Top Five Favorite Players in History PT. 1

This is not a post that I take lightly, nor do I think there’s is any room for my opinions on this within the next five years or even ten years to change. Throughout history there have been a handful of groundbreaking athletes. Wilt chamberlain scored 100 point in one game (and probably slept with the same amount of women that night) but he also didn’t pass the ball and missed almost half the shots he made. Is that a great player or a selfish player? I’ll leave that up for your own personal opinion in the comment section. So what exactly makes an elite top five in history player?

5. Bill Russell

(You know since I mentioned Wilt in the intro that this was coming)

Team most known for: Celtics

Career- Points: 14,552 (15.1 PPG), Rebounds: 21,620 (22.5 RPG), Assists 4,100 (4.3 APG), 11x NBA champ,  5x MVP, 12x NBA All-Star

It’s almost impossible to not bring Bill up in a conversation about ball. I’ve never been a “stats don’t lie” kind of person when it comes to basketball, because there’s more to this sport than strictly numbers. If it was all about stats the Spurs would be the most popular team in the league due to their consistency, but we all know that’s not the case. The one thing that these stats do say however is that Russell was a powerhouse center to say the least, eluded off the charts defense while still actually passing the ball. A player can score a million points but it doesn’t matter if they don’t have a ring. These elite players rack their brains trying to figure the ring formula, and it’s safe to say Russell had it figured out with 11. That’s the most in NBA history. The reason he is number 5, however, is because it’s always hard to tell with historical players if they were only elite in that time period because the rules were so lax and different, or if their talent could transcend through time.

4. Shaq

Career- Points 28,596 (23.7 PPG) , Rebounds 13,099 (10.9 RPG), Assists 3,026 (2.5 APG), 4x NBA Champ, 1xMVP 15x NBA All-Star

(if he is a top three player on your list I won’t argue with you)

Teams most known for: Magic/Lakers/ Heat

A heavy (to say the least), dominant, “where the hell did he come from” center. When Shaq was drafted the Orlando Magic was a brand new team with no buzz in the league at all. At the time the only thing people associated with Orlando with was literally Micky Mouse and alligators.  A young Shaq changed that quicky. Fast forward to 1993 Pat Williams and the Orlando franchise got the number one pick. Who was everybody expecting to join Shaq and propel the team, Chris Webber of course. Right?  Nope, they traded the number one pick with the GSW and the fans were pissed (to say the least). What fans don’t realize is that just because a player arguably has more talent, that does not mean that they have chemistry with an already existing team or the premier player at the moment.

 

The Shaq and Penny duo propelled both of their careers, and if ego and injury didn’t happen I can say with confidence that they would have got some rings. I could talk about Shaq being a dominant player all day, but what really convinced me was his 20 game swing. The year Shaq left the Lakers the team’s overall wins dropped by 20, (Lakers 2003 record w/ Shaq: 56-26, Lakers 2004 record w/o Shaq 34-48) while the Heat gained 20 more wins than their previous season  without Shaq (heat 2003 record w/o Shaq: 42-40 , heat 2004 record w/ Shaq: 59–23).Coincidence? I don’t think so. Stay tuned for my top three and in the meantime let me know who you have in your #5 and #4 spots. To be continued…