The Greatest Basketball Players of All-Time

The Overflow

*Does not include active players

Gilbert ArenasPeja Stokajovic
Dave BingKiki Vandeweghe
Maurice CheeksCarlos Boozer
Anfernee HardawayElton Brand
Kevin JohnsonHorace Grant
Kyle LowryBlake Griffin
Terry PorterSpencer Haywood
Mark PriceTom Heinsohn
Rajon RondoBobby Jones
Kemba WalkerShawn Kemp
Lenny WilkensJerry Lucas
Deron WilliamsVern Mikkelsen
Lou WilliamsDolph Schayes
Walter DavisBuck Williams
Jeff HornacekWalt Bellamy
Hal GreerMarcus Camby
Eddie JonesTyson Chandler
Sam JonesDeMarcus Cousins
Pete MaravichBrad Daugherty
Earl MonroeMarc Gasol
Ricky PierceSerge Ibaka
Bill SharmanDan Issel
David ThompsonNeil Johnston
Paul WestphalDeAndre Jordan
Billy CunninghamBob Lanier
Grant HillEd MaCauley
Marques JohnsonYao Ming
Andre KirilenkoRobert Parish
Shawn MarionJack Sikma
Cedric MaxwellNate Thurmond
Glenn RiceRasheed Wallace
Detlef SchrempfBill Walton

6 thoughts on “The Greatest Basketball Players of All-Time”

  1. Arvydas Sabonis? Toni Kukoč? Robert Horry? Don’t they deserve to be here? Two of the best European players of their time, and a seven time champion with great performances in crucial games. Let me know if they could fit in.

  2. Those are great names! I’ll start with Robert Horry because I think he’s in a different category. There’s no question that Big Shot Rob was a consummate role player who hit several big shots over the course of his career. However, if we ignore for a minute that he played for 7 championship teams, we wouldn’t be talking about him as a top-200 player, let alone a top-100 player. So, no question he had some pretty big moments, but he averaged 7 points and 4 rebounds over his career.

    Kukoc is much more relevant to the honorable mention discussion. He had a nice career and had he started in the NBA at age 21 or 22 and played for a team other than the Bulls, he may have developed into a superstar. What happened instead is that he didn’t get started until 25 and played as the 3rd scorer and 6th man during Chicago’s second three-peat. Kukoc never garnered any All-NBA votes, made an All-Star game, or won any major awards. He did win the 6th Man of the Year award in 95-96, but that leaves him behind many of the other players on The Overflow list in terms of accolades and accomplishments. While he was an important part to Chicago’s run, there are too many players who made a bigger impact in the league for him to show up on the honorable mention list.

    Arvydis is/was on a different level. I suspect that had he played in the NBA when he first turned pro that he would not only be worthy of honorable mention, but a strong candidate for the top-100. Unfortunately, he played overseas until he was 31 years old so we never got to see how his game looked against the best competition while he was healthy. Additionally, I only factor in NBA (and Olympic/World Championship) performance when rating players since no other league has anywhere near the same level of competition so I don’t factor in what he did in the Lithuanian and Spanish leagues. With only 314 games as an NBA starter and all coming in his 30s, the resume just isn’t there.

    FYI–The Overflow (Honorable Mention) started out at just 50 names. It’ll grow as players leave the top-100 and new good-but-not-great careers come to an end, but the competition is pretty cutthroat with such a small honorable mention list.

    Thanks again for throwing these names out there!

  3. Kemba Walker recently retried. Four time all-star, 19 points, 4 rebounds (rounding up), and 5 assists a game, and the greatest hornets player of all time. Where does he fall?

    1. Hey Nic,

      Shawn Marion is/was on the shortlist of players just outside of The Overflow. My goal is to keep The Overflow from turning into a list of 200 good players, so I’ve been pretty stingy with it. However, I went ahead and released 13 new players onto it, including Marion.

      Gilbert Arenas
      Rajon Rondo
      Shawn Marion
      Marcus Camby
      Serge Ibaka
      Rasheed Wallace
      Anfernee Hardaway
      Ricky Pierce
      Buck Williams
      DeAndre Jordan
      Tyson Chandler
      Lou Williams
      Kemba Walker

Leave a Reply

Hi (hopefully) awesome reader! I welcome your comments. However, please be aware that I make all of my arguments using facts, statistics, and logic. Unfortunately, the average comment on a top-100 list goes something like this:

"UR StooPid. (Insert player) is trash. I've watched (pick a sport) for (pick a number of years) and (pick a player) is better than everyone. UR DUMB. HAHA6969."

–Some Jabroni

As cognitively stimulating as this species of comment is, it ends up being a missed opportunity to share a nuanced perspective. I reply to all comments that show even the most basic levels of thought and humility. The people who make the comments like the example above are under the assumption that the three seconds of thought that popped into their brains after reading the list is more than the 1000s of hours that I put into creating and maintaining the lists. I would be happy to defend any placement, or make an adjustment if one is warranted. If you are a jabroni, like the one above, then your comment will die in the lonely void of the unpublished comments section.

For everyone else, I look forward to your comments!

P.S. The theme of this site and the top-100 lists is that athletes from previous generations have historically been grossly overrated by sports publications in a way that is statistically improbable. Click on the "About" dropdown menu to see just how badly the average top-100 list disproportionately favors athletes from older generations when leagues were smaller, race quotas existed, and globalization wasn't a thing. Also, please consider reading "The History" section of the sport you are commenting on.

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