- Stephen Curry has widely been regarded as a top 10 player of all time after winning the title in 2022
- Julius Erving though excluded him from his all-time top 10 list
- Erving explained his list only had players who had retired
Whenever someone of note shares their list of the top 10 players of all time, social media tends to be up in arms. A great player inevitably gets left out, but in the case of Julius Erving’s list, there were a whole lot of them not included.
Erving excluded all of the superstars in the game today like LeBron James and Stephen Curry, which left many bewildered. When asked why Curry wasn’t on his list, he explained it only has retired players.
“Oh no, he hadn’t played long enough,” Erving told Joy De’Angela. “He’s gotta finish his career. Everybody I named in there, their career is finished, right?”
(starts at 11:10 mark):
If you need to be a retired player to make Dr. J’s list, then fair enough, although Stephen A. Smith believes there can be no top 10 list without LeBron in it.
That criterion is probably the only way Curry can now be left out, having won four championships, a Finals MVP, and two MVPs. He could still potentially add to his resume too, as he is still going strong, having averaged 29.4 PPG, 6.1 RPG, 6.3 APG, 0.9 SPG, and 0.4 BPG this past season. Will Erving actually put him in there though once he retires? Well, time will tell.
The Notable Exclusions In Julius Erving’s List
Erving is fully entitled to have his own criteria of only having retired players on there. That, however, begs the question of why some other notable players didn’t make it.
Erving’s list had Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Karl Malone, and Tiny Archibald.
He excluded the likes of Larry Bird, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kobe Bryant, all of whom are generally ranked among the top 10. While excluding Bird wasn’t all that surprising considering their infamous fight back in the day, O’Neal and Bryant not being on there is rather puzzling. Picking Malone over them was a shocker, but at the end of the day, it comes down to each individual’s preference and you have to respect that.
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