Top 50 Resumes, Part II (Point One)

I didn't have time to do the next ten, so let's just look at a few and see how far we get.

Dave Cowens:

13,516 points, 10,444 rebounds, 2,910 assists

17.6 PPG, 13.6 RPG, 3.8 APG

2 Championships (Boston Celtics - 1974, 1976)

0 Finals Losses

1 MVP (1973)

7 All-Star Selections

0 All-NBA 1st Team Selections

3 All-NBA 2nd/3rd Team Selections

Rookie of the Year (1971), 3 All-Defensive Selections

1.338 MVP Award Shares (4 Top 10 finishes)

Amazingly consistent from 1972-76. PPG for each season was between 18.8 and 20.5 and RPG was 14.7 and 16.2 for those five seasons. And his rookie year before that, and the two seasons after were almost as good. Although I don't understand how he won the MVP in 1973 but was on the All-NBA 2nd team. Does that make sense to anyone?

Billy Cunningham:

13,626 points, 6,638 rebounds, 2,625 assists

20.8 PPG, 10.1 RPG, 4.0 APG

1 Championship (Philadelphia 76ers - 1967)

0 Finals Losses

0 MVP's {1 ABA (1973)}

4 All-Star Selections {1 ABA}

3 All-NBA 1st Team Selections {1 ABA}

1 All-NBA 2nd/3rd Team Selection

0.288 MVP Award Shares (2 Top 10 finishes)

Our second ABA player, although I always forget he played in the ABA since it was just for two years, and he went right back to the 76ers after that. I wonder how the Sixers felt about that? It's also weird how similar Cowens and Cunningham are, and they're back-to-back here on the list. They both played, and peaked (Cunningham slightly earlier) right around the same time. They put up similar numbers (Cunningham was a better scorer, Cowens a better rebounder). Both won the 1973 MVP (One NBA, the other ABA). And both had incredible five year stretches which I think are primarily responsible for them being on this list. Cunningham's was from 1969-73. (The last was in the ABA, but I think he probably would've put up close to the same numbers as the year before for the Sixers had he kept playing the NBA.)

Dave DeBusschere:

14,053 points, 9,618 rebounds, 2,497 assists

16.1 PPG, 11.0 RPG, 2.9 APG

2 Championships (New York Knicks - 1970, 1973)

1 Finals Loss (New York Knicks - 1972)

0 MVP's

8 All-Star Selections

0 All-NBA 1st Team Selections

1 All-NBA 2nd/3rd Team Selections

6 All-Defensive Selections

0.014 MVP Award Shares (0 Top 10 finishes)

Shouldn't one of the 50 greatest players of all time have at least one All-NBA 1st Team selection? He's another guy who probably wouldn't be on my list if I made it from scratch. I think a lot of those guys from the early 70's Knicks teams are a bit overrated. And there's about 6 on this list overall, so we'll see if that hunch holds up. (I mean, Bill Bradley's in the Hall of Fame. Career stats: 12.4 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 3.4 APG, 1 All-Star Game... Come on. Seriously? At least HE isn't on the list.)

Top 50 Resumes, Part I

So here's what we're looking at for evaluating a player's career:

-Points, rebounds, and assists (totals and per game averages)

-Championships won, and finals appearances lost - I felt like guys should get some credit for at least getting to the Finals despite getting steamrolled by the 60's Celtics, 80's Lakers, 90's Bulls, etc. Obviously they shouldn't get nearly as much credit as winning it, but it should probably be noted anyway. I also thought about using Conference Finals losses, too, for the sake of, say, the 90's Pacers and Knicks, but I honestly didn't want to go to that much effort. Maybe I'll add it later.

-MVPs (the only award in any professional sport that truly matters.) I'll put down any other awards the player won, but the MVP's are far and away the most important indicator of a player's individual greatness.

-All-Star selections

-1st Team All-NBA selections (being one of the five best players in the league in a given year seems fairly important)

-2nd/3rd Team All-NBA selections

-MVP Award Shares & Top 10 finishes (basically winning an MVP unanimously would be worth 1 Award Share)

-Side Note: I'll mention ABA accomplishments, but for the most part it looks like this list was based almost entirely on NBA stats & awards. (There was an All-Time ABA list released in 1997.) So, in that spirit, I'll try to focus primarily on the NBA achievements.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar:

38,387 points, 17,440 rebounds, 5,660 assists

24.6 PPG, 11.6 RPG, 3.6 APG

6 Championships (Milwaukee Bucks - 1971, Los Angeles Lakers - 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988)

4 Finals Losses (Milwaukee Bucks - 1974, Los Angeles Lakers - 1983, 1984, 1989)

6 MVP's (1971, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1980)

19 All-Star Selections

10 All-NBA 1st Team Selections

4 All-NBA 2nd/3rd Team Selections

Rookie of the Year (1970), 2 Finals MVP's, 11 All-Defensive Team selections

6.203 MVP Award Shares (17 Top 10 finishes)

Well, that's certainly a good way to kick off the list. The man individually dominated the league throughout the 70's and then won 5 titles and went to 3 more finals in the 80's. There's really not much lacking from Kareem's resume. And 17 top ten MVP finishes? That's just ridiculous.

Nate "Tiny" Archibald:

16,481 points, 2,046 rebounds, 6,476 assists

18.8 PPG, 2.3 RPG, 7.4 APG

1 Championship (Boston Celtics - 1981)

0 Finals Losses

0 MVP's

6 All-Star Selections

3 All-NBA 1st Team Selections

2 All-NBA 2nd/3rd Team Selections

0.465 MVP Award Shares (5 Top 10 finishes)

I don't know if it's because I'm looking at these numbers right after looking at Kareem's, but I'm a little underwhelmed by Nate "Tiny" Archibald's numbers. (I also never hear him called Nate Archibald, or Tiny Archibald. It's always "Nate Tiny Archibald.") I mean, I know those are good numbers, but next to Kareem, they pale in comparison. But, minus an injured season in 1974, he had a pretty incredible five year stretch from 1972-1976, carrying some unimpressive Kings teams. Not just the Kansas City Kings, but the Kansas City-Omaha Kings. I'm going to guess he's going to be Omaha's only player to ever be on this list. And then he settled into a nice role player for some good Celtics teams at the end of his career.

Paul Arizin:

16,266 points, 6,129 rebounds, 1,665 assists

22.8 PPG, 8.6 RPG, 2.3 APG

1 Championship (Philadelphia Warriors - 1956)

0 Finals Losses

0 MVP's

10 All-Star Selections

3 All-NBA 1st Team Selections

1 All-NBA 2nd/3rd Team Selections

0.495 MVP Award Shares (4 Top 10 finishes)

It's hard for me to evaluate players from the 50's. So let's just move on.

Charles Barkley:

23,757 points, 12,546 rebounds, 4,215 assists

22.1 PPG, 11.7 RPG, 3.9 APG

0 Championships

1 Finals Loss (Phoenix Suns - 1993)

1 MVP (1993)

11 All-Star Selections

5 All-NBA 1st Team Selections

6 All-NBA 2nd/3rd Team Selections

2.438 MVP Award Shares (8 Top 10 finishes)

Oh, the Chuckster. My all time favorite basketball player. The most fun to watch during the year, followed by the annual inevitable heartbreaking, crushing playoff series losses. True story: I was a devoted Suns fan until they traded Barkley and then I just didn't know what to do. I had the difficult decision (I think I was 10 at the time) of sticking with the Suns, or moving with Chuck to the Rockets. I stuck with Chuck. And I will never forgive John Stockton for knocking out the Rockets in 1997. Probably my most painful sports childhood memory. I think if the Rockets had won that year, I'd be a Rockets fan to this day. (I still think they would've matched up much better against the Bulls than the Jazz did.) But they didn't, and that was Barkley's last real, good, injury free year. I was so distraught by this loss, and Chuck's decline the next year, and then the lockout, that I didn't really follow basketball again until 2000. My dad had always been a diehard Lakers fan, and so I started watching games again with him that year. Then they won the title, which was an awesome experience to watch with your dad, and my fanhood has been fixed to the Lakers ever since. Crucify me if you must for my fickle loyalties throughout my childhood, but I've stuck with the Lakers even during their awful "Kobe Bryant and the D-League All-Stars" experiment, so I don't think I'm ever going to be switching teams again.

Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah. Charles Barkley was an amazing basketball player.

Rick Barry:

18,395 points, 5,168 rebounds, 4,017 assists

23.2 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 5.1 APG

1 Championship (Golden State Warriors - 1975) {1 ABA (Oakland Oaks -1969)}

1 Finals Loss (San Francisco Warriors - 1967) {1 ABA (New York Nets - 1972)}

0 MVP's

8 All-Star Selections {4 ABA}

5 All-NBA 1st Team Selections {4 ABA}

1 All-NBA 2nd/3rd Team Selection

Rookie of the Year (1966), 1 Finals MVP

0.592 MVP Award Shares (4 Top 10 finishes)

Ah, our first ABA alum. Great player, and (if stories are to be believed) an even greater jerk. How did he and Barry Bonds both end up in San Francisco? If Barry Bonds ends up with four sons who are bad to mediocre baseball players, with one of them becoming an absolutely terrible baseball analyst following his playing career, I'm going to be officially freaked out.

Elgin Baylor:

23,149 points, 11,463 rebounds, 3,650 assists

27.4 PPG, 13.5 RPG, 4.3 APG

0 Championships

8 Finals Losses (Minneapolis Lakers - 1959, Los Angeles Lakers - 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970)

0 MVP's

11 All-Star Selections

10 All-NBA 1st Team Selections

0 All-NBA 2nd/3rd Team Selections

Rookie of the Year (1959)

1.659 MVP Award Shares (8 Top 10 finishes)

Elgin Baylor is probably the best player to never win a championship. And 8 Finals losses? I wonder if they hurt more and more every time, or if he just sort of became numb to it after a while. I'm guessing they still hurt. Plus the Lakers won the title the year after he retired. That had to be a pretty hefty punch to the gut for the man as well. He also might be the best player to never win an MVP. I'm guessing either him or Jerry West. And none of his 8 top ten finishes were lower than 6th: 1 second place, 3 third place, 1 fourth place, 2 fifth place, 1 sixth place. As impressive as that is, I'm pretty sure neither of those distinctions are something anyone wants to hold, let alone both.

Dave Bing:

18,327 points, 3,420 rebounds, 5,397 assists

20.3 PPG, 3.8 RPG, 6.0 APG

0 Championships

0 Finals Losses

0 MVP's

7 All-Star Selections

2 All-NBA 1st Team Selections

1 All-NBA 2nd/3rd Team Selection

Rookie of the Year (1967)

0.386 MVP Award Shares (3 Top 10 finishes)

Here's the first guy that probably wouldn't make my list if I was starting from scratch. No titles, no finals appearances, only 3 All-NBA selections, and only 3 top ten MVP finishes. I'm not saying he was a bad player by any means. It just seems like there may be more deserving guys out there.

Larry Bird:

21,791 points, 8,974 rebounds, 5,695 assists

24.3 PPG, 10.0 RPG, 6.3 APG

3 Championships (Boston Celtics - 1981, 1984, 1986)

2 Finals Losses (Boston Celtics - 1985, 1987)

3 MVP's (1984, 1985, 1986)

12 All-Star Selections

9 All-NBA 1st Team Selections

1 All-NBA 2nd/3rd Team Selection

Rookie of the Year (1980), 2 Finals MVP's, 3 All-Defensive Team Selections

5.693 MVP Award Shares (11 Top 10 finishes)

Our second Kareem-esque, no-doubt-about-it, players. I don't know what else you could ask for from a guy.

Wilt Chamberlain:

31,419 points, 23,924 rebounds, 4,643 assists

30.1 PPG, 22.9 RPG, 4.4 APG

2 Championships (Philadelphia 76ers - 1967, Los Angeles Lakers - 1972)

4 Finals Losses (San Francisco Warriors - 1964, Los Angeles Lakers - 1969, 1970, 1973)

4 MVP's (1960, 1966, 1967, 1968)

13 All-Star Selections

7 All-NBA 1st Team Selections

3 All-NBA 2nd/3rd Team Selections

Rookie of the Year (1960), 1 Finals MVP, 2 All-Defensive Team Selections

4.269 MVP Award Shares (11 Top 10 finishes)

23,924 rebounds? Are you kidding me? That's insane. Are we sure Wilt didn't intentionally miss shots just to snag an extra 10 boards a game? About the only thing missing from Wilt's resume is a few more titles. But, like Elgin Baylor, he was a frequent whipping boy of the Celtics throughout the 60's. At least he managed to break through a couple times. And he managed the rare Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season. I think that's only happened twice. Plus he supposedly had sex with 20,000 women. I'm from a town of almost 21,000 people. It's very difficult for me to wrap my mind around the fact that Wilt Chamberlain basically had sex with every single woman residing in Columbus, Nebraska, and then had sex with 10,000 more.

Bob Cousy:

16,960 points, 4,786 rebounds, 6,955 assists

18.4 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 7.5 APG

6 Championships (Boston Celtics - 1957, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963)

1 Finals Loss (Boston Celtics - 1958)

1 MVP (1957)

13 All-Star Selections

10 All-NBA 1st Team Selections

2 All-NBA 2nd/3rd Team Selections

0.882 MVP Award Shares (7 Top 10 finishes)

Funny story: Bob Cousy is basically French. Well, that's not really a funny story, just a strange fact that no one seems to ever mention. His parents were French immigrants, and Cousy didn't learn English until he was about six years old. So, the next time someone tells you Tony Parker is the greatest French guard to ever play the game, punch them in the face and tell them to learn their history.

The 50 Greatest NBA Players of All Time? Let's Try 63...

Back in 1996, the NBA released their list of the "50 Greatest Players of All Time" for the league's 50th anniversary. Now, I was 10 years old at the time, and I thought this was the coolest thing that mankind had ever produced ever. Yeah, two "ever's," but I can't emphasize enough how cool I thought this whole concept was. I'm always a sucker for any kind of "best of" team. Back when the original Dream Team was... formed? compiled? organized?... I'm not sure what the right word is here, but anyway, back in 1992 when the Dream Team hit the scene was really my first memory of basketball in any form. This had (at least) three direct consequences on my perception of basketball for the next several years:

1.) Charles Barkley became my favorite player. It probably also helped that the Suns were in the Finals in 1993; I'm sure that sealed the deal. But the seeds were planted with his Dream Team performances.

2.) I had absolutely no respect for Isiah Thomas until well after he retired. To my then 6 year old mind, if Isiah was any good, he would have been on the Dream Team. Case closed. I still don't think I appreciate him nearly as much as I should for that very reason. His atrocious coaching/GM careers probably aren't helping, but the Dream Team snub probably has more to do with it.

3.) I actually thought Christian Laettner was a good basketball player. Nay, a great basketball player. No, scratch that. I thought he was one of the 12 best basketball players on the face of the earth. It wasn't until he was traded to Atlanta (with Sean Rooks, no less) for Andrew Lang and Spud Webb that I began to question this assumption. And then either that year or the year after I saw a game where he got absolutely demolished by Shaq and I began to realize he may have been in over his head on the Dream Team.

Anyway, back to my original point: the 50th anniversary team. This was like 4 Dream Teams, plus 2 bonus players. I analyzed that list to no end. I had posters with everyone on it, books with all of their biographies and career stats, etc, etc. I couldn't get enough of it. However, being 10, I didn't realize this was a one time anniversary occasion. I understood 50 players for 50 years clearly enough, but I assumed that they would be adding one player a year, in perpetuity. I mean, I knew that's essentially what the Hall of Fame was for, but I just figured this was like the Super Elite Hall of Basketball Awesomeness.

So, in honor of my childhood misconceptions, and with the 2009 Hall of Fame Inauguration this weekend, I thought it would be a good time to revisit this concept. It's been another 13 years since that list was produced, so I've decided to come up with my own 63 Greatest NBA Players of All Time list. Here's the rules:

1.) The 50 Greatest Players list from 1996 is our starting point. Every one of those players will be on this list.

2.) I'm going to try to imagine that one player has been added to this list every year since 1996. So, we'll have one "election" for 1997, and have a list of 51; then one for 1998 and have a list of 52, and so on.

3.) I'm going to try to imagine the mindset from the year that's being voted on. For example, would Chris Webber make the list in 2009? Probably not. Would he make it 2002? Possibly.

4.) In an effort to prevent something like that from happening, a player has to have been 10 years removed from his rookie season. I mean, Shaq made the 50 Greatest list in 1996, after only 4 years in the league. Now, I think that committee really dodged a bullet on that one. Yes, Shaq is undoubtedly one of the 50 greatest players of all time, but could you safely say that after only 4 years? I don't know about that one. Just look at Sidney Wicks's numbers through 4 years. It certainly looked like he was well on his way to a Hall of Fame career after those first few years.

5.) Once a player is on the list, he cannot be removed. So, let's say we're looking at the 2006 "election." That year would be the first time 3 MVP's (Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash) would be eligible. Only one of them is getting in for the 2006 election. The others will have to wait.

Okay, I think I've got the basics laid out. And for a quick refresher, here's the list as it was formed in 1996:

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Nate Archibald

Paul Arizin

Charles Barkley

Rick Barry

Elgin Baylor

Dave Bing

Larry Bird

Wilt Chamberlain

Bob Cousy

Dave Cowens

Billy Cunningham

Dave DeBusschere

Clyde Drexler

Julius Erving

Patrick Ewing

Walt Frazier

George Gervin

Hal Greer

John Havlicek

Elvin Hayes

Magic Johnson

Sam Jones

Michael Jordan

Jerry Lucas

Karl Malone

Moses Malone

Pete Maravich

Kevin McHale

George Mikan

Earl Monroe

Shaquille O'Neal

Hakeem Olajuwon

Robert Parish

Bob Pettit

Scottie Pippen

Willis Reed

Oscar Robertson

David Robinson

Bill Russell

Dolph Schayes

Bill Sharman

John Stockton

Isiah Thomas

Nate Thurmond

Wes Unseld

Bill Walton

Jerry West

Lenny Wilkens

James Worthy

Tomorrow we'll look at each of these guys career stats and check their credentials, so we can see what it takes to join them. Then each day we'll add another player until we get to 63.