John Salley spent 11 seasons in the NBA during which he won 4 championships while playing for the Pistons, Bulls, and Lakers. He was a pretty good role player who really had the privilege of playing alongside some of the game’s all-time greats.
He recently revealed his starting 5 made up of his former teammates, which included Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Isiah Thomas, Michael Jordan, and Dennis Rodman. Aside from Rodman, who was a 2-time Defensive Player of the Year, the other 4 were regarded among the very best players in the game for much of their careers.
John Salley Reveals His 5 Best NBA Players
Salley was on the Club Shay Shay podcast when he revealed his starting 5 from his former teammates and host Shannon Sharpe also asked him to name his top 5 among the current players. With the ridiculous amount of talent in the league right now, it is difficult to come up with just five names but here’s who made Salley’s top 5.
(starts at 22:30 mark):
John Salley: “Luka (Doncic), Giannis (Antetokounmpo), Steph (Curry), LeBron (James), Ja Morant (laughs) no, what’s that other white big guy’s name?
Shannon Sharpe: “Nikola Jokic.”
That is quite the five but it once again speaks to the talent in this league, when you consider that we still have guys like Kevin Durant and Joel Embiid who would be more than deserving of making it here. Two men who seem to be fixtures on almost everyone’s list right now are Stephen Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo, with Warriors legend Chris Mullin calling them the two best players in the NBA right now.
While this list didn’t raise too many eyebrows, some of the other things that Salley said during this episode sure did. He stated that Phil Jackson intentionally benched Kobe Bryant to not allow him to break Wilt Chamberlain’s record of 100 points in a game when he had 81 against the Toronto Raptors. He also stated that LeBron won’t surpass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the all-time leading scorer in NBA history, in what ended up being quite an interesting episode.
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