Former NBA player and executive Vlade Divac appeared on the latest episode of the Mohr Stories podcast, where he made quite an eyebrow-raising comment. Divac shared his list of the five greatest players of all time on the show, and a certain LeBron James wasn’t on it.
“Magic [Johnson], Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar], Michael [Jordan], Larry [Bird], and Kobe [Bryant],” Divac said.
When James’ name was brought up, Divac shockingly revealed he isn’t even in his top 10.
“Don’t get me wrong, he’s great, but he’s not in my top 10,” Divac said.
James is widely regarded as one of the two greatest players of all time. Now, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar’s critics tend to rank him lower, but even they don’t put him out of the top 10.
Skip Bayless is the first name you think of when someone asks you to name James’ biggest critic, and he has him ninth on his list. If you rank the 41-year-old below where Bayless puts him, maybe you need to rethink your list.
James has won four titles, four Finals MVPs, four MVPs, one scoring title, and one assists title. He is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and rewrites the record books almost every time he steps out on the court.
James is unquestionably a top-10 player of all time, but to each their own. As for who Divac ranks sixth to 10th, he didn’t share it here. It would have been quite interesting to see who else made it in.
None of the players Divac has in his top five are completely out of place. They all had incredible careers.
Magic Johnson won five titles, three Finals MVPs, three MVPs, and four assists titles. Johnson has the highest career assists average in the regular season (11.2) and playoffs (12.3) in NBA history. He is still widely regarded as the greatest point guard of all time.
Much of Johnson’s success came when he played alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Abdul-Jabbar won six titles, two Finals MVPs, six MVPs, and two scoring titles. He was the NBA’s all-time scoring leader before James came along.
We get to Michael Jordan next, and he won six titles, six Finals MVPs, five MVPs, one DPOY, and 10 scoring titles. Jordan has the highest career scoring average in the regular season (30.1) and playoffs (33.4). He is the most popular pick for that GOAT title.
Divac holds Jordan and Johnson in very high regard. He thinks the former would average 50 points a game in today’s NBA, while the latter would average 30 assists a game.
Getting back to the list, Larry Bird won three titles, two Finals MVPs, and three MVPs. Bird remains the last player to have won MVP three years in a row, a feat he accomplished from 1984 to 1986.
Lastly, we get to Kobe Bryant, who won five titles, two Finals MVPs, one MVP, and two scoring titles. Bryant spent his entire 20-year career with the Lakers after they traded away Divac for him on draft night in 1996. The Serb had been with the team for seven seasons at that point and wasn’t too happy back then. Now, though, Divac says he would have traded the entire team for Bryant. He was just that good.
