My Top 18 NBA/ABA Players of All-Time; Some Prep

In alphabetical order:


Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Larry Bird
Kobe Bryant
Wilt Chamberlain
Tim Duncan
 LeBron James
Magic Johnson
Michael Jordan
Karl Malone


Moses Malone
George Mikan
Hakeem Olajuwon
Shaquille O'Neal
 Bob Pettit
 Oscar Robertson
David Robinson
Bill Russell
 Jerry West


These 18 gentlemen have combined for 150 First-team All-NBA (or BAA) awards and 44 MVP Awards.  And those figures do not give George Mikan any credit for his play during an era where there was no MVP awarded but he was named in surveys as the #1 player in the history of basketball.  You could argue for 5 MVPs for Mikan. 


As I boil it down from 18 to 1, I know I will create some very hard feelings from player fans. Please note - I started with 140 guys.  I do not believe that any of my top 18 "suck" as in "oh, sure, he just sucks, why didn't his team just release him!?!?"  OK, the fact that a guy ESPN may rank as #5 is ranked #12 by me does not mean I believe he is a terrible player.  He is one of the greatest 18 players to ever play the game.  It is generally my belief that my top 4 guys are by far the best players ever.  I don't think that there is a fair assessment of players' careers from which to argue otherwise.  I also believe that groupings 5-13 and 14-18 are highly arguable, but only within that particular grouping.  So, if a guy is ranked 12, he could make an argument for 5.  If a guy is ranked 14, he could drop to 18.  With that said, we will get to work and see if we can finish late April or early May.