Z's Top 100 NBA Players of All Time

[zjcvols]

Why doing these types of lists is really hard.

I barely had heard of Chet Walker, look up his resume after I saw his passing and thought “Damn that was a hell of a career!”

 

[zjcvols]

In the 62’ Finals, 2-2 going into Game 5 Elgin Baylor puts up 61/22.

Here’s a quote from Bob Cousy about that game: “When we held Elgin to 61, I remember going up to Satch Sanders and telling him sincerely that he’d done a helluva job defensively. And he had. He made Elgin work for every basket. But that’s how good Elgin was.”

 

[zjcvols]

Will update in a couple days but not a lot of movement this year

 

[zjcvols]

Updated list

My Top 100 NBA Players

Z’s Top 100 NBA Players Since 1956 1 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 2 Michael Jordan 3 LeBron James 4 Bill Russell 5 Tim Ducan 6 Wilt Chamberlain 7 Magic Johnson 8 Larry Bird 9 Hakeem Olajuwon 10 Shaquille O"Neal 11 Jerry West 12 Oscar Robertson 13 Moses Malone 14 ...

docs.google.com

 

[zjcvols]

Jokic entered #25

Luka vaulted to #45 and I'll be shocked if he's not top 20 at the end of it all

Tatum went up to #65

I dropped Billy Cunningham down a little bit but still in the top 60. His NBA career was too short to be top 50.

I bumped up Julius Erving to #16 ahead of Baylor, Dirk, KG, Isiah and Malone. I underrated Julius because his prime was ABA and forgot how incredibly good he was pre-Moses. After doing some digging I am correcting that.

Because Bill Simmons' "The Book of Basketball" has such a heavy influence on this list, there were some Celtics that I had put on the list higher than they should be due to Bill's homerism. So I dropped Cowens, Parish and Bailey Howell somewhere around 7 spots each. All in the top 100, but there was some slight adjustments after I did some more digging into their careers.

 

[n_huffhines]

I might be out of my mind, but I feel worse about Tatum after this playoff. He did better as a playmaker, but the scoring was his worst since 2019 and the competition was weak. He's a fkn awful scorer/shooter.

 

[zjcvols]

I might be out of my mind, but I feel worse about Tatum after this playoff. He did better as a playmaker, but the scoring was his worst since 2019 and the competition was weak. He's a fkn awful scorer/shooter.

Three straight 1st team all NBA, two finalists, another game 7 conference Final.

It’s why I kept him out top 60. I could be wrong but I think he’s the lowest “best player on a Champ” except for the 1977 Blazers, 1979 Sonics, and 2004 Pistons on my list

 

[zjcvols]

Russell
Pettit
Wilt
Reed
Kareem
Frazier
Havlicek
Barry
Cowens
*Walton
Hayes
*Gus Williams or Dennis Johnson
Bird
Moses
Magic
Isiah
Jordan
Hakeem
Duncan
Shaq
*Billups or Ben
Wade
KG
Kobe
Nowitzki
LeBron
Curry
Durant
Kawhi
Giannis
Jokic
Tatum

No 2004 Pistons made my list. I had Bill Walton #100, Dennis Johnson ranks #80. So Tatum is the lowest after those two guys

Edit: Shout out to George Milan (1950, 1952, 1953, 1954 Minneapolis Lakers) Arnie Risen (1951 Rochester Royals), Dolph Schayes (1955 Syracuse Nationals) and Paul Arizin (1956 Philadelphia Warriors) for the pre-Russell era

 

[zjcvols]

Some legacy updates based on playoff results

LeBron would go to #1 if he wins a title and Finals MVP

Jokic/Giannis would vault into top 20 with a Finals appearance

Luka joins Jokic/Giannis in the top 25-30 range with a Finals win and MVP

Tatum would go top 50 with a Finals win and FMVP

Donovan Mitchell goes top 100 leading Cleveland to the Finals.

SGA will go top 100 this year, could get into the top with Finals win and FMVP

Jaylen Brown goes into top 100 with a Finals win

The Clippers winning the title would break the list

 

[zjcvols]

@n_huffhines Where you do have Anthony Davis ranked? He's #46 for me overall. Is that too high?

 

[n_huffhines]

@n_huffhines Where you do have Anthony Davis ranked? He's #46 for me overall. Is that too high?

I need bearings. Looking at ESPN's list, they got

#50 James Harden
#47 Ray Allen
#43 Jason Kidd

I would say that's about right. He's a better talent than all of those guys, but his career isn't "greater" or lesser, in any meaningful way. He's an elite 2-way player who was 1B on a title team. Harden has an MVP but no finals appearances. Kidd was the best player on two finals teams and has a title as a role player. Ray Allen is a top 5 shooter all-time and has 2 titles. They're all so different and I can't say that much separates them.