ESPN's NBA's top 10 of all time: LeBron is 3rd!

ESPN has done it again. Create controversy in a theme that is supposed to be their every day bread and butter: Ranking all time greats.

Do you agree with LeBron at #3 in the all time NBA Greats?

After weeks of suspense and thrills, the sports network finally released their top 10 NBA players of all time, and just a few hours were needed to bring even their own analysts Stephen A. Smith, Skip Bayless, to contradict it. What follows is my breakdown of their top 10 list.

#10: Hakeem Olajuwon.

Hakeem The Dream

With Shaquille O'Neal himself, one of the biggest centers of all time himself, and also, one of the biggest EGOS of all time in the NBA, even bowing down to Hakeem's greatness and how he wasn't able to figure him out, I don't think anyone disagrees that Hakeem deserves to be mentioned in a top 15 list, with a lot of chance to be included on a top 10 list. Hakeem "The Dream" won two NBA championships, two NBA MVPs, two NBA Finals MVP,12-time all star games. Hakeem is the only player to average 20 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks per game, in his first 12 seasons. Plus, he was the leader of his team the Houston Rockets. Enough said, let's move on.

#9: Shaquille O'Neal.

Simply unstoppable

This is where I believe, ESPN analysts begin taking some sort of mind "performance-anti-enhancing" brain-pills. Apart from Kareem and Wilt, there hasn't been such a dominant force in the center position as Shaq in all of NBA's history, and Shaq's career was more prolific than Wilt's, championship-wise speaking. Therefore, a case can be made of him being second after Kareem. I'll quote ESPN's website:

"Most dominant ever? Not quite"

Excuse me, but if Shaq was not dominant, I think one of the two of us has problems with the definition of the word 'dominant'.

Shaq won four rings, is seventh in the all-time scoring list, and is the only player in NBA history to score 30 points on every finals game, on multiple finals.

Shaq is way, way up on my list, up to #5.

#8: Tim Duncan.

Respect 

If you had doubts, whether the ESPN analysts had been taking some "performance-anti-enchancing" pills, seeing Tim Duncan placed at #8 erase any doubts. I like how their website refers to their "Expert panel". I wonder what are these guys expert on? Because, they are certainly no experts in NBA.

First of all, Tim Duncan is a leader. He has been the driving force behind the Spurs, for almost twenty years. He's the Jordan of the Spurs, he's the Magic Johnson of the Spurs, he's the Diego Maradona of the Spurs (to put it in other context).

Second -and perhaps the greatest blasphemy from ESPN-, Tim Duncan is 5-1 in NBA finals, and... he could have been 6-0, had he beaten LeBron the second time they met in 2013. Tim Duncan beat in order:

The 99 Knicks of Pat Ewing and Larry Johnson

The 03 Spurs of Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson

The 05 Pistons of the Wallace brothers, who were also, defending champions

He swept the 07 Cavs of LeBron. Repeat after me: SWEPT

The 14 Heat of LeBron and Wade.

That's it, he defeated LeBron TWICE. So how is Tim Duncan placed in a lower spot than LeBron? I'm telling you: performance-anti-enhancing pills, is the only answer.

Third. You want to discuss stats? We can, but you don't need to with Tim. Because he is a force. He is a clutch player, a defensive player, an offensive player, a franchise player, a leader. He is everything, he's the whole package. 

Tim Duncan, you are #4 on my list.

#7: Bill Russell.

I'm ok with Bill Russell at #7. Let's move on.

"I just want to see which of you
guys is gonna come in second place,
'cause I'm winning this"
 - Gotta love this guy!

#6: Larry Bird.

I'm ok with Larry Bird at #6. But read below, I'll move him up a spot.

#5: Wilt Chamberlain.

This is where things start to get tricky. What I'm going to do, is spread-out the rest of the list to make it easier to explain

#4. Magic Johnson

#3. LeBron James

#2. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

#1. Michael Jordan

I rate Shaq over Wilt, because I will.... well... I'll quote Skip Bayless: "Wilt Chamberlain is the best one-man act of all time." That however, doesn't make him the best player ever. After all, we are talking about a team sport. I'll also rate him below Larry Bird, because well, it's Larry Bird. So that's why Wilt goes down two spots. Larry Bird was a better shooter period, and arguably the best clutch player ever.

Nice!

If you disagree with MJ at the top spot, you definitely are using the same pills the ESPN so called "Expert Panel" use, or probably something stronger. 

I know Mike, you can't help being the greatest!

The two greats together

Next Kareem at second. Some people rate Kareem second and Magic third, other people place Magic second after Jordan, but on top of Kareem. I really don't mind switching them, as long as they occupy spots #2 to #3. I can even relax if you want to play spots #2 to #5, as long as it's Kareem, Magic, Tim and Shaq we're talking about. But definitely not LeBron James.

LeBron at #3... is a big NO-NO. I like LeBron, I really do. I admire and respect how much of a complete player he is, and how fortunate we are to watch him play in this era. He has impressive, godlike stats. But... --and here it comes-... he fails in the key moments, and no one can argue with that reasoning.

Great players, legends, godlike sportsmen, are judged, ranked, rated and their legacy is built upon delivering the goods when it takes. LeBron is 2-4 in NBA finals, and as I said a few lines ago, should be 1-5. LeBron HAD to move to Miami and team up with an already NBA champion Dwayne Wade, to win his first championship. Nobody, I repeat, NOBODY in the top 10 list did such a lame move, and we can take a look:

Hakeem: leader of the rockets. Point made.

Shaq: signed with the up and coming new Lakers franchise. Point made.

Tim: really? Point made.

Bill, Larry, Wilt, Magic, Kareem, MJ: Point made.

To leave the Cavs and sign up with an already powerful team, who already had been champion was such a coward move, I lost all respect for LeBron as the leader he should have been. Plus, even after singing with the Heat he still lost in his first NBA appearance with them (second overall). How pathetic is that? He finally bounced back and won back-to-back titles, only to lose again back-to-back with the Heat against Duncan's Spurs and the following year against Golden State.

Come on man...

Stephen A. Smith said it best: Give me LeBron for the first 40 minutes of the game. Give me Larry Bird for the last 20 seconds.

As it is then, my list (as you should know I don't believe in "Top 10 lists" and just do "lists") ends up as follows:

1. MJ

2. Magic

3. Kareem

4. Tim Duncan

5. Larry Bird
6. Shaq

7. Wilt

8. Bill Russell

9. Hakeem Olajuwon

10. Kobe Bryant

11. LeBron James

The summarized explanation:

1. MJ (6-0 in NBA Finals. 6 NBA Finals MVP. 5 NBA MVP. Best player ever period)
2. Magic (5 NBA Rings. 3 NBA Finals MVP. 3 MVP Orchestrated showtime. Epitome of a PG)
3. Kareem (6 NBA Rings. Skyhook move. All time scoring leader. Best Center ever)
4. Tim Duncan (5-1 in NBA Finals -should be 6-0. 3 NBA Finals MVP. 2 MVP. Best PF ever)
5. Larry Bird (3 NBA Rings. 3 NBA Finals MVP, 3 MVP. Best clutch player and Best SF ever)
6. Shaq (4 NBA Rings. 3 NBA Finals MVP, 1 MVP. Unstoppable at Center)
7. Wilt (2 NBA Rings. Avg 30 pts 20 rbnds. Arguably, best solo act player in NBA history)
8. Bill Russell (11 NBA Rings)
9. Hakeem Olajuwon (2 NBA Rings. 2 NBA Finals MVP. 1 MVP. Redefined the Center post)
10. Kobe Bryant (5 NBA Rings. 2 NBA Finals MVP)
11. LeBron James (2 NBA Rings with 4 losses in NBA finals. 2 NBA Finals MVP. 4 MVP)

Other blasphemies in ESPN's list include Isiah Thomas at 26th: apparently the Expert Panel also suffers from brain damage. Maybe it's the pills?

Ok, I know Zeke is not top 10 material, but come on, he's definitely top 15.
And, over Pippen, Stockton, Malone, Barkley, Durant, Curry and Nowitzki

I don't have a problem with a great player ranked 26th, like for instance, in Baseball, they ranked Johnny Bench 26th, but had Steve Carlton at 25, Tris Speaker at 24th, Frank Robinson at 20th and Mike Schmidt at 16th, meaning, the closer the ranking gets to the top spot, the better the player is. 

But come on man, Thomas at 26th and John Stockton at 16th ! It doesn't end there. Steph Curry, Dirk Nowitzki, Charles Barkley, Kevin Durant, Karl Malone and... SCOTTIE PIPPEN are also ranked higher than Thomas. To quote John McEnroe, "you gotta be kidding!"

If you have any doubts or are unaware of Isiah's talents, I recommend you to watch this vid:

Nice try ESPN, better start advertising that you are hiring new Expert Panel.

H