The NBA's Ten Greatest Players (ePub)

Basketball is a great game. Soccer is called "the beautiful game" because when it is played well, with the ball moving from player to player with precise timing and movement it is a beautiful thing to watch. Basketball, soccer and hockey are all basically the same game. The only differences are hockey is played on ice with skates, basketball is played on a wood floor with sneakers and soccer is played on a grass field with cleats. But all three games are about getting the ball (or puck) into the net and stopping the other guys from doing the same.
Basketball is perhaps the most beautiful to watch of the three. Since basketball is the only one of the three sports that has the goal ten feet off the ground, it has the high-flying aerial show that is a vital component. This means that jumping and mid-air creativity are a big part of the game. And since the basketball goal is much smaller than the hockey and soccer goal, accuracy is that much more important as well.
So when basketball people make the claim that the NBA features the greatest athletes in the world, they may not be that far off in their assessments. Since basketball is a sport where there are only five players to a side, this leads to greater importance placed on each individual. So a great player on a basketball court where he makes up 20% of the team on the floor stands out more than a great soccer player who is about 8% of the team on the pitch.
There is little to no argument about the greatest player in the game's history. Ask anyone with any knowledge of basketball and that person will likely agree that Michael Jordan is the greatest player to ever lace up his sneakers and take the floor. In fact, there is not much disagreement over who are in the Top Five.
Numbers 2-5 on any basketball fan's list would likely have Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Russell. Some might include Oscar Robertson over Russell or Kareem. You may even get Wilt Chamberlain on some lists, but Jordan, Magic and Bird are the top three and there is not much room for debate.
As you can see, we've already listed our top seven of all time, or least seven who are in the top ten. So who else deserves to be on the list?
Jerry West should be on anyone's top ten list. After all, he is the NBA logo. If you are the logo, you have to be great. And West certainly was.
It would be difficult not to include Tim Duncan in a top ten list. The man has been around for two decades playing at the elite level. He has five NBA championship rings to show for his efforts.
How about Lebron James? He certainly has a long way to go, but he has already accomplished a great deal with two NBA Championships, six conference championships and a collection of MVP Awards.
To round out the top ten might be a bit more difficult than one would think. What about Dr J.? Barkley? Malone? Stockton? Havlicek? Cousy? Frazier? DeBusschere? Moses Malone? Hakeem? Clyde? Shaq? Kobe? All are deserving of consideration. There are also guys like Gervin? Hayes? Dwight? Ewing? Miller? Mikan? Pettit? Maravich? And now we can even throw in Curry and maybe Blake Griffin in soon.
So how do we come up with the top ten?
First we must settle on the top five. That would be Jordan, Magic and Bird at 1-3. Why those three?

We will get to that in the book....