NBA's All Time 50 Greatest Players: Excerpts from Standing Above the Crowd: Success Strategies in Athletics, Business, Community and Life by James Donaldson

Excerpts from Standing Above the Crowd: Success Strategies in Athletics, Business, Community and Life by James Donaldson.  Release date is January 201l.  Pre-order now and save!!!

For details go to www.StandingAboveTheCrowd.com

I know that there are a lot of NBA basketball fans out there who will get a kick out of my chapter on my experiences playing against and observing some of the greatest players in NBA history.  I'll send out an excerpt from this chapter everyday leading up to the book release.  I welcome your comments!

THE 50 GREATEST PLAYERS IN NBA HISTORY
 
One of the most frequently asked questions that I encounter besides “how tall are you?” is either who is the greatest player that I've ever played against, or who is the toughest player that I've ever played against?  Depending on the person’s knowledge of basketball who's asking the question, I typically give a couple different responses. 

There's a big difference between “the greatest” and “the toughest”.

The game of basketball has been around for a long time now and it has evolved over the years from when Dr. James Naismith first tied a peach basket an old barn post and the players were shooting two hand set shots, to now where the game is played on a global scale with some of the finest athletes in the world.  There were great players back in the beginning of the game, just as they're great players now.  I don't know if it's ever totally fair to compare players from one era against players of another era.  Periodically you see sports aficionados coming up with hypothetical computerize scenarios of say the great Green Bay Packers of the 60s versus the New England Patriots of the new millennium.  It's impossible to really say who the best players are or which team would come out on top.  But it's a fun exercise and it creates a lot of heated conversation amongst the fanatics and all of us.

I was lucky to play during perhaps the greatest era of NBA basketball.  My NBA career spanned two decades essentially, from 1980 – 1996.  Some of the greatest NBA players to ever play the game played during that era.  I remember as a rookie in 1980 marveling at the great Dr. J. and also been privileged to witness the new era of NBA basketball that was brought to us by Ervin “Magic” Johnson and Larry Bird.

All in all I was privileged to play against over 30 of the all-time 50 greatest NBA players ever.  I'm going to go through the whole list of the 50 greatest players and share my thoughts with you in regards to either actually playing against them or watching them as I was a youngster.  They are listed in alphabetical order and if you want to find the actual numerical order in which they are listed by the NBA you can check out their website at NBA.com

 

 

Patrick Ewing

There's a very short list of players who played with the ferocious tenacity that Patrick Ewing played with throughout his entire career.  There have been those players who played hard and ferocious because they were trying to make up for lack of talent, but Patrick had tremendous talents and yet he still played with a fire in the determination that inspired the rest of his team.

Patrick doesn't get nearly the recognition and respect due him for almost single-handedly carrying a New York Knick team that was routinely overmatched in the talent department in all the key positions except at center.  He became even more of a force to be reckoned with when he was coached by Pat Riley, who had a way of bringing out the best out of all his players… or you just weren’t going to play, no matter how good you thought you were.

I was fortunate to be a teammate of Patrick Ewing for a short time during the 1991 - 92 season after I was traded to the New York Knicks from the Dallas Mavericks.  I got to see for myself up close and personal the preparation, determination, leadership and consistency that Patrick Ewing provided to his team.  Patrick is one of the classic examples of an all-time great falling just short of an NBA championship ring, and it just goes to show you that sometimes it's the luck of the draw and that this is still a team game even when you have one of the top five players of his era. 

I mentioned from time to time throughout the book those players who I would welcome into “the foxhole” if we had to fight our way out of any situation in the heat of the battle.  Patrick Ewing tops the list!