I realized something this week: I am a basketball fan more than I am a sports fan. Don’t get me wrong, I love sports and the spirit of competition, camaraderie, and history they represent. But as this week went along, I realized something startling; that I had forgotten that football season was starting. And with that realization I noticed something strange; I didn’t miss it, like at all. My football consumption has dropped gradually over the past several years for a variety of reasons: the perils of repeated head trauma, reduced quality of play, players being colluded against for exercising their right to peaceful protest, Roger Goodell and his posse of privileged old money owners, a steady stream of offseason domestic violence cases, a desire to go outside on the weekend, and so on. I will still probably catch a few games when I am bored or in social settings. I will probably get pulled in as some of my favorite podcasts are discussing a player’s historic exploits and I begin to feel left out. But I’m not sure I will ever get back to the point where my Sundays revolve around that week’s schedule of games and my week days are consumed with setting my fantasy lineup (Quick tangent: I’m out on fantasy football. Watching with bated breath, hoping that a team you don’t care about hands the ball off at the one yard line to a running back you hadn’t heard of until the previous week so he can score a touchdown in a game which they have no chance of winning so that you can brag to your coworkers about how smart you are on Monday, is not my idea of a great way to watch sports. P.S. I may still be bitter about getting cheated out of a title a few years back by a corrupt commissioner during the one season where I had a legit championship shot, but I digress). And that’s not even considering college football, which I have been out on for years (another topic for another day). All of that is just a long-winded way of me saying that I can’t wait for basketball season! While other people spent the last several weeks getting ready for their fantasy drafts, I was putting together my list of the 100 greatest players in NBA history. I realize I put out the 50 greatest players of my lifetime not too far back, but with Hall of Fame inductions taking place this week I figured why not give an all-time list a shot. One note I feel I should mention at the start is that my main sources for the players I was not alive to witness in person are Bill Simmons’ Book of Basketball (specifically his Hall of Fame Pyramid), BasketballReference.com, countless hours of watching NBA Hardwood Classics videos when I was a kid, and a formula I concocted which takes into account MVP shares, All-NBA appearances, finals MVPs, and titles. Another thing I want to point out is that I have revisited my 50 greatest players of my lifetime since the end of last season (see “50 Greatest Players of My Lifetime” articles for further discussion of those players), so if some players appear to be in a different order on this list, that is why. So, without further ado, twenty a day for five days, starting with 100-81.
I won’t bore you with too much on the first twenty since this post is way too long already, but a few quick notes:
• I hope Ben Wallace gets Hall of Fame consideration before Dwight Howard does.
• A lot of people forget this, but Gail Goodrich was just as important as legends Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West on that 1972 championship Laker team.
• From watching highlights of Connie Hawkins on the Super Slams of the NBA VHS, he simply seemed like one of the coolest players the game has ever seen.
• People my age remember Paul Westphal as the coach of the Barkley Suns of the early 90s, but don’t forget that he was a stud player in his own right and was one of the best shooting guards of the 70s.
• I think Chauncey Billups deserves legit Hall of Fame consideration even though his career took some time to take off.
• I’m glad Grant Hill earned his due and got inducted this year as his peak was short but spectacular.
• One of my favorite random NBA stories comes from the 1978 season when David Thompson and George Gervin battled it out for the scoring title on the last day of the season. In the early afternoon of April 9th, Thompson put up 73 points to take control of the race. Unfortunately for him, Gervin didn’t play until later that night, so he shot every time he touched the ball and retook the title by dropping 63 points of his own. Can you imagine if Harden and Westbrook did something like that? NBA Twitter would explode with comments about how selfish they were and how they were ruining basketball. But personally, I love the competitiveness and sense of the moment that these two had and the fact that they went out and seized their chance at history.
100. Artis Gilmore (1972-1988) – C – 1 ABA MVP, 5 time 1st team ALL-ABA, 1 time ABA champion
99. Dwight Howard (2005-Current) – C – 1 MVP Runner Up, 5 time 1st team All-NBA, 1 time 2nd team All-NBA, 5 time rebounding leader
98. Gail Goodrich (1966-1979) – SG – 1 time 1st team All-NBA, 1 time champion
97. Connie Hawkins (1968-1976) – SF – 1 time 1st team All-NBA
96. Ben Wallace (1997-2012) – C – 3 time 2nd team All-NBA, 1 time champion, 4 time DPOY, 2 time rebounding leader
95. Dan Issel (1971-1985) – PF – 1 time 1st team All-ABA, 4 time 2nd team All-ABA, 1 time ABA champion
94. Dennis Rodman (1987-2000) – PF – 5 time champion, 2 time DPOY, 7 time rebounding leader
93. Manu Ginobli (2003-2018) – SG – 2 time 3rd team All-NBA, 3 time champion
92. Bob Dandridge (1970-1982) – SG – 1 time 2nd team All-NBA, 2 time champion
91. Paul Westphal (1973-1984) – SG – 2 time 1st team All-NBA, 1 time 2nd team All-NBA
90. Kevin Johnson (1988-2000) – PG – 4 time 2nd team All-NBA
89. Chauncey Billups (1998-2014) – PG – 1 time 2nd team All-NBA, 1 time champion, 1 finals MVP
88. Amare Stoudemire (2003-2016) – C – 1 time 1st team All-NBA, 4 time 2nd team All-NBA
87. Grant Hill (1995-2013) – SF – 1 time 1st team All-NBA, 4 time 2nd team All-NBA
86. Lenny Wilkens (1961-1975) – PG – 1 MVP Runner Up, 1 time assist leader
85. Sidney Moncrief (1980-1991) – SG – 1 time 1st team All-NBA, 4 time 2nd team All-NBA
84. David Thompson (1976-1984) – SG – 1 time 1st team All-NBA
83. Alonzo Mourning (1993-2008) – C – 1 MVP Runner Up, 1 time 1st team All-NBA, 1 time 2nd team All-NBA, 1 time champion
82. Jo Jo White (1970-1981) – PG – 2 time 2nd team All-NBA, 2 time champion, 1 finals MVP
81. Joe Dumars (1986-1999) – SG – 1 time 2nd team All-NBA, 2 time champion, 1 finals MVP
The Jello's Jiggling 