Why Kareem, Wilt, Michael and LeBron, In Some Order, Are the Top 4 Players Ever

Before we get into ranking them, it just needs to be said again.  These are the 4 best guys, and I don't recognize there being any good argument that they are not the best 4 guys. 


1) If you look at Most Win Share Seasons over 13, all the way up to 20+, it goes Wilt, Michael, Kareem, James.  At times, The Mailman or Oscar gets in there, and Mikan shows up at the highest level (3 seasons over 20 WS).  But it is always these guys.


2) basketball-reference.com has "Most Times Leading" https://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/most_times_leading.html and "Most Times top 3" https://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/most_times_top_3.html for all league-wide stats. 


Reading that will lead you to see these 4 guys in the top 4 spots in field goals, PER, Win Shares, and Win Shares per 48.  Wilt doesn't have sufficient box scores inputted into the computer, but for Box Plus-Minus and VORP it is LeBron Kareem Jordan or LeBron Jordan Kareem.  If you look at the Top 3 page, even raw counting stats like points demonstrate my point. 


First-Team All-NBA - Wilt 7, Jordan 10, Kareem 10, LeBron has 11 and in a couple weeks he will have 12.


MVP Wins - Kareem 6, Jordan 5, Wilt 4, LeBron 4.


Finals MVP - Kareem 2, Jordan 6, Wilt 1 (won in 1967, there was no Finals MVP awarded), LeBron 3.


MVP Award Shares (which measures how much of the vote you got in your career) -- Jordan/James/Kareem are 1-2-3.  Wilt is #11, but you have to account for the fact that he won 4X and finished top 2 or 3 in years when he lost to Russell, Oscar and Kareem. 


Career points - these guys go 1-3-5-7 and 7 is still playing.


Career Rebounds - Wilt and Kareem are 1 and 4


Career points per game -- 1, 2, 4 and 15 (Kareem played like 20 years, he couldn't maintain his scoring at the end).


PER - ## 1, 2, 5, 11


VORP 1, 2, 7 - Wilt has no VORP and Kareem is shorted 4 years of VORP.  If you assume Kareem would get those 3-4 years back, it would go 1-2-3 for VORP, probably Kareem, LeBron, Michael. 


Points+Rebounds+Assists -- They go 1-2-6, 12 (Jordan is 12).




It is difficult to rank these 4, but it is certainly not difficult to name these 4.  They should be everyone's top 4.