I don't like these lists very much. I have far more respect for the NBA's own 1996 list of the NBA's top 50 players which was voted on by 50 great NBA players, coaches, and prominent media people. The list they came up with was the 50 greatest players in their opinion, and did not rank any one player higher than another. It seems they would know best, rather than a young sportswriter, Andy Bailey, with less than 10 years experience, who does not have the perspective to be able to judge the worth of players who played way before he was born, in a very different game with different rules. He seems to be a promoter, favoring current and more recent players whom he has seen over those he has not seen, and a proponent of modern advanced analytic stats, which he appears to favor over traditional basketball stats, never mind the some of the much older players he has chosen to drop from the 1996 NBA list have had very few stats recorded at all, as stats were not as important as winning games and team play in the early days of the NBA.
Bailey has dumped 19 players who were on the 1996 list, including old timers Paul Arizin and George Mikan. He does not have much respect for the fact that basketball is a team game, and winning championships as a team is really important. He has dumped winners like Sam Jones (10 rings), Bob Cousy (6), Bill Sharman(4) and several more. In ranking the great centers, he has ranked Kareem as the best, at #3, followed by Shaq #6, Duncan #7, Russell #8, and Wilt #9, but Kareem himself has said that Bill Russell is the best PLAYER of all time, because he has 11 championship rings. Bailey thinks stats are more important, and did not agree with Kareem. Here is the link from Bailey's own article to what Kareem said:
https://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/18009414 Another point is that Bailey doesn't seem to respect defense, maybe because it does not produce a lot of statistics that he can play with to make his case. He dropped 1996 top 50 team members Willis Reed, Dave Cowens, Dave DeBusschere, and Patrick Ewing, all fine defenders from the team.
The other players from the 1996 team that I haven't mentioned above, which Bailey dumped from the team were Tiny Archibald, Dave Bing, Billy Cunningham, Jerry Lucas, Pete Maravich, Earl Monroe, Robert parish, Wes Unseld, Lenny Wilkens, and James Worthy. How do you keep any of these guys off the team? At least Bailey says it was "painful" to leave off some players, and his list of those players is a good one, but several of them should have been on his top 50. Again, there are a lot of defensive standouts on his cut list, like Bobby Jones, Sidney Moncrief, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Motumbo, Gary Payton, Willis Reed, Dennis Rodman, and Nate Thurmond. How can you keep Gary Payton and Nate Thurmond off your top 50 team? For that matter, Hall of Famer KC Jones was the best small defender during the years he played. How do keep him off your top 50 list and your "missed the top 50" list?
The NBA has expanded a lot and a lot more good players have played since 1996. How about naming a list of the best 100 all-time NBA players, and not disrespect any of them by ranking them individually? Just list them in alphabetical order, like the 1996 list. This is a team game, after all.
