OUGD505 - Studio Brief 2: Top NBA Players Research

For the content of my exhibition I must choose the 10 players I want to exhibit. To do this I looked into the players which have been inducted into the hall of fame.

I also looked online to see who basketball fans regarded as the top players ever. I did this because I did want to have a mix between retired players and ones who are currently still playing to show that there is still talent in the sport and players who are worth celebrating.

I found that it was quite easy to pick the ten as a lot of the fans/articles/blogs had all named very similar players, making it easy for me to choose the ones which overlapped.

I decided on the following players:

• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
• Michael Jordan
• Oscar Robertson
• Wilt Chamberlain
• Kobe Bryant
• LeBron James
• Bill Russell
• Magic Johnson
• Larry Bird
• Tim Duncan

Once I had chosen the 10 players I will be exhibiting, I worked on getting the written content for the publication. As this is a large book and in correspondence with the NBA, I looked on their website and found they had large biographies written for a huge amount of players. I decided that instead of rewriting this content, I would just edit it down to the parts I needed. I feel that this is appropriate because the NBA are the experts on the subject and it would be foolish for me to attempt to rewrite the words as someone who isn't familiar with the players and the sport that well.

Edited body copy:

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
When Kareem Abdul-Jabbar left the game in 1989 at age 42, no NBA player had ever scored more points, blocked more shots, won more Most Valuable Player Awards, played in more All-Star Games or logged more seasons. His list of personal and team accomplishments is perhaps the most awesome in league history: Rookie of the Year, member of six NBA championship teams, six-time NBA MVP, two-time NBA Finals MVP, 19-time All-Star, two-time scoring champion, and a member of the NBA 35th and 50th Anniversary All-Time Teams. He also owned eight playoff records and seven All-Star records. No player achieved as much individual and team success as did Abdul-Jabbar.

Players 10 years his junior couldn’t keep up with Abdul-Jabbar, whose strict physical-fitness regimen was years ahead of its time in the NBA. No player has ever duplicated his trademark “sky-hook.” Although labeled “unsexy” by Abdul-Jabbar himself, the shot became one of the most effective weapons in all of sports. An all-around player, Abdul-Jabbar brought grace, agility, and versatility to the centre position, which had previously been characterised solely by power and size. Despite his incredible success on the court, it wasn’t until the twilight of his career that Abdul-Jabbar finally won the universal affection of basketball fans. He was a private man who avoided the press and at times seemed aloof. “I’m the baddest among the bad guys,” he once told The Sporting News.

But late in his playing days Abdul-Jabbar began to open up, and as his career wound to a close, fans, players and coaches alike expressed their admiration for what he had accomplished in basketball. During the 1988-89 season, his last, Abdul-Jabbar was honoured in every arena in the league. Former Miami Heat coach Pat Riley, who coached Abdul-Jabbar for eight seasons in Los Angeles, once said in a toast recounted in Sports Illustrated, “Why judge anymore? When a man has broken records, won championships, endured tremendous criticism and responsibility, why judge? Let’s toast him as the greatest player ever.”

Abdul-Jabbar was born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. in New York City in 1947. After dominating New York high school basketball at the now-defunct Power Memorial, he enrolled at UCLA and played for John Wooden’s powerhouse Bruins. Alcindor simply ruled the college ranks. After sitting out his first season because NCAA regulations prevented freshmen from playing at the varsity level, he was selected as Player of the Year in 1967 and 1969 by The Sporting News, United Press International, the Associated Press and the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. He was also named an All-American and the most outstanding player in the NCAA Tournament in 1967, 1968 and 1969. With Alcindor taking charge in the middle, Wooden and UCLA pocketed three national championships.

The Milwaukee Bucks were only in their second season when they made Alcindor the first overall choice in the 1969 NBA Draft. The time was ripe for a new centre to dominate the league. Bill Russell had just left the Boston Celtics, and Wilt Chamberlain, though still effective, was almost 35 years old. With Alcindor aboard in 1969-70, the Bucks rose to second place in the Eastern Division with a 56-26 record. Alcindor was an instant star, placing second in the league in scoring and third in rebounding. He handily won NBA Rookie of the Year honours. Milwaukee recorded a league best 66 victories in 1970-71, including a record 20 straight wins. Alcindor won his first NBA Most Valuable Player Award and his first scoring title while placing fourth in rebounding. Milwaukee went 12-2 in the playoffs and dispatched the Baltimore Bullets in only the second NBA Finals sweep in league history. Alcindor was named Finals MVP.

During the offseason the Bucks traded for their ticket to the NBA title: Oscar Robertson. Milwaukee recorded a league-best 66 victories in 1970-71. Before the 1971-72 season Alcindor converted from Catholicism to Islam and took the name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, which means “noble, powerful servant.” In 1971-72 he repeated as scoring champion and NBA Most Valuable Player, and the Bucks repeated as division leaders for the second of four straight years. In 1973-74 Abdul-Jabbar won his third MVP Award in only his fifth year in the league and placed among the NBA’s top five in four categories: scoring, rebounding, blocked shots and field-goal percentage. Milwaukee returned to the NBA Finals in 1974 but lost to the Boston Celtics.

Despite his phenomenal success in Milwaukee, Abdul-Jabbar was unhappy due in part to the lack of people who shared his religious and cultural beliefs and wanted out. He requested that he be traded to either New York or Los Angeles, and Bucks General Manager complied, sending Abdul-Jabbar to the Lakers in 1975. Abdul-Jabbar helped bring about a 10-game turnaround in his first season in Los Angeles. His contributions won him yet another NBA Most Valuable Player Award, his fourth in only seven years in the league. The following season Jerry West was hired as the Lakers’ coach, and he guided the team back into first place with a league-best 53-29 record. Abdul-Jabbar was named Most Valuable Player for the fifth time in eight years, tying Celtics legend Bill Russell’s record. Despite Abdul-Jabbar’s best efforts, the Lakers finished in the middle of their division in each of the following two years. He continued to put up big numbers, although he missed 20 games in 1977-78 after breaking his hand in a fight with Milwaukee’s rookie Kent Benson in the season opener. Abdul-Jabbar continued to average at least 20 points for the next six seasons. His rebounding average dropped to between 6 and 8 as years of pounding and battling for position began to take their toll. In the final years of his career, Abdul-Jabbar’s fitness program became more important than ever. He practiced yoga and martial arts to keep his arms and legs strong and limber, and he meditated before every game to reduce stress.

On April 5, 1984, in a game against the Utah Jazz played in Las Vegas, Abdul-Jabbar had perhaps his finest moment. Taking a pass from Magic Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar whirled and launched his trademark sky-hook toward the hoop. The shot drew nothing but net, giving Abdul-Jabbar career point No. 31,420, which vaulted him past Wilt Chamberlain as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. The Lakers reached the NBA Finals eight times in the 10 seasons between 1979-80 and 1988-89. They won five titles, beating Boston and Philadelphia twice each and the Detroit Pistons once. The 1985 series against Boston was perhaps the most satisfying for Abdul-Jabbar.

Jabbar has said that the 1985 championship may have been the sweetest of his six. It was won on the floor of the Boston Garden and vanquished the ghosts of the arena and the Celtics, the team that defeated the Lakers just the year before and many other times during Russell’s reign. In 1986-87 the Lakers again beat Boston for the NBA Championship. Although Abdul-Jabbar played respectably, series MVP Magic Johnson was the star. During the regular season Abdul-Jabbar dipped below 20 points per game for the first time in his career. At age 40 he signed a contract to play two more years. The following year the Lakers’ victory over Detroit made them the first team since the 1968-69 Celtics to repeat as NBA champions.

In 1988-89, Abdul-Jabbar’s final season, the Lakers returned to The Finals in a rematch against the Pistons. Abdul-Jabbar’s retirement marked the end of an era for the NBA. He left the game as the games all-time scorer, which may never be surpassed, with 38,387 points, 17,440 rebounds, 3,189 blocks, and a .559 field-goal percentage from a career that spanned 20 years and 1,560 games. He scored in double figures in 787 straight games. Several years after he retired Abdul-Jabbar told the Orange County Register, “The ‘80s made up for all the abuse I took during the ‘70s. I outlived all my critics. By the time I retired, everybody saw me as a venerable institution. Things do change.” Since retiring, Abdul-Jabbar has authored several books, worked in the entertainment business and served as a “basketball ambassador,” working in various capacities such as a coach and broadcaster as well as helped to fight hunger. In 1995, Abdul-Jabbar was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Larry Bird

For 13 seasons with the Boston Celtics, from 1979-80 through 1991-92, Bird personified hustle, consistency and excellence in all areas of play - as a scorer, a passer, a rebounder, a defender, a team player, and, perhaps above all, as a clutch performer. He was such a deadly shooter that he sometimes practiced 3-pointers with his eyes closed. Among Bird’s contemporaries, perhaps only Earvin “Magic” Johnson was considered a better passer and was a player who he would inextricably be linked with forever.

Bird was the embodiment of “Celtics Pride.” He was a classy, confident, hardworking player who thrived on pressure and inspired teammates to excel. Bird never forced the spotlight upon himself, but rather was a player who brought out the best in the players around him. Bird helped rebuild a Celtics franchise that had been suffering from sub-standard play and poor attendance in the late 1970s. With Bird as the focal point of a well-rounded squad, the Celtics won three NBA titles and 10 Atlantic Division crowns. In addition to his three championship rings, Bird piled up a collection of personal achievements. He became only the third player to win three consecutive NBA Most Valuable Player Awards. He was a 12-time All-Star, a two-time NBA Finals MVP and a nine-time member of the All-NBA First Team. He led the league in free-throw percentage four times.

His last-second heroics, ranging from seemingly impossible reverse layups to miraculous 35-foot bombs over multiple defenders, never ceased to amaze those who followed his career. “Larry Bird has helped define the way a generation of basketball fans has come to view and appreciate the NBA,” said Commissioner David J. Stern when Bird retired due to a painful back condition in 1992, after capturing a gold medal with the original Dream Team at the Olympics in Barcelona.

Bird’s legend was born in the tiny town of French Lick, in Indiana’s corn country, where his family led a spartan life. French Lick had a population of 2,059, most of whom came out to watch Springs Valley High School’s home games in a state that takes its schoolboy basketball very seriously. Attendance often reached 1,600. Following a sophomore season that was shortened by a broken ankle, Bird emerged as a star during his junior year. Springs Valley went 19-2 and young Larry became a local celebrity. As a senior, Bird became the school’s all-time scoring champion and about 4,000 people attended his final home game.

Bird enrolled at Indiana State, which had posted 12-14 records in each of the two previous years and where the pressure was not quite the same as at Indiana -- a perennial Big Ten power and national title contender. Home-game attendance hovered around 3,100 when Bird arrived at Indiana State, but as he had done in Springs Valley, Bird single-handedly packed the house and elevated his team to respectability and more. He averaged better than 30 points and 10 rebounds for the Sycamores during his first campaign. Season ticket sales tripled. “Larry Bird Ball” was the most popular sport in Terre Haute.

The Sycamores went undefeated and reached No. 1 in Bird’s senior year -- that is, until a Michigan State team featuring a 6-foot-9 guard named Earvin “Magic” Johnson knocked them off in the 1979 NCAA Championship Game, one of the most widely watched showdowns in basketball history. Bird was named the 1978-79 College Player of the Year and left Indiana State as the fifth-highest scorer in NCAA history. The Sycamores went 81-13 during Bird’s three-year career.

The Boston Celtics had selected him in the 1978 NBA Draft, hoping that Bird, who had become eligible for the NBA after his junior year. In 1977-78 the Celtics had compiled a 32-50 record, their worst since 1949-50. When Bird elected to return to Indiana State for one more year, the Celtics dipped to 29-53. But Bird finally came to Boston for the 1979-80 campaign and sparked one of the greatest single-season turnarounds in NBA history.

The 1979-80 Celtics improved by 32 games to 61-21 and returned to the top of their division. Playing in all 82 contests, Bird led the team in scoring, rebounding, steals, and minutes played and was second in assists and 3-pointers.

Although Johnson also turned in an impressive first season for the NBA-champion Los Angeles Lakers, Bird was named Rookie of the Year and made the first of his 12 trips to the All-Star Game. After only two seasons, fans, coaches and players knew exactly what Bird was all about: big numbers and clutch performances. Bird’s concentration and composure were unmatched. He was unflappable and virtually unstoppable. The hours he had spent working on his shot as a youngster paid big dividends in the NBA. No other player in his era was as good or as consistent a shooter as Bird.

In 1981-82, Bird made the first of his three consecutive appearances on the NBA All-Defensive Second Team -- even though he was relatively slow and not the greatest one-on-one defender, his anticipation and court sense made him peerless as a team defender. As many observed, he would see plays not as they were developing, but before they developed. Bird finished runner-up to Moses Malone for the NBA Most Valuable Player Award, as he would the following year. Bird’s 19 points in the 1982 NBA All-Star Game, including 12 of the East’s last 15, earned him the game’s MVP trophy. It wasn’t until 1983-84, however, that the Celtics returned to the NBA Finals. By that time Bird’s scoring average had reached the mid-20s, and he was averaging upwards of seven assists. He also hit nearly 90 percent of his free-throw attempts.

Bird’s scoring average soared to 28.7 points in 1984-85, the second-highest mark in the league and the second highest of his career. He boosted that average with a career-best 60 points against Atlanta. He also canned 56-of-131 three-point attempts for a .427 percentage, second in the NBA behind the Lakers’ Byron Scott. Injuries to Bird’s elbow and fingers, however, contributed to the Celtics’ six-game loss to the Lakers in the 1985 Finals. Nevertheless, at season’s end Bird won his second consecutive NBA Most Valuable Player Award.The following year, which saw Boston win its 16th championship, Bird attained living-legend status. He was showered with commendations: NBA MVP, Finals MVP, The Sporting News Man of the Year, and the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year. He led the league in 3-pointers made and in free-throw percentage, an unheard-of accomplishment for a forward.

A crafty defensive player, Bird’s most famous steal came in Game 5 of the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals against Detroit. With five seconds remaining and the Celtics trailing 107-106, Bird stole an Isiah Thomas inbounds pass and fed Dennis Johnson, whose layup gave Boston the win. The Celtics won the physical, bitter series in seven games and advanced to the NBA Finals for the fourth consecutive year, meeting the Lakers for the third time. But Los Angeles won the series in six games. In 1987-88, Bird was the first Celtic ever to record a 40-20 game, with a 42-point, 20-rebound effort against Indiana. He averaged a career-high 29.9 points that year, falling just five points short of averaging 30 per contest. Bird also won his third consecutive 3-point shootout title.

The following year Bird posted the third-longest free-throw streak in NBA history, hitting 71 consecutive attempts. Bird missed 22 games in 1990-91 because of a compressed nerve root in his back, a condition that eventually forced his retirement. In a first-round series that year, Bird badly bruised his face in a second-quarter fall in Game 5 against Indiana. His back was also hurting, but Bird came back in the third period to help lift the Celtics to an emotional 124-121 victory. A disk was removed from his back after the season, but it didn’t help all that much.

The following year was Bird’s last. He missed 37 games because of the continuing back problems. In a nationally televised game against Portland in March, Bird pulled off one final miracle performance -- he scored 16 points in the fourth quarter, including the Celtics’ last nine points and a game-tying 3-pointer with two seconds left. Boston won, 152-148, in double overtime. Bird finished with 49 points, 14 rebounds, 12 assists and four steals.

“Anytime you have Bird on the floor, anything can happen,” Portland’s Clyde Drexler told the Boston Herald after the game.

The end of Bird’s career was at hand, but not before one last achievement: a gold medal with the 1992 U.S. Olympic Dream Team, which dominated the competition at Barcelona and won millions of fans for the sport with its brilliance. On Aug. 18, 1992 he announced his retirement as a player. After 897 games Bird retired with 21,791 points, 8,974 rebounds and 5,695 assists. Bird was named a special assistant in the Celtics’ front office, with limited duties that included some scouting and player evaluation. With the Celtics in a decline that hit bottom in 1996-97, Bird decided to take the plunge. When the Celtics named Rick Pitino as the franchise’s new president and coach, Bird knew any role for him in Boston would be a limited one. So he cut the ties and went home.

On May 12, 1997, Bird was named head coach of the Indiana Pacers. Even though he had never coached a game in his life, the Pacers had no qualms about turning over the reins to Bird. “This guy is the epitome of everything I’ve tried to do here,” then-Pacers president Donnie Walsh said of Bird. “When I started here, I wanted to see the high school, college and professional basketball worlds come together, and Bird symbolises that. I also really believe he can be a heck of a coach. He pulls people together. When he talks, you come into his world. That’s what a coach has to do.”

And in the 2000 NBA Finals, the Pacers succumbed in a six-game series to the Lakers, led by Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, for the Lakers’ first of three consecutive titles.

Bird, the Coach of the Year in 1997-98, resigned as Pacers’ coach after Indiana’s Finals appearance. In 2003, he joined the Pacers’ front office as the team’s president of basketball operations and worked side-by-side with Walsh to rebuild Indiana into a contender. When Walsh moved on to a similar role with the Knicks before the 2008-09 season, Bird gained complete control of the team’s basketball operations and helped the Pacers end a playoff drought in 2010-11. After the 2011-12 season, Bird stepped down as the Pacers’ president of basketball operations. He said he was prepared to leave the team after the 2010-11 season with the Pacers headed in the right direction. He didn’t rule out a return to basketball, but said owning a team is no longer a goal.

Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bean Bryant was born August 23rd, 1978. He is the starting shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers and has only played for the Lakers since entering the NBA in 1996. Bryant entered the NBA directly from high school, where he was selected 13th overall by the Charlotte Hornets. A week after being drafted, the Hornets sent Bryant to the Lakers in exchange for Vlade Divac. In his 16 years with the Lakers, he has reached a litany of milestones. Already considered one of the greatest players in the history of the NBA, Bryant continues to break records every year.

In 1996, Bryant’s senior year at Lower Merion High School, Bryant led the school to its first state championship in 53 years. Also in his senior year, Bryant was named a McDonald’s All-American, Naismith Player of the Year and Gatorade Player of the Year. Bryant finished his career as Southeastern Pennsylvania’s all-time leading scorer with 2,883 points, surpassing Wilt Chamberlain’s previous record of 2,359.

Over the course of Bryant’s final three years with the school, the team finished 77-13. Bryant’s number “33” jersey was retired by Lower Merion in 2002. Much was made when Bryant took singer Brandy to prom, however the two have insisted they were only friends at the time. Bryant claims he would have played basketball at Duke University had he not skipped college to join the NBA; Bryant was only the 27th player to jump straight from high school to the NBA.

In his first few years in the league, Bryant saw his role gradually increase, despite backing up veteran guards Eddie Jones and Nick Van Exel. Bryant highlighted his rookie year by winning the 1997 Slam Dunk Contest. As a rookie, Bryant became the youngest player to play in an NBA game. In 1998, Bryant’s second year in the league, Bryant was named to the All-Star team for the first time, making him the youngest player in league history to garner the honour—this record still stands.

The Lakers hired Phil Jackson as their head coach before the 1999-2000 season, which ushered a new era in Bryant’s career. Under Jackson’s fabled triangle offence, Bryant averaged over 20 points for the first time in his career, beginning a run of 13 straight seasons of averaging over 20 points. After being eliminated either in the first or second round of the playoffs in each of his first three seasons in the league, Bryant and co-superstar Shaquille O’Neal won their first of three consecutive championships during the 1999-2000 season, defeating the Indiana Pacers in 6 games. The Lakers, led by O’Neal and Bryant, would defeat the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Nets over the next two years in the finals.

Bryant’s tumultuous relationship with O’Neal was the primary reason behind O’Neal’s trade to the Miami Heat in 2004; the two alpha-males often disagreed publicly, culminating in Bryant offering the Lakers an ultimatum between himself and O’Neal in the summer of 2004. The dynamic duo led the Lakers to three championships and four finals appearances in their seven years together.

Upon O’Neal’s trade to the Heat, Bryant found much more individual success but less team orientated success. It was during this period where Bryant led the league in scoring twice. In his first year without O’Neal, Bryant failed to lead the Lakers to the playoffs in the 2004-2005 season—this was the first time the club missed the playoffs in 11 years.

The following year, the Lakers brought back Phil Jackson as head coach. This time around, Bryant and Coach Jackson had a much closer relationship. That season, Bryant had his best season statistically, averaging 35.4 points, coupled with several unbelievable scoring feats: scoring 81 points against the Toronto Raptors, as well as outscoring the Dallas Mavericks 62-61 through three quarters by himself. Before the start of the 2006-07 season, Bryant changed his number from 8 to 24 without declaring an official reason.

In February of 2008, Bryant and the Lakers failed to make it out of the first round of the playoffs, losing to the Phoenix Suns twice. Discontent with the lack of support around him, Bryant demanded a trade from the Lakers unless Jerry West (the architect of the Shaq and Bryant era) returned to the club’s front office. Bryant eventually backed off his trade requests and was awarded with the arrival of Pau Gasol. With Gasol in tow, Bryant and the Lakers immediately returned to the NBA finals for the first time since 2004, losing to the Boston Celtics in 6 games.

Despite squandering a chance for a championship, Bryant was awarded the only MVP award of his career in 2008. In the following two seasons, Bryant led the Lakers to the finals twice more, defeating the Orlando Magic in 2009 and the Boston Celtics in 2010. In the 2009 finals, Bryant joined Michael Jordan as the only other player to average 30 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in an NBA series; Bryant was also awarded his first NBA finals MVP in six finals appearances.

Bryant’s quest for the second three-peat of his career ended when the Dallas Mavericks swept them in the second round. Following the sweep, Phil Jackson officially retired from coaching. However, in the 2010-2011 season, Bryant did achieve an individual milestone by becoming the youngest player in NBA history to reach 26,000 and 27,000 career points—sixth highest in league history. During the 2011-12 season shortened by the lockout, Bryant and the Lakers once again fell short in the second round, losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Bryant is the Lakers all-time leading scorer with 29,484 points. Bryant won two Olympic gold medals with the United States senior men’s basketball team in the summers of 2008 and 2012. In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Bryant was a defensive specialist with the team; however during the gold medal game against Spain, Bryant’s offensive prowess—notably converting a four-point play in the last minute of the game—sealed the gold medal for the USA. In the 2012 London Olympics, Bryant was also a part of the championship USA team that finished 10-0 at the FIBA Americas, which qualified USA for the Olympics in 2008. On December 5th, 2012, Bryant became just the fifth player in NBA history to reach the 30,000-point plateau. Bryant accomplished this feat in a game with the New Orleans Hornets, which ironically was the team that drafted him back in 1996. Bryant joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain as the only players in history to reach 30,000 career points.

Wilt Chamberlain
Dominating the game as few players in any sport ever have, Chamberlain seemed capable of scoring and rebounding at will, despite the double- and triple-teams and constant fouling tactics that opposing teams used to try to shut him down. As Oscar Robertson put it in the Philadelphia Daily News when asked whether Chamberlain was the best ever, “The books don’t lie.” The record books are indeed heavy with Chamberlain’s accomplishments. He was the only NBA player to score 4,000 points in a season. He set NBA single-game records for most points, most consecutive field goals and most rebounds. Perhaps his most mind-boggling stat was the 50.4 points per game he averaged during the 1961-62 season, and if not that, then perhaps the 48.5 minutes per game he averaged that same year.

During his career, his dominance precipitated many rules changes. These rules changed included widening the lane, instituting offensive goaltending and revising rules governing inbounding the ball and shooting free throws. No other player in NBA history has spawned so many myths nor created such an impact. It’s difficult to imagine now, with the seemingly continuing surge of bigger skilled players, the effect of playing against Chamberlain, who was not only taller and stronger than almost anyone he matched up against but remarkably coordinated as well.

Chamberlain’s power was legendary. Chamberlain was one of the few players of his day who had the sheer strength to block a dunk. In a game against New York in 1968, Walt Bellamy, the Knicks’ 6-11, 245-pound center, attempted to dunk on Chamberlain. “Bellamy reared back,” one spectator who was there later recalled to the Philadelphia Daily News, “and was slamming the ball down when Wilt put his hand above the top of the rim and knocked the ball off the court. He almost knocked Bellamy off the court, too.”

In 1955, Chamberlain announced he would play college ball at the University of Kansas. Because NCAA rules at the time prohibited freshmen from playing at the varsity level, Chamberlain was placed on the freshman team upon his arrival at Kansas. His first contest with the freshmen was against the varsity, which was favoured to win its conference that year. Chamberlain later reminisced about the game in the Philadelphia Daily News: “We whipped ‘em, 81-71. I had 40 or 42 points, about 30 rebounds, about 15 blocks. I knew I had to show them either I could do it or I couldn’t.”

In May, 1958 Chamberlain decided to forego his senior season at Kansas, opting instead to turn pro. But because of an NBA rule that prevented college players from playing in the league until their class graduated, he was in limbo for one year. He passed the time by playing for the Harlem Globetrotters in 1958-59 for a salary reported to be around $50,000, an astronomical sum at the time.

In 1955, the NBA created a special “territorial” draft rule that allowed a team to claim a local college player in exchange for giving up its first-round pick. The idea was to cash in on college stars who had built strong local followings, but the Philadelphia Warriors, who were owned by the cagey Eddie Gottlieb, took it one step further. They claimed Chamberlain as a territorial pick even though he had played his college ball in Kansas. In a sensational rookie year, Chamberlain averaged 37.6 points and 27.0 rebounds and was named NBA Rookie of the Year, All-Star Game Most Valuable Player and NBA Most Valuable Player as well as being selected to the All-NBA First Team. With Chamberlain, the Warriors vaulted from last to second and faced the Boston Celtics in the 1960 NBA Playoffs. The series saw the first postseason confrontation between Chamberlain and defensive standout Bill Russell, a matchup that would grow into the greatest individual rivalry in the NBA and possibly any sport.

Chamberlain’s inaugural season seemed to take a heavy toll on him. After the postseason loss to Boston, the rookie stunned his fans by announcing that he was thinking of retiring because of the excessively rough treatment he had endured from opponents. He feared that if he played another season, he would be forced to retaliate, and that wasn’t something he wanted to do. Chamberlain didn’t retire. He simply endured the punishment and learned to cope with it, bulking up his muscles to withstand the constant shoving, elbowing and body checks other teams used against him. In a virtual repeat of his rookie year, he poured in 38.4 points and 27.2 rebounds per game in 1960-61. The next season he made a quantum leap in his performance. Posting a phenomenal average of 50.4 points per game, he became the only player in history to score 4,000 points in a season. On March 2, 1962, Chamberlain set a record that may stand forever. In a game against the New York Knicks, he scored 100 points in four quarters to help the Warriors win the game, 169-147.

In 1962, Chamberlain moved with the franchise to San Francisco, and he led the league in scoring in both 1962-63 and 1963-64. The Warriors lost to the Celtics in the 1964 Finals in five games. But midway through the following season, he was sent back home to Philadelphia. Two days after the 1965 All-Star Game, Chamberlain was swapped to the 76ers until the 1963-64 season. After his monstrous scoring year in 1961-62, Chamberlain’s average dropped slowly each year until the 1967-68 season, when it rose slightly to 24.3 points per game from 24.1 the season before. During his first seven years Chamberlain scored an average of 39.4 points per game and led the league in scoring all seven seasons, a string matched only by Michael Jordan two decades later. In Chamberlain’s second seven years, he averaged 20.7 points. “I look back and know that my last seven years in the league versus my first seven years were a joke in terms of scoring,” he told the Philadelphia Daily News. “I stopped shooting - coaches asked me to do that, and I did. I wonder sometimes if that was a mistake.” One of the main reasons coaches asked him to shoot less was to try to win more. He spent his final five campaigns in Los Angeles and helped the Lakers to the NBA Finals four times in those five seasons. The most notable season was 1971-72, in which he scored only 14.8 points per game.

The 1971-72 Lakers set an NBA record by winning 33 games in a row en route to a then NBA-record 69-13 regular-season mark, one victory better than Chamberlain’s 1966-67 Sixers team. The Lakers then stormed to the championship with a five-game triumph against New York in the 1972 NBA Finals. Retiring from the NBA at the end of the 1972-73 season, Chamberlain went on to demonstrate the full range of his talents. Like many pro players, he spent a year coaching at the pro level. San Diego had wanted him to be a player-coach, but legal entanglements prevented that.

He retired as the all-time leader in career points with 31,419, which was later surpassed by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone and Michael Jordan. He is tops in rebounds with 23,924. He led the NBA in scoring seven years in a row. He was the league’s top rebounder in 11 of his 14 seasons. And as if to prove that he was not a selfish player, he had the NBA’s highest assist total in 1967-68. But the most outstanding figures are his scoring records; Most games with 50+ points, 118; Most consecutive games with 40+ points, 14; Most consecutive games with 30+ points: 65; Most consecutive games with 20+ points: 126; Highest rookie scoring average: 37.6 ppg; Highest field goal percentage in a season: .727. And with many of these, the player in second place is far behind. His name appears so often in the scoring record books that his name could be the default response any time a question arises concerning a scoring record in the NBA.

In 1978, his first year of eligibility, Chamberlain was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and in 1996-97 he was selected to the NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team. On Oct. 12, 1999, Chamberlain passed away at 63 due to heart failure. He left the NBA as a legendary figure to talk about for years to come.

Tim Duncan
Tim Duncan was a nationally-ranked swimmer at St. Dunstan’s Episcopal High School in the Virgin Islands before the island’s only Olympic-size pool was destroyed by Hurricane Hugo in 1989. From there, Duncan switched his focus to basketball, although he did not begin playing organised basketball until the ninth grade.

Duncan is famous for his graceful finesse on the court and for his low key demeanour. Possessing a sound all-around game, he has been dubbed “The Big Fundamental” by fellow NBA player Shaquille O’Neal. He has also been called “Groundhog Day” by former basketball star and current NBA analyst for TNT Charles Barkley because of his ability to produce very consistently on a day-to-day basis.

His signature offensive moves are his smooth footwork and his accurate bank shot. Duncan scored a career high 53 points in an NBA game on December 26, 2001 in a home game against the Dallas Mavericks. Tim is also known for his low-profile and sportsmanship off the court as well as on. Duncan is also a benefactor of many charities for cancer research since both his parents died of the disease.

Duncan was an All-American at Wake Forest, where he finished with honours in psychology. Duncan won the 1997 John Wooden Award as the NCAA’s best overall male player based on the votes of sportscasters and news writers. In that season, Duncan averaged 20.8 points per game and 14.7 rebounds per game. Duncan finished his college career as the leading shot blocker in NCAA history, and is one of only 10 players with more than 2,000 career points and 1,500 career rebounds. He was also the first player in NCAA history to reach 1,500 points, 1,000 rebounds, 400 blocked shots and 200 assists. Duncan was a two-time ACC Player of the Year with the Wake Forest University Demon Deacons.

He was drafted with the first pick of the 1997 NBA Draft by the San Antonio Spurs, and immediately made an impact, averaging 21.1 points per game his first season. The Spurs were able to pick Duncan due to the fact that they were coming off a 20-62 season due to a David Robinson injury.

During the lockout-shortened 1999 NBA season, Duncan and David Robinson formed the Spurs’ “Twin Towers” and both led the Spurs to the franchise’s first NBA Finals trophy by beating the New York Knicks in five games.

In the 2001-02 season, Duncan was named the league’s Most Valuable Player, joining teammate David Robinson as Spurs members who have earned the honour. After 2002-03, Duncan was named MVP for the second season in a row. Duncan and his Spurs teammates made it to the NBA finals once again, defeating the New Jersey Nets 88-77 in Game Six to win the NBA championship. Duncan was named Finals MVP, and he and Robinson shared Sports Illustrated magazine’s 2003 “Sportsmen of the Year” award.

His lifetime averages in points, blocks, assists, and rebounds are higher in the playoffs than in the regular season. In the last game of the 2003 NBA Finals, Duncan was two blocks away from a quadruple-double, finishing with 21 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists and 8 blocks. In 2005, Duncan came up big in Game 7 of the finals with 25 points and 11 rebounds to defeat the Detroit Pistons, despite struggling from the free throw line in the fourth quarter. Duncan won his third NBA Finals MVP Award, joining Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, and Magic Johnson as the only players to win it three times.

Duncan played with the United States national team in the Championship of The Americas in Puerto Rico, helping them qualify for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. However, a knee injury forced him to stay out of the Olympic Games. Four years later, Duncan was a member of Dream Team IV, competing in basketball at the 2004 Summer Olympics. The team lost its right to the “Dream Team” nickname by losing three games on their way to a bronze medal. That record represented more losses in a single year than in the 68 previous years combined. It was also the first time since NBA professionals became eligible that the U.S. men’s basketball team returned home without gold medals.

After their last game Duncan provided a concise summary of his experience on the team: “I am about 95 percent sure my FIBA career is over. I’ll try not to share my experiences with anyone” Duncan asserted this statement shortly after the Olympics ended. His frustration drew from foul trouble, as he was picking up fouls at a rate twice as fast as in the NBA. He sat out a large majority of the crucial game against Argentina, who would later go on to win the gold in 2004 Olympics in basketball. On January 8th, 2006, Duncan announced that he will not play for the United States Olympic team at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Duncan plays the power forward position and is also capable of playing centre. As of 2006, Duncan is seen as one of the most complete, dominant and consistent players of the NBA, as having been both nominated for both the All-NBA and All-Defensive Teams in the last nine consecutive years and being a perennial NBA MVP and NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award candidate.

He ranks constantly as one of the top scorers (career average 22.1 points per game, as of November 2006), top rebounders and top shot blockers. On offence, he regularly abuses opposing big men with his smooth footwork and his vast array of fake moves. He has a very complete offensive game, being seemingly able to score at will, both in the paint and from outside. His trademark off-the-glass bank shot is near un-guardable.

In addition to his impressive statistics, he has also gained a reputation of being a great passer and as a very good clutch player. He is the undisputed Spurs franchise player, but strikingly unselfish, letting other teammates dominate the game if they have a great day. Under his tutelage, players like Tony Parker, Bruce Bowen and Manu Ginobili became legitimate NBA stars. Duncan is currently regarded as one of the rare players who could transform any NBA franchise into a title contender. Experts and fans widely agree that Duncan is one of the best players of his generation. With his mix of talent, work ethic, leadership, poise and success, few dispute that Duncan is among the very best power forwards of his generation.


LeBron James
LeBron James was born on December 30, 1984, in Akron, Ohio. From an early age, LeBron showed tremendous instincts for basketball. His mother gave him a miniature hoop and ball when he was an infant, and he amused himself for hours each day with the toys. He found an outlet for his emotions and intelligence in sports. Basketball and football were his favourites.

In addition to his natural speed, quickness and strength, he could think his way around the court or gridiron. His hero was Michael Jordan, and he patterned his game after his idol’s. LeBron liked taking it to the hole, as well as launching jumpers, but he took a special delight in distributing the basketball to his teammates.

In football, LeBron usually played receiver. His coach was Frankie Walker, a man who would soon have a profound effect on his life. Walker also had a positive impact on Lebron’s basketball. It didn’t take long for LeBron to gain recognition around Akron. They learned the fundamentals of basketball from Keith Dambrot. LeBron and his friends made a splash on the national scene in 1997 by qualifying for the Under/6th Grade AAU National Championships in Salt Lake City, Utah. Two years later they went all the way to the AAU Under/8th Grade final, in Orlando, Florida. They won their first five games to set up a showdown with the Southern California All-Stars. The freshman made his varsity basketball debut weeks later on December 3, earning a spot in the Fighting Irish starting backcourt. The decision to go with LeBron was an easy one for Dambrot, who had recently been hired as SVSM’s coach.

With LeBron and Maverick Carter headlining a talented team, the Fighting Irish posted a perfect 27-0 record. For the year LeBron averaged 25.3 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 5.5 assists. Named an All-American, LeBron became the first sophomore in Ohio history to be voted the state’s Mr. Basketball. By now speculation about his future was running rampant. Nike and adidas were in a fierce battle to sign him. Reports said the final offer could reach $20 million. Against this backdrop, LeBron began his junior basketball season. In as coach for SVSM was Dru Joyce, the father of LeBron’s best friend and the team’s point guard.

SVSM rode the momentum from those victories into the Slam Dunk to the Beach, a Christmas tournament held in Delaware. There the Fighting Irish fell for the first time, an 84-83 loss to Amityville of New York. LeBron almost gave his team a dramatic win with a four-point play near the end of regulation. But Amityville followed with two free throws to seize the lead for good. The Fighting Irish were beaten again a week later by George Junior Republic of Pennsylvania. The pair of losses did nothing to diminish LeBron’s reputation. Kobe Bryant, hoping to lure the teenager to adidas, gave him a special pair of sneakers decorated with American flags.

Among those who believed LeBron’s game didn’t need much tinkering was Cavaliers coach John Lucas. Ignoring NBA rules, Lucas invited the 17-year-old to an informal workout with the Cavaliers. LeBron impressed with dunks over Jumaine Jones and Chris Mihm. The practice session earned Lucas a $150,000 fine from the NBA and got him suspended for two games. At this stage of the game. it was becoming rather obvious to just about everyone who knew LeBron that he would soon be playing in the NBA. The competition between adidas and Nike also heated up.

Pressure intensified in LeBron’s first season with the Cavaliers. He averaged 21 points, six assists and more than five rebounds per game. In turn, he helped lift Cleveland to playoff contenders. The Cavaliers ended the season at 35-47, a marked improvement over the previous year’s performance. In 2004 LeBron played perhaps his best ball of the year. In late March against the New Jersey Nets, he exploded for 41 points and 13 assists in a 107-104 victory. He posted two more double-doubles in April. Those types of performances stayed in voters’ minds when it came time for Rookie of the Year balloting. Along the way, he also accepted an invitation to represent the U.S. on the 2004 Olympic men’s basketball team. At 19, LeBron was the youngest member of the squad in Greece. The Dream Team could do no better than the bronze.

Before the campaign started, the Cavaliers got awful news when Boozer jumped ship and headed for the big money offered by the Utah Jazz. Cleveland tried to make up for the loss with several additions, but the burden most nights fell on LeBron. He responded with a wonderful season, improving in every significant statistical category. He became the youngest player to net 50 points in a game, and the youngest to notch a triple-double. Under new coach Mike Brown, Cleveland won 50 games and finished second in the NBA Central. The team played consistently all year, putting together winning streaks of six, seven, eight and nine games.

After four games, the series was tied at 2-2. The Cavaliers showed their mettle by finishing off the Wizards with a pair of one-point overtime wins. LeBron averaged 35.7 points—the most ever for a non-centre in his first postseason series. After dropping the first two games to the Pistons in the Palace, the Cavaliers squeezed out three straight victories to throw the defending conference champs back on their heels. But Cleveland blew a chance to finish the Pistons off at home, and ended up losing the series in seven games. Overall, LeBron’s numbers were down slightly coming out of the All-Star break, but his impact on games was undiminished. The Cavaliers, meanwhile, were among the top teams in the conference, including a .750 winning percentage at home.

LeBron finished the year averaging 27.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 1.6 steals. He was just getting his motor revved for the Cavaliers’ first-round meeting with the Wizards. With Arenas sidelined for the series, it was little more than a tune-up for Cleveland. LeBron led his team to a sweep, getting more involved on the boards and in playmaking than during the regular season. No one noticed, but he was laying the groundwork for a dominant do-it-all postseason. Up next for LeBron were the 2008 Olympics and a spot on the so-called “Redeem Team.” Though he was on the roster during Team USA’s 2004 debacle, he was not given the chance to be a difference-maker. Now he and Kobe Bryant were charged with bringing home the gold. They did exactly that. The Americans weren’t really challenged until the gold medal game against Spain. Up by just four points in the fourth quarter, the U.S. turned it on and won going away. LeBron starred throughout the tournament.

LeBron announced that he would tell fans where he was signing live on ESPN. Everyone had a theory where he was headed but after Dwyane Wade and Chirs Bosh signed with Miami Heat, it began to look like he was headed there too. Miami’s starting five for most of the 2010–11 season was the Big Three plus center Zydrunas Ilgauskus and guard Carlos Arroyo, with James Jones and Mario Chalmers seeing plenty of time in substitute roles. For long stretches of games, LeBron functioned as a point forward, logging several double-digit assist performance and leading the team in that category by more than 200 assists.

From late November to early January, the Heat dropped just one of 22 games to take a commanding lead in the Southeast Division. LeBron scored more than 2,000 points for the seventh year in a row and led the team in points, steals, and defensive rebounds. He finished second in the NBA with a 26.7 scoring average and was third in the MVP voting. The Big Three was good for 60 points and 20 rebounds pretty much every night.

All eyes were on LeBron as the playoffs began. Nothing short of the NBA Finals would be acceptable, and once there the expectation was that Miami had a superior team to anyone in the West. The Heat split two close games at home to open the series. LeBron played well at both ends of the court in a Game 1 victory, but he was conspicuous by his absence in the fourth quarter of Game 2.

The difference in the Heat from 2011 to 2012 was clear heading into the Finals. When things got tight, LeBron didn’t try to do too much, and he didn’t disappear. He let his talent flow at both ends of the court and provided his team with the best chance possible to win. Even so, some experts were predicting that the Heat would wilt against the young and energetic Oklahoma City Thunder. Miami had endured two tough series, Bosh was not 100 percent and, well, LeBron had a less-than-stellar history in the Finals that was hard to ignore. LeBron did not change his game as the series unfolded. Rather, he simply outplayed whoever was guarding him, and whoever he was guarding. That included Durant, whose lack of body mass put him at a disadvantage as the series got more and more physical. The Heat tied the series with a narrow victory in Game 2 and then it was off to the races. They swept the final three games in Miami to win the championship. LeBron led the Heat in scoring, assists and rebounds in Games 4 and 5 and was named NBA Finals MVP. When asked what he was thinking when the last few seconds ticked away on his first championship, LeBron answered, “It’s about damn time!”

LeBron’s willingness to share the ball and get others involved is one of the things coaches love about him. His unselfishness underscores his innate understanding of basketball and how fully he embraces the fundamentals. Few would argue that he has now earned his way into the Top 10. What makes him hard to rank is that he is such a unique player. He is capable of playing any position on the court at an All-Star level, both on offence and defence. No one else in history can claim this distinction.

Michael Jordan
By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time. Although, a summary of his basketball career and influence on the game inevitably fails to do it justice, as a phenomenal athlete with a unique combination of fundamental soundness, grace, speed, power, artistry, improvisational ability and an unquenchable competitive desire, Jordan single-handedly redefined the NBA superstar. Even contemporaneous superstars recognised the unparalleled position of Jordan. Magic Johnson said, “There’s Michael Jordan and then there is the rest of us.” Larry Bird, following a playoff game where Jordan dropped 63 points on the Boston Celtics in just his second season, appraisal of the young player was: “God disguised as Michael Jordan.”

A brief listing of his top accomplishments would include the following: Rookie of the Year; Five-time NBA MVP; Six-time NBA champion; Six-time NBA Finals MVP; Ten-time All-NBA First Team; Nine time NBA All-Defensive First Team; Defensive Player of the Year; 14-time NBA All-Star; Three-time NBA All-Star MVP; 50th Anniversary All-Time Team; Ten scoring titles - an NBA record and seven consecutive matching Wilt Chamberlain; Retired with the NBA’s highest scoring average of 30.1ppg; Hall of Fame inductee.

A Tar Heel at heart, the high school All-American attended the University of North Carolina. As a sophomore, he was named College Player of the Year by The Sporting News. As a junior, he received that award again as well as the Naismith and Wooden Awards. After his junior year he was chosen with the third overall pick in the 1984 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls.

Jordan, coming off a gold medal performance at the 1984 Olympics, prospered in the pro game with a fabulous first season, earning the NBA Rookie of the Year Award. In his first season, he did not have outstanding shooting range and was thought to roam too often on defence. Improvement in both areas would come and he would ultimately be regarded as threat from anywhere on the floor and one of the best ever one-on-one defenders. Jordan’s greatness was apparent in just his first season. Fans of opposing teams were seemingly content to see their team lose if in return Jordan put on show.

Nike signed him to a major shoe deal because of his anticipated appeal, but he surpassed even the loftiest of expectations. One version of the sneakers he wore in his first preseason was an unseen before blend of his team’s red and black colours that the NBA initially considered in violation of the uniform rule. Subject to fines if he continued to wear them, he occasionally did and the demand for that version and others in the Air Jordan line was unprecedented.

Despite all the attention, Jordan retained a sense of humility. His self-effacement was more apparent when in that same article he said, “I’d like to play in at least one All-Star game.” That goal was quickly accomplished as later that season he was voted a starter to the 1985 All-Star East squad. There, he probably faced one of his first professional obstacles. The media ran with the idea that Eastern All-Star teammate Detroit Pistons’ Isiah Thomas, had led a “freeze-out” of the golden rookie limiting his opportunities to score by not passing him the ball.

Starting with the 1986-87 season he began a career-long onslaught on the NBA record book. That year saw him average 37.1 points in the first of seven consecutive seasons in which he led the league in scoring and topped 30 points per contest. Jordan scored 40 or more points in nine consecutive games and 23 straight in one game to set an NBA record. However, again, the Celtics swept the Bulls in the first round of the playoffs. That offseason, the Bulls began assembling a championship calibre team. In 1987-88, Jordan won every major award including MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and All-Star MVP.

In the 1988-89 season he led the league with 32.5 ppg, was 10th in assists with a career high 8.0 apg and had a career high 8.0 rpg. He also ranked third in steals with 2.89 per game. The Bulls went 55-27 that season, the franchise’s best record since 1971-72. Jordan set his career game-high in points with 69 against the Cavaliers in a 117-113 overtime win. He also emerged as a 3-point threat, posting a .376 percentage -- 100 percentage points above his previous best. However, the Pistons defeated the Bulls in a tough seven-game series in the 1990 Eastern Conference finals. That third consecutive playoff defeat to the Pistons prompted many to think out loud that a scoring champion like Jordan could not lead his team to a title.

The next year, Jordan led the Bulls as the team waltzed through the postseason, losing only twice en route to the franchise’s first NBA title. The redemptive blow was the sweep of the Pistons in the conference finals. And after losing the first game at home to the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals, the Bulls stormed back to win four straight to end the last remnants of the “Showtime” Lakers as Magic Johnson would retire before the beginning of the next season. Jordan averaged 31.4 ppg, 6.4 rpg and 8.4 apg, earning the first of six NBA Finals MVP awards. By the end of that three-year run, Jordan had eclipsed stardom and approached folk hero status.

Early into his career, he drew Peter Pan-like admiration for his gravity defying leaps and belief that he would remain youthful forever. However, during the three-peat, players and teams seemed to concede that the title was Jordan. In 1993, Jordan led the Bulls past the Knicks for the fourth time. The Bulls sealed the series with a 96-88 victory in Game 6. In the Finals, Jordan set a Finals record as he posted a 41.0 ppg average in the six-game series victory over the Suns.

Emotionally drained and seeking new challenges, just one day before the start of training camp, Jordan stunned the basketball world by announcing his retirement. Late in the 1994-95 NBA season, he came out of retirement with the succinct statement: “I’m Back.” He was back, albeit with the unorthodox No. 45 as he wanted to leave No. 23 behind, and attempted to carry the Bulls to another title. His coach, Jackson, in the aftermath said, “It’s rare that players can live quite up to New York. I’ve seen a lot of them fall flat on their faces because of the pressure to perform there. But he had the whole evening in the palm of his hand. Sometimes the game just seems to gravitate into his grasp.”

Magic Johnson
Few athletes are truly unique, changing the way their sport is played with their singular skills. Earvin “Magic” Johnson was one of them. He was what Bob Cousy was to the 1950s, what Oscar Robertson was to the 1960s, what Julius Erving was to the 1970s. Still, Earvin Johnson was even more than a revolutionary player, who, at 6-foot-9, was the tallest point guard in league history. His sublime talent elicited wonder and admiration from even the most casual basketball fan.

Whether it was a behind-the-back pass to a streaking James Worthy, a half-court swish at the buzzer or a smile that illuminated an arena, everyone who saw Johnson play took with them an indelible memory of what they had witnessed. From the moment he stepped onto the court, people pondered: How could a man so big do so many things with the ball and with his body? It was Magic.

Johnson accomplished virtually everything a player could dream of during his 13-year NBA career, all of which was spent with the Los Angeles Lakers. He was a member of five championship teams. He won the Most Valuable Player Award and the Finals MVP Award three times each. He was a 12-time All-Star and a nine-time member of the All-NBA First Team. He surpassed Robertson’s career assists record, a mark he later relinquished to John Stockton. He won a gold medal with the original Dream Team at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.

His all-around play inspired the addition of the term “triple-double” to basketball’s lexicon, although history demands that Robertson be recognised as the first man to regularly post double figures in three statistical categories in the same game. Unfortunately for the Big O, nobody had thought of the term triple-double back in the 1960s. Johnson did all of this while maintaining a childlike enthusiasm born of a pure love of sport and competition. Beyond all the money, success and fame, Johnson was just happy to be playing basketball.

If there was one aspect of Johnson’s game that awed people the most, it was his brilliant passing skills. He dazzled fans and dumbfounded opponents with no look passes off the fast break, pinpoint alley-oops from half court, spinning feeds and overhand bullets under the basket through triple teams. When defenders expected him to pass, he shot. When they expected him to shoot, he passed. Said former Lakers swingman Michael Cooper: “There have been times when he has thrown passes and I wasn’t sure where he was going. Then one of our guys catches the ball and scores, and I run back up the floor convinced that he must’ve thrown it through somebody.”

Born on August 14, 1959, Earvin Johnson Jr. grew up in Lansing, Michigan, with nine brothers and sisters. Young Earvin passed the time by singing on street corners with his buddies and, of course, by playing basketball. “Junior,” or “June Bug” as his neighbours called him, was on the court by 7:30 many mornings. “I practiced all day,” Johnson told USA Weekend. “I dribbled to the store with my right hand and back with my left. Then I slept with my basketball.”

Johnson was first called “Magic” when he was a star at Everett High School. He was given the nickname by a sports writer who had just seen the 15-year-old notch 36 points, 16 rebounds and 16 assists. As a senior, Johnson led Everett to a 27-1 record and the state title while averaging 28.8 points and 16.8 rebounds. Johnson wanted to attend college close to home, so he enrolled at Michigan State in East Lansing. He put up impressive numbers as a freshman, leading the Spartans to a 25-5 record and the Big Ten Conference title. As an All-America sophomore Johnson directed his team to the national title in 1979, beating Larry Bird’s Indiana State squad in perhaps the most anticipated NCAA championship game ever played.

Having accomplished all he wanted to on the college level, Johnson passed up his final two seasons and entered the 1979 NBA Draft. The Utah Jazz were supposed to draft in the first position, but the Jazz had conveyed their 1979 first-round pick to the Los Angeles Lakers three years earlier as compensation for the free-agent signing of Gail Goodrich. Thus the Lakers took Johnson with the first overall pick. The team had just undergone big changes: a new coach in Jack McKinney, a new owner in Dr. Jerry Buss, and seven new faces on the court. With the country’s most exciting college player in a Lakers uniform, Buss hoped the normally reserved Forum crowds would get up off their hands and onto their feet. “Showtime” was born. Fans attending Johnson’s first game witnessed the sort of exuberance he would display throughout his entire career. After a buzzer-beating shot by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to defeat the San Diego Clippers on opening night, Johnson went berserk, distributing bone-jarring high-fives and bear hugs.

In the 1980 NBA Finals against the Philadelphia 76ers, Johnson’s performance in the series-clinching sixth game was the stuff of legend. Abdul-Jabbar was sidelined with a badly sprained ankle sustained during his 40-point effort in Game 5. Up 3-2, the Lakers could wrap things up on the 76ers’ home court. Assuming Abdul-Jabbar’s position at centre, Johnson sky-hooked and rebounded the Lakers to victory with 42 points, 15 boards, seven assists and three steals. He even jumped for the opening tip. Johnson became the first rookie ever to win the Finals MVP Award. The stunning effort exemplified his uncanny ability to do whatever the Lakers needed in order to win. In the Los Angeles Times, Westhead said of his amazing rookie: “We all thought he was a movie-star player, but we found out he wears a hard hat. It’s like finding a great orthopaedic surgeon who can also operate a bulldozer.”

By the 1984 NBA Finals Abdul-Jabbar was pushing 40 and Johnson had signed a then record 25-year, $25 million contract. The gruelling seven-game series against Boston marked a low point in Johnson’s career. His playmaking gaffes at the end of Games 2, 4 and 7 contributed to the Lakers’ defeat. With Johnson improving his outside shot and setting assists records, the Lakers won three NBA titles in the next four years. The first of this string came in the 1985 Finals win over their nemesis the Celtics. After being destroyed in Game 1 of the series ,148-114, dubbed the “Memorial Day Massacre” as the game was played on that holiday, the Lakers would rebound to take the series in six games.

During the 1986-87 season, with Abdul-Jabbar sidelined briefly with an eye infection, Johnson did something most pro scouts had said he couldn’t do: score. He pumped in 38 points against Houston and then a career-high 46 points in the next game against the Sacramento Kings. His 23.9 season average was the highest of his career.

That season, Johnson was named NBA Most Valuable Player. It had taken him eight years, in which time Bird had landed three MVP Awards. Johnson had wanted it badly. Before the winner was announced, Johnson told the Los Angeles Times, “Right now, he’s 3 and I’m 0. That bugs me a little.”

Johnson won his third Finals MVP Award in 1987, following a six-game victory over Boston. It was also the year that Johnson took Abdul-Jabbar’s place as leader of the team. In games of H-O-R-S-E during practice, the 40-year-old center taught his protégé how to shoot a sky-hook. Johnson quickly mastered his own version of the shot, which he used to make the game-winning basket in the Game 4 victory at the Garden, 107-106. That win propelled the Lakers to a second Finals’ win over the Celtics in three years. In 1988, the Lakers edged the Detroit Pistons in a bitter seven-game series to become the first team since the 1968-69 Celtics to repeat as champs. The following two seasons Johnson averaged more than 20 points and led the Lakers to two more division titles. In 1988-89, Abdul-Jabbar’s final season, Johnson suffered a hamstring injury in the NBA Finals and the Lakers were swept by a well-rounded Pistons team. The next year Los Angeles suffered its earliest departure from the playoffs in nine years, losing to the Phoenix Suns in the Conference Semifinals.

Johnson in the 1990-91 campaign helped the Lakers to a 58-24 record. After upsetting a Clyde Drexler-led Portland TrailBlazers team that won the Pacific Division in the Western Conference Finals, the Lakers made another trip to the NBA Finals. The Lakers lost to the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan in five games, but it was the ninth time Johnson had reached the Finals in his 12 seasons. Before the 1991-92 campaign Johnson stunned the world with the announcement that he had tested positive for the HIV virus and was retiring from the NBA. He made a triumphant appearance at the All-Star Game that season, however, earning the game’s MVP Award and leading the West to a 153-113 victory. He also began a campaign to promote AIDS awareness, an effort for which he received the league’s J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award.

Johnson went on to play for the 1992 U.S. Olympic Dream Team, work for NBC as a television commentator and explore the possibility of purchasing an NBA franchise. With 16 games left to play in the 1993-94 season, he replaced Randy Pfund as the head coach of the Lakers. The team was fighting for a playoff berth when Johnson assumed the reins, and Los Angeles immediately won five straight. But after the club lost five of its next six outings, Johnson announced that he would not return as coach the following season. “I want to go home,” he told the Associated Press. “It’s never been my dream to coach. I want to own, to be a businessman. You’ve got to chase your dreams.” Johnson got his wish in June 1994, when he purchased a share of the Lakers and became a part-owner.

In his 13 NBA seasons Johnson compiled 17,707 points, 6,559 rebounds and 10,141 assists in addition to 1,724 steals, good for ninth place on the all-time list. He also holds the top marks for most All-Star Game assists and three-point baskets. In 1996-97, Johnson was selected to the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team. In 2002, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

“Magic is head-and-shoulders above everybody else,” Larry Bird once observed in the Chicago Sun-Times. “I’ve never seen anybody as good as him.”
Oscar Robertson
Oscar Robertson, the “Big O,” is the player against whom all others labeled “all-around” are judged, and he may remain the standard forever. Statistically, one need look no further than the numbers Robertson put up in 1961-62, just his second year in the league: 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 11.4 assists per game - an average of a triple-double for an entire season. Not even Magic Johnson or Larry Bird could match those numbers.

During his 14-year NBA career with the Cincinnati Royals and the Milwaukee Bucks, Robertson became the top-scoring guard of all time, amassing 26,710 points. Among all players, only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan, Moses Malone, Elvin Hayes, and Hakeem Olajuwon have scored more. His average of 25.7 ppg per game ranks as the sixth-highest mark ever among retired players, and he averaged 30 points or more in six seasons. Although John Stockton and Magic have surpassed Robertson’s career record of 9,887 assists, some argue that Robertson’s total came in an era when an assist was credited much less generously than it is today. Robertson also averaged 7.5 rebounds for his career and led his team in rebounding once, a rare feat for a guard.

He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1979 and named to the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996-97. At 6-foot-5 and 210 pounds, Robertson was the first “big guard.” Magic was only one-year old when Robertson registered his first NBA assist, crashed the boards for his first NBA rebound and sank a jumper for his first NBA points. “He is so great-he scares me,” Celtics Coach Red Auerbach once said. Former teammate Jerry Lucas told the Indianapolis Star: “He obviously was unbelievable, way ahead of his time. There is no more complete player than Oscar.”

Born in 1938, Robertson grew up in a segregated housing project in Indianapolis. In the projects he not only learned basketball but also learned firsthand about racial discrimination and economic inequality. He learned how to shoot by tossing tennis balls and rags bound with rubber bands into a peach basket behind his family’s home. Robertson attended Crispus Attucks High School. At Crispus Attucks, Robertson’s natural physical abilities and instincts were polished by Coach Ray Crowe, who was obsessed with teaching the basics of the game. Robertson smoothly combined his street smarts with Coach Crowe’s fundamentals. He averaged 24.0 points and was named Indiana’s “Mr. Basketball” as a senior. The team went 31-1 in 1955 and 31-0 in 1956 and took state titles both years.

At college he was nothing short of incredible, scoring 33.8 ppg with a one-handed style that made his shots virtually unblock-able. Three times he won the national scoring title, was an All-American, and was named College Player of the Year. He led the Bearcats to two Final Fours and an 79-9 record during his three varsity seasons. As a sophomore Robertson scored 56 points in a tournament game at Madison Square Garden, and he scored 62 points in another contest.

Co-captains on the gold medal-winning 1960 U.S. Olympic basketball team, Robertson and Jerry West entered the NBA one after the other in the 1960 NBA Draft. Robertson went to the Cincinnati Royals as a territorial pick. West went to the Lakers, who were moving from Minneapolis to Los Angeles, as the first overall selection of the regular draft.

Robertson exploded onto the NBA scene, finishing third in the league in scoring and winning NBA Rookie of the Year honours for 1960-61.

The Big O made his first of 12 consecutive trips to the NBA All-Star Game, winning the MVP Award after scoring 23 points and setting a record with 14 assists, one better than Bob Cousy’s previous mark. Robertson also ended Cousy’s eight-year string of regular-season assists titles by leading the league with 9.7 per game. With forward Jack Twyman contributing 25.3 points per game, the Royals improved to 33-46. The team, however, remained in the Western Division cellar. In 1961-62, the year he averaged a triple-double, Robertson led the Royals to the first of six straight trips to the playoffs. He repeated as assists champion with 11.4 per game and a total of 899, smashing yet another record set by Cousy, who had accumulated 715 assists two years earlier.

The sharpshooting Robertson also finished fourth in field goal percentage, and his average of 12.5 rebounds per game was a career high. Success did not follow the Royals to the playoffs, however; they were dumped in the first round by the Detroit Pistons, three games to one. Robertson had another great year the following season. With Twyman continuing to put up big numbers, Cincinnati battled past the Syracuse Nationals in the division semifinals. In the next round against the Boston Celtics, Robertson’s heroics forced a Game 7, but the Royals fell to the eventual world champions.

In 1963-64, Robertson became one of the league’s dominant players. He won the All-Star and regular-season MVP Awards and led the Royals to a 55-25 record, good enough for second place in the Eastern Division. Robertson finished first in the league in both assists and free throw percentage and ranked second in scoring. Throughout the decade Robertson averaged at least 25 ppg, 6 rpg and 8 apg. The league was full of stars at the time, including West, Chamberlain, Russell, Elgin Baylor, Willis Reed and John Havlicek. That Robertson stood out as equal to-and, in the eyes of many, even better than-these players was testimony to his greatness. From 1960 to 1968 Robertson was the only player other than Chamberlain or Russell to win the MVP Award. And it took Chamberlain’s prodigious point totals to keep Robertson from winning a scoring title.

Before the 1969-70 season, near the end of Robertson’s peak as a player, the Royals brought in Cousy as head coach. Cincinnati had missed the playoffs two years in a row, and attendance was suffering. Then, prior to the 1970-71 season, the Royals stunned the basketball world by trading Robertson to the Milwaukee Bucks. Many observers believed it was Cousy’s jealousy of Robertson that led to the trade. The Big O had just broken many of Cousy’s records and Cincinnati was suddenly too small for the both of them. “Whatever his reasons were,” Robertson later said, “I think he was wrong and I’ll never forget it.”

At age 31 and still searching for an NBA Championship, Robertson joined second-year centre Abdul-Jabbar (then called Lew Alcindor) in the Bucks’ lineup. With Abdul-Jabbar winning the scoring title and the MVP Award, Milwaukee posted the NBA’s best record in 1970-71 at 66-16. Robertson had what for him was a typical late-career season: He played in all but one game and tallied 19.4 points, 8.2 assists, and 5.7 rebounds per contest.

With his legs starting to go, Robertson considered retirement. He managed to play three more seasons, however, helping the Bucks to division titles in each of those years. Stymied in the playoffs in 1972 and again in 1973, the Bucks reached the Finals in Robertson’s final year and were favoured to win the title in 1974 against the Celtics. In what stands as a classic series, an Abdul-Jabbar sky-hook in double-overtime of Game 6 gave the Bucks new life and forced a Game 7. In the finale Dave Cowens delivered 28 points and 14 rebounds, leading Boston to a 15-point victory.

Robertson left the NBA with 26,710 points, 9,887 assists and 7,804 rebounds collected in 1,040 games. He shot .485 from the field and .838 from the line. In 86 playoff games Robertson averaged 22.2 points, 8.9 assists and 6.7 rebounds. After his retirement Robertson worked to improve the living conditions of African-Americans in his hometown of Indianapolis by helping to build affordable housing.

Bill Russell
Bill Russell was the cornerstone of the Boston Celtics’ dynasty of the 1960s, an uncanny shotblocker who revolutionized NBA defensive concepts. A five-time NBA Most Valuable Player and a 12-time All-Star, the angular center amassed 21,620 career rebounds, an average of 22.5 per game and led the league in rebounding four times. He had 51 boards in one game, 49 in two others and a dozen consecutive seasons of 1,000 or more rebounds. His many individual accolades were well deserved, but they were only products of Russell’s philosophy of team play. His greatest accomplishment was bringing the storied Celtics 11 championships in his 13 seasons. Until the ascent of Michael Jordan in the 1980s, Russell was acclaimed by many as the greatest player in the history of the NBA.

William Felton Russell was born on February 12, 1934, in Monroe, Louisiana. His family moved cross-country to the San Francisco Bay Area, where Bill attended McClymonds High School in Oakland. He was an awkward, unremarkable centre on McClymonds’s basketball team, but his size earned him a scholarship to play at the University of San Francisco, where he blossomed.

Russell grew to be a shade over 6-foot-9, and he teamed with guard K. C. Jones to lead the Dons to 56 consecutive victories and NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956 (although Jones missed four games of the 1956 tournament because his eligibility had expired). Russell was named the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player in 1955. Russell averaged 20.7 points and 20.3 rebounds in his three-year varsity career. By his senior season he had matured into a dominant force who could control a game at the defensive end. With the 1956 NBA Draft approaching, Boston Celtics coach and general manager Red Auerbach was eager to add Russell to his lineup. Auerbach had built a high-scoring offensive machine around guards Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman and undersized centre Ed Macauley, but he hadn’t been able to muster the defence and rebounding needed to transform the Celtics into a championship-caliber club. Russell, Auerbach felt, was the missing piece to the puzzle.

However, because of their second-place finish the year before, the Celtics would be picking too late in the draft to get Russell. And because Auerbach wanted to use a territorial selection to nab Holy Cross star Tom Heinsohn, Boston would forfeit its first-round pick altogether. So Auerbach began to think trade, and he set his sights on the St. Louis Hawks, who owned the second overall pick in the draft. Russell didn’t join the Celtics until December because he was a member of the 1956 U.S. Olympic basketball team, which won a gold medal at the Melbourne Games in November. The Celtics had bolted to a 13-3 start, and when Russell arrived he adapted quickly. Playing in 48 games, he pulled down 19.6 rpg, the best average in the league, while scoring 14.7 ppg.

In only part of a season Russell had added a new element to the Celtics and to professional basketball. For the previous few years, the Celtics had been an unstoppable offensive machine led by 20-point scorers Cousy and Sharman, both future Hall of Famers. But Boston had lacked the rebounding and defence to win it all. Now Russell brought a new level of defensive artistry, intimidating opponents with blocked shots and proving that it didn’t take a scorer to dominate a game. Energised by their championship, the Celtics won 14 straight games to start the 1957-58 season, and they kept rolling. In his first full season in the NBA, Russell took command and led the league with 22.7 rpg. Early in the season, against the Philadelphia Warriors, he set an NBA record for rebounds in a half by grabbing 32 and wound up with 49 for the contest.

Russell was voted the NBA Most Valuable Player for 1957-58. Oddly enough, he was only named to the All-NBA Second Team. In fact, during the five years that Russell was voted league MVP, only twice did he make the All-NBA First Team. The argument was that, while other centers were better than Russell -- that is, they had more conventional skills -- no player meant more to his team. Russell repeated as the NBA rebounding leader in 1958-59, grabbing 23.0 per game, the first of seven consecutive campaigns in which he averaged at least 23 boards. Russell was also known for extending his effort at critical moments, both within a game and within a season. Consequently, he typically improved his rebounding numbers during the playoffs, and in the 1959 postseason he pulled down 27.7 boards per game. The Celtics reached the NBA Finals for a third straight season and regained the crown with a four-game sweep of the Minneapolis Lakers. Russell set a Finals record with 29.5 rpg in the series, and he helped launch the greatest championship run in the history of professional sports. Boston’s 1959 title began an unprecedented and unequaled string of eight consecutive NBA championships.

Russell’s greatest adversary, Wilt Chamberlain, entered the NBA and joined the Philadelphia Warriors for the 1959-60 season, setting up a decade-long rivalry. The debate over who was the greater player would last even longer. Chamberlain put up incredible numbers during the period in which the two went head to head, but Russell helped the Celtics hang nine NBA championship flags in the Garden in his first 10 seasons. As Celtics player Don Nelson told the Boston Herald, “There are two types of superstars. One makes himself look good at the expense of the other guys on the floor. But there’s another type who makes the players around him look better than they are, and that’s the type Russell was.”

Chamberlain was great, but the Celtics were better. They improved their regular-season record to 59-16 in 1959-60, at one point running off 17 straight victories. They eliminated Chamberlain and the Warriors in the division finals, then met St. Louis again in the 1960 NBA Finals. Russell stepped up his play in the title series, setting an NBA Finals record with 40 rebounds in Game 2 (surpassed by Chamberlain with 41in 1967) . The Hawks extended the series to seven games, but Russell dominated Game 7, contributing 22 points and 35 rebounds as the Celtics won, 122-103, and notched their second consecutive championship.

While Russell was changing the way the NBA viewed defence, the league still appeared to be in an era of runaway offence, with Chamberlain leading the way. Even the defence-oriented Celtics averaged 124.5 points. Russell’s impact on the game can’t really be tracked through NBA statistics. Blocked shots were not an official statistic until 1973-74, and the league only recorded total rebounds, without distinguishing between offensive and defensive boards until that same season. Russell was revolutionising the game in ways that were clearly understood, even if they weren’t measured. His ability to leave his man and slide over to cover an opponent driving to the hoop was startling. He was unmatched at swooping across the lane like a big bird to block and alter shots. The rest of the Celtics defenders began to funnel their men toward Russell and become more daring with their perimeter defence, knowing that he was looming behind.

The dynasty was beginning to establish itself under Auerbach, and “Boston Celtics” and “NBA champions” became practically synonymous as the decade progressed. The team was multitalented, with many great players, but the enduring image was that of Russell, his head thrust forward from the slight hunch of his shoulders, his eyes scanning the court, his long left arm snaking out to deflect a shot. Boston won the title again in 1960-61, and Russell was named NBA Most Valuable Player, the first of his three consecutive MVP Awards.

The next season, 1961-62, saw Russell register an 18.9 scoring average, his career high. Chamberlain’s individual accomplishments were mind-boggling: he won the scoring title by averaging 50.4 points, while the team-oriented Celtics didn’t place anybody in the top 10. The NBA players, voting for MVP, chose Russell over Chamberlain. The legendary center later called the 1963-64 Celtics team the best of his era. Although it was merely competent on offense, he felt it was the best defensive unit ever. Russell once again led the league in rebounding, with 24.7 rpg, his all-time high. The Celtics, rolling inexorably, topped the San Francisco Warriors in the Finals in five games, taking their sixth consecutive title, something no team in any sport at the major league level had accomplished before.

The NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers was almost anticlimactic, as the Celtics claimed the championship in five games. For his play that season, Russell won his fifth and final NBA Most Valuable Player Award. Following another NBA championship in 1965-66, Auerbach retired, and Russell took over as player-coach the following season, becoming the first African-American coach in the league. He led Boston to a 60-21 regular-season record, but the Celtics finally had their string of championships snapped when they lost to a powerful Philadelphia 76ers team in the Eastern Division Finals. The Sixers, who went 68-13 in the regular season and is considered one of the league’s best ever, trounced the Celtics in five games to advance to the NBA Finals.

In Russell’s third year as player-coach, Boston repeated as NBA champions by defeating the Lakers, who had acquired Chamberlain, in a seven-game battle for the title. The great Celtics leader promptly retired, having guided the team to 11 championships in 13 years.

Sources:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1795233-10-greatest-nba-players-of-all-time

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/lists/Top-10-players-in-NBA-history#photo-title=Best+of+the+best&photo=30219323

http://blogs.rgj.com/chrismurray/2014/02/14/the-sunday-list-the-10-best-basketball-players-in-the-history-of-the-game/

http://www.complex.com/sports/2013/11/best-all-around-nba-players/

http://www.hoophall.com/hall-of-famers-index/

http://www.nba.com/history/naismith-memorial-basketball-hall-of-fame-inductees/index.html

http://www.nba.com/history/legends-index/index.html