Thanks again for all the positive comments I've gotten on these! It can be a little nerve wracking putting OC out there. Hope you all like the Bill Sharman entry. From this point on, you might notice some of the same information being repeated in different entries, especially with the '50s and '60s guys, but I wanted people to be able to read any one of these and have them make sense and give a complete picture without having to read the previous entries.

#21 Bill Sharman, "Bullseye Bill," Shooting Guard, 1951-1961

Born in Abilene, Texas in 1926, Bill Sharman re-located to Porterville, California by the time he was in high school. Sharman joined the US Navy after graduating in 1944, with World War II still raging. After serving, he attended the University of Southern California from 1946 to ‘50. In 1950, Sharman was First Team All-Conference for the second straight year and First Team All-American and his number “11” has been retired by USC.

Sharman was picked 17th overall in the 1950 NBA draft by the Washington Capitols. That year also marked the beginning of Sharman’s minor league baseball career, which lasted until 1955. In the end, he only played one season in Washington as the Capitols folded after his rookie year. He was then signed by the Fort Wayne (now Detroit) Pistons, who traded him to the Boston Celtics prior to the 1951-52 season.

Sharman was one of the best shooters of his generation, both from the field and especially from the line, earning him the nickname “Bullseye Bill.” He led the league a record seven times in free throw percentage, including a record five times in a row from 1953 to ‘57. With players like Bill Russell and Jim Loscutoff shoring up the defense on a team that already had excellent offense, the Celtics and Sharman won their first title in 1957 against the St. Louis Hawks. Sharman would win three more with the Celtics before he was done, against the Minneapolis Lakers in 1959 and the Hawks again in ‘60 and ‘61. The Celtics made the finals in 1958 as well, but lost to the Hawks.

Along with four titles, Sharman was named First Team All-NBA four straight years from 1956 to ‘59, All-NBA Second Team in 1953, ‘55 and ‘60, and was an All-Star eight straight years, from 1953 to ‘60. He currently sits at 11th all time among Celtics players in points. Among his career highs are an astronomical 93% free throw percentage (an NBA record until the 1970s) in 1958-59 and 22.3 points per game in ‘57-58. His number “21

• Bill Sharman 1957 ASG to close out a quarter - the longest shot in ASG history:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPKMGlLhqXA

• John Trapp bets Wilt Chamberlain 5 dollars against being able to make some deep corner hook shots:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0IC8Nwkd1w

• Rick Barry accepts a shooting challenge from George Plimpton (lol)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVtzhmRzotI

The Hornets have 5 players averaging between 16 and 20 ppg:

Bridges - 19.5ppg
Ball - 19.3ppg
Rozier - 17.5ppg
Hayward - 17.2ppg
Oubre - 16.6ppg

All five of these players have played at least 3/4 of the Hornets' games, so it's not even a situation where these guys aren't all playing at the same time. Oubre has played every game, Hayward has missed one game, Bridges has missed two, Ball has missed six, Rozier has missed nine games.

I am still trying to verify if this is the only time a team has had 5 players score this much, but I came across an article about the 2020 Raptors having 5 15ppg scorers and having been the first team since the 1974 Buffalo Braves to even do that, and have yet to find a team with more aside from the 50-60s Celtics. The closest I've been able to find are:

1957-58 Celtics (five players over 16.5! Sharman, Cousy, Heinsohn, Russell, Ramsey), along with a bunch of other Celtics teams from that era that perennially had several players averaging right around 15. Watch out Ramsey, the T$unami Papi is coming for your crown.

1959-60 Celtics actually had 4 players over 18, possibly making Bill Russell (18.2ppg) one of (if not the) highest scoring 4th option ever. Pace was otherworldly back then, and the Celtics averaged nearly 25-30 more possessions per game than any modern NBA team.

2019-20 Raptors (five players over 15.4- Siakam, Lowry, VanVleet, Powell, Ibaka)

1973-74 Buffalo Braves (five players over 15.2- McAdoo, McMillian, DiGregorio, Heard, Smith)

EDIT:

In the brief time that the 2018-19 Philly 76ers had Embiid, Simmons, Redick, Butler, and Harris, Ben Simmons' 16.9ppg for the season (16.8 when all five were on the roster together) actually becomes the record. However, this roster only existed for 28 games, and Embiid, the leading scorer, missed over half of them and the five man unit only played a total of 10 regular season games together if I can count correctly. But definitely an honorable mention. Thanks to /u/xpillinddass for pointing this one out.

--

Any other super balanced scoring quintets in NBA history I'm missing?

Tweet Thread by the NBA

Next 25 of the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team (In Order of Tweeting):

1. Magic Johnson
2. James Worthy
3. Wilt Chamberlain
4. Jerry West
5. Larry Bird
6. Michael Jordan
7. Scottie Pippen
8. Isiah Thomas
9. Clyde Drexler
10. Karl Malone
11. Patrick Ewing
12. Chris Paul
13. Allen Iversion
14. Tim Duncan
15. Kevin Garnett
16. Robert Parish
17. John Havlicek
18. Sam Jones
19. Bill Walton
20. Bill Sharman
21. Walt Frazier
22. Paul Arizin
23. Rick Barry
24. Nate Thurmond
25. Wes Unseld

• CARMELO ANTHONY - 2000s

•   RICK BARRY - 70s GS
  

•   ELGIN BAYLOR - 60s LAL
  

•   WILT CHAMBERLAIN 60s LAL
  

•   BILLY CUNNINGHAM 60/70 PHI
  

•   ANTHONY DAVIS 2010s NO
  

•   DAVE DEBUSSCHERE 60s - DET
  

•   KEVIN DURANT 2010s OKC
  

•   WALT FRAZIER  70s NYK
  

•   KEVIN GARNETT 2000s MIN
  

•   ELVIN HAYES 70s WAS
  

•   ALLEN IVERSON 2000s PHI
  

•   DAMIAN LILLARD 2010s POR
  

•   JERRY LUCAS 60s NYK
  

•   PETE MARAVICH 70s ATL
  

•   EARL MONROE 70s NYK
  

•   HAKEEM OLAJUWON 90s HOU
  

•   ROBERT PARISH 80s BOS
  

•   CHRIS PAUL 2010s 
  

•   GARY PAYTON 1990s SEA
  

•   BOB PETTIT 60s ATL
  

•   OSCAR ROBERTSON 60s SAC
  

•   DENNIS RODMAN 1980s 
  

•   DOLPH SCHAYES 1960s 
  

•   BILL SHARMAN 1960s
  

Looks like the 90s lock in is going to be Hakeem or Gary!

This interview with Wilt from 1996 is one of my all-time favourites.

But some time after 2017 the NBA decided to take it down for reasons that totally escape me.

Luckily the good folks at WayBack Machine have it preserved.

But I want to reproduce the full text here just in case that site ever goes down:

A CONVERSATION WITH THE NBA LEGEND

The NBA at 50: Wilt Chamberlain

Back in 1996, in conjunction with the year-long celebration of "The NBA at 50," NBA Entertainment conducted a number of interviews with some of the most memorable and influential personalities of the NBA's first half-century. Now, the full, uneditied transcripts of those interviews have been made available exclusively to NBA.com. Check back often, as we'll continue to bring you the best from the "NBA at 50" archives!

img

Today, we share an interview with NBA legend Wilt Chamberlain. Chamberlain was interviewed at NBAE Studios in Secaucus, N.J., on Aug. 6, 1996.

>Q: Even before you played in the NBA, you played against pro players. Did those experiences give you an idea of how well you would do in the NBA?
>
>A: I was fortunate. I started playing against those guys back when I was in late junior high and early during my years at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia. I played against Paul Arizin, Tom Gola, Ernie Beck and other guys... from Penn University, LaSalle University, various schools around the Philadelphia area. Up in Kutshers Country Club, Red Auerbach was the coach and he had me go against some of his Boston Celtics boys, and I used to try to beat them to death so I knew that I could probably do fairly well in the pros even at that early age. (laughs)
>
>**Q: You dominated from the onset of your career. Did you fee

Bill Russell

Bob Pettit

Oscar Robertson

Dirk Nowitzki

Hal Greer

Giannis Antetokounmpo

Kevin Durant

Willis Reed

Jerry Lucas

Elvin Hayes

Hakeem Olajuwon

James Harden

Bob Cousy

Dave Cowens

Nate Archibald

Kevin McHale

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

George Mikan

John Stockton

Steve Nash

Charles Barkley

Julius Erving

Moses Malone

George Gervin

David Robinson

Magic Johnson

James Worthy

Wilt Chamberlain

Jerry West

Larry Bird

Michael Jordan

Scottie Pippen

Isiah Thomas

Clyde Drexler

Karl Malone

Patrick Ewing

Chris Paul

Allen Iverson

Tim Duncan

Kevin Garnett

Robert Parish

John Havlicek

Sam Jones

Bill Walton

Bill Sharman

Walt Frazier

Paul Arizin

Rick Barry

Nate Thurmond

Wes Unseld

Elgin Baylor

Dolph Schayes

Pete Maravich

Dave Bing

Lenny Wilkens

Dave DeBusschere

Earl Monroe

Billy Cunningham

Shaquille O'Neal

Dominique Wilkins

Dennis Rodman

Ray Allen

Dwayne Wade

Jason Kidd

Kobe Bryant

Gary Payton

Bob McAdoo

Paul Pierce

Stephen Curry

Reggie Miller

Kawhi Leonard

Damian Lillard

LeBron James

Carmelo Anthony

Anthony Davis

Russell Westbrook

Some contenders:

John Kundla

• 1948-1958

• 5 NBA Championships

• .597% win in regular season, .659% win in playoffs

• Star players: George Mikan, Vern Mikkelsen

Pat Riley

• 1981-1990

• 4 NBA Championships

• .733% win in regular season, .685% win in playoffs

• Star players: Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, “Big Game” James Worthy, Byron Scott

Phil Jackson

• 1999-2004, 2005-2011

• 5 NBA Championships

• .700% win in regular season, .696% win in playoffs (1999-2004), .657 win in regular season, .607 win in playoffs (2005-2011)

• Star players: Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum

Bill Sharman

• 1971-1976

• 1 NBA Championship

• .600% win in regular season, .595% win in playoffs

• NBA record 33 game win streak

• Star players: Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain

Who is the greatest coach in Laker history, and why?

Just thought I'd share this for anyone who wasn't keen to listen to the whole episode (I'd suggest listening anyway at like 1.5 speed, it was really interesting and not everything Ben said made it; I basically only included his actual list but there was a lotta fun content on the edges that I didn't include)

• Podcast by guest Cody Houdek and host Ben Taylor, who runs the Thinking Basketball YouTube channel and wrote the Backpicks Top 40

• Pod link: https://twitter.com/ElGee35/status/1451671346820182019

• Btw, there was a bunch of stuff about other players who didn't make it onto Ben's list but DID make the actual list (Pistol Pete etc.) that I didn't transcribe bc it was not on this episode but the previous top 75 episode a few weeks back, here's the link to that one: https://twitter.com/ElGee35/status/1441493128658100235

Before we start: The spirit of the podcast is just to discuss the list, and to understand that there are probably about 95 guys who can make these 75 slots, and to generate conversation as a result. (note: Ben also says a ton of stuff that I didn't record down between each of the picks and also before the list officially started.) However, Ben strongly disagrees with keeping the old 50 essentially apparently all being voted in again. As we learn more about the game, we can learn to evaluate players better, and more players can and should be sorted in and out of the list as voters become smarter and more informed (he goes more into this in the pod)

Ben's Criteria: Career value. Peaks. Also, if possible, trying to include a smattering of a few of the best at each area of the game (scoring, playmaking, defense, shooting). Scalability is slightly considered, so if 2 players had a similar career/peak then the more scale-able player got the nod (side note: in Ben Taylor parlance, scalable skills are those that increase in value on better and better teams, e.g. defense, passing, shooting, offensive rebounding. You can think of it as attributes that great ceiling-raisers have. Steph, KG, Bird, KD, Draymond are examples of ultra-scalable players; LeBron, Magic, Nash, Luka, Harden less so - they're moreso elite floor-raisers)

#Starting chronologically from the 1940s:

1 George Mikan STAYS IN

2 Dolph Schayes STAYS IN.

TLDR: Inspired by the NBA 75 list (which has 76 players) I have manually entered a ton of data over the past couple of weeks into excel in order to get a mostly objective GOAT list. Here is the top 76, the methodology is below.

There are 12 players who made the list above that did not make the NBA 75 list. Listed below is where the players who made it into the NBA 75 would rank in my list.

|81|Hal Greer|10.19|

It's the 75th NBA season, and the NBA is celebrating by naming their top 75 players of all time, which is striking a lot of conversation among the NBA community. I'm seeing a lot of top 75 lists, so naturally, I figured I'd make mine. Almost a year ago, I created a metric to rank NBA players' careers based entirely off of their basketball reference page. Here is an in-depth explanation of the system, but it's a long read and if you don't want to read all of it then I'll explain it briefly here.

Basically, there are 8 categories that players get graded on: Scoring, Playmaking, Defense, Rebounding, Value, Accolades, Playoff Performance, and Playoff Success. Each one of these categories is weighted according to what I think is important, but in theory, the weights of the categories could be adjusted easily to anyone's liking. Each player gets a score, which is calculated using certain numbers found off their basketball reference page put through a formula, for each category. For any given category, a score of .500 would be considered an average score and 1.000 would be the greatest of all time. The player's scores in each category are then multiplied by their respective categories' weights and then added together to produce one single score out of 100 for their career. My top 75 list is simply a list of the players who had the 75 highest scores in my career ranking system.

Before I get started, I should mention that I did indeed make a couple adjustments to the system based on comments from my original post. I adjusted the accolades category to include both MVP Shares and Hall of Fame Probability, and the reason I did this was give credit to players who were deserved to be either MVPs or Hall of Famers but were snubbed. Additionally, for the Playoff Success category, I replaced Playoff games played with Playoff minutes played, in order to penalize players who rode the bench during deep playoff runs while crediting those who were actually contributing those teams.

Without further ado, I present my top 75 players list based on my career ranking system:

Honorable Mentions/Notable Exclusions

• Cliff Hagan (61.8 Points)
• Joe Dumars (61.5 Points)
• Alonzo Mourning (61.2 Points)
• Dikembe Mutombo (61.1 Points)
• Nikola Jokic (60.7 Points)
• Tracy McGrady (60.6 Points)
• Hal Greer (60.4 Points)
• Dominique Wilkins (58.9 Points)
• Chris Webber (58.6 Poin

I don't want to step on anybody's toes here, but the amount of non-dad jokes here in this subreddit really annoys me. First of all, dad jokes CAN be NSFW, it clearly says so in the sub rules. Secondly, it doesn't automatically make it a dad joke if it's from a conversation between you and your child. Most importantly, the jokes that your CHILDREN tell YOU are not dad jokes. The point of a dad joke is that it's so cheesy only a dad who's trying to be funny would make such a joke. That's it. They are stupid plays on words, lame puns and so on. There has to be a clever pun or wordplay for it to be considered a dad joke.

Again, to all the fellow dads, I apologise if I'm sounding too harsh. But I just needed to get it off my chest.

1947: Chicago Stags (Doesn't exist anymore) with 77 ppg. Max Zaslofsky, Chick Halbert and Don Carlson were The Team's Top 3 Scorers.

1948: Chicago Stags with 75.8 ppg. Max Zaslofsky, Stan Miasek and Andy Phillip were the Team's Top 3 Scorers.

1949: Rochester Royals (Now Sacramento Kings), Minneapolis Lakers (Now South Bay Lakers) and Chicago Stags with 84 ppg.

1950: Anderson Packers with 87.3 ppg. This Team played in a Very Big High school gym. Frankie Brian was their Leading Scorer.

1951: Syracuse Nationals (Now Philadelphia 76ers) with 86.1 ppg and finished 4th in Off Rating. Dolph Schayes was the Leading Scorer with 17 ppg.

1952: Boston Celtics with 91.3 ppg. They had the 2nd Best offense. Bob Cousey was the Team's Leading scorer with 21.7 ppg.

1953: Boston Celtics with 88.1 ppg and the Best Offense. Ed Macauley was their Leading Scorer.

1954: Boston Celtics with 87.1 ppg and the best Offense. Bob Cousey was their Leading Scorer.

1955: Boston Celtics with 101.5 ppg and the Best Offense. Bob Cousey was their Leading Scorer.

1956: Boston Celtics with 106 ppg and 3rd best Offense. Bill Sharman was their Leading Scorer

The second round is a magic place that is mostly forgettable and occasionally franchise altering. For this list I only took people who drafted in the NBA in the second round, so no ABA drafts and third+ rounders. Please enjoy:

---

1947: Red Rocha (Picked 19th overall by the Toronto Huskies)

10.9/6.6/2.0 - 1947-1953 and 1954-1957

Ephriam "Red" Rocha was a two-time all-star for the Bullets and Nationals, he also won a championship in 1955, the first of the shot clock era.

---

1948: Harry Gallatin (Picked 19th overall by the New York Knicks)

13.0/11.9/1.8 - 1948-1958

Harry Gallatin was a seven-time all-star for the Knicks and later won Coach of the Year in 1963 as the coach of the St Louis Hawks. He also pitched for the Decatur Cubs in 1949, he wasn't very good.

Honorable Mention: Bill Gabor (22nd)

---

1949: Jack Coleman (Picked 24th overall by the Rochester Royals)

10.6/9.2/2.8 - 1949-1958

An all-star and two-time champion, Coleman is apparently most known for being on the wrong end of a full-court Bill Russell block in 1957 Finals.

Honorable Mentions: Leo Barnhorst (14th) and Bob Harrison (23rd)

---

1950: Bill Sharman (Picked 17th overall by the Washington Capitols)

17.8/3.9/3.0 - 1950-1961

One of five people to be inducted in the Naismith Hall of Fame twice (player and coach), Bill Sharman won four championships as a player for the Boston Celtics, one as head coach of the LA Lakers, and five as an executive for the Lakers.

Honorable Mention: Chuck Cooper (13th)

---

1951: Lew Hitch (Picked 20th overall by the Minneapolis Lakers)

5.0/5.3/1.2 - 1951-1957

Lew Hitch won two championships with the Lakers in 1952 and 1953 as a bench power forward.

---

1952: Monk Meineke (Picked 13th overall by the Fort Wayne Pistons)

6.8/4.7/1.3 - 1952-1956 and 1957-1958

The first ever Rookie of the Year in NBA history, he also averaged 4.9 fouls per game and fouled out of 26 games, which is a record to this day.

Honorable Mention: Jack McMahon (19th)

---

1953: Larry Hennessy (Picked 10th overall by the Philadelphia Warriors)

4.5/1.3/1.0 - 1953-1955

Hennessy was the only second rounder of the 1953 draft to play more than one season.

---

1954: Richie Guerin (Picked 17th overall by the New York Knicks)

17.3/5.0/5.0 - 1956-1967 and 1968-1970

Richie Guerin was a fan favorite for the New York Knicks, setting multiple now-broken franchise records. He was a six-time all-star and was selected to three al

Another year, another depth chart!

Players can still have more than one position, but this time I've kept it to two at most. Asterisk(*) denotes the alternate position, e.g. Gresham's primary position is small forward, and his alternate position is inside mid.

The positions and rankings are according to my personal judgement, so everyone's very welcome to chip in and tell me how I got this totally wrong.

• Key Defenders: Howard, Wilkie, Highmore, Battle, Joyce, Adams.
• Small/Rebound Defenders: Sinclair, Webster, Wilkie*, Hill*, Clark*, Coffield, Paton, Connolly, Long*, Geary.
• Inside Midfielders/On-ballers: Steele, Jones, Crouch, Gresham*, Hannerbery, Clarke, Ross, Bytel, Windhager.
• Outside Midfielders/Wingers: Hill, Jones*, Billings, McKenzie, Byrnes, Milera, Owens, Peris.
• Key Forwards: King, Membrey, Marshall*, Sharman, Battle*, Wood, Allison.
• Small/Pressure Forwards: Gresham, Higgins, Butler, Billings*, Long, Kent, Geary*, Kyle.
• Rucks: Marshall, Ryder, King*, Heath, Campbell.

Going by this chart, my starting 22 looks like this:

• FB: Webster, Howard, Wilkie
• HB: Clark, Highmore, Sinclair
• C: Jones, Crouch, Hill
• HF: Billings, Membrey, Higgins
• FF: Gresham, King, Butler
• Foll: Marshall, Steele, Hannerbery
• I/C: Ryder, Coffield, Ross, Sharman

On the cusp: Battle, Paton, Bytel, McKenzie, Byrnes, Long

Let me know your thoughts. Go Saints!

Here’s the list: Carl Braun, Bob Cousy, John Havlicek, Tom Heinsohn, Bailey Howell, K.C. Jones, Sam Jones, Clyde Lovellette, Andy Phillip, Frank Ramsey, Arnie Risen, and Bill Sharman.

There’s a lot of chicken/egg phenomenon going on here, in that it’s hard to say whether these guys made the Hall of Fame because they won a lot of titles, or whether they won a lot of titles because they’re Hall of Fame players. But still, 24% of your teammates making the HoF all time is a pretty incredible hit rate. Also apparently not a lot of roster turnover when you’re winning every single year.

Edit: just for clarification, I am in no way trying to disparage Russell or saying he didn’t earn his rings because he had “so much help” or anything like that. I just thought that was a crazy stat: only 50 teammates in his entire career and a dozen of them made the Hall of Fame.

Do your worst!

TL;DR

Made all-time hometown rosters with original 30 NBA teams + 25 new teams to split populated areas and big teams (spreadsheet + map)

Player Pool and Team Pool

I used the top 969 players who have at least 10000 minutes played in their career.

Why 10000 minutes played? Because that's the lower standard set by Basketball-Reference to get on their ABA career leaderboard (15000 MP for NBA). I added George Mikan, because even though he hasn't played enough minutes, he's featured in All-Time ESPN NBARank and Bill Simmons Hall of Fame Pyramid.

I started off with the current 30 teams. To split up the Lakers and Clippers, I gave the Clippers their proposed Inglewood site.

As I looked at the map of player hometowns, I realized that there were:

• some areas that had a lot of players, but few close NBA teams
• some areas that had bloated rosters with too many players

Based off city population and arena size, I added 25 new teams.

• I obviously had to give Seattle their team back
• Birmingham, North Little Rock and Shreveport helped to split up the South
• Pittsburgh and St. Louis were big cities without teams
• Berkeley added to siphon off San Francisco
  • if I add Oakland, it takes away too many players
• Anaheim and Westwood added in Southern California (Clippers & Lakers)
• Winston-Salem and Raleigh to pare down Charlotte
• Lansing to prune Detroit
• 2nd Atlanta team in suburb of College Park
• 2nd Washington team and Baltimore
• 2 more teams in Chicago (Rosemont and South Side) + a team in Gary
• 2nd Indiana team + Louisville & Lexington
• 2nd Philadelphia team in suburb of Wynnewood
• 3 more teams in the New York Area (Newark, Queens and Long Island)

The Method

I started off gathering hometowns due to this fantastic database by Reuben Fischer-Baum ([original article source here](https://deadspin.com/infographics-where-do-pro-basketball-players-come-from-5132615

This is part two of this list. This list is based off of accomplishments in the NBA (or ABA), not college or international leagues. Please let me know of any mistakes or if I missed something.

---

Key:

AS - All-Star

AN - All-NBA, All-ABA, All-BAA

AD - All-Defensive

AR - All-Rookie

MVP - Most Valuable Player

FMVP- Finals Most Valuable Player

DPOY - Defensive Player of the Year

6MOY - Sixth Man of the Year

MIP- Most Improved Player

COTY - Coach of the Year

EOTY- Executive of the Year

ScrC - Points Leader

AstC - Assists Leader

RebC - Rebounds Leader

StlC - Steals Leader

BlkC - Blocks Leader

---

Oakland (4): Kendrick Nunn (2019- ) - 15.0/2.9/3.0 - 123 G - AR

—

Ohio (11): Gery Trent Sr (1995-2004) - 8.6/4.5/1.0 - 506 G

Active: Jason Preston

—

Ohio State (49): John Havlicek (1962-78) - 20.8/6.3/4.8 - 1270 G - HOF, 8x Champ, FMVP, 13x AS, 11x AN, 8x AD, AR

Honorable Mentions: Jerry Lucas, Jim Jackson, Mike Conley, Michael Redd, Neil Johnston, Arnie Risen

Active: Mike Conley, D’Angelo Russell, Jae’Sean Tate, Keita Bates-Diop, Duane Washington Jr

—

Ohio Wesleyan (1): Barry Clemens (1965-76) - 6.7/3.2/1.1 - 790 G

—

Okaloosa-Walton (2): Kedrick Brown (2001-05) - 3.6/2.4/0.7

—

Oklahoma (27): Blake Griffin (2010- ) - 20.9/8.6/4.3 - 668 G - ROY, 6x AS, 5x AN, AR

Honorable Mentions: Mookie Baylock, Alvan Adams, Trae Young

Active: Blake Griffin, Buddy Hield, Trae Young, Austin Reaves

—

Oklahoma Baptist (4): Al Tucker (1967-72) -  10.1/4.9/1.0 - 352 G - AR

—

Oklahoma City (7): Allen Leavell (1979) - 9.5/1.7/4.8 - 700 G

—

Oklahoma State (29): Tony Allen (2004-17) - 8.1/3.5/1.3 - 820 G - 1x Champ, 6x AD

Honorable Mentions: John Starks, Marcus Smart

Active: Marcus Smart, Cade Cunningham

—

Old Dominion (9): Chris Gatling (1991-2002) - 10.3/5.3/0.7 - 700 G - 1x AS

Honorable Mentions: Dave Twardzik, Kent Bazemore

Active: Kent Bazemore

—

Ole Miss (9): Johnny Newmann (1986-2002) - 11.0/2.2/1.5 - 1159 G

Active: Terence Davis

—

Oral Roberts (9): Alvin Scott (1977-85) - 4.9/3.2/1.4 - 627 G

Active: DaQuan Jefferies

—

Oregon (35): Terrell Brandon (1991-2002) - 13.8/3.0/6.1 - 724 G - 2x AS, AR

*Honorable Mentions: Greg Ballard, Steve Jones, Aaron Broo

B: Paton, Howard, Highmore

HB: Hill, Wilkie, Sinclair

C: Clark, Jones, Billings

HF: Gresham, Membrey, Sharman

F: Marshall, King, Higgins

R: Ryder, Crouch, Steele

Int: Coffield, Byrnes, Connolly, McKenzie

*can’t put Hannebery in because he will have a calf complaint.

**Ross and Dunstan will either be traded or playing twos.

***that last McKenzie spot is open for any player traded for Ross, Dunstan or Battle.

I've known the NBA had a silver anniversary team (25 years) for a good while. Named in 1971 [you can argue about that if you so wish] it was basically an All-NBA team for retired players only, consisting of 4 forwards, 4 guards and 2 centres as follows:

What I only recently became aware, with the recent attention paid to the 75th and 50th anniversary teams, was that a broader squad of 25 players was also named - a 25 at 25, if you will. Here are those who missed the cut:

My question to the panel is simple: what happens if you drop the restriction on active players and treat this like the 1996 or 2021 teams? For reference, here are the 21 members of those teams who were active in 1971:

Of those, some had nearly concluded their careers and are clearly in; others had just started and are clearly out. But whom do you replace and why (and are there other players not on any of the above lists you'd consider)? I'll post my own effort in the comments; feel free to tear it to shreds and/or submit your own!

For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.

I said "hey look, an escaPEA"

No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!

Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂

It really does, I swear!

On this Veterans Day, I'd like to thank all veterans who have served their country!

And since we're an NBA history sub, here is a list of several note-worthy NBA players whose careers were impacted by serving, which obviously happened far more in the 40's, 50's, and 60's than it has since then. Many of these players are Hall of Famers, and I believe everyone I've included were All-Stars or All-NBA during their careers.

• David Robinson - served in the Navy for 2 years before entering the NBA at 24

• Elgin Baylor - missed huge chunks of the '62 season while on active duty, but still put together an insane 38-19 stat-line

• Lenny Wilkens - missed almost his entire 2nd season while serving (the same '62 season that Baylor missed part of)

• Paul Arizin - lead the NBA in scoring and FG% in '52 at 23 years old (25.4 ppg, .448 FG%) then missed the next 2 seasons while serving in the Marines

• George Yardley - the high-scoring 50's SF served in the Navy for 2 years, so he didn't enter the NBA until he was 25

• Sam Jones - served for 2 years in college before entering the NBA at 24

• Bill Sharman - Cousy's famous backcourt partner served in the Navy for 2 years after HS, eventually joining the NBA at 24

• Joe Fulks - high-scoring SG of the late-40's didn't enter the NBA until he was 25 after serving for 3 years

• Nat Clifton - served in the Army for 3 years before joining the Rens prior to the NBA integrating

• Carl Braun - 5x All-Star missed the 1st two ASG's ('51, '52) while serving in the Army

• Jim Pollard - served for 4 years during WW2 before starring for the Lakers in the late-40's and early-50's

• Larry Costello - served for 2 years after HS and for most of his first 2 pro seasons, eventually starting his first full season at 25

• K.C. Jones - served in the military before entering the NBA 2 years after being drafted

• Bob Davies - served 1-3 years in the Navy during WW2 (unclear exactly how long), so he entered the NBL 3 years after graduating college

• Bucky Bockhorn - spent 2 years in the military before college and starting his pro career at 25

• Harry Gallatin - served in the Navy for 1 year before college, but he still entered the NBA at 21

• Slater Martin - served in the military for 2 years during college; entered the NBA at 24

• Al Cervi - star 40's & early-50's PG served in the military for 5 years (~'40-45)

• Adrian Smith - was in the military for 2 years in the early-60's before entering the NBA

• Frank Selvy - af

Boston has also had a 17 year run of at least 2 players named to the first or second team, and a 25 year run of at least 1 player on the first or second team.

So, they said... and I quote: "We want to get you more involved, by having you cast your vote and choose the Collection Complete Rewards for all six collections"

So that would indicate the community is going to be the last word on this. We will know whether they are bending the truth or not if anyone other than Magic wins for 1980's since he's the meta card the fanbase loves.

But I'm curious what the other lock-in desires are. We don't know whether they're gonna throw all 76 players (or 74 sans Barkley/Miller) at us, but considering the 1980's has only 2 guys left, it seems likely that every 80's player will be in it. The 60's and 70's may not get the full complement as they're the biggest fractions and have the least "meta" cards or fan favourites. But for completion, this is what we got from each decade and who still remains.

I've put Dave Bing in 1970's because he should be there. He played at his peak then, never played in the 80's and his card art is 1970's even though 2K incorrectly has him in the 1980's. One would assume that will be corrected when they start to give a damn again.

1960's (18 players)

1970's (13 players)

1980's (13 or 14 players)

1990's (9 or 10 players)

2000's (10 players)

2010's (11 players)

|RECEIVED (6)|

For those interested,Here is an updated 75 list as of this mornings release:

•   CARMELO ANTHONY - 2000s
  

•   RICK BARRY - 70s GS
  

•   ELGIN BAYLOR - 60s LAL
  

•   WILT CHAMBERLAIN 60s LAL
  

•   BILLY CUNNINGHAM 60/70 PHI
  

•   ANTHONY DAVIS 2010s NO
  

•   DAVE DEBUSSCHERE 60s - DET
  

•   KEVIN DURANT 2010s OKC
  

•   WALT FRAZIER  70s NYK
  

•   KEVIN GARNETT 2000s MIN
  

•   ELVIN HAYES 70s WAS
  

•   ALLEN IVERSON 2000s PHI
  

•   DAMIAN LILLARD 2010s POR
  

•   JERRY LUCAS 60s NYK
  

•   KARL MALONE 1990s UTA
  

•   PETE MARAVICH 70s ATL
  

•   BOB MCADOO 70s
  

•   EARL MONROE 70s NYK
  

•   HAKEEM OLAJUWON 90s HOU
  

•   ROBERT PARISH 80s BOS
  

•   CHRIS PAUL 2010s 
  

•   GARY PAYTON 1990s SEA
  

•   BOB PETTIT 60s ATL
  

•   OSCAR ROBERTSON 60s SAC
  

•   DENNIS RODMAN 1980s 
  

•   DOLPH SCHAYES 1960s 
  

•   BILL SHARMAN 1960s
  

•   JERRY WEST 60s

Just thought I'd share this for anyone who wasn't keen to listen to the whole episode (I'd suggest listening anyway at like 1.5 speed, it was really interesting and not everything Ben said made it; I basically only included his actual list but there was a lotta fun content on the edges that I didn't include)

• Podcast by guest Cody Houdek and host Ben Taylor, who runs the Thinking Basketball YouTube channel and wrote the Backpicks Top 40

• Pod link: https://twitter.com/ElGee35/status/1451671346820182019

• Btw, there was a bunch of stuff about other players who didn't make it onto Ben's list but DID make the actual list (Pistol Pete etc.) that I didn't transcribe bc it was not on this episode but the previous top 75 episode a few weeks back, here's the link to that one: https://twitter.com/ElGee35/status/1441493128658100235

Before we start: The spirit of the podcast is just to discuss the list, and to understand that there are probably about 95 guys who can make these 75 slots, and to generate conversation as a result. (note: Ben also says a ton of stuff that I didn't record down between each of the picks and also before the list officially started.) However, Ben strongly disagrees with keeping the old 50 essentially apparently all being voted in again. As we learn more about the game, we can learn to evaluate players better, and more players can and should be sorted in and out of the list as voters become smarter and more informed (he goes more into this in the pod)

Ben's Criteria: Career value. Peaks. Also, if possible, trying to include a smattering of a few of the best at each area of the game (scoring, playmaking, defense, shooting). Scalability is slightly considered, so if 2 players had a similar career/peak then the more scale-able player got the nod (side note: in Ben Taylor parlance, scalable skills are those that increase in value on better and better teams, e.g. defense, passing, shooting, offensive rebounding. You can think of it as attributes that great ceiling-raisers have. Steph, KG, Bird, KD, Draymond are examples of ultra-scalable players; LeBron, Magic, Nash, Luka, Harden less so - they're moreso elite floor-raisers)

#Starting chronologically from the 1940s:

1 George Mikan STAYS IN

2 Dolph Schayes STAYS IN.

Just thought I'd share this for anyone who wasn't keen to listen to the whole episode (I'd suggest listening anyway at like 1.5 speed, it was really interesting and not everything Ben said made it; I basically only included his actual list but there was a lotta fun content on the edges that I didn't include)

• Podcast by guest Cody Houdek and host Ben Taylor, who runs the Thinking Basketball YouTube channel and wrote the Backpicks Top 40

• Pod link: https://twitter.com/ElGee35/status/1451671346820182019

• Btw, there was a bunch of stuff about other players who didn't make it onto Ben's list but DID make the actual list (Pistol Pete etc.) that I didn't transcribe bc it was not on this episode but the previous top 75 episode a few weeks back, here's the link to that one: https://twitter.com/ElGee35/status/1441493128658100235

Before we start: The spirit of the podcast is just to discuss the list, and to understand that there are probably about 95 guys who can make these 75 slots, and to generate conversation as a result. (note: Ben also says a ton of stuff that I didn't record down between each of the picks and also before the list officially started.) However, Ben strongly disagrees with keeping the old 50 essentially apparently all being voted in again. As we learn more about the game, we can learn to evaluate players better, and more players can and should be sorted in and out of the list as voters become smarter and more informed (he goes more into this in the pod)

Ben's Criteria: Career value. Peaks. Also, if possible, trying to include a smattering of a few of the best at each area of the game (scoring, playmaking, defense, shooting). Scalability is slightly considered, so if 2 players had a similar career/peak then the more scale-able player got the nod (side note: in Ben Taylor parlance, scalable skills are those that increase in value on better and better teams, e.g. defense, passing, shooting, offensive rebounding. You can think of it as attributes that great ceiling-raisers have. Steph, KG, Bird, KD, Draymond are examples of ultra-scalable players; LeBron, Magic, Nash, Luka, Harden less so - they're moreso elite floor-raisers)

#Starting chronologically from the 1940s:

1 George Mikan STAYS IN

2 Dolph Schayes STAYS IN.

Thought I’d share my list I’ve been tracking on my own. Let me know if you think anyone will be classified into a different decade. ALOT of good players still to come

•   CARMELO ANTHONY - 2000s Den
  

•   CHARLES BARKLEY - 90s PHX
  

•   RICK BARRY - 70s GS
  

•   ELGIN BAYLOR - 60s LAL
  

•   DAVE BING - 60/70?  DET
  

•   WILT CHAMBERLAIN 60s LAL
  

•   BOB COUSY - 60s BOS
  

•   BILLY CUNNINGHAM 60/70 PHI
  

•   STEPHEN CURRY 2010s GS
  

•   ANTHONY DAVIS 2010s NO
  

•   DAVE DEBUSSCHERE 60s - DET
  

•   KEVIN DURANT 2010s OKC
  

•   WALT FRAZIER  70s NYK
  

•   KEVIN GARNETT 2000s MIN
  

•          George Gervin 70s SA
  

•   ELVIN HAYES 70s WAS
  

•   ALLEN IVERSON 2000s PHI
  

•   LEBRON JAMES 2010s 
  

•   MICHAEL JORDAN 1990s CHI
  

•   KAWHI LEONARD 2010s SA
  

•   DAMIAN LILLARD 2010s POR
  

•   JERRY LUCAS 60s NYK
  

•   KARL MALONE 1990s UTA
  

•   PETE MARAVICH 70s ATL
  

•   BOB MCADOO 70s
  

•   REGGIE MILLER 1990s IND
  

•   EARL MONROE 70s NYK
  

•   DIRK NOWITZKI 2000s? DAL
  

•   SHAQUILLE O'NEAL 90s ORL
  

•   HAKEEM OLAJUWON 90s HOU
  

•   ROBERT PARISH 80s BOS
  

•   CHRIS PAUL 2010s 
  

•   GARY PAYTON 1990s SEA
  

•   BOB PETTIT 60s ATL
  

•   SCOTTIE PIPPEN 1990s CHI
  

•   OSCAR ROBERTSON 60s SAC
  

•   DENNIS RODMAN 1990S 
  

•   DOLPH SCHAYES 1960s 
  

•   BILL SHARMAN 1960s
  

•   WES UNSELD 1970s
  

•   DWYANE WADE 2010s
  

•   BILL WALTON 70/80
  

•   JERRY WEST 60s
  

•   RUSSELL WESTBROOK 2010s
  

•   LENNY WILKENS 60s
  

•   DOMINIQUE WILKINS 80s
  

•   JAMES WORTHY 80s

NBA 75th Potential Players

The decade chosen is my own choice so may be different as quite a few straddle multiple decades (there amy even be cards for the same player in multiple decades)

I'm ignoring any licensing issues as we just don't know and just listing the players as per the official NBA 75 list

50s/60s Released

• Arizin

• Greer

• Havlicek

• Mikan

• Russell

• Bob Cousy

• Sam Jones

• Willis Reed

• Lenny Wilkens

50s/60s Potential

• Elgin Baylor

• Wilt

• Billy Cunningham (played half 60s/70s so could be either)

• Dave Debusschere

• Jerry Lucas

• Bob Petit

• Dolph Schayes

• Bill Sharman

• Jerry West

• Oscar Robertson

1970s

Released

• Nate Archibald

• Nate Thurmond

• Dave Cowens

• Wes Unseld

• Dave Bing

• Bill Walton

Possibles

• Rick Barry

• Walt Frazier

• Elvin Hayes

• Pete Maravich

• Bob McAdoo

• Earl Monroe

1980s

Released

• Clyde Drexler

• Larry Bird

• Julius Erving

• Moses Malone

• Kevin McHale

• Isiah Thomas

• Kareem Abdul Jabbar

• Magic Johnson

• Dominique Wilkins

• George Gervin

• James Worthy

Possibles

• Charles Barkley (Could be 90s, could be unlicensed still)

• Robert Parish

1990s

Released

• David Robinson

• Patrick Ewing

• John Stockton

• Michael Jordan

• Scottie Pippen

• Shaquille O'Neal

Possibles

• Allan Iverson

• Karl Malone

• Reggie Miller (again likely a no go card)

• Hakeem Olajuwon

• Gary Payton

• Dennis Rodman

2000s

Released

• Ray Allen

• Tim Duncan

• Jason Kidd

• Kobe Bryant

• Steve Nash

• Paul Pierce

• Dirk Nowitzki

• Dwyane Wade

Possibles

• Kevin Garnett

2010s

Released

• Giannis Antetokounmpo

• James Harden

• Steph Curry

• Lebron James

• Kawhi Leonard

• Russell Westbrook

Possibles

• Carmelo Anthony

• Anthony Davis

• Kevin Durant

• Damian Lillard

• Chris Paul

I think a lot of you are already aware of Ben Taylor - he's probably the best basketball historian out there in terms of ranking players. Anyway, here's a link to his pod where he discusses it - https://open.spotify.com/episode/3055Hw73x55MOawRf3YrZF

He does a really good job of using a combination of watching tape, using analytics, and really putting into context their era, team situation, and weighting the players' relative peaks. Here's the list (I jotted it down while listening so hopefully I didn't make any mistakes):
*Players who didn't make the NBA's Top 75 in bold

• George Mikan
• Dolph Schayes
• Pau Arizin
• Bob Cousy
• Cliff Hagan
• Bob Pettit
• Bill Russell
• Elgin Baylor
• Wilt Chamberlain
• Jerry West
• Oscar Robertson
• Nate Thurmond
• Willis Reed
• Rick Barry
• Walt Frazier
• Elvin Hayes
• John Havlicek
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
• Dave Cowens
• Julius Erving
• George Gervin
• Bob Lanier
• Moses Malone
• Bill Walton
• Robert Parish
• Alex English
• Larry Bird
• Magic Johnson
• Kevin McHale
• Isiah Thomas
• Clyde Drexler
• John Stockton
• Charles Barkley
• Hakeem Olajuwon
• Michael Jordan
• Dominique Wilkins
• James Worthy
• Patrick Ewing
• Karl Malone
• Reggie Miller
• Scottie Pippen
• David Robinson
• Gary Payton
• Shaquille O'Neal
• Jason Kidd
• Dikembe Mutumbo
• Alonzo Mourning
• Anfernee Hardaway
• Grant Hill
• Kobe Bryant
• Steve Nash
• Ray Allen
• Allen Iverson
• Dirk Nowitzki
• Tracy McGrady
• Vince Carter
• Pau Gasol
• Manu Ginobili
• Paul Pierce
• LeBron James
• Dwyane Wade
• Chris Paul
• Kevin Durant
• Dwight Howard
• James Harden
• Steph Curry
• Anthony Davis
• Kawhi Leonard
• Russell Westbrook
• Giannis
• Draymond Green
• Nikola Jokic
• Joel Embiid

Discussed but didn't make it:

• Neil Johnston
• Sam Jones
• Bill Sharman
• Hal Greer
• Wes Unseld
• Bob McAdoo
• Bernard King
• Dennis Rodman
• Mark Price
• Marques Johnson
• Ben Wallace
• Tony Parker
• Carmelo Anthony
• Damian Lillard
• Luka Doncic

The NBA released their 75 greatest players of all time, I think its bologna,many of the original 50 should not get a buy into this team as others have done more to earn it and the game has moved past them. I assigned a value to every career accomplishment and put them into a spreadsheet with eight pages, these are my results.

1. Michael Jordan
2. Lebron James
3. Wilt Chamberlain
4. Kareem Abdul Jabbar
5. Bill Russell
6. Kobe Bryant
7. Magic Johnson
8. Shaquille O’Neale
9. Tim Duncan
10. Bob Cousey
11. Hakeem Olajuwon
12. Larry Bird
13. George Mikan
14. Steph Curry
15. Bob Petit
16. Scottie Pippen
17. Jerry West
18. Oscar Robertson
19. Moses Malone
20. Karl Malone
21. Dirk Nowitzki
22. Elgin Baylor
23. Giannis Antetokounmpo
24. John Havlicek
25. Dwyane Wade
26. Allen Iverson
27. John Stockton
28. Kevin Durant
29. Kawhi Leonard
30. Charles Barkley
31. Julius Erving
32. James Harden
33. Sam Jones
34. Russell Westbrook
35. Kevin Garnett
36. Isiah Thomas
37. Dominique Wilkins
38. Dennis Rodman
39. Wes Unseld
40. Vince Carter
41. Steve Nash
42. David Robinson
43. Bill Walton
44. Jason Kidd
45. Chris Paul
46. Neil Johnston*
47. Bill Sharman
48. Willis Reed
49. Rick Berry
50. Elvin Hayes
51. Dolph Schayes
52. Draymond Green*
53. Gary Payton
54. Dwight Howard*
55. Bob Mcadoo
56. Walt Frazier
57. James Worthy
58. Tony Parker
59. Robert Parish
60. George Gervin
61. Paul Arzin
62. Klay Thompson*
63. Dikembe Mutoumbo*
64. Clyde Drexler
65. Kyrie Irving*
66. Dave Cowens
67. Nikola Jokic
68. Anthony Davis
69. Kevin Mchale
70. Patrick Ewing
71. Ben Wallace*
72. Paul Pierce
73. Reggie Miller
74. Chris Bosh*
75. Pau Gasol*
76. Manu Ginobli*

Pete Maravich, Patrick Ewing, Tiny Archibald, Carmelo Anthony, Dave Bing, Ray Allen, Billy Cunningham, Dave Debusschere, Patrick Ewing, Hal Greer, Damian Lillard, Jerry Lucas, Earl Monroe, Nate Thurmond and Lenny Wilkins were all on the NBA 76 greatest, but did not make my list.

The following are my top 10 honorable mentioned. Tracy Mcgrady, Kyle Lowry, Alonzo Mourning, Rajon Rondo, Chauncey Billups, Derrick Rose, Amare Stoudemire, Toni Kukoc, Artis Gilmore and Maurice cheeks.

Players with an asterisk were not on the official NBA 76 list, the biggest snub, surprisingly was Neil Johnston... Wonder why the league doesnt seem to like him, I gave Vince carter a bonus because of his enormous impact on basketball in canada and his tremendous dunking, Players not likely to make the hall of fame were not included which disqualifi

I'm surprised it hasn't decade.

50 players who've made the cut so far:

Bill Russell

Oscar Robertson

Dirk Nowitzki

Hal Greer

Bob Pettit

Gainnis Antetokounmpo

Kevin Durant

Elvin Hayes

Jerry Lucas

Willis Reed

Nate Archibald

Bob Cousy

Dave Cowens

James Harden

Hakeem Olajuwon

Kevin McHale

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

George Mikan

John Stockton

Steve Nash

Charles Barkley

Julius Erving

George Gervin

Moses Malone

David Robinson

Paul Arizin

Rick Barry

Larry Bird

Wilt Chamberlain

Clyde Drexler

Tim Duncan

Patrick Ewing

Walt Frazier

Kevin Garnett

John Havlicek

Allen Iverson

Magic Johnson

Sam Jones

Michael Jordan

Karl Malone

Robert Parish

Chris Paul

Scottie Pippen

Bill Sharman

Isiah Thomas

Nate Thurmond

Wes Unseld

Bill Walton

Jerry West

James Worthy

So far, 41 players from 1996's top 50 list have been included, so there will be -at the very least- 16 new names to be included today.

Who makes the final cut?

Source.

1946 | George Mikan**

1947

1948 | Dolph Schayes***

1949

1950 | Paul Arizin, Bob Cousy, Bill Sharman

1951

1952

1953

1954 | Bob Pettit

1955

1956 | Bill Russell

1957 | Sam Jones

1958 | Elgin Baylor, Hal Greer

1959 | Wilt Chamberlain

1960 | Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Lenny Wilkens

1961

1962 | Dave DeBusschere, John Havlicek, Jerry Lucas

1963 | Nate Thurmond

1964 | Willis Reed

1965 | Rick Barry, Billy Cunningham

1966 | Dave Bing

1967 | Walt Frazier, Earl Monroe

1968 | Elvin Hayes, Wes Unseld

1969 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

1970 | Nate Archibald, Dave Cowens, Pete Maravich

1971

1972 | Julius Erving, Bob McAdoo

1973

1974 | George Gervin, Moses Malone*, Bill Walton

1975

1976 | Robert Parish

1977

1978 | Larry Bird

1979 | Magic Johnson

1980 | Kevin McHale

1981 | Isiah Thomas

1982 | Dominique Wilkins, James Worthy

1983 | Clyde Drexler

1984 | Charles Barkley, Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, John Stockton

1985 | Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone

1986 | Dennis Rodman

1987 | Reggie Miller, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson

1988

1989

1990 | Gary Payton

1991

1992 | Shaquille O'Neal

1993

1994 | Jason Kidd

1995 | Kevin Garnett

1996 | Ray Allen, Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Steve Nash

1997 | Tim Duncan

1998 | Dirk Nowitzki, Paul Pierce

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003 | Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade

2004

2005 | Chris Paul

2006

2007 | Kevin Durant

2008 | Russell Westbrook

2009 | Stephen Curry, James Harden

2010

2011 | Kawhi Leonard

2012 | Anthony Davis, Damian Lillard

2013 | Giannis Antetokounmpo

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

*Moses Malone was drafted in the ABA in 1974

** George Mikan played in the inaugural year of the NBA

*** Dolph Schayes was drafted in the BAA in 1948