Greatest NBA Players -- Kareem is #4, Wilt is #3

Well, it is official, LeBron James has moved up my list from #4 to top 2.


It will either be LeBron James or Michael Jordan as #1 overall.  And I still have not decided (I have a self-imposed deadline of 6 days).

I am not going to re-do all of my hard work from 2015 here.  So, go to these links to review the greatness of Wilt and Kareem and most of the reasons I give Wilt the slight edge.  https://hoopramblings.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-second-greatest-nba-player-of-all.html

And

https://hoopramblings.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-3rd-greatest-nba-player-of-all-time.html

So:

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar #4

Wilt Chamberlain #3.


Here is a little taste of why Kareem is #4.  Kareem lost Oscar in 1974.  Kareem's years without Oscar or Magic (recall this is in Kareem's physical prime, ages 27-31):

1974-75 Bucks - 42-40, no playoffs
1975-76 Lakers - 41-41, no playoffs
1976-77 Lakers - 53-29, swept by Walton in playoffs
1977-78 Lakers - 45-37, lost to Jack Sikma in the playoffs
1978-79 Lakers - 47-35, lost to Sikma again.

Then Magic came.  I am sorry, but if you are the equal of Wilt and LeBron and Michael, then you are not, in your physical prime, struggling so mightily for 5 years.  You just aren't.  This indicates to me that out of these 4 guys, Kareem was the least consistently dominant from a winning standpoint.  When he got Magic, you then combined the ##4 and 6 players of all-time into one team and added a number of other very good players in supporting roles (Nixon, Scott, Wilkes, Worthy, Thompson, McAdoo, for example).  That led to titles in 1980, 82, 85, 87 and 88.