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
George Gervin
George “Ice” Gervin was a marvel to watch on the basketball court. So smooth with every movement, he would tantalize you into watching him so that you didn't dare over-commit yourself to try to stop one move, because he would come right back with another one on you. He had a variety of great shots that were virtually unstoppable, including a mid-range jump shot from about every angle on the court, bank shots from just about every angle (he would actually call out “bank” as he shot the ball), and, of course, as everyone knows, “George could finger roll”.
They called him “Ice” because of his ultra-cool demeanor on the court. I remember an awesome poster at the time in which George was sitting on huge cubes of ice that were fashioned as a throne, bedecked in a robe and crown, and a basketball in hand. It was one of the best posters of the day and all the guys thought it was so cool.
Gervin played for the San Antonio Spurs throughout the majority of his career. The Spurs were always one of my most favorite teams to play against because not only did they have Gervin but they also had one of my favorite point guards in James Silas, and the biggest, strongest player in the league that I had to go up against -- Artis “A–Train” Gilmore. I wasn't privy to all the locker room chemistry that may or may not have been there with these opponents, but they always seemed to be a team that had fun on the basketball court and we matched up against them pretty well.
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Happy Holidays!
James Donaldson
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