NBA's Greatest All-Around Players - James, Bird, Jordan, Havlicek, Oscar

Recall that I have already gone through and ranked the top 36 greatest players, so everyone do NOT freak out here.  The point of this entry is to identify guys who were great at every significant measurable aspect of the game of basketball -- scoring, rebounding, assists, and defense.

Now, judging a "great all-around player" is difficult, because you need to evaluate what makes a "great" all-around player.  If someone gets 7 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists a game, are they "great"?  Does being a great all-around player mean you need to score 20 points a game?  25? Is 15 enough?

The hardest thing in evaluating guys from the ancient days of the NBA is the NBA didn't keep steals and blocks before, I believe, 1976, so you cannot really look at steals or blocks.  To fix this problem, I went with Defensive Win Shares where I considered defense.

What I did was considered a variety of season results to determine what guys consistently show up on the charts.  I did 5 searches on the www.basketball-reference.com database, using what I believe to be various examples of what a reasonable person would consider to be a great all-around season.  The guys who appear on all 5 lists:

LeBron James
Larry Bird
Michael Jordan
John Havlicek. 

That is it.  Oscar Robertson appeared on 4 of the lists (ranking highly on many) but failed to have 4 seasons or more with 4+ defensive win shares.  Nevertheless, I will place him 5th, to create a full starting 5.

What is most remarkable about the search results is the absolute and utter dominance of LeBron James.  Table 1:  first by 2 seasons; Table 2 - tied for first with 3 point guards; Table 3:  first by 4 seasons over Oscar, 7 over Bird, 8 over Jordan; Table 4:  tied for first; Table 5:  first by 6 seasons over Bird and Jordan.

Table 5 is perhaps the most shocking result I stumbled upon.  There have been only 19 total seasons in which a player has gone 25-6-6 with 4 DWS.  LeBron has NINE of them!!  Almost half. 

This would explain why James can take absolutely horseshit teams to the NBA Finals - he has the ability to do everything on the court and fill in enormous gaps left by his teammates. 


I used a variety of searches:

Table 1 -- Most seasons with 20 points/5 assists and 5 rebounds per game (see very bottom, I couldn't move it for some reason)

Table 2:  Most seasons with 7 points, 7 assist and 7 rebounds per game
Table 2

1	LeBron James	2005	2013	TOT	NBA	6
2	Magic Johnson*	1980	1989	LAL	NBA	6
3	Jason Kidd	2000	2008	TOT	NBA	6
4	Oscar Robertson*	1961	1966	CIN	NBA	6
5	Larry Bird*	1987	1991	BOS	NBA	3
6	Fat Lever	1987	1989	DEN	NBA	3
7	Wilt Chamberlain*	1967	1968	PHI	NBA	2
8	John Havlicek*	1971	1972	BOS	NBA	2
9	Grant Hill	1997	1997	DET	NBA	1
10	Michael Jordan*	1989	1989	CHI	NBA	1
11	Norm Van Lier	1971	1971	CIN	NBA	1
12	Darrell Walker	1990	1990	WSB	NBA	1
13	Russell Westbrook	2015	2015	OKC	NBA	1

Table 3 -- 25 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists a game, plus at least 2 Defensive Win Shares:
Table 3.

1	LeBron James	2005	2015	TOT	NBA	11
2	Oscar Robertson*	1962	1970	CIN	NBA	7
3	Larry Bird*	1985	1988	BOS	NBA	4
4	Michael Jordan*	1989	1992	CHI	NBA	3
5	John Havlicek*	1971	1972	BOS	NBA	2
6	Rick Barry*	1974	1974	GSW	NBA	1
7	Clyde Drexler*	1992	1992	POR	NBA	1
8	Richie Guerin*	1962	1962	NYK	NBA	1
9	Jerry West*	1966	1966	LAL	NBA	1
10	Russell Westbrook	2015	2015	OKC	NBA	1

Table 4 -- Seasons With 15 points/4 rebounds/4 assist and 4 Defensive Win Shares
Table 4

1	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar*	1970	1980	TOT	NBA	9
2	Larry Bird*	1980	1990	BOS	NBA	9
3	Kevin Garnett	1998	2007	MIN	NBA	9
4	LeBron James	2005	2013	TOT	NBA	9
5	Michael Jordan*	1987	1997	CHI	NBA	9
6	Scottie Pippen*	1990	1997	CHI	NBA	8
7	Wilt Chamberlain*	1964	1971	TOT	NBA	6
8	Walt Frazier*	1969	1974	NYK	NBA	6
9	John Havlicek*	1968	1973	BOS	NBA	6
10	Bob Cousy*	1957	1961	BOS	NBA	5
11	Dave Cowens*	1973	1978	BOS	NBA	5
12	Karl Malone*	1994	2003	UTA	NBA	5
13	Dwyane Wade	2005	2011	MIA	NBA	5
14	Kobe Bryant	2000	2010	LAL	NBA	4
15	Julius Erving*	1979	1984	PHI	NBA	4
16	Chris Webber	1997	2003	TOT	NBA	4

Table 5 -- Seasons with 25 points per game/6 rebounds/6 assist and 4 Defensive Win Shares:
Table 5

1	LeBron James	2005	2013	TOT	NBA	9
2	Larry Bird*	1985	1987	BOS	NBA	3
3	Michael Jordan*	1989	1992	CHI	NBA	3
4	John Havlicek*	1971	1972	BOS	NBA	2
5	Clyde Drexler*	1992	1992	POR	NBA	1
6	Oscar Robertson*	1964	1964	CIN	NBA	1

Table 1 (Seasons with 20-5-5 average)

1	LeBron James	2004	2015	TOT	NBA	12
2	Larry Bird*	1981	1992	BOS	NBA	10
3	Oscar Robertson*	1961	1970	CIN	NBA	10
4	Kobe Bryant	2002	2015	LAL	NBA	9
5	Michael Jordan*	1985	2002	TOT	NBA	9
6	Clyde Drexler*	1987	1992	POR	NBA	6
7	Walt Frazier*	1970	1975	NYK	NBA	6
8	John Havlicek*	1969	1974	BOS	NBA	6
9	Tracy McGrady	2002	2008	TOT	NBA	6
10	Jerry West*	1962	1968	LAL	NBA	6
11	Rick Barry*	1974	1978	GSW	NBA	5
12	Grant Hill	1996	2000	DET	NBA	5
13	Wilt Chamberlain*	1964	1968	TOT	NBA	4
14	Magic Johnson*	1981	1990	LAL	NBA	4
15	Scottie Pippen*	1992	1997	CHI	NBA	4
16	Elgin Baylor*	1961	1970	LAL	NBA	3
17	Steve Francis	2002	2005	TOT	NBA	3
18	Kevin Garnett	2002	2005	MIN	NBA	3
19	Richie Guerin*	1960	1962	NYK	NBA	3
20	Dwyane Wade	2005	2009	MIA	NBA	3
Rk	Player	From	To	Tm	Lg	Count
21	Russell Westbrook	2013	2015	OKC	NBA	3