Top 20 Best NBA Players Of The Last 23 Years

The NBA recently released their 75th Anniversary Team, a list that includes players from as far back as the 50s, 60s, and 70s. While it’s helpful to remember and understand the past, we here at Fadeaway World want to focus on the present by creating our rankings of the top 20 players since the turn of the century.

Our top-20 was difficult to create. A handful of recent Hall-of-Fame inductees — Grant Hill, Chris Bosh, Ben Wallace, Chris Webber, Tracy McGrady, and Yao Ming — didn’t make our cut. Another handful of potential Hall-of-Famers, Russell Westbrook, Damian Lillard, Draymond Green, and Kyrie Irving, were also left off.

We judged our top-20 players of the last 23 years on several factors: their career regular season and postseason accolades, their career statistics, their overall impact on winning in the playoffs, their peak three-to-four-year performance, and their ability to be the best player on a championship-level squad.

Below is our list of the top 20 players since Michael Jordan’s era, from 1999 to 2022.

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20. James Harden

Career Stats: 24.9 PPG, 5.6 RPG, 6.8 APG, 1.5 SPG, 0.5 BPG

Achievements:

1x Regular Season MVP

1x Sixth Man of the Year

3x Scoring Leader

1x Assists Leader

6x All-NBA First Team

1x All-NBA Third Team

10x All-Star

James Harden might not have an NBA championship to his name, and he might have made a habit of disappearing in the playoffs when his team needs him most. Still, his three-year offensive peak from 2017-18 to 2019-20 can only be rivaled by Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant among all guards in NBA history, and that extended greatness means something.

Here’s a breakdown:

2017-18 through 2019-20: Harden averaged 33.7 PPG, 6.2 RPG, 7.9 APG, 10.9 FTA, and 36.3% from distance. Harden also ran off 32 straight 30-point games, the second-longest streak in NBA history. And he guided the Rockets into at least the second round of the playoffs all three seasons.

James Harden was an instant ticket to the postseason during his time in Houston as one of the best isolation specialists the league has ever seen. He’s a surefire Hall-of-Famer, and if he manages to clutch up during his next few trips to the postseason and win a title, he’ll move up these rankings.

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19. Ray Allen

Career Stats: 18.9 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 3.4 APG, 1.1 SPG, 0.2 BPG

Achievements:

2x NBA Champion

1x All-NBA Second Team

1x All-NBA Third Team

10x All-Star

Ray Allen is second all-time in three-point makes at 2,973, and more importantly, he brought his regular-season long-distance stroke to the postseason, where he is fourth in NBA history with 385 shots from beyond the arc. Even more importantly, Ray Allen was one of the most efficient high-volume playoff three-point shooters ever, with a 40.1% clip from deep, better than more notable postseason heroes Stephen Curry (40.0%), Reggie Miller (39.0%), and Robert Horry (35.9%). Ray Allen’s three-point clutchness directly led to two titles. He hit seven long-distance bombs in Boston’s 2008 Game 6 championship win, and in the 2013 Finals, he hit a HUGE three-pointer in Game 6, helping send the contest to overtime, which Miami won before coming out victorious in Game 7.

Ray Allen will go down as one of the most efficient three-point shooters to play the game, but he was more than merely a spot-up shooter. He was an all-around weapon in his prime, leading the Bucks to within one game of the 2001 NBA Finals as he averaged 25.1 PPG, 4.1 RPG, and 6.0 APG throughout 18 playoff games. During Allen’s time in Milwaukee and later in Seattle, he was a genuine three-level offensive menace with a solid first step, top-tier finishing skills, and an excellent off-the-dribble mid-range game.

Ray Allen is a Hall-of-Famer for more than just his long-distance stroke. He was a playoff star and a versatile 2-guard throughout most of his career.

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18. Jason Kidd

Career Stats: 12.6 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 8.7 APG, 1.9 SPG, 0.3 BPG

Achievements:

1x NBA Champion

5x Assists Leader

5x All-NBA First Team

1x All-NBA Second Team

4x All-Defensive First Team

5x All-Defensive Second Team

Rookie of the Year

10x All-Star

Jason Kidd was one of the most complete point guards to play the game. He was a playmaking phenom, leading the league in assists for five seasons. Kidd was also the premier point-of-attack defender of his generation. During the last six seasons of his career, he became an excellent three-point marksman, hitting 37.8% of his long-distance shots.

Jason Kidd led the New Jersey Nets to the Finals in consecutive seasons during his prime, ultimately losing to the Lakers in 2002 and the Spurs in 2003. Still, he made it to the top of the mountain in 2011 as the Mavericks starting point guard, transforming from a player who couldn’t get it done when it mattered most to a champion.

Overall, Jason Kidd is second all-time in assists at 12,091, and he’s also second all-time in steals at 2,684 as a Hall-of-Famer and a member of our top-20.

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17. Dwight Howard

Career Stats: 15.7 PPG, 11.8 RPG, 1.3 APG, 0.9 SPG, 1.8 BPG

Achievements:

1x NBA Champion

3x Defensive Player of the Year

5x Rebounds Leader

2x Blocks Leader

5x All-NBA First Team

1x All-NBA Second Team

2x All-NBA Third Team

4x All-Defensive First Team

1x All-Defensive Second Team

8x All-Star

Dwight Howard has fallen on hard times toward the backend of his career, feuding with Kobe in Los Angeles, suffering from an obnoxious candy addiction, and traveling from Houston to Atlanta, then Charlotte and Washington as your proverbial arrogant locker room cancer. Despite Howard’s wrong-side-of- 30s antics, he was a monster during his prime.

Howard is the premier defender of the last 20 years, and it isn’t close. Between 2007 and 2012, Howard garnered an absurd 39.1 Defensive Win Shares, more than our most talented modern-day defender, Rudy Gobert, has in his career (37.9). In that span, Howard won three Defensive Player of the Year Awards, led the league in blocks twice, and led the league in rebounds four times.

An in-his-prime Dwight Howard guaranteed your squad a top-10 defense even if you surrounded him with negative perimeter defenders, Hedo Turkoglu, Rashard Lewis, J.J Redick, and Jameer Nelson. All of this means Howard will be a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer and was the third-best pure center of the last 23 years.

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16. Paul Pierce

Career Stats: 19.7 PPG, 5.6 RPG, 3.5 APG, 1.3 SPG, 0.6 BPG

Achievements:

1x NBA Champion

1x Finals MVP

1x All-NBA Second Team

3x All-NBA Third Team

10x All-Star

Paul Pierce will go down in NBA history as one of the most durable stars ever to suit up. During his prime from 2000 through 2007, he missed only eight games, averaging 24.8 PPG, 6.7 RPG, and 4.1 APG while nailing 35.8% of his long-distance shots for the Boston Celtics. Pierce was also famously stabbed 11 times in 2000 at a club in Boston during a fight in which he apparently didn’t realize he’d been plugged, again, 11 times! He had emergency lung, stomach, and back surgery, and after recuperating in the hospital for all of one day was back on the court, never missing a single game.

In 2008, after Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen joined him in Beantown, Pierce cemented his legacy as an all-time great by winning his only championship, outdueling LeBron James and Kobe Bryant as he averaged 19.7 PPG during the postseason.

Paul Pierce ended his playing career as one of the fiercest competitors in the NBA and a Hall-of-Famer.

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15. Chris Paul

Career Stats: 18.1 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 9.5 APG, 2.1 SPG, 0.1 BPG

Achievements:

5x Assists Leader

6x Steals Leader

4x All-NBA First Team

5x All-NBA Second Team

2x All-NBA Third Team

7x All-Defensive First Team

2x All-Defensive Second Team

Rookie of the Year

12x All-Star

Chris Paul could be the most well-rounded point guard of all time. He led the league in assists during five seasons, and he’s easily one of the top-5 passers in NBA history, the kind of playmaking wizard who ensures your team a decent look during nine out of ten half-court possessions. CP3 is also a nightmare cover who tortures defenders with his ridiculous mid-range game (49.3% from 10 to 16 feet during his career) and a killer hesitation move into the lane where the point guard knows how to finish among the trees. He’s not merely an offensive terror either. Chris Paul is the premier point-of-attack defender of his generation, a player who took pride in hounding his counterparts as he racked up seven All-Defensive Team Selections and six seasons on top of the Steals leaderboard.

BUT (if you’re an NBA fan, you knew this was coming), he’s never hung a banner. Perhaps even more damning, he’s never shown he can lead a squad to the Finals as their star player. So, despite Chris Paul’s otherworldly skill set and statistics, he’s outside our top-10 players of the last 23 years.

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14. Nikola Jokic

Career Stats: 19.7 PPG, 10.4 RPG, 6.2 APG, 1.2 SPG, 0.7 BPG

Achievements:

2x Regular Season MVP

3x All-NBA First Team

1x All-NBA Second Team

4x All-Star

Nikola Jokic, 27, is the youngest player on our list, but that’s what happens when you win two consecutive MVP Awards and you own the highest PER season ever (32.85 in 2021-22) and the 12th highest of all time (31.28 PER in 2020-21). This year, Nikola Jokic averaged 27.1 PPG, 13.8 RPG, 7.9 APG, 1.5 SPG, and 0.9 BPG while (it needs to be mentioned again) claiming the highest PER in NBA history at 32.85 and the highest Box Plus/Minus in NBA history at 13.73. Those weren’t just empty-stats-somebody’s-got-to-score filler. Jokic guided a Denver Nuggets team featuring four complete and total non-All-Stars, Aaron Gordon, Will Barton, Monte Morris, and Jeff Green, to a 48-34 record and the sixth seed in the Western Conference, a feat less than a handful of centers (Kareem, Wilt, Hakeem, and Shaq) could have managed.

Nikola Jokic proved himself the rarest of superstars during the 2021-22 season, the kind of player who can drag a group of miscasts into the playoffs through sheer talent. And he’s just getting started. By the time he finished, Nikola Jokic could go down as a top-5 player of all time. He’s that special.

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13. Steve Nash

Career Stats: 14.3 PPG, 3.0 RPG, 8.5 APG, 0.7 SPG, 0.1 BPG

Achievements:

2x Regular Season MVP

5x Assists Leader

3x All-NBA First Team

2x All-NBA Second Team

2x All-NBA Third Team

8x All-Star

Steve Nash never won a title to cement his place in NBA history, and his 2006 MVP victory over Kobe Bryant (35.5 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 4.3 APG) was a borderline crime. Still, he blended the type of all-time vision and shooting that made him a two-time MVP and a breaker of men.

Here’s a breakdown:

Steve Nash is 11th all-time in three-point shooting percentage at 42.8% for his career

Steve Nash is 29th all-time in three-pointers made with 1,685 for his career

Steve Nash is 4th all-time in assists at 10,335 for his career

No player in NBA history lands inside the top-30 in all three categories, which alone lands Steve Nash on our list. But the way he pushed the 2005, 2006, and 2007 nine-seconds-or-less Phoenix Suns to become some of the most prolific offensive teams in NBA history drives him past fellow PG Chris Paul.

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12. Allen Iverson

Career Stats: 26.7 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 6.2 APG, 2.2 SPG, 0.2 BPG

Achievements:

1x Regular Season MVP

4x Scoring Leader

3x Steals Leader

3x All-NBA First Team

3x All-NBA Second Team

1x All-NBA Third Team

Rookie of the Year

11x All-Star

Look past Allen Iverson’s tattoos, jewelry, braids, and a hilarious rant about practice, and you’ll find one of the greatest point guards of all time. AI, 6’0″, 165-pounds, played a fearless brand of basketball the league had never seen from a player lacking what we typically acquaint with genuine NBA height and weight. He relentlessly drove down the lane regardless of which hulking center or power forward lurked in the key, waiting to punish him for his sheer audacity.

Allen Iverson’s career scoring numbers are absurd. His 26.7 PPG average is seventh all-time, and his 2000-01 MVP season was one of the best year-long runs in NBA history that saw AI average 31.1 PPG, 3.8 RPG, 4.6 APG, and 2.5 SPG as he put up over 40 points in 17 games. Allen Iverson didn’t stop dominating the league once the regular season was over. He strapped a 76ers squad featuring Theo Ratliff (12.4 PPG), Dikembe Mutombo (11.7 PPG), Aaron McKie (11.6 PPG), and Eric Snow (9.8 PPG) on his back and dragged them to the Finals before Kobe, Shaq, and the Lakers physically overwhelmed them in five games.

Allen Iverson is firmly entrenched in the Hall-of-Fame, but his refusal to “play the game” with the media means he’ll probably never be remembered as the 6-foot-nothing hero he was for many NBA fans.

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11. Kawhi Leonard

Career Stats: 19.2 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 2.9 APG, 1.8 SPG, 0.6 BPG

Achievements:

2x NBA Champion

2x Finals MVP

2x Defensive Player of the Year

1x Steals Leader

3x All-NBA First Team

2x All-NBA Second Team

3x All-Defensive First Team

4x All-Defensive Second Team

5x All-Star

Kawhi Leonard might not have your typical top-20 resume. He’s made only five All-Star teams and played in only 576 games throughout his 10-year career. Leonard has suffered a string of injuries over the last four years, from an obscure quad issue that kept him out almost the entire 2017-18 season to his load management regimen and his current ACL tear that sidelined him all of 2021-22.

However, when Kawhi Leonard is right, he’s proven he can be the leading player on a championship squad, a feat many of the players below him on our list (James Harden, Chris Paul, and Steve Nash) never accomplished. He won the Finals MVP Award in 2013-14 as a two-way terror on a loaded Spurs team. During the 2018-19 postseason, Leonard dominated the competition, posting a Jordan-like line of 30.5 PPG, 9.1 RPG, 3.9 APG, 1.7 SPG, 37.9 3P%, and a league-high 1.7 Defensive Win Shares as he led the Raptors to their first title in franchise history.

Kawhi Leonard is the top defensive wing on our list, a two-time Defensive Player of the Year who isn’t merely a one-way specialist. He also averaged 25.7 PPG throughout his last five seasons as a lethal rim-slasher/mid-range shooter/long-distance marksman.

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10. Dirk Nowitzki

Career Stats: 20.7 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 2.4 APG, 0.8 SPG, 0.8 BPG

Achievements:

1x NBA Champion

1x Regular Season MVP

1x Finals MVP

4x All-NBA First Team

5x All-NBA Second Team

3x All-NBA Third Team

14x All-Star

Dirk Nowitzki changed the game of basketball. Before he entered the league, you didn’t see big men shoot multiple three-pointers per game. They were primarily low post weapons or defensive bruisers. Opposing teams didn’t know what to do with Nowitzki as he maneuvered on the perimeter, dragging his man out of his comfort zone and opening driving lanes for his teammates.

While Dwight Howard guaranteed your team a top-10 defense, Dirk Nowitzki was a walking one-man top-10 offense. He guided his Mavs inside the top-10 in Offensive Rating during every year of his prime, including four number one finishes in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2006. And all that offensive firepower Nowitzki produced wasn’t merely fan-friendly basketball hijinks. The German sharpshooter helped the Mavs reach the playoffs 15 times throughout his 21 seasons in the league, and he won it all in 2011, beating a loaded Heat team behind his unguardable one-legged turnaround mid-range jumper.

Dirk Nowitzki is the NBA’s number six all-time leading scorer, and he made the All-NBA squad 12 times as a surefire future Hall-of-Famer.

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9. Kevin Garnett

Career Stats: 17.8 PPG, 10.0 RPG, 3.7 APG, 1.3 SPG, 1.4 BPG

Achievements:

1x NBA Champion

1x Regular Season MVP

1x Defensive Player of the Year

4x Rebounds Leader

4x All-NBA First Team

3x All-NBA Second Team

2x All-NBA Third Team

9x All-Defensive First Team

3x All-Defensive Second Team

15x All-Star

Kevin Garnett played with perhaps the least talented assortment of players out of any other superstar on our list during his prime in Minnesota. His most effective teammates were Stephon Marbury, Tom Gugliotta, Sam Cassell, and Wally Szczerbiak, four players who combined for five total All-Star appearances throughout their careers. Nevertheless, Garnett hauled the Timberwolves into the playoffs during eight of his 12 seasons in the frigid North, reaching the Western Conference Finals during his lone MVP year in 2004, averaging 24.3 PPG, a league-high 14.6 RPG, 5.1 APG, 1.3 SP, and 2.3 BPG in the postseason.

KG was traded to the Celtics in 2007 and promptly led Boston to the promised land behind some of the most intense and debilitating defense we’ve ever seen. Garnett and the Celtics made it back to the Finals one more time but injuries and Kobe’s transcendence derailed their hopes of hanging two banners.

Kevin Garnett is one of the most talented two-way players in NBA history. His offensive and defensive statistics are some of the best of all time:

10th All-Time in Win Shares (191.42)

7th All-Time in Defensive Win Shares (91.48)

1st All-Time in Defensive Rebounds (11,453)

20th All-Time in Blocks (2,037)

19th All-Time in Steals (1,859)

18th All-Time in Career Points (26,071)

Kevin Garnett is one of the most talented two-way players in NBA history, a Hall-of-Famer and a champion.

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8. Giannis Antetokounmpo

Career Stats: 21.8 PPG, 9.4 RPG, 4.6 APG, 1.2 SP, 1.3 BPG

Achievements:

1x NBA Champion

2x Regular Season MVP

1x Finals MVP

1x Most Improved Player

1x Defensive Player of the Year

4x All-NBA First Team

2x All-NBA Second Team

4x All-NBA Defensive First Team

1x All-Defensive Second Team

6x All-Star

Giannis Antetokounmpo, 27, is Kevin Garnett to the nth degree. He’s already ranked inside the top-200 all-time in Defensive Win Shares (33.72) and Offensive Win Shares (53.80). He’s also 15th all-time in PER at 24.53 and 16th all-time in BPM at 6.0.

Giannis is one of the few players in the league who can play positions one through five on the court, a genuine rim deterrent in the lane and ballhawk on the perimeter. He’s also the most renowned rim-slasher of the last 20 years, an authentic out-of-control locomotive who can’t be contained although everyone in the building knows he’s planning to punish the lane every chance he gets.

Giannis might be remembered as the second-best two-way player in NBA history once his career is over (he almost certainly won’t overtake MJ). The accolades are piling up. He’s won two MVP Awards, the Defensive Player of the Year Award, and he won the title in 2021.

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7. Dwyane Wade

Career Stats: 22.0 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 5.4 APG, 1.5 SPG, 0.8 BPG

Achievements:

3x NBA Champion

1x Finals MVP

1x Scoring Leader

2x All-NBA First Team

3x All-NBA Second Team

3x All-NBA Third Team

3x All-Defensive Second Team

13x All-Star

As time has progressed, it seems like Dwyane Wade’s legacy has taken a hit. People wax on about his career 29.3 three-point percentage or how he teamed up with LeBron instead of competing against him as a rival. There is some truth to those arguments, but that discounts Wade’s overall talent.

At age 24, Wade propelled the Heat to the championship, averaging 28.4 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 5.7 APG, and 37.8% from deep in the playoffs overall, and he put up an absurd line of 34.7 PPG, 7.8 RPG, and 3.8 APG in the Finals against the Dallas Mavericks as the clear alpha dog of not only his Miami squad but the entire league. People tend to forget that after Wade’s romp through the Finals, many experts fiercely believed he was better than LeBron and Kobe. Wade and Shaq suffered injuries the next season and then Diesel’s game fell off a cliff the following year, stymying any chance the Heat had at a pre-LeBron dynasty.

Still, Dwyane Wade was a master at blowing by his man (thus the nickname Flash) and doing damage in the lane. He was also a top-tier perimeter defender and an outstanding competitor who always stepped up during high-impact playoff situations.

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6. Kevin Durant

Career Stats: 27.2 PPG, 7.1 RPG, 4.3 APG, 1.1 SPG, 1.1 BPG

Achievements:

2x NBA Champion

1x Regular Season MVP

2x Finals MVP

4x Scoring Leader

6x All-NBA First Team

4x All-NBA Second Team

Rookie of the Year

12x All-Star

Kevin Durant had the misfortune of spending his entire career in LeBron James’s shadow, consistently losing the title of “Best Player Alive,” multiple MVP awards, and even the 2012 Finals to The King. That is until 2017 when KD joined the Warriors and averaged 35.2 PPG, 8.2 RPG, 5.4 APG, 1.0 SPG, and 1.6 BPG against LBJ and the Cavs in the Finals. And he did it again in 2018, dropping 28.8 PPG, 10.8 RPG, 7.5 APG, 0.8 SPG, and 2.3 BPG against James and the Cavs in a four-game Finals massacre.

Kevin Durant wrestled the “Best Player Alive” status away from LeBron for two seasons, producing two of the best overall Finals performances in league history, coolly dispatching James and the Cavs like they were a G-League squad. As of late, KD has suffered through several injury-riddled seasons, but if he manages to string out a healthy 82-game season along with a healthy postseason, he could easily hang his third banner as soon as next year.

Even if Kevin Durant, 33, never marches to the top of the mountain again, he’s already piled up a historic career. He’s 24th all-time in scoring with 25,526 points, 25th in Win Shares with 115.16, 10th in Box Plus/Minus at 6.79, and 9th in Player Efficiency Rating at 25.26. He’s also a two-time champion, four-time scoring leader, and perhaps most importantly, a two-time Finals MVP.

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5. Stephen Curry

Career Stats: 24.3 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 6.5 APG, 1.7 SPG, 0.2 BPG

Achievements:

3x NBA Champion

2x Regular Season MVP

2x Scoring Leader

1x Steals Leader

4x All-NBA First Team

3x All-NBA Second Team

1x All-NBA Third Team

8x All-Star

Stephen Curry is the most challenging player on our list to rank. You could move him up to number four, three, or even number two, and I wouldn’t have a problem with it. Stephen Curry is the most successful three-point shooter of all time. Not only does he sit atop the three-point leaderboard with 3,117 long distance bombs, but he changed the way the game is played. Curry made a 32-foot off-the-dribble three-point jack an actual thing, a shot that wouldn’t get you laughed off the court but had to be covered and game-planned for. He made it a shot that other players practiced and mastered.

Hell, we’ve seen Curry’s current Finals foe, Jayson Tatum, hit something like 20 side-step off-the-dribble trays during the 2022 postseason. Stephen Curry’s three-point talent and boldness has helped turn Luka Doncic into the point-mashing monster he’s become. He also inspired Donovan Mitchell, Zach LaVine, Kevin Durant, and several other 2022 postseason participants to shoot the type of long distance bombs that were out of the question ten years ago. And all of these ridiculously deep and out-of-nowhere three-pointers have morphed the league into a spread-them-out shooters paradise that has tortured opposing defenders.

So, how do you rank a player like Curry, who’s left a game-changing mark on the NBA with his unique skill set?

It’s difficult, but ultimately the fact that he’s never won a Finals MVP held him back from claiming a top-4 spot. However, if the Warriors win the title and Curry wins his first Finals MVP Award, we might have to rethink these rankings.

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4. Shaquille O’Neal

Career Stats: 23.7 PPG, 10.9 RPG, 2.5 APG, 0.6 SPG, 2.3 BPG

Achievements:

4x NBA Champion

1x Regular Season MVP

3x Finals MVP

2x Scoring Leader

8x All-NBA First Team

2x All-NBA Second Team

4x All-NBA Third Team

3x All-Defensive Second Team

Rookie of the Year

15x All-Star

During Shaq’s three-year peak from 2000 through 2002, he put up “NBA Jam” numbers. Throughout Shaq’s 59 playoff games during that span, he averaged 29.9 PPG, 14.5 RPG, 3.0 APG, 0.5 SPG, and 2.4 BPG while shooting 55.2% from the field and racking up a league-high 3.7 Defensive Win Shares on his way to three titles and three Finals MVP Awards. Shaq’s Finals stats are somehow even more impressive:

2000 Finals against the Pacers: 38.0 PPG, 16.7 RPG, 2.3 APG, 1.0 SPG, and 2.7 BPG

2001 Finals against the 76ers: 33.0 PPG, 15.8 RPG, 4.8 APG, 0.4 SPG, and 3.4 BPG

2002 Finals against the Nets: 36.3 PPG, 12.3 RPG, 3.8 APG, 0.5 SPG, and 2.8 BPG

During Shaq’s three-peat from 2000 through 2002, he made a Lakers title feel inevitable. The thought of a player like the Pacers Rik Smits or the 76ers Kenyon Martin stopping Shaq didn’t even come into play. There was no doubt that Diesel would abuse every center he faced and put opposing squads into impossible pick-your-poison defensive decisions they’d never be able to overcome.

From the 1993-94 season through 2003-04, Shaq was the most dominant player in the NBA, a man among boys. It’s absurd that he won only one MVP Award during that time. He’ll have to settle for four titles, 14 All-NBA selections, and a seat inside The Hall.

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3. Tim Duncan

Career Stats: 19.0 PPG, 10.8 RPG, 3.0 APG, 0.7 SPG, 2.2 BPG

Achievements:

5x NBA Champion

2x Regular Season MVP

3x Finals MVP

10 All-NBA First Team

3x All-NBA Second Team

2x All-NBA Third Team

8x All-Defensive First Team

7x All-Defensive Second Team

Rookie of the Year

15x All-Star

Tim Duncan was a top-5 defender in NBA history. He’s second all-time in Defensive Win Shares with 106.34, and he led the Spurs to the number one defense in the league during five seasons, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, and 2006. At the same time, The Big Fundamental featured the most unstoppable offensive move of the last 20 years, a high-release mid-range bank shot he could uncork from as far as 20-feet from the basket over double or even triple teams.

Tim Duncan’s peak probably wasn’t quite as high as Shaq’s, but his extended greatness — Duncan won his final title 15 years after his first title, and he guided the Spurs to a playoff berth in 18 out of his 19 seasons in the league — pushes him past The Big Diesel in our rankings. And it’s not like Duncan was a slouch in the Finals. He averaged 27.4 PPG, 14.0 RPG, 2.4 APG, 1.0 SPG, and 2.2 BPG during his Finals debut, a 4-1 drubbing of the Knicks. A decade and a half later, at age 37, Duncan averaged a double-double of 15.4 PPG, 10.0 RPG, 2.0 APG, 0.4 SPG, and 0.8 BPG as he and the Spurs made the Heat look silly, winning the 2014 Finals in a gentleman’s sweep.

Tim Duncan will go down as a top-10 player of all time, a true leader, and a champion.

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2. Kobe Bryant

Career Stats: 25.0 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 4.7 APG, 1.4 SPG, 0.5 BPG

Achievements:

5x NBA Champion

1x Regular Season MVP

2x Finals MVP

2x Scoring Leader

11x All-NBA First Team

2x All-NBA Second Team

2x All-NBA Third Team

9x All-Defensive First Team

3x All-Defensive Second Team

18x All-Star

Kobe Bryant’s accolades are impressive. He racked up five titles, two Finals MVP Awards, 15 All-NBA nods, and 12 All-Defensive selections. Still, most folks place Tim Duncan over Bryant in their rankings. I humbly disagree, and it has nothing to do with their awards.

Kobe Bryant’s 2005-06 season performance was a masterpiece and can only be matched in NBA history by MJ, Kareem, and Wilt. In 2005-06 Kobe averaged 35.4 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 4.5 APG, 1.8 SPG, and 0.4 BPG across 41.0 minutes nightly as he dragged a team featuring Kwame Brown, Smush Parker, Brian Cook (three players who were out of the league a few seasons later), and Lamar Odom to a 45-37 record. (Let me put that in perspective for a moment. Jayson Tatum, the NBA’s current top wing, led a Celtics squad featuring All-Star and criminally underrated Jaylen Brown, Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart, All-Defensive Team member Robert Williams, and five-time All-Star Al Horford to a 51-31 record, only six games better than Kobe’s Lakers in a conference that was weaker than what Bryant had to deal with). 

Then in the playoffs, Kobe and the Lakers squared off against a Phoenix Suns squad in the First Round that had Steve Nash, the league MVP, Shawn Marion, a top-15 player at the time, and Boris Diaw, a two-way force. Kobe terrorized the Suns and, through sheer force of will, pushed the series to seven games before succumbing to a vastly more talented Phoenix team.

Kobe Bryant’s gravity on offense, relentlessness on defense, and mind-boggling aversion to losing propelled a Lakers team devoid of any NBA talent to the playoffs, and I doubt the results would have been the same if you replaced Duncan with Mamba. Duncan is a legend, but he never showed he could go it alone and still lug his team into the postseason like Kobe. Thus, Kobe gets the nod for the number two spot.

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1. LeBron James

Career Stats: 27.1 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 7.4 APG, 1.6 SPG, 0.8 BPG

Achievements:

4x NBA Champion

4x Regular Season MVP

4x Finals MVP

1x Scoring Leader

1x Assists Leader

13x All-NBA First Team

3x All-NBA Second Team

2x All-NBA Third Team

5x All-Defensive First Team

1x All-Defensive Second Team

Rookie of the Year

18x All-Star

LeBron James is the clear GOAT of the last 20 years. Here are the numbers:

He’s second all-time in scoring at 37,062 points.

He’s second all-time in Win Shares at 249.52.

He’s second all-time in Player Efficiency Rating at 27.34.

He’s third all-time in Box Plus/Minus at 8.86.

He’s seventh all-time in assists at 10,045.

He’s 42nd all-time in rebounds at 10,210 and first all-time in rebounds among all non-centers and power forwards.

LeBron James’s run of 13 consecutive Second Round playoff appearances from 2006 through 2018 is a feat of sustained GOATness that only Bill Russell can match in NBA history. James’s career playoff numbers are also otherworldly, 28.7 PPG, 9.0 RPG, 7.2 APG, 1.7 SPG, and 0.9 BPG across 266 postseason contests. Going deeper, LeBron is first all-time in playoff Win Shares at 55.68, miles ahead of second-place Michael Jordan (39.76), and he’s first all-time in playoff points at 7,631, again miles ahead of second-place Michael Jordan (5,987).

It’s a measure of LeBron’s extended level of excellence that most NBA fans seemed to overlook him in 2021-22. He averaged 30.3 PPG, the 75th highest scoring season ever at 37-year-old, and nobody blinked an eye. LeBron James will go down as the second-best player in NBA history behind only Michael Jordan.

Next

75 Greatest NBA Players Of All Time: Michael Jordan Is The GOAT, LeBron James Is Second Place

LeBron James’ NBA Playoffs Resume Is Incredible: The King Played In The 10 NBA Finals, Winning 4 NBA Championships

Kobe Bryant’s Career-High Against Every NBA Team: 81 Points Against The Raptors Are The Record Of The 21st Century

Michael Jordan’s Career-High Against Every NBA Team: The GOAT Destroyed The Cleveland Cavaliers

The Best NBA Player Of All Time From Every State: New York Is Home To The GOAT