Pro Basketball Top 100 List

Player	RDT (2018)	RDT (2017)	RDT (2016)	RDT (2015)	Simmons (2010)	SLAM (2011)	ESPN (2016)
Michael Jordan	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
LeBron James	2	3	3	6	20	31	3
Bill Russell	3	2	2	2	2	3	7
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	4	4	4	3	3	7	2
Magic Johnson	5	5	5	4	4	6	4
Tim Duncan	6	6	6	5	7	8	8
Larry Bird	7	7	7	7	5	9	6
Shaquille O'Neal	8	8	8	8	12	4	9
Hakeem Olajuwon	9	9	9	9	11	13	10
Kobe Bryant	10	10	10	10	8	10	12
Moses Malone	11	11	11	11	13	15	15
Kevin Durant	12	18	34	35			22
Jerry West	13	12	12	12	9	11	13
Dirk Nowitzki	14	13	13	13	39	55	17
Kevin Garnett	15	14	14	14	22	30	21
Wilt Chamberlain	16	15	15	15	6	2	5
Oscar Robertson	17	16	16	16	10	5	11
Stephen Curry	18	21	27	47			23
Julius Erving	19	17	17	17	16	16	14
Charles Barkley	20	19	18	18	19	20	18
Karl Malone	21	20	19	19	18	18	16
Dwyane Wade	22	22	20	20	28	49	27
Isiah Thomas	23	23	21	21	23	19	26
Scottie Pippen	24	24	22	22	24	27	25
Bob Pettit	25	25	23	23	17	14	34
John Havlicek	26	26	24	24	14	17	28
Elgin Baylor	27	27	25	25	15	12	24
David Robinson	28	28	26	26	29	25	20
Chris Paul	29	51	51	55	90	107	29
John Stockton	30	29	28	27	25	22	19
Bob Cousy	31	30	29	28	21	24	39
Rick Barry	32	31	30	29	26	21	37
Willis Reed	33	32	31	30	30	32	48
Walt Frazier	34	33	32	31	32	36	38
Kevin McHale	35	34	33	32	35	26	31
Steve Nash	36	35	35	33	36	50	30
Dave Cowens	37	36	36	34	31	44	55
Patrick Ewing	38	37	37	36	40	37	32
Gary Payton	39	38	38	37	41	39	41
Allen Iverson	40	39	39	38	37	40	46
Paul Pierce	41	40	40	39	47	77	45
Jason Kidd	42	41	41	40	43	28	35
George Mikan	43	42	42	41	38	29	33
Clyde Drexler	44	43	43	42	44	42	36
Sam Jones	45	44	44	43	33	65	78
George Gervin	46	45	45	44	34	45	47
Chauncey Billups	47	46	46	45		124	87
Ray Allen	48	47	47	46	62	79	50
Bill Walton	49	48	48	48	27	74	42
Dennis Johnson	50	49	49	49	54	53	84
James Worthy	51	50	50	50	50	58	43
James Harden	52	85					97
Wes Unseld	53	52	52	51	42	33	53
Nate Thurmond	54	53	53	52	45	34	92
Hal Greer	55	54	54	53	48	59
Billy Cunningham	56	55	55	54	49	41	88
Dominique Wilkins	57	56	56	56	55	43	44
Paul Arizin	58	57	57	57	56	71	90
Dolph Schayes	59	58	58	58	52	35	74
Elvin Hayes	60	59	59	59	51	23	40
Bernard King	61	60	60	60	58	69	54
Robert Parish	62	61	61	61	59	67	57
Dave Debusschere	63	62	62	62	46	76	85
Bill Sharman	64	63	63	63	53	70
Reggie Miller	65	64	64	64	63	54	51
Pau Gasol	66	65	65	65		96	56
Tiny Archibald	67	66	66	66	60	52	76
Tom Heihnson	68	67	67	67	57	68
Bob McAdoo	69	68	68	68	61	46	52
Alex English	70	69	69	69	65	82	62
Adrian Dantley	71	70	70	70	66	83	72
Dennis Rodman	72	71	71	71	69	48	64
Chris Bosh	73	72	72	73		171	86
Russell Westbrook	74	74	84
Dwight Howard	75	73	73	72	78	86	67
Pete Maravich	76	75	74	74	68	60	71
Jerry Lucas	77	76	75	75	64	38	79
David Thompson	78	77	76	76	70	63	82
Chris Webber	79	78	77	77	72	80	66
Tony Parker	80	79	78	78		139	58
Earl Monroe	81	80	79	79	67	47	60
Lenny Wilkens	82	81	80	80	71	72	93
Sidney Moncrief	83	82	81	81	73	90	81
Joe Dumars	84	83	82	82	74	78	77
Tracy McGrady	85	84	83	83	77	97	63
Artis Gilmore	85	86	85	84	75	84	70
Dan Issel	87	87	86	85	76	106
Paul Westphal	88	88	87	86	79	141
Bob Dandridge	89	89	88	87	80	90
Chris Mullin	90	90	89	88	82	88	83
Robert Horry	91	91	90	89	84	355
Shawn Kemp	92	92	91	90	88	150	100
Kevin Johnson	93	93	92	91	93	102
Carmelo Anthony	94	94	93	92		105	59
Vince Carter	95	95	94	93	89	99	69
Yao Ming	96	96	95	94		154	89
Dikembe Mutombo	97	97	96	95		95	73
Alonzo Mourning	98	98	97	96		73	65
Manu Ginobili	99	99	98	97		143	61
Tim Hardaway	100	100	99	98		87
Tom Chambers			100	99	96	120
Mark Price				100		155	94

I draw heavy influence from Bill Simmons’ Book of Basketball and also use Slam Magazine’s Top 500 list as a reference as well.

Factors considered in making this list, in no particular order: Resume (Real All Star Appearance, All NBA Teams, Awards, etc.), Championship situations (Titles won vs. Potential Titles), factors into each Championship won, advanced metrics and raw statistics.

Era matters. In terms of success per era, I rank the eras from most impressive to win to the least.

1984-1993: The peak of the Magic, Bird Era, and the first part of the Jordan Era. League was absolutely stacked.

2007-2015: The Advanced Metrics Era/Team Era. League is pretty stacked again.

1976-1984: The league expands, but so does the talent pool as the NBA and ABA merge. Three point line is introduced as well.

1993-1999: The last legs of the Jordan Era, but also the expansion era coinciding with the Too Much Too Soon Era

2004-2007: Beginning of Seven Seconds or Less vs. The One Man Teams (Hand Checking Removed)

1999-2004: The Aftermath of the Too Much Too Soon Era

1956-1969: The league becomes more athletic, and played above the rim.

1970-1976: Less talented than the previous era, as the ABA had many players that would have replaced 60s guys.

1946-1956: Pre-Russell meant everyone played below the rim.

There is no real calculation there and it’s not an exact science (like, the 1992 title isn’t necessarily more important than the 1984 title). It’s based off of feel and general  talent rosters of each team. (For example, the 1998 Jazz were the class of the Western Conference, although the 1992 Jazz were potentially better talent wise with Malone and Stockton in their primes).

This list primarily uses a player’s NBA and ABA career.