top 10 nba players of all time

 

I think Kawhi could end up in the 15-20 range when it’s all said and done, but this seems like a fair spot to start. He was innovative offensively, the first player in NBA history to pour in 70 points in a game, and inarguably will go down as one of the game’s best forwards. That’s why even though he could barely get loose enough to play at the end of his final season, Bird was one of the most celebrated members of the legendary Dream Team. Well, besides the fact that Nash’s MVP seasons were controversial, if you compare Nash’s MVP seasons to Paul’s best years, you’ll see that CP3 actually put up better numbers those years. RIP Mamba. And let's be honest, you're being naive if you don't think he has a chance to take the No. For this list, he lands at No. For a guy his size to go out and drop 48 on the road against the heavily-favored Los Angeles Lakers is straight-up unbelievable. David Robinson is a true generational talent comes in at No. The 50 Greatest NBA Players of All Time . If he brings home another title in Brooklyn, he could be pushing top 10 by the end of his career. I can only imagine how that shit looked back in those days. You could quibble about Hakeem only winning his two NBA titles while Michael Jordan was retired, but if you do, you don't understand how hard it is to win a championship. The Michael Jordan vs. LeBron James debate will never cease, but the fact that LeBron has already made it to this level is pretty damn amazing. 8: 1367.6 No. —AD, The Big Ticket is one of those players where the “rings” convo holds little to no weight. Nor did we particularly labor over why Tim Duncan, for instance, deserved top 10 status over Kevin Garnett and Kevin Durant (for now). I’d love to see some of today’s greats playing against Elgin. But decisions had to be made before deadline. A true GOAT. 10. He was truly a one of a kind and easily one of the most entertaining players—on and off-the-court—that the NBA has ever seen. It’s guaranteed to get hardcore basketball fans in their feelings and, in our humble opinion, do a much better job than some of those other rankings floating around the interwebs that shall remain nameless. But Malone’s accolades compare quite favorably. Jordan2. As the established basketball players progress each year in the National Basketball Association (NBA), setting and smashing records, there is still a tough competition to emerge amongst the best NBA players of all-time rankings. Feel free to leave a reply below. Not only is he the greatest winner in all of American sports, Russell is also both the smartest and best defensive player to ever pick up a basketball. Rushmore” hill because nobody changed the game like Wilt the Stilt did. 1. Instead, the politicking and petty attacks on each other’s basketball intelligence got really heated, over multiple Zoom calls and text threads, when we tried to properly rank Shaq and Kobe and a bunch of point guards toward the bottom of our 30 Best NBA Players of All Time list. Bill Russell is grossly disrespected when talking about the greats. One of the greatest What Ifs in NBA history revolves around Bird’s back that he infamously injured while paving his mother’s driveway during the summer of 1985. He played all five positions in the game and led the Lakers to their first title in nearly a decade. —ZF, Way more than just a sidekick to you know who, Scottie Pippen’s greatness is sadly taken for granted by many, including those who saw it with their own two eyes along with the ones basing their assessments solely on what they saw in The Last Dance. LeBron not only matched the hype, but he exceeded it. He can retire today and waltz into the Hall of Fame. He was always one of the most entertaining players on and off-the-court, leading him to becoming an Emmy Award-winning studio host on Inside the NBA. But only Westbrook has put up the seasonal averages (three times) to match Robertson’s brilliance and Russ isn’t anywhere near the offensive juggernaut Robertson was. 30.1 PPG, 6.2 RPG, 5.3 APG, 2.3 SPG. They breath different air than the rest of us and that's ok. LeBron's book isn't finished yet and he could add a few more titles along the way, but let's not also ignore everything he's done over his career off the court. And though this isn't all that important, Dirk was able to do it with the same franchise for his entire career. —AC, As someone who personally has LeBron James as No. Find out which of your favorite NBA players made our top-20 best of all-time list. Four-time NBA scoring champion. Pettit’s career numbers are truly staggering, with him averaging 26.4 points and 16.2 rebounds per game. You’re not supposed to win NBA Finals MVP awards 14 years apart, but Abdul-Jabbar did. Jordan never took a game off, he was a maniac for better or worse. And the best part? Barkley couldn’t be stopped offensively either, beating out Jordan for the ‘93 MVP and taking his new team the Suns to the Finals where he lost to Jordan’s Bulls in six. Top 10 Best NBA Players Of All Time Kareem Abdul Jabbar On the list tenth place is Kareem. The greatest player of all time. 01-07-2014, 09:34 PM . Warriors fans booed then-new owner Joe Lacob on Chris Mullin Night because he gave the team to Steph after trading fan favorite Monta Ellis for Andrew Bogut. For myself, I'll never forget Game 1 of the 2001 NBA Finals. Ranked by votes from thousands of fans, this list features the all time NBA GOATs, including Michael Jordan. Nor we’re they expected to rip down double-digit boards on a nightly basis. Like Magic Johnson before him, Garnett raised the bar as to what a man of his size could do on the court. A Dream Team member and two-time gold medal winner who was skilled enough to be considered one of the 50 Greatest Players by the NBA in 1996, Pippen did so much more than his averages indicated (16.1 PPG, 6.4 RPG, and 5.2 APG). Even more impressive for the context of Hakeem's career is that he did all of this while big men ran the NBA (outside of Michael Jordan). You can call him a snake, a cupcake, or whatever, but you can’t deny the numbers he’s consistently produced. His signature play of tapping the ball to a teammate helped him invent the fast break. Zeke not being on the Dream Team is the biggest snub ever, no exaggeration. A lot of people might bring up him being ranked over a guy, like two-time MVP Steve Nash. Johnson is a five-time NBA Champion, three-time NBA Finals MVP and three-time NBA Most Valuable Player. We’re already seeing Steph's impact on basketball as kids start launching from deep earlier than ever in their young careers and on the league with NBA teams putting the mid-range jumper out to pasture and fully embracing the 3-pointer. Erving’s career numbers are just as impressive as his plays. All with a smile on his face and a cigar about to be lit. Did you really watch Kobe Bryant for 20 years and say to yourself, "Well he’s not that efficient so I don’t think he’s great as he’s portrayed"? His college career is practically unmatched, but since we’re talking professional basketball here know that he was the only player other than Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell to win an MVP between 1960 and 68. YoungBoy NBA’s $540K Bond Could Set Him Free. In my book, that's the single greatest achievement in NBA history and will be hard to top. Here’s a Timeline of His Legal Troubles. The GOAT, no question. Let’s check how many they have won, which teams they played for, and were they really good individually or not. Top 15 players in NBA history: CBS Sports ranks the greatest of all time, from West and Steph to LeBron and MJ LeBron James and Stephen Curry are the only two active NBA players to … But how much more credit do you give Bryant for winning more rings and drawing legit comparisons to Michael Jordan? Also read: Top 5 Greatest Point Guards of all time. Nobody could.” —AC, The Admiral. A Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee in 2001, Julius Erving introduced his former teammate before Malone’s enshrinement speech and Dr. J joked with the audience that evening, “Just think about the sound of that name. He played 20 seasons in the NBA for the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers, and during his long career as a center, Kareem was a record six-time NBA most valuable player, and record 19 time NBA All-Star, a 15-time All-NBA selection. Praise or pillar the selections as you see fit. He reached a different plane of basketball greatness that only himself and Jordan occupy. He had to get famous. There will never be another Shaq. Above all of that impact, Dirk's numbers and accolades back up his spot on this list. A three-time champion who won three consecutive MVPs in the mid-80s, Bird knocked down daggers like it was nothing and loved ripping out the hearts of his rivals while talking some of the most underrated trash. There will never be another Michael Jordan. Kobe Bryant (1996-2016) Kobe Bryant. A two-time NBA champion, NBA MVP, 10-time All-Star, NBA Defensive Player of the Year, four-time First-Team All-NBA guy can't crack the top 20. 23 No. Gallery. Players such as LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, and Anthony Davis are regarded as some of the top players in the game of basketball today. We all know what he's done and will continue to do for at least a few more years. And while he will forever live in the shadow of MJ, real ones know Jordan doesn’t ascend to Zeus status without Pippen doing all the dirty work and turning out to be the perfect complementary player. Obviously, Leonard's regular-season resume isn’t as strong as others on this list due to injuries and being in that Spurs system, but his playoff performances smokes a lot of people on this list as well. He was overshadowed by Duncan, whose numbers are slightly better, but Garnett was by far the more fun player to watch. Dirk brought about change that fundamentally altered the way the NBA is played. You’re telling me somebody’s going to average more than 45.8 minutes per game like Wilt did during his 13 seasons in the NBA? —AC, Boston’s had more than its fair share of Hall of Famers roll through the old Boston Garden, but nobody was as lethal a scorer or as clutch at the end of games like Larry Legend. BODY. Point guards weren’t supposed to be 6’5” scoring machines that could get a bucket from anywhere on the court like The Big O could. It was either a bucket or a foul. Posts: 1 Threads: 1 Joined: Jan 2014 Reputation: 0 #1. The numbers all show that Malone is easily a top 20 player in NBA history. But Robertson broke the mold almost 20 years before Magic Johnson made his debut. 8 No. Robinson averaged a 21.1 PPG and 10.6 RPG double-double for his career while racking up 3.0 BPG in the process. We know what he brings to the table offensively as one of the greatest floor generals ever to play so I don’t think we need to harp on that. Probably agreed with half of it, but was so respectful he wouldn’t say anything until later.” After hashing things out, Pop often let Duncan have his way. The beauty of Shaq's dominance is that you could know after two dribbles that he was about to hit you with a dropstep in the post, but you just weren’t going to stop it even if you knew it was coming. ESPN recently deliberated as to who is the ultimate king of the court. To this day that is still one of the most amazing individual performances on a basketball court that I've ever seen. But other than potentially Leonard, Duncan will shine brighter than all the other great players who have ever played for the Spurs—and just about every other power forward in NBA history—because of how rock steady solid he was. He can shoot from anywhere on the court, he can get to the rim at will, and if you end up contesting his shot it probably won’t matter because he can shoot over you with ease. All 10 coaches named were alive at the time of the list's announcement, and five of … No guard has ever dominated the league like he did, which helps his case when you see him on the top of everyone’s list. When you think of LeBron James, you simply think of greatness. The winning, the endorsements, the shoes, the legacy. In 251 playoff games, he averaged 19.9 PPG and 11.0 RPG. —ZF, If you’re wondering why we have the diminutive point guard who played all 19 seasons of his storied career with the Jazz on this list, I have to seriously question your basketball IQ. Top 10 NBA Players of All Time...Ranking based on Individual Achievement, Statistics, Legacy & Impact on the Sport. Dominant seems like the only adjective to describe Shaq’s career. This app link provides an insight into the top 10 players who have graced the court of the NBA. © Complex Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. —AD, There’s really only one thing Kawhi Leonard has left to accomplish in his career. Jordan led the Bulls to six NBA championships, winning six Finals MVP awards and five regular-season MVP honors … Detroit won back-to-back championships in the middle of what many call the toughest era of NBA basketball and made Jordan scratch and claw for years before he finally got the Bulls over the hump. Barkley started J-ing people up and shooting threes, forcing opponents to guard from all over the court and not just on the block. You could go on and on with former and current NBA stars talking about why Iverson was so great and means so much to them. —ZO, Flash! His numbers and accolades look unreal in 2020. It also provides Biography links followed by an RSS feed with the most up-to-date information of the NBA to date. The debate could have lasted until July 30, when the NBA finally returns to bless us with games again. In fact, CP3’s career numbers blow Nash’s out of the water. Chuck played bigger than he was and was way more athletic than he was perceived. —ZO, It upsets me that people might be shocked that Allen Iverson is included on this list. —AD, Some of us are willing to die on the “Wilt Chamberlain Belongs on the NBA’s Mt. We may never see a 7'1", 365-pound big that was as explosive, athletic, and quick as Shaq. Here are the top 10 best football (soccer) players of all time, including Maradona, Pele and Cruyff. Jordan led the Bulls to six NBA championships, winning six Finals MVP awards and … But it didn’t stop him from averaging 24.3 PPG and 10.0 RPG for his 13 seasons. —ZF, Before he was known as The Logo, his teammates called him Mr. His season with the Raptors catapulted him up the all time ranks, if we’re being transparent. AI is unquestionably a top 30 NBA player ever. Magic and Shaq crowned Kobe as the greatest Laker ever after he retired. With five championships, three MVPs, nine-time All-NBA First Team selections, Magic had one of the best careers in NBA history. He's an all-time great and one of the best big men to ever play in the league. COMPLEX participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means COMPLEX gets paid commissions on purchases made through our links to retailer sites. He went to a 73-9 Warriors team with a two-time MVP and the undisputed greatest shooter of all-time in Steph Curry and he made him his Robin. He has the full offensive package with no weaknesses. Maybe even his former teammate Steph Curry joins him. Dr. J floated through the air as his lanky limbs cut to the rim and his hair blew in the wind. So for better or worse, here are the best 30 players in NBA history, assiduously ranked. —AD, To me, Kevin Durant is the most skilled offensive player ever to play the game. Who else is going to average 50.4 PPG for a season like Wilt did in the 1961-62 season? Also, his career totals were inflated by the fact that he played roughly 10,000 years in the NBA… Once Wade burst onto the scene in 2003 it was almost immediately clear that he was a special kind of player. Can’t argue with the results. NBA MVP. ESPN’s The Last Dance tried its best to encapsulate MJ’s stranglehold on the basketball world and still didn’t do it justice. Others, like James Harden and Giannis Antetkounmpo, could very well have resumes worthy of serious consideration, meaning we'd have to demote two legends. Michael Jordan tops our list of top NBA players of all time. Top 10 Best Football (Soccer) Players of All Time. He also made 11 NBA All-Star teams and won three total MVP awards across the NBA and ABA. He played at the highest level on both sides of the floor and like Bill Russell before him knew exactly what he had to do to help his team win day in and day out. Players don’t choose the era they play in, all we can do is look at who dominated it. The Dream Shake will forever be one of the most iconic moves in NBA history and for that, we will always be thankful for Hakeem Olajuwon. If you've ever asked, "Who's the greatest basketball player of all time? The NBA merged with the ABA in ‘76 because of the Doctor (there were a bunch of other great players too like George Gervin) and he continued to take another league by storm after winning two chips with the Nets in the ABA. Top 10 Best NBA players of Al Time. He did it all and made sure you knew about it along the way. Scoring leaders. He also played a huge role in the NBA instituting free agency when he brought a lawsuit against the league in 1970 that challenged the legality of the league’s proposed merger with the ABA, the merits of the draft, and the reserve clause that prevented players from pursuing contracts with any team they wished. Who... With the NBA players nearing its end, we break down the top 10 NBA players of all-time. Top 10 Best Football (Soccer) Players of All Time. From dropping 41 in back-to-back games to the block in Game 7, LeBron leveled up in 2016. Despite going to nine NBA Finals with the Lakers, West won only one title in 1972. He was a two-time NBA MVP, appeared in 14 All-Star games, and made First Team All-NBA an insane 11 times. —AC, Yet another tough ranking. The way every player gets compared to Michael Jordan nowadays, that’s how it was with West back in the 60s and 70s. Apart from players today, there have been many legendary players from all different eras. There’s only one other point guard in NBA history with a higher win shares mark than CP3 and that’s John Stockton. Defenses have to stay up on him full-court, which his handles and elusiveness make impossible to do. From opening a school in his hometown to building his own media empire, LeBron has consistently done everything we've expected from him and then some. All you really need to know is that Abdul-Jabbar is the greatest center and it’s not even a debate. Here are the top 10 best football (soccer) players of all time, including Maradona, Pele and Cruyff. 1 on their personal best NBA players list, this is an easy one to write. Each matchup took into consideration many […] He was and still is the greatest NBA player of all time. He has the two Defensive Player of the Years, the two Finals MVPs, he’s put a franchise on his back en route to an NBA title, and he’s pretty much won his entire career. Not only did Russell win 11 NBA titles, the last two were as player-coach and he’s undefeated in Game 7s, going 10-0 when it’s win or go home time. What a waste of a name if he didn’t make it.” Malone made that name synonymous with rebounding, winning, and ultimately, immortality. Not the most shocking list of players, if we are being perfectly honest. People forget that he dominated for years as a 6’6” power forward. Ranking the top 10 best NBA players always brings a lot of debate among the fans of most of the great players. 3 during his career. Defensively, you’re looking at a guy who’s a nine-time All-Defensive honoree and has led the league in steals six times. There were passionate pleas to weigh unprecedented accomplishments over sustained excellence. And I didn't even mention how magical he was during the 2011 NBA Finals when his Mavs upset LeBron James and the Miami Heat. How many 6' guards can you confidently put on Kevin Durant in a playoff series? The leading scorer in National Basketball Association (NBA) history is just the 10th-best player ever? There’s virtually no formula to stop him. He’s top 10 all-time in rebounds, blocks, win shares, and defensive win shares. —ZO, Hakeem "The Dream" Olajuwon's inclusion in this part of the list needs no real explanation. We’re not just talking about the basic stats like points per game (+4.2), assists per game (+1.0), rebounds per game (+1.5). 1984-93, 1995-98 Chicago Bulls; 2001-03 Washington Wizards. —AC, The rare legend that bounced around the NBA during his days in the league, know that Malone playing for seven different franchises in the Association shouldn’t distract from the fact he is easily one of the best centers of all time. I have included YouTube videos to showcase the players' skills. Keep reading to find out the position your favorite players are. Anybody else going to averaged 22.9 RPG during their career like Wilt did? Who are the best NBA players of all time? To me, that’s absolutely silly for a guy who still managed to win just as many or more titles than Bird, LeBron, Wilt, Magic, and Shaq. Regardless of whether you consider Baylor a champion or not, know that another immortal on this list thinks Baylor deserves way more props than he receives. NBA is a very competitive sport with lots of extraordinary talents. 30: 2481.4 No. He averaged 24.2 PPG, 8.5 RPG, 4.2 APG, 2.0 SPG, and 1.7 BPG. He received All-star honors twelve times, and he is an Olympics gold medalist. I personally think it’s disrespectful to leave Kobe Bean Bryant out of the top five of any all time list. From the first dribble he took in an NBA game up until now, he's done nothing but live up to the massive hype that was placed on his shoulders coming out of high school in Akron, Ohio. He’s often ridiculed for his lack of postseason success and zero NBA Finals appearances, but when it’s all said and done,CP3 is going down as one of the greatest point guards to ever play the game. Shouldn’t that tell you something? Haters will counter that Wilt played against a bunch of stiffs in the 60s and 70s when the idea that a 7’1” center could be the most athletic player on the court was reserved for comic books. You get that because it’s Bird and Magic we’re talking about and they basically saved the NBA in the 80s. Yeah, injuries cut him down his last few seasons, but from his Rookie of the Year campaign during the ’97-98 season through the 2009-10 season, Duncan was good for a double-double. He and Larry Bird literally saved the league in the 80s and while they couldn't have been more different stylistically there's no argument whose influence on the game of basketball was greater. It’s time to give Chris Paul his flowers. Just look at the accolades. He won the Defensive Player of the Year in 2008, the same year he won his only championship in Boston and made the All-Defensive team 12 times. But one of the greatest guards ever made the All-Star team each of his 14 seasons in Los Angeles, made 12 All-NBA squads, and was a five-time All-Defense selection. These are the 10 players who have won the most NBA Rings in the history of basketball. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich put it best when the franchise retired Duncan’s jersey. “Who do I think was the greatest? The greatest player of all time. While Kareem put up a whopping 38,387 points during his playing days, I can’t look past the fact that he spent a good chunk of his career receiving passes from Oscar Robertson and Magic Johnson, the two greatest point guards of all time. He was a swimmer and didn’t start playing basketball until later as a teen. ), yet I feel like he’s been underappreciated because of all those years carrying mid teams on his back in Minnesota. Magic made the game fun—that's what made Magic so special as a player. The only player in history to come close to matching his winning is Michael Jordan. As each individual involved in this incredibly difficult and necessary endeavor lobbied for the player they thought deserved proper billing, we quickly realized it was going to be hellacious coming to a consensus. 50 Images. Seriously, they made rules to try and limit his dominance since he owns records no player now or in the future will ever come close to eclipsing. Spread the loveWho is the Greatest NBA Player of all Time? A 19-time All-Star who 15 times finished in the top 5 of the MVP voting, we’ll spare you from listing out all his accolades because you’d be scrolling this fine piece of #content for hours. The captain of the "Showtime" Lakers should firmly be included on anyone's NBA top 5 list. Thomas was a diabolical general who was able to score whenever he wanted and put his team on his back to will them to victory. —AC, The Most Dominant Ever. Because of Chamberlain’s domination, the league widened the lane, outlawed players rebounding missed free throws before the ball touched the rim, changed the definition of offensive goaltending, and forbade inbounds passes over the basket because it was an automatic alley-oop to Wilt every single time. He earned just about every individual honor a superstar can earn, most especially six MVPs (one more than Russell and Jordan) and he’s still the only player in league history to win an MVP despite his team not making the playoffs. Tim Duncan, the best rebounder the game’s seen since Moses Malone and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, finished 9,000 boards behind Chamberlain despite playing five more seasons than the legendary lothario. I have included YouTube videos to showcase the players' skills. Duncan grew up in the US Virgin Islands. oreillf7 Newbie. This man won three in a row, left to play baseball, then came back to win three in a row again, and then he came back one more time and was one of the oldest players to average 20 PPG and to score 40-plus in a game. —AC, Zeke’s legacy has been somewhat tarnished over the years by the opinions of his peers and the off-the-court issues he brought on himself while in the Knicks' front office. From the high-flying dunks to the clutch mid-range jumpers off that patented D Wade pump fake, there was moment after moment where No. It’s the playoff excellence that helps elevate Duncan above the more physically and athletically gifted contemporary power forwards like Karl Malone and Kevin Garnett. —ZF, How much of an explanation do you need here? He was truly ahead of his time. **UPDATED LIST**1. There was no way the greatest basketball squad ever assembled could leave off the greatest small forward the game had ever known at that point. Almost up until deadline, we debated whether Shaquille O’Neal, inarguably one of the best big men in NBA history and a true disruptor on the court, deserved to be ranked higher than the late, great Kobe Bryant. NO. Even with all those accomplishments people try to tear him down with advanced statistics like usage rate and efficiency. The list goes on, but Iverson's cultural impact on the current, and even future, generation of NBA players are more meaningful than his numbers on the court. Sometimes I watch his reverse layup during the fourth quarter of Game 4 of the 1980 Finals against the Lakers and try to figure out how the hell he was able to stay in the air that long. Six times Malone, nicknamed the Chairman of the Boards, led the NBA in rebounds and for 14 straight seasons, he averaged double-digits cleaning up the glass. And he’s not all style and flair either. The younger generations gets to enjoy the Chuckster in ways older NBA fans never imagined. He dropped over 30,000 points in his career, won a NBA MVP award, made 14 All-Star appearances, and racked up countless other honors over his career. They couldn’t guard him. Pettit was also the first player to ever be named NBA MVP, an … There should be no shock that Dwyane Wade lands on this list. That’s a pretty large gap for a two-time MVP. He’ll then pull-up from halfcourt and make it 43.5 percent of the time. —AD, Karl Malone falls into a long list of players from the 90s who were really good but ultimately overshadowed by Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. 73: Parker: 837.4 No. But if you hold being a third or fourth option in the Spurs system against him, you also have to consider the other side—what if he got the keys to a team earlier than he did? Pippen is inarguably one of the greatest defenders in NBA history having made 10 All-Defensive squads (8 First-Team selections) during his 17-year career and regularly stifled the opposition’s best player like it was nothing. But as great as he was in the regular-season, West shined in the playoffs. We all know Russell Westbrook, LeBron James, and at least a handful of other stars can mess around and get a triple-double practically whenever they want. There’s a reason why the NBA Finals MVP is named after him. He never did anything as good as Jordan—except, that is, defend. Early in his career he was quicker and stronger than everyone else, but as he got older he was able to add more finesse to his game. —ZF, Crazy that Chuck is now underrated. Undoubtedly recognized as one of the best NBA players of all-time, Magic Johnson had a phenomenal career, which many still remember long after he has left the basketball scene. While the Diesel collapsed defenses, Steph expands them, taking the 3-point philosophy of Mike D’Antoni and turning it up a couple notches. I can go on and on about CP3 being top 7 and counting all time in steals and assists, but there’s a word limit so I’ll just say it’s time to respect what the Point God has done in his career. 1 spot on this list when his career is over. All other big man bow down to The Captain. The Spurs lucked out, drafted Timmy, and became a quasi-dynasty. The three-time MVP and 1983 Finals MVP was a 13-time All-Star, eight-time All-NBA selection, and a rebounding machine practically unrivaled during the 70s and 80s. Three-time First Team All-NBA. Of course Michael Jordan is No. Bird filled up a box score but he was never strictly a numbers guy—he was just a winner who made ridiculous passes, had a knack for seeing everything unfold seconds before anyone else on the court, and always made the key play that either sealed the deal or keyed a game-defining run. Jerry West was that lethal shooting the ball—an absurd 47.4 percent for his career—and retired after the 1974 season ranked in the top 5 in points scored, points per game, free throws made, and assists.