the art of athleticism. His exploits earned him the nickname "Air" Jordan. By the time of his second three-peat, he was perhaps the best jump shooter in the game. He was a lockdown defender who led the league in steals three times. His huge hands allowed him to manhandle the ball. His patented fadeaway jumper was unblockable and impossible to duplicate. He taunted his helpless opponents with a tongue that wagged to the side as he maneuvered his body in spectacular fashion on his way to two points.

For the first six seasons of his career (he scored 35 ppg or better in two of them), Jordan was considered a fantastic scorer who didn't make his teammates better and couldn't win the big one, even though he averaged 8 assists per game in 1988-9 and once scored 63 points against the Boston Celtics in the 1986 playoffs (a postseason record). It wasn't until his Chicago Bulls won the 1991 NBA championship that Jordan received his due as a winner.

Those Bulls teams featured Jordan, a top ten player of his day in Scottie Pippen, and a slew of revolving role players. Phil Jackson, arguably the greatest coach in NBA history, ran the show. Jordan, whose hatred of losing was obsessive, led those teams to six titles, separated into two three-peats. Those series of championships were interrupted by the one season Jordan played minor league baseball (in 1994) and his late-season comeback in 1995. In 1995-6, Mike led his team to an NBA all time best 72-10 record. It began the Bulls' second string of titles.

Jordan was a 5-time MVP and a 6-time NBA Finals MVP. He was voted to the All-NBA 1st team 10 times and to the All- NBA Defensive 1st team 9 times. More than the accolades, Jordan set the standard by which all wing players past, present, and future are judged.

The Top 10 NBA Players Ever - #1

The next ten posts will feature my list of the top 10 NBA players of all time. It is admittedly a subjective list. Are individual statistics more important than the number of championships a player led his team to? These types of lists will always be contentious. However, it should be known that this list was compiled with a tremendous amount of thought.

#1 Wilt Chamberlain

Wilt Chamberlain was a maligned figure during his career. He was under constant criticism from writers and coaches. Wilt was a sensitive man and took the criticism to heart. As a result, he was a hard man to root for. As he famously spouted, "Nobody roots for Goliath."

But Wilt's statistics are not only unparalleled, they are unapproached. During the 1962-3 season, he averaged 44.8 ppg (the second highest single season average ever). That was over 10 ppg game more than second place and over 16 points more than third that season. Yet, for Wilt, that season featured a decrease in his point average. The year before, he had averaged 50.4 points per game.

To give some kind of perspective, Michael Jordan scored 50 or more points in a game 38 times over his career (the second most of any player). Chamberlain beat that number in one season. Wilt led the league in scoring for the first seven seasons of his career. He once scored 100 points in a game, the record for a single game by 19 points over second place. Chamberlain was a historically prolific rebounder. He led the league 11 times and finished second two more times. His career average of 22.9 is the highest all time.

When he was criticized for scoring too much at the expense of his teammates, Chamberlain decided to change course. In 1966-7, he averaged 7.8 assists per game. The next year, he totaled the most assists in the league, accounting for 8.6 per game (more than Jordan ever averaged). Writers duly criticized him for being too unselfish. His career average was 4.4 per game.

Blocks were not kept during Chamberlain's career or this would be another paragraph filled with incredible statistics. So, instead, let's turn to field goal percentage. In 1966-7, he shot 68.3% from the field, taking 14 shots per game. The last year of his career, he shot nearly 73%, though his shot totals were significantly reduced. Wilt made 54% of his field goal attempts throughout his career.

Wilt faces a number of negative perceptions from the current fan. His statistics are so farfetched that they are almost discounted. The particularly ignorant will argue that his competition featured 6'6" white guys. Leave aside the racial aspect of the oft-repeated comment, it misrepresents the era that Chamberlain played in. There were more centers of high quality in his NBA than there are today, despite the far higher number of teams playing today. Wilt was a poor free throw shooter for his entire career. Chamberlain only won two titles, a significantly lower number than other players who will be featured on this list. But he played in an era of legendary teams. The Boston Celtics not only had Bill Russell, but they were stacked with great players, perfect role players, and arguably the best coach ever in Red Auerbach.

Furthermore, Wilt was a work horse. Writers unfairly accused him of lollygagging because he didn't exhibit excellence every minute he was in the game. But he averaged 45.8 minutes per game for his entire career (first all time). In 1961-2, he averaged 48.5 mpg (the most ever for a single season). Another astonishing mark is that the center never fouled out of a game throughout his entire career. Despite the enmity he received from the press, Wilt garnered 4 MVP awards. He was voted to the All-NBA team 7 times. He was also awarded the 1972 NBA Finals MVP.

From the time Wilt entered the league until the moment he left, every big man was compared to him. None of them even remotely resembled him offensively. Few besides Bill Russell were ranked ahead of him defensively. There wasn't a better rebounder. Is it too much to ask of a player to win every game he ever played? Is it too much to ask him to dominate every second he's out on the floor? Should he be judged harshly if this extremely athletic bigman doesn't produce to our impossible expectations? Wilt Chamberlain wasn't superman. He was merely the greatest player ever to take his talents to the NBA.

2011 NFL Playoff Predictions

NFC
6 GB over 3 Phi - 1 Atl over 6 GB - 5 NO over 1 Atl
5 NO over 4 Sea - 5 NO over 2 Chi

AFC
3 Ind over 6 NYJ - 1 NE over 5 Bal - 1 NE over 2 Pit
5 Bal over 4 KC - 2 Pit over 3 Ind

Super Bowl XLV
New England over New Orleans

It is utterly unfair that a 7-9 team makes the playoffs when other teams in the same conference with better records aren't allowed in. The playoffs should include the 6 best teams (based on record) from each conference.

New Years Resolution

With my disgusting level of content, this year my resolution is to be meaner to the people I care about. Being nice hasn't really worked. They still tend to avoid me. Time for something new.