My All-Time NBA Starting Five
Any good sports discussion will evolve to talk about who is the GOAT. The Greatest Of All Time is something we are drawn to debate. It must be done. However, it is extremely difficult to compare players in different eras, different times and different decades. Is Steph Curry in today's league better than Wilt Chamberlain 50 years ago? We will never know the answer, but that shouldn't stop the discussion! (Ok, we do know the answer to that, it is NO). So in case you are unsure about who is the best, I'm going to tell you. Following is the list of the GOAT at each position in professional basketball. Enjoy!
1) Point Guard - John Stockton
Some of the most prominent basketball players in the history of the game have been point guards. These fellas bring the ball down the court and control the game and tempo. None have even approached the career of John Stockton. John is the all-time assist and all-time steal leader in the NBA! He had a long and incredible career which few can rival. To this day no one has really come close, not even the great Magic Johnson, to matching what he did. (Magic is the man and if his career wasn't cut short he would have given Stockton a run for his money).
This Jazz great averaged a double-double over his entire career which is totally crazy. His career 15,806 assists are so far ahead of the league's second place who had 12,091 and his 3,265 careers steals blows away second place (Jason Kidd is second in both) being way far behind at 2,684. These numbers are not even close!
Given the thousands of NBA players, the fact that the second best assist leader has only 76% of the assist total and the steal record is only 82% of John's his stats are incredible! Not to mention the numbers occurred on different ends ends of the floor! The 19,700+ points scored in his career isn't too shabby either!
Some of the most prominent basketball players in the history of the game have been point guards. These fellas bring the ball down the court and control the game and tempo. None have even approached the career of John Stockton. John is the all-time assist and all-time steal leader in the NBA! He had a long and incredible career which few can rival. To this day no one has really come close, not even the great Magic Johnson, to matching what he did. (Magic is the man and if his career wasn't cut short he would have given Stockton a run for his money).This Jazz great averaged a double-double over his entire career which is totally crazy. His career 15,806 assists are so far ahead of the league's second place who had 12,091 and his 3,265 careers steals blows away second place (Jason Kidd is second in both) being way far behind at 2,684. These numbers are not even close!
Given the thousands of NBA players, the fact that the second best assist leader has only 76% of the assist total and the steal record is only 82% of John's his stats are incredible! Not to mention the numbers occurred on different ends ends of the floor! The 19,700+ points scored in his career isn't too shabby either!
2) Shooting Guard - Michael Jordan
Professional basketball had never seen, and has not seen since, someone like MJ. The number of world championship rings, assists, steals, points, MVP awards, dunk contest and defensive player awards is staggering. No one was more competitive with the skill to back it up. In his prime people were literally killing for a pair of his shoes. Two decades later, he is still making $100M a year from his brand.
Excellent players in other sports are always compared to Michael. Is he as good as MJ? Is she the MJ of golf? Is he the MJ of football? Is Kobe or Lebron as good as MJ? (The answer is obviously No) Was Wayne Gretzky or Pele as good at their sports as Michael was at basketball? There is a reason the comparisons go back to him. He is THE GOAT.
Two decades later, he is still one of the highest paid athletes on the planet and players are still fighting over who on the team gets to wear the #23!**
Professional basketball had never seen, and has not seen since, someone like MJ. The number of world championship rings, assists, steals, points, MVP awards, dunk contest and defensive player awards is staggering. No one was more competitive with the skill to back it up. In his prime people were literally killing for a pair of his shoes. Two decades later, he is still making $100M a year from his brand.
Excellent players in other sports are always compared to Michael. Is he as good as MJ? Is she the MJ of golf? Is he the MJ of football? Is Kobe or Lebron as good as MJ? (The answer is obviously No) Was Wayne Gretzky or Pele as good at their sports as Michael was at basketball? There is a reason the comparisons go back to him. He is THE GOAT.
Two decades later, he is still one of the highest paid athletes on the planet and players are still fighting over who on the team gets to wear the #23!**
3) Small Forward - LeBron James
I'm sorry Larry Bird, trust me, this really does pain me but I'm going to have to give this to LBJ (barely). First of all, just look at the guy. It is like the basketball gods chiseled him out of Mount Dunksalot to play in the NBA. He can shoot, defend, pass and not a night goes by that he isn't showing up on the highlight reel. No player in this decade gets fans jumping out of their seats to cheer some crazy play like LeBron does. Not only does he throw down 30 points per night, but he is racking up just as many assists as rebounds each night (7), which is crazy for someone his size who scores so easily.
I'm sorry Larry Bird, trust me, this really does pain me but I'm going to have to give this to LBJ (barely). First of all, just look at the guy. It is like the basketball gods chiseled him out of Mount Dunksalot to play in the NBA. He can shoot, defend, pass and not a night goes by that he isn't showing up on the highlight reel. No player in this decade gets fans jumping out of their seats to cheer some crazy play like LeBron does. Not only does he throw down 30 points per night, but he is racking up just as many assists as rebounds each night (7), which is crazy for someone his size who scores so easily.
4) Power Forward - Karl Malone
Best true power-forward to have played the game. No, the fact that there are two Jazz players on my starting line-up has nothing to do with the fact that I live in Utah. Maybe. The Mailman's impressive career is topped off with him being the second place all-time leading scorer and 7th overall in career rebounds. Matter of fact, he is the only player EVER to be in the top 10 in points, rebounds and steals! Let me say that again - out of thousands of NBA players, he is top 10 in scoring, rebounds and steals! With awards for defense, all sorts of MVP awards and trips to the Olympics, he is the one that I would put out on the floor to start my all-time game.
Best true power-forward to have played the game. No, the fact that there are two Jazz players on my starting line-up has nothing to do with the fact that I live in Utah. Maybe. The Mailman's impressive career is topped off with him being the second place all-time leading scorer and 7th overall in career rebounds. Matter of fact, he is the only player EVER to be in the top 10 in points, rebounds and steals! Let me say that again - out of thousands of NBA players, he is top 10 in scoring, rebounds and steals! With awards for defense, all sorts of MVP awards and trips to the Olympics, he is the one that I would put out on the floor to start my all-time game.
The all-time scoring leader dominated the game like no one else! Incredibly gifted at scoring, rebounding and defense. Wilt averaged over 30 points and 22 rebounds for his entire career!!! One year he even lead the league in assists and is the only center ever to do so! Many argue that his height, 7'1", is how he was able to pull off these atmospheric numbers and that it would never happen today, but that is definitely not true. There were still other 7 footers and a bunch close to the 7 foot mark playing in his day. It wasn't like he was playing against a bunch of 5 foot tall kids out there, this is the NBA! Plus, there have been a ton of players since him who are even taller and more athletic, but none come remotely close to producing those numbers. Not. Even. Close. What I want to know is how much more Wilt would have rocked the NBA today, given the elevated level of training that they have now!
** Oscar Robertson is easily one of the greatest basketball players of all time. I would say he is the second best of all time. Unfortunately MJ is the greatest and they play the same position, so he didn't make the list. Oscar was the only person to average a triple-double for an entire season until the whiny Russell Westbrook did it in 2016-2017! In Oscar's first five seasons he averaged 30.2 points, 10.3 rebounds and 10.6 assists. That is unreal. He still ranks top 10 in points and assists in the NBA! That is crazy! Plus he didn't grow up watching players like MJ, he was inventing the game as he went along!!!
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