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 you’ve ever played against?” or “who is the toughest player you’ve ever played against?” Depending on who's asking the question and their knowledge of basketball, I typically give a couple of 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 to an old barn post and the players were shooting two-hand set shots, to today 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 there are great players now. I don't know if it's ever totally fair to compare players from one era with players of another. Periodically you see sports aficionados coming up with hypothetical computerized scenarios of, say, the great Green Bay Packers of the Sixties 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 among 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, 1980 – 1996. Some of the greatest NBA players ever to play the game played during those years. I remember as a rookie in 1980 marveling at the incredible Dr. J. and I’ve also been able to witness the new era of NBA basketball that was brought to us by Ervin “Magic” Johnson, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan.
All in all, I was privileged to play against over thirty of the all-time fifty greatest NBA players. I'm going to go through the whole list and share my thoughts with you in regards to either actually playing against them or watching them while I was still 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
Julius Erving
Ah… where do you start with Julius “Dr. J.” Erving? You start right at the top of the list, that's where you start!
Dr. J. was one of those iconic players that us kids growing up in the early Seventies would just marvel at whenever we got a chance to catch a glimpse of him on TV. Back then, Dr. J. was playing for the American Basketball Association (ABA), and until there was serious talk about a possible ABA / NBA merger, for the most part he was a mythical and mystical basketball marvel doing fabulous things in the ABA that many of the guys in the NBA only dreamed of.
Not only do I put Dr. J. up there as one of my all-time favorite players, but I also list him as one of the true greats of the game. Someone who carried the heavy mantle of representing the ABA and all their glorious players and trying to elevate that league to a place where up until then the NBA claimed sole supremacy.
I remember seeing Dr. J. in person for the first time as a rookie in 1980 when the team I was with at the time, the Seattle SuperSonics, was on a road trip, and we pulled into the hotel in Milwaukee to prepare for our game against the Bucks a night or two later. Dr. J. and his team, the Philadelphia 76ers, werechecking out of the hotel just as we were checking in. I remember being in almost a state of playful giddiness along with a couple of other rookies on the team at the time, Vinnie Johnson and James Bailey, as we were all excited to see Dr. J. and the Philadelphia 76ers… up close and in person!
Dr. J. seems to be in a class all by himself and he had a way of standing out in every crowd that he was in – whether he was on the court or walking through a hotel lobby. He was one of the few guys in the league that I really wanted to pattern my demeanor and personality after in his very professional approach to the game, on and off the court.
The Perfect Christmas Gift!!!
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Happy Holidays!
James Donaldson
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