ESPN Ranks the top 100 most influential players ever

[Donoghus]

Iverson & Shaq seem a little low. 

I disagree slightly with the ordering of the top 5 but think they did a pretty decent job with the picks there.

[Moranis]

Where this list loses me is putting someone like John Thompson on it and at 44 no less.  I mean, I know he was technically a NBA player winning titles backing up Bill, but come on.  Absolutely ridiculous to have him on this list even with coaching so many HOFers.  At least Lenny Wilkens and Mike D'Antoni both coached in the NBA, and Wilkens was a very good player in his day, but they are still a stretch on this list because they aren't there for being a player.

This isn't most influential NBA. This is about Basketball as a game.

but only people on the list were NBA players, which is where you get very strange results and mid tier at best influential coaches and guys like Red, Coach K, etc. won't be on the list.

[nickagneta]

Shame on ESPN for placing the players that broke the color barrier out of the top 10.

Also how is Bird #9 while Magic #3. They both transformed the league and saved the league equally. That was their legacy.

Lebron and Curry in the top ten is nothing but recency bias as far as I am concerned.

[Donoghus]

Shame on ESPN for placing the players that broke the color barrier out of the top 10.

Also how is Bird #9 while Magic #3. They both transformed the league and saved the league equally. That was their legacy.

Lebron and Curry in the top ten is nothing but recency bias as far as I am concerned.

Magic being promiscuous & getting himself HIV, that's how.

[Who]

Elgin Baylor is far too low at #23. He is the godfather to those athletic forays to the basket. Before Jordan, there was David Thompson, then Dr J, then Connie Hawkins to Elgin Baylor. Everything traces back to him. Guys like Jordan may have taken things to a new level but Baylor was the original. He deserves higher placement as most influential players of all-time.

[GreenShooter]

I don't click on any of these BSPN links but I wouldn't be surprised to see Lebron and Lonzo at 1 & 2. Ok, maybe I'm joking but they do try to carry Lebron's jock as much as possible.
Bird and Magic saved the game. Enough said.

[nickagneta]

Shame on ESPN for placing the players that broke the color barrier out of the top 10.

Also how is Bird #9 while Magic #3. They both transformed the league and saved the league equally. That was their legacy.

Lebron and Curry in the top ten is nothing but recency bias as far as I am concerned.

Magic being promiscuous & getting himself HIV, that's how.

Thought that whole part of the reasoning is pure rubbish. All that showed is he had the money to pay for the drugs to put off Aids. I knew at least ten people that had Aids during that time. Why are they dead? They didn't have the $5000 a month the drugs cost to save their lives.

[Emmette Bryant]

Elgin Baylor is far too low at #23. He is the godfather to those athletic forays to the basket. Before Jordan, there was David Thompson, then Dr J, then Connie Hawkins to Elgin Baylor. Everything traces back to him. Guys like Jordan may have taken things to a new level but Baylor was the original. He deserves higher placement as most influential players of all-time.

Don't forget Gus Johnson, who was another of the original NBA high wire acts. Like Baylor, bad knees cut his career short. I didn't look at the list, but I assume he's not on it.

[mmmmm]

I never knew all that about Al Attles. Pretty cool.

Heinsohn at #81 as the president of the NBAPA who engineered the boycott that got the league to recognize the players union. And he's #81 but Chris Paul, current NBAPA is #49.

That's just crazy.   Heinsohn was not only a fantastic, HoF player, with a pocket full of rings as a player, but also a championship head coach who had a big impact on the way the game is played strategically.  And on top of that, he's maintained a signficant influence on the game his whole life since then by being connected to the players, coaches and games as a broadcaster.    He has been a huge 'personality' in all of his different roles and made a difference in the game in each phase.

How he rates anywhere outside the top 25 is just crazy.

[Eja117]

I didn't see Christian Laetner, Grant Hill, or Emeka Okafor on the list or Amare S.   Was John Stockton or Karl Malone in there?

[bdm860]

Having finally had a moment to skim through the whole list, I think they made a ton of omissions and included way too many recent/current players.

List is supposed to be about NBA players who influenced the game the most, how can this list not include:

Derrick Rose
Allan Houston
Gilbert Arenas

When you have a rule named after you, it's pretty clear you influenced the game!

Brandon Jennings, showed you can bypass the NCAA.

Shawn Kemp, I feel like he's the godfather to all the guys who started skipping college in the mid-to-late 90's.  More so than Dawkins/Malone.

Mugsy Bogues/Spud Webb, they have Calvin Murphy representing the short guys, but I think Bogues and Webb gave more hope to short people everywhere.  Kids playing on courts everywhere thinking they could be the next Mugsy or Spud.

Tom Chambers - first unrestricted free agent.  This completely changed player movement. Shaq to the Lakers, LeBron to the Heat, Durant to the Warriors.  Tom Chambers was the first!

Stephon Marbury - introduced the affordable Starbury sneakers, the influence behind He Got Game, after his NBA career was a global ambassador of the sport to China.  Also falls somewhere between Rafer Alston and Allen Iverson when it comes to the influence of hip-hop/streetball into the game.

Also where's the players behind the not-so-positive actions that influenced the game?

Jack Molinas - point shaving scandal
Kermit Washington - changed the way the NBA handled fights
Ron Artest - further changed the way the NBA handled fights/stadium security

Whoever was behind the NBA starting cocaine testing or the first victims of it, we can use Len Bias, Michael Ray Richardson, John Drew, somebody.  That was influential stuff.

The crappy players going straight to the pros that caused the current one-and-done rule.  Korleone Young, Leon Smith, Kwame Brown, DeSagana Diop, Robert Swift, Ndudi Ebi, I'm sure they could pick somebody to be the figure head here.

I think all these players influenced the game more than Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Carmelo Anthony, etc.

Also I disagree with all the guys who had no real influence as a player: Riley, D'Antoni, John Thompson, etc.

[celticsclay]

It feels like this list was written by someone 30 or younger. I saw Dikembe Mutombo being ranked below Ray Allen as pretty funny. Dikembe is still at every event the NBA puts together helping kids get into health, fitness and good eating and is a staple at NBA Cares events. Beyond that he certainly had a tremendous impact on basketball on an entire content. He is still doing all these things in his 50's. Ray Allen meanwhile is writing a book to air grievances.

[Big333223]

Also where's the players behind the not-so-positive actions that influenced the game?

Jack Molinas - point shaving scandal
Kermit Washington - changed the way the NBA handled fights
Ron Artest - further changed the way the NBA handled fights/stadium security

Whoever was behind the NBA starting cocaine testing or the first victims of it, we can use Len Bias, Michael Ray Richardson, John Drew, somebody.  That was influential stuff.

I like this take. Len Bias had a major major impact on the NBA. If Twyman/Stokes made the list Washington/Tomjanovich definitely should've. Ron Artest, for sure.

And yeah, there's a crazy recency bias. Natually, older player should be credited with bigger impacts because the game wasn't even fully formed yet. They have some of the biggest names of the old guys but Cousy at #37 and Ray Alen at #36? Give me a break.

There's also this problem where they have Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, and Mike D'Antoni on the list solely for contributions as coaches and because they were fringe NBA players they're eligible but more influential coaches (Red) don't make the list because they weren't players. I understand that reasoning they're going with but it just doesn't square to me.

I don't click on any of these BSPN links but I wouldn't be surprised to see Lebron and Lonzo at 1 & 2. Ok, maybe I'm joking but they do try to carry Lebron's jock as much as possible.
Bird and Magic saved the game. Enough said.

TP for this post because Lebron was #2 and ESPN still found a way to shoehorn Lonzo into the conversation:
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/22947984/joel-embiid-ben-simmons-trae-young-11-future-nba-game-changers

[Moranis]

Shame on ESPN for placing the players that broke the color barrier out of the top 10.

Also how is Bird #9 while Magic #3. They both transformed the league and saved the league equally. That was their legacy.

Lebron and Curry in the top ten is nothing but recency bias as far as I am concerned.

Magic being promiscuous & getting himself HIV, that's how.

Thought that whole part of the reasoning is pure rubbish. All that showed is he had the money to pay for the drugs to put off Aids. I knew at least ten people that had Aids during that time. Why are they dead? They didn't have the $5000 a month the drugs cost to save their lives.

Magic made HIV hit home for a large portion of America.  Before him, it was widely regarded as a gay issue or a drug issue (and I know there were other famous cases before his, but he was largely the first guy that everyone knew, that had it).  There were all sorts of educational programs, media attention, etc. to HIV post-Magic that just didn't exist pre-Magic.  He made that disease main stream and when you couple that with his basketball prowess, his team ownership, etc. he really should be #2 behind Jordan. 

[green_bballers13]

Shame on ESPN for placing the players that broke the color barrier out of the top 10.

Also how is Bird #9 while Magic #3. They both transformed the league and saved the league equally. That was their legacy.

Lebron and Curry in the top ten is nothing but recency bias as far as I am concerned.

Magic being promiscuous & getting himself HIV, that's how.

Thought that whole part of the reasoning is pure rubbish. All that showed is he had the money to pay for the drugs to put off Aids. I knew at least ten people that had Aids during that time. Why are they dead? They didn't have the $5000 a month the drugs cost to save their lives.

He also went on TV and de-stigmatized the disease at a time when people were saying a lot of ignorant "stuff" about HIV. A lot of mean-spirited anti-gay talk. Magic was a household name, so he brought light to STD prevention. I'm not sure how to quantify his impact, but its not a stretch to say that he saved at least a couple lives.

I'm sorry that your friends died. That sucks.