GREATEST CAREERS IN NBA HISTORY

Which player had the greatest career in NBA history? How does one determine the answer to that question? And why do we care so much? Plenty of basketball minds have put together lists like this and called their version the definitive ranking of basketball players, but we can admit, that’s not what we are going to do. We cannot claim to know more or have seen more than other people who have participated in this exercise, but we are obsessed with this game and have spent an unhealthy amount of time figuring out exactly how to go about compiling this list. So, let us go over some of the guidelines we used to determine the tiers of the greatest players in pro basketball history. 

1)  When we say greatest player, what that really means is greatest career. I don’t think many people would dispute that Bill Walton, at his peak, was a better player than Bob Lanier, but injuries and circumstances meant that Lanier finished his career with a more impressive resume, so (spoiler alert) he is ahead of Walton on our list. 

2)  Championships matter, but are not the be all and end all. Basketball is a team game, and so much of who wins the title each year depends on health or just plain luck. We feel that it is completely unfair to only use rings as the primary source of judging careers. If rings are all you want, then this list would read like a 1960’s Boston Celtics roster and Robert Horry. 

3)  Longevity and health matter. Both of those things just have to mean something. Every once in a while on our list we may have a case where Player A has slightly better career numbers, but Player B’s peak was higher than Player A, so we moved Player B up the list. But, more often than not an injury-riddled player is going to get penalized, which may sound unfair but that’s life.

4)  We did not use some algorithm or formula to determine our list. Stating that may have just lost some you more math inclined readers, but there are just way too many variables involved when comparing players from a span of nearly 70 years. 

5)  We did, however, use a wide range of stats. We looked at basic counting numbers, such as points scored, total blocks or number of titles and finals appearances. We took a look at per game stats and career accomplishments like All-NBA teams and MVP votes. We also took into consideration advanced stats like VORP, total win shares, win shares per 48, player efficiency rating and Basketball-Reference’s very cool Hall of Fame probability. 

6)  On the initial list we created we decided not to include ABA stats. Our reasoning was this, “It just didn’t seem totally fair to use ABA numbers and not use say, Manu Ginobili or Pau Gasol’s European stats. While we readily admit that we are comparing apples and oranges there, it just didn’t feel quite right using numbers from what was (in somewhat harsh terms) a secondary league. It was a tough call but it ended up feeling like the right one.” Well, it used to feel like the right call. The more we research and immerse ourselves in basketball history, the more we realized how good certain players and teams in the ABA were. We have decided to redo the list to include ABA stats. We did take some points off for ABA stats in the first three or four years because the league just wasn’t good enough yet, but the final five years of the ABA are treated as nearly equal to the NBA. Players whose rankings have been altered by this decision are; Julius Erving, Rick Barry, Artis Gilmore, George Gervin, David Thompson (slightly), Zelmo Beaty, Mel Daniels, Roger Brown and Louie Dampier.

Now that you see how we went about compiling the list, let us explain why we are even doing it. Some people consider trying to do something like this a fool’s errand, and to some extent those people are correct. No one person or group of people can come up with a definitive answer to who had the greatest careers of all-time and rank this many players in the process. The main point of this list is to learn about the players on it and create a discussion about them among our readers. Obviously we were thorough in our research and we believe the list we have is great, but people are going to disagree, which is kind of the point. The list is done on our end, and from now on the only thing that will change is a yearly update to the active players. If they deserve to move up a few spots, then we will do that. This whole thing was a labor of love and we hope you enjoy it. 

-Mt. Rushmore (1-4)

-Dark Matter (5-10)

-Galaxy Opal (11-17)

-Pink Diamond (18-23)

-Diamond (24-31)

-Amethyst (32-50)

-Ruby (51-75)

-Sapphire (76-100)

-Emerald (101-150)

-Gold (151-200)

-Silver (201-300)

Mt. Rushmore (1-4) 

Michael Jordan (AJ)

LeBron James (AJ)

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (AJ)

Bill Russell (AJ)

Dark Matter (5-10) 

Wilt Chamberlain (AJ)

Magic Johnson (AJ)

Tim Duncan (AJ)

Larry Bird (AJ)

Hakeem Olajuwon (AJ)

Shaquille O’Neal (AJ)