Top 10 Greatest of All-Time

[Frank Breakfast Styleham]

If this topic has been exhausted before please forgive me. I was just curious.

In your opinion, who are your top 10 greatest PLAYERS of all-time?

 

[charity stripe]

1. MJ
2. Kareem
3. Russell
4. Wilt
5. Magic
6. Bird
7. Hakeem Olajuwon
8. Shaq
9. Oscar Robertson
10. Moses Malone

 

[??? ??????]

1. Michael Jordan
2. Shaquille O'neal
3. Lew Alcindor
4. Larry Bird
5. Magic Johnson
6. Hakeem Olujawon
7. Moses Malone
8. Karl Malone
9. Bill Russell
10. Wilt Chamberlain

 

[collisrost]

1 MJ
2 Wilt
3 Magic
4 Shaq
5 The Dream
6 Bill Russel
7 Lebron He's already accomplished enough to be on the list, and he's going to move up soon IMO
8 John stockton
9 Tim Duncan
10 Vinny Del Negro

 

[Riker]

When I saw players on the Top 10 All Time list without Kareem but with LeCrab, I rushed out of the thread faster than Usain Bolt.

 

[Hendu0520]

Here's my list, people don't give Shaq enough credit he has to be 2. There are only 2 players to win 3 chips in a row since Bill Russell (who wasn't a good offensive player so he can't be in the top 5) MJ and Shaq. They also won the MVPs in all those finals. Shaq averaged basically 30ppg and 15 reb through those 3 yrs in the playoffs, he was the most dominant player besides Jordan hands down. And for those who think he just ran over and knocked guys around, don't understand footwork and his amazing athletecism. He did moves that no one his size should be able to do, an amazing one of a kind athlete. Anyways here's the list:

1)Michael Jordan
2)Shaqille O'Neal
3)Oscar Robertson
4)Wilt Chamerlain
5)Kareem Abdul Jabbar
6)Magic Johnson
7)Larry Bird
8)Hakeem Olajuwon
9)Tim Duncan
10)Bill Russell

 

[collisrost]

My bad. Kareem belongs up there. Probably after Shaq. I was so eager to get my Vinny dig in that I forgot.

 

[MADman24]

I've never attempted this because I consider it truly impossible to compare players from different eras but for kicks this is how I feel right now

1)Wilt
2)Big O
3)MJ - Kobe (Yes a Tie)
5)Shaq
6)LeBron
7)Hakeem
8)Bird
9)Magic
10)Russell

I realize I won't make any friends on a Bulls board with this list, for the record I'm born & raised in Chicago, and after making this list I see why I haven't because this is impossible so really don't hold me to this looking at it now I'm wondering how a couple guys aren't on here. And for future reference I see nothing stopping LeBron from surpassing everyone but Wilt.

 

[Riker]

MADman24 wrote:
3)MJ - Kobe (Yes a Tie)[/quote]
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

 

[RPK]

1. MJ
2. Magic
3. Hakeem Olajuwon
4. Shaquille O'Neal
5. Tim Duncan
6. Larry Bird
7. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
8. Wilt Chamberlin
9. Kobe Bryant
10. Karl Malone

 

[engies]

So hard to pick considering the differences in era's
if you could do it in a top 10 of each decade it would be much easier to do

Maybe i'll have a go later but I will say this: Michael Jordan by far is #1

 

[RPK]

engies wrote:

So hard to pick considering the differences in era's
if you could do it in a top 10 of each decade it would be much easier to do

Maybe I'll have a go later but I will say this: Michael Jordan by far is #1

Era's does make it impossible. Really difficult to quantify especially considering how much greater the overall basketball athletes are now to when a Wilt or Oscar Robertson played.

 

[engies]

RPK wrote:

engies wrote:

So hard to pick considering the differences in era's
if you could do it in a top 10 of each decade it would be much easier to do

Maybe I'll have a go later but I will say this: Michael Jordan by far is #1

Era's does make it impossible. Really difficult to quantify especially considering how much greater the overall basketball athletes are now to when a Wilt or Oscar Robertson played.

Exactly, who knows how Wilt would hold up these days, or if Shaq played back in the 60's would he have scored 150 ppg?

Anyone interested in doing it that way

 

[MADman24]

engies wrote:

Exactly, who knows how Wilt would hold up these days, or if Shaq played back in the 60's would he have scored 150 ppg?

Wilt would be ok today but Shaq would have scored 150 a game in the 60's, he would have been so dominant his logo would be the NBA logo or the league would have collapsed as his dominance would have grown old and the league would have lost popularity.[/quote]

But your right any list like this is meaningless because if you truly picked the most skilled players they would probably almost all be from the last 20 years but that is because they had previous generations to learn from.

 

[Kush77]

1) Michael Jordan
2) Larry Bird
3) Magic Johnson
4) Wilt Chamberlain
5) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
6) Hakeem Olajuwon
7) Shaquille O'Neal
8) Oscar Robertson
9) Tim Duncan
10) Karl Malone

 

[Frank Breakfast Styleham]

Here are my top 10:

1) Wilt Chamberlain
2) Michael Jordan
3) Magic Johnson
3) Larry Bird (Tie)
4) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
5) Oscar Robertson
6) Hakeem Olajuwon
7) Elgin Baylor
8) Karl Malone
9) Jerry West
10) Isiah Thomas

People always say, "It wasn't fair for Wilt - anyone could have averaged 50 and 29 a game," but I don't buy that. I feel that way about George Mikan and him only. If Mikan played today in his prime he would be no better than Joel Pryzbilla the Vanilla Gorilla.

Who else grabbed 55 boards IN BOSTON against Bill Russell?

Who else lead the NBA in scoring, rebounding, AND assists?

Who else scored 100 points in a single game?

He once said that if he played in the 90's he would have been averaging 60 or 70 a game and I believe it. Wilt was just a MYTHICAL freak and in my book, is the greatest of all-time.

But that's just me, what do I know? I think Kevin Loughery is one of the greatest coaches to ever live...

 

[??? ??????]

Frank Breakfast-Styleham wrote:

Here are my top 10:

1) Wilt Chamberlain
2) Michael Jordan
3) Magic Johnson
3) Larry Bird (Tie)
4) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
5) Oscar Robertson
6) Hakeem Olajuwon
7) Elgin Baylor
8) Karl Malone
9) Jerry West
10) Isiah Thomas

People always say, "It wasn't fair for Wilt - anyone could have averaged 50 and 29 a game," but I don't buy that. I feel that way about George Mikan and him only. If Mikan played today in his prime he would be no better than Joel Pryzbilla the Vanilla Gorilla.

Who else grabbed 55 boards IN BOSTON against Bill Russell?

Who else lead the NBA in scoring, rebounding, AND assists?

Who else scored 100 points in a single game?

He once said that if he played in the 90's he would have been averaging 60 or 70 a game and I believe it. Wilt was just a MYTHICAL freak and in my book, is the greatest of all-time.

But that's just me, what do I know? I think Kevin Loughery is one of the greatest coaches to ever live...

I'm not buying Wilt's crap.

Three things about the NBA now vs. then.

1. No international players. Smaller pool of talent to choose from.
2. There was a lot more white players back then...
3. Players needed to have other jobs in the offseason, so they couldn't commit as much time to basketball.

 

[Frank Breakfast Styleham]

In his autobiography Wilt laughs at how the media made such a big deal about guys in the 90's getting triple doubles.

He says he used to get 10 or more in as many as FIVE or SIX categories a NIGHT! What is that, a QUINTIPLE double or something crazy like that?

The reason he's not in the top blocks list is because they didnt keep tabs until much later on. He might have had a ZILLION blocks!

On an average night in his prime Wilt would score 30-50+ points, grab 20-30 rebounds, block 5-15 shots, in certain seasons, have 8-12 assists and have at least half a dozen steals to go with it!

The man was amazing.

 

[MADman24]

??? ?????? wrote:

I'm not buying Wilt's crap.

Three things about the NBA now vs. then.

1. No international players. Smaller pool of talent to choose from.
2. There was a lot more white players back then...
3. Players needed to have other jobs in the offseason, so they couldn't commit as much time to basketball.

I think what you mean by number 2 is that there was a essentially a cap on minorities on each team so all the talent was not in the league. MJ didn't face today's pool of international players, and more specific to his time neither did Kareem or Bill Russell but you consider them better players why?

Although I doubt any player's ability would translate 20 or 30 years later that, imo that is not a legitimate reason to say Wilt wasn't the best ever, if Shaq is second on your list for dominating guys with his mass and athleticism, simply before his time in these areas, why is it that Wilt doesn't get credit for dominating guys with his height, mass and athleticism before his time?

He is the most dominant player in the history of the 4 major team sports. This is a guy who had a double triple double, at least 20 in 3 stats, and multiple quadruple double-doubles, 40 in two stats. Really the only knock on him is that he didn't win more championships, is this the issue?

 

[??? ??????]

I don't care what Wilt says in his book.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QmhTWmAaBc

Watch that. The guys not that good of a basketball player. He doesn't have that good of athleticism, and he doesn't have that good of strength either. The moves in that video are ridiculous. If he tried that in today's NBA, he would be routinely blocked. Wilt was so dominant because the players he could play against often enough weren't even quick enough to react to get off the ground to contest the shot, and then if they did, they had a 5 inch vertical.

If Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain played today, would they actually be good enough for the NBA? Probably. Would they be superstars? I doubt it.