Athletics NBA readers and subscribers. They are like us!
Well, they’re pretty darn close.
Last week, Athletics NBA staff revealed their picks for the the 25 best players of the quarter century. We also asked readers to re-rank our player list, including the 15 additional players who received votes from us. (Hello, Shawn Marion. Hi, Vince Carter.)
The results are there and…
Readers’ choices from 403 submissions were pretty close to our staff’s selections. No player fell more than two spots, and the top three — LeBron James at No. 1, Stephen Curry at No. 2, and Tim Duncan completing the triumvirate — were the same.
Giannis Antetokounmpo was the only other player outside the top five to receive more than two first-place votes out of six. Dirk Nowitzki and Damian Lillard collected two first-place votes while Shaquille O’Neal, Dwyane Wade, Allen Iverson, Luka Dončić, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Pau Gasol(!) and Shawn Marion(!!) each received a first-place vote.
“A bit of a fluke between Duncan and LeBron,” one reader offered of their No. 1 pick in our optional comment prompt. “LeBron has more trips to the Finals; Duncan has literally never missed the playoffs and has won at a 50-win pace every season.
“Same number of titles as well (in the 2000s).”
This reader was right as Duncan’s Spurs made the playoffs every season he was with the Spurs (before and after 2000-01), never won less than 50 games per season this century (the Spurs averaged 58 wins per season) and won four NBA titles with two Finals MVPs (2003 and 2005) and two consecutive NBA MVPs in 2002 and 2003.
Then there’s Curry, who also won four titles, consecutive MVPs, including the first unanimous selection in 2016 and NBA Finals MVP in 2022.
“Steph changed the game forever,” one reader wrote. “The best shooter of all time who also improved his game every season.”
With the exception of Gilgeous-Alexander’s rise, most moves up or down the player list relative to Athletics The list was subtle: a one-point increase here, a one-point decrease there, maybe a two-point increase or decrease.
In the top five readers, three-time NBA MVP of the Denver Nuggets Nikola Jokić flipped places with Kobe Bryant, with Jokić moving to No. 4 and the two-time Lakers Finals MVP sliding to No. 5.
“Watching Nikola Jokić play basketball brings me indescribable joy!” exclaimed one reader.
Another reader added: “Jokić is just doing things no one has ever done before. He’s Duncan in the post, Magic (Johnson) in transition and (Kevin) Durant outside the key.”
One reader explained why they had Bryant at No. 1, followed by James, O’Neal, Duncan, Curry and Allen Iverson: “Having seen just about all of these players in their prime, I also favor players who helped win championships over pure talent.” »
Overall, James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, four-time NBA MVP, four-time champion and four-time NBA Finals MVP, was first in the readers’ poll with an average ranking of 2.4. Curry finished second with a 3.3 ERA; Duncan third with 4.3; Jokić at No. 4 with 5.5 and Bryant fifth with a 6.1 average.
“I simply asked, ‘Who would I rather have on my team?’ over and over again,” noted one reader, who had O’Neal at fourth behind James, Curry and Duncan, of their approach.
O’Neal was a few decimal places behind Bryant with an average ranking of 6.7. Shaq moved up one spot in the readers’ poll, replacing Kevin Durant, who had an average ranking of 7.0, and lo and behold, he fell to #7.
“Who would you recruit, knowing the careers they’ve had? » » asked one reader while ranking his top five of James, Jokić, Curry, O’Neal and Duncan. “Not that they would get the same accolades, but they would give you the same performance.”
After Durant, the readers’ picks from Nos. 8 through 12 — Antetokounmpo, Nowitzki, Wade, Kevin Garnett and Kawhi Leonard — matched our team’s picks.
In Athletics selections, we assigned each first place vote 25 points, each second place vote 24 points, each third place vote 23 points and so on, until a 25th place vote received one point. Our picks #8-12 were close with Antetokounmpo earning 755 points, Nowitzki 709, Wade getting 690 and Garnett getting 674. Leonard brought up the back of that pack with 544.
Among the readers, there was a clear top eight, with Antetokounmpo averaging 8.2. Like our picks, readers grouped Nowitzki, Wade, and Garnett with simple decimal points separating them: Nowitzki received an average rating of 10.5, Wade 10.7, and Garnett 10.8. As Athletics poll, readers place Leonard at the bottom of this group with an average rating of 13.6.
After Athletics and the player’s top 12, there was more volatility, albeit slight, with the exception of the…deep breath…reigning NBA MVP, the reigning scoring champion, the reigning Western Conference Finals MVP, and the reigning NBA Finals MVP. Phew! That’s a lot of reigns for Gilgeous-Alexander, who was No. 25 in Athletics poll, but rose to 20th in readers’ picks.
Besides SGA, the biggest players have also been the point guards, including two-time MVP Steve Nash, who rose from No. 15 in our poll to No. 13 in the readers’ poll, and Dončić, who moved up two spots from No. 19 to No. 17.
Readers also moved three players back two spots: Russell Westbrook was No. 16 in Athletics survey, but #18 among readers. Paul Pierce (No. 20 to 22) and Anthony Davis (No. 21 to No. 23) also lost two spots.
Still, readers have been kind to our list, as no one in our top 25 has disappeared from theirs.
As for the players at dawn on the 25th, Athletics staff and readers were close again. Both groups had 2023 NBA MVP Joel Embiid at No. 26. Our team had Draymond Green at No. 27 with 59 points and Tracy McGrady at No. 28 with 57, while the readers had McGrady, a two-time scoring champion, at No. 27 with an average field goal of 27.2 and Green at No. 28 with an average of 27.3.
“Luka (five) (and) McGrady (seven) are multi-time All-Stars without a championship and without an MVP,” one reader noted. “Is there recency bias in saying Luka is dozens of places ahead of McGrady?”
That’s a great question. It could be that voters found Dončić’s five selections to the All-NBA First Team outweighed McGrady’s two. Or that Dončić led the Mavericks to the 2024 NBA Finals, winning the Western Conference Finals MVP in the process, and that McGrady was snakebitten in the playoffs before joining the Spurs in April 2013 and making the Finals later that year.
Everyone has their reasons, or their prejudices, recent or not.
However, the reader above also made an important, albeit inferred, point: this century’s NBA has been filled with players who have excelled through their exceptional talent. There’s a league MVP, a four-time NBA champion who was the Defensive Player of the Year in 2017, and a two-time away scoring champion who are on the top two lists.
NBA fans can only hope that the next quarter century is as good.
