More . First-year players were not included. Blog. The fun-loving big man used his outsize personality to become a global pitchman and analyst after retiring.Take a look back at Shaquille O'Neal's time in Los Angeles, which included three championships and an intense rivalry with teammate Kobe Bryant.For all of his statistical achievements -- the five championships, the 81-point game, the 60-point finale, the league MVP in 2008, the 20 seasons all with the same franchise -- Bryant's lasting legacy is his mental edge and burning desire to master the sport. These debates rage on endlessly in every corner of NBA fandom, and our experts have done their best to answer them, ranking the greatest players in the league's 74-year history.
For the fifth year in a row, SI.com presents its list of the Top 100 NBA players. Past performance (postseason included) weighed heavily in our assessment, with a skew toward the recent.
After extensive research and discussion, we project who will be the best players in the 2017-18 season.© 2020 ABG-SI LLC. Bill Russell or Wilt Chamberlain?
His fast breaks and no-look passes catapulted the NBA from an era when Finals games weren't televised live to the global game it is today.The greatest winner in basketball history, Russell claimed 11 titles in 13 years by turning the Celtics into a defensive juggernaut. Given the wide variety of candidates involved and the deep analytical resources available, no single, definitive criterion was used to form this list. Can YOU Name ESPN's 2017-2018 Top 100 NBA Players?? Can you guess all the players on it? He won six championships -- with the first and last coming 17 years apart -- and was named to 15 All-NBA teams, with 10 first-team selections. (2:53)LeBron James or Michael Jordan? More than anything, Duncan was one of the best winners, leading the Spurs to five titles and 1,001 regular-season victories, the most for any player with one team in NBA history.Tim Duncan will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame's Class of 2020. Instead, rankings were assigned based on a fluid combination of subjective assessment and objective data. Login. Quiz by Korzemba Jordan's brilliance on both ends of the court defined a generation of basketball and set a new standard for players following in his footsteps. His numbers -- including scoring an NBA-record 100 points in a single game and averaging 50 points per game for an entire season -- are mythical. Salary was not taken into consideration. ESPN's NBA … A predictive element also came into play with the anticipated improvement of certain younger players, as well as the possible decline of aging veterans. O'Neal became an All-Star 15 times and earned the 1999-2000 MVP award.