Again, not necessarily the Top 50 players of all-time, but these are going to be the 50 guys who have some decent argument of being Top 36, meaning they have to have very high high-end performance numbers and a lot of accolades/awards.
Out
Ray Allen - certainly longevity and shooting greatness, two titles, but never above 9th in MVP and never 1st team all-NBA.
Dave Cowens - look, he was a great player, but he doesn't have 90 WS, the year he was MVP he was named 2nd team All-NBA and never was 1st team, not in Top 100 in WS or VORP, Patrick Ewing has 3 seasons better than Cowens' best WS season.
Mel Daniels - certainly 2 MVPs and 4 Top 3 finishes in the ABA get him this far, but his 64 WS and pretty poor advanced stats, plus the fact that he was only great for 6 seasons ends his chances
Billy Cunningham - was ABA MVP and is a great trivia answer due t averaging 20-10-4, but his overall placements and advanced stats aren't up to his 5X all-league placements.
Ed Macauley - Macauley was on the 25th anniversary team and has an amazing .196 WS/48 (25th best ever). He has great shooting numbers. His problem is his resume does not quite match up with his contemporaries Mikan, Schayes, and Johnston, all of whom will advance while he stays behind.
Reggie Miller - fabulous advanced stats and adjusted shooting stats, sad to leave him way down here, but I cannot see him as competing for the Top 36 spot when he was never considered a Top 10 player by voters (never Top 10 MVP, never 1st or 2nd team All-NBA).
Robert Parish - His longevity stats are frightening, and I think a good argument could be made that while McHale was wildly overrated Parish was wildly underrated as a player. 3 titles. That said, never first-team All-NBA and 1X Top 6 MVP. I am cutting league MVPs at this point for not being even better. It doesn't seem right to leave in Parish, though, again, I think his career deserves more love.
Paul Pierce - wonderful counting stats and wonderful advanced stats (23rd in VORP, 25th in WS). The problem, like with Miller, is he was never an MVP candidate (7th one year) and he was never first team All-NBA (1 2nd, 3 3rds). Sort of pissed away his early career ability, could have been a Top 36 player...is not.
Isiah Thomas - Net Rating: minus 1 (typical great player, plus 10-15), WS 81 (would be lowest on my 2018 list), adjusted shooting - negative 770. You could overcome all of this if you were like 10X all-NBA and 4x MVP, Isiah is 3x 1st team and never finished Top 4 MVP...ever. He also has just 1 Top 7 MVP placement. Wildly overrated.
Russell Westbrook - love Russ, but he doesn't have quite the resume I need. He is negative 700 in adjusted shooting, he is 2x 1st team All-NBA, but he does have 5 Top 5 MVP finishes. His zero titles hurt him. Has an argument to cling to the bottom of the top 36 like Nash and Wade and Payton did in 2018, and to be considered after this entry like Kidd and Iverson and Frazier and Gervin (all still alive). When I ran a poll on who should be considered for Top 36 among younger active players, Russ received 0 votes. Still playing, so we will consider him again in 2024 if I am still around. 3 good years could be the charm.
Wes Unseld - won the MVP his rookie year, key cog to the excellent Bullets teams of the 70s, but he was never again all league and he never again finished Top 7 MVP. Great player, not Top 36.
Dominique Wilkins - He was only 1x first team All-NBA, but he is lurking around the top 30-40 in advanced stats. Nique is a great scorer and probably deserves more love from me, but we have to start cutting to 50 and then get to 36. He sort of sticks out as a guy to cut. Never a champion, never a conference champion, never appeared in a conference final. Playoff WS/48 of .079. 51st in MVP Award Shares. Just not quite there.
Remaining 50 Guys
1 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
3 Charles Barkley
4 Rick Barry
5 Elgin Baylor
6 Larry Bird
7 Kobe Bryant
9 Bob Cousy
11 Anthony Davis
12 Clyde Drexler
14 Kevin Durant
15 Julius Erving
17 Walt Frazier
18 Kevin Garnett
19 George Gervin
20 Artis Gilmore
22 John Havlicek
23 Elvin Hayes
24 Dwight Howard
25 Allen Iverson
26 LeBron James
27 Magic Johnson
28 Neil Johnston
30 Jason Kidd
33 Moses Malone
36 Dirk Nowitzki
37 Hakeem Olajuwon
38 Shaquille O'Neal
41 Bob Pettit
43 Willis Reed
44 Oscar Robertson
47 Dolph Schayes
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