re: Post your top 15 players in NBA history in this thread

Mine:

1. Michael Jordan
2A. Magic Johnson
2B. Kobe Bryant
4. KAJ
5. Bill Russell
6. Lebron James
7. Wilt
8. Larry Bird
9. Tim Duncan
10. Shaq
11. Hakeem
12. Dr. J
13. Karl Malone
14. Clyde Drexler
15. Dirk

The Admiral, David Robinson

The lack of KG on these lists is rather disturbing.

Jordan

Russell/Kareem/Duncan

Shaq/LeBron/Wilt/Magic

Bird/Hakeem/KG

Kobe/Robertson/Dirk/Dr. J

It seems to me that the three players who deserve major consideration as the best ever are MJ, Kareem, and Bill Russell.

I think there is frankly some wiggle room when it comes to where you rank a lot of the rest. I'll go:

1. Jordan
2. Bill Russell
3. Kareem
4. Magic
5. Bird
6. Lebron
7. Wilt
8. Shaq
9. Duncan
10. Kobe
11. West
12. Hakeem
13. Dr J
14. Oscar

I'm probably undervaluing Oscar among others. This was off the top of my head.

1. MJ
2. Kobe
3. Magic
4. Shaq
5. Duncan
6. LeBron
7. Kareem
8. Bird
9. Wilt
10. Russell
11. Hakeem
12. Oscar
13. Dirk
14. Mailman
15. Garnett

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5. Lebron James

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7. Kobe Bryant

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#HotFiya

Elgin Baylor isnt getting any love in this thread.

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It's impossible to fully capture Elgin's greatness five decades after the fact, but let's try. He averaged 25 points and 15 rebounds and carried the Lakers to the Finals as a rookie. He scored 71 points against Wilt's Warriors in his second season. He averaged 34.8 points and 19.8 rebounds in his third season -- as a 6-foot-5 forward, no less -- and topped himself the following year with the most amazing accomplishment in NBA history. During the 1961-62 season, Elgin played only 48 games -- all on weekends, all without practicing -- and somehow averaged 38 points, 19 rebounds and five assists a game.

Why was this better than Wilt's 50 per game or Oscar's season-long triple-double? Because the guy didn't practice! He was moonlighting as an NBA player on weekends! Wilt's 50 makes sense considering the feeble competition and his gratuitous ball-hogging. Oscar's triple-double makes sense considering the style of play at the time -- tons of points, tons of missed shots, tons of available rebounds. But Elgin's 38-19-5 makes no sense whatsoever. I don't see how this happened. It's inconceivable. A U.S. Army Reservist at the time, Elgin lived in a barracks in the state of Washington, leaving only whenever they gave him a weekend pass ... and even with that pass, he could only fly coach on flights with multiple connections to meet the Lakers wherever they happened to be playing. Once he arrived, he would throw on a uniform and battle the best NBA players alive on back-to-back nights -- fortunately for the Lakers, most games were scheduled on the weekends back then -- and make the same complicated trip back to Washington on Sunday night or Monday morning. That was his life for five months.

The only modern comparison would be Kobe's 2004 season, when the Lakers star was accused of sexual assault and flew back and forth between Colorado and Los Angeles or wherever the Lakers happened to be playing. You might remember everyone making an enormous deal about Kobe's "grueling" season even though he was flying charters and staying at first-class hotels. Well, can you imagine if Kobe had been re-enacting Elgin's '62 season? The world would have stopped. We would have given him the MVP on the spot. Forty-six years later, nobody even remembers Elgin's 38-19-5 happened. When he carried the Lakers to the cusp of a championship against a juggernaut Celtics team -- becoming the first-ever member of the 60-20 Club in the process (in Game 5, Elgin exploded for an incomprehensible 61 points and 22 rebounds) -- he came within an errant Frank Selvy 10-footer of winning the title in Boston. Standing under the basket, Elgin jumped too soon for the rebound and didn't tip it in. He would never come closer to a ring.

He wrecked his knee during the '64 season and was never the same, although it didn't stop him from making first team All-NBA for 10 of 11 seasons from 1959 to 1969. He played in the Finals seven times, never winning a title despite a series of near-misses. During the first two weeks of the '72 season, Elgin believed he was holding back a potentially great team and retired nine games into the season. The Lakers immediately rolled off a record 33-game winning streak and eventually beat the Knicks for the title. How many guys have the dignity to walk away when it's time? How many would have walked away from a guaranteed ring? When does that ever happen?

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