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.
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.
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