A thing that a lot of fans like to do when it comes to the NBA is come up with all-time lists. People often debate about what order NBA legends should be ranked in. While generally, most people can find a reasonable way to defend where they rank their players, there are times when fans and analysts make ridiculous choices on their lists.
Nick Wright has recently unveiled his Top 50 NBA players of the last 50 years list. There is no doubt that there was a lot of controversy around his selections, as he put Michael Jordan at No. 3. A lot of fans were unhappy with that positioning, as Michael Jordan is commonly viewed as the GOAT. The result was a lot of fans saying negative things about Nick Wright’s list on Twitter.
— nick wright (@getnickwright) July 24, 2022
The two players that will most likely complete Nick Wright’s are LeBron James and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. There’s no question that they can be considered the GOATs of their generation. However, Michael Jordan is generally viewed as having the best peak of all time, and most people would put him at No. 1 on this list, with some putting him at No. 2 if they believe LeBron James is the GOAT.
With that being said, there doesn’t only have to be one GOAT of basketball. Many people have floated the idea that there can be multiple GOATs. One suggestion from legend Rick Barry was sorting the GOATs by position.
Why does everybody want to talk about the GOAT?… Everybody talks about the GOAT. You cannot, in team sports, pick the greatest player of all-time. It has to be by position.
So if they want to do something, pick the players by position. The problem is now, you don’t have guys that are classified as centers. You look to see the GM survey that they had. The GMs are talking and voting about players, and putting different players in 3 different positions.
There is no doubt that a lot of NBA legends have comparable resumes. The gap between them is not large, and often, trying to distinguish between legends is like splitting hairs.
It remains to be seen if Nick Wright will explain why he ended up putting Michael Jordan at No. 3. It will be interesting to see what his reasoning is, even if the majority does not agree with him.
