Summary
Approaching a century of existence, the NBA has been the home of some truly exceptional players.
Multiple generations of NBA basketball can be defined by the presence of at least one superstar talent.
Of all entrants featured in this list, only two are active players at the time of writing.
The National Basketball Association is undoubtedly the most popular basketball league in the entire world. With over 75 years of history now to its name, the league has long been used to seeing the absolute best grace the league with their presence, across a number of eras.
It feels, at least at the time of writing, that there is a strong level of parity in the NBA for the first time in a long time. Much of the 21st century has been dominated by teams going through periods of domination, be it the San Antonio Spurs, the LA Lakers, Miami Heat or the Golden State Warriors.
Dominance from one team is not new to the NBA, which has seen teams enjoy stints of being the best over the decades. This is down to the players that represent these teams, but more often than not, every incredible team is led by an absolute superstar, somebody that is regarded as one of the league’s greatest talents. With that being said, which 10 players are the best to have ever played in the NBA?
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Ranking Factors
Multiple things have been considered in ranking this list, such as:
Overall impact on the game - Self-explanatory, what did each entrant achieve in their career?
Amount of honours won - Be it MVP awards or NBA Championships, what did each entrant win?
Fan reception and legacy - How do fans remember each entrant? How much of a legacy did they leave behind?
Effectiveness on the court - Simply enough, each entrant was an exceptional player.
10 Greatest Players in NBA History
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10 Steph Curry
Point Guard
Stephen Curry
Few players in any sport, not just basketball, can claim to have inspired a league-wide change in how the game was played. Stephen Curry, though, is one of those few. The point guard was drafted by the Golden State Warriors in 2009 and has remained there ever since, winning four NBA Championships with the team as one of Golden State’s best-ever players.
A lethal shooter, Curry’s prominence from the three-point line was something that other teams took notice of. Gradually, the three ball became a more important aspect of scoring in the NBA, with record three-point numbers having been seen in recent seasons as a direct result of Curry’s impact.
Curry has twice been the scoring leader in an NBA season and in 2016, the season that saw Golden State win 73 games, Curry became the first ever unanimous Most Valuable Player as a result of his stellar form.
9 Kobe Bryant
Shooting Guard
Kobe Bryant
An MVP, a five-time champion and an 18-time All-Star, Kobe Bryant remains a revered figure to basketball fans and rightly so. The shooting guard was drafted by the Charlotte Hornets in the 1996 NBA Draft, but it was for the Los Angeles Lakers he became a legend, with Bryant spending his entire 20-year career there.
At six-and-a-half feet tall, Bryant could cause problems for any player that had the misfortune of guarding him in a game. Early in his career, Bryant was criticised for his high volume of shots, though as he matured in the game, Black Mamba became known for his ability to score, be it at clutch times, over multiple defenders, or both.
Bryant was known for his ego, but such an ego is arguably needed for a player to become as great as Bryant was throughout his career.
8 Tim Duncan
Power Forward
Tim Duncan Spurs
The first overall pick in the 1997 draft, Tim Duncan would, just as the aforementioned Bryant, spend his entire career with just one team. Acquired in the early reign of Gregg Popovich as head coach, Duncan would become a crucial cog in the system that saw the San Antonio Spurs be a dominant force for much of the 2000s and 2010s.
Such success, though, started in Duncan’s second year as a professional, when he was named Finals MVP after helping San Antonio win the title in 1999, his first of five championships. “The Big Fundamental,” as he became known for his efficient yet relatively simple play style, formed a core along with fellow legends Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.
Duncan recorded over 25,000 points and more than 15,000 rebounds across a career that saw him average over two blocks per game as well. Duncan was a constant source of consistency, fitting seamlessly into Popovich’s coaching ideology. In his 19-year stint as a player, Duncan was twice named the league MVP.
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7 Wilt Chamberlain
Center
Wilt Chamberlain
It would be impossible to ignore the only player to ever score 100 points in an NBA game on a list such as this. For Wilt Chamberlain, a century of points was one of a near-innumerable amount of records that he would set across his career. After spending a year with the Harlem Globetrotters, Chamberlain was drafted into the NBA in 1959.
Playing for the Warriors, first based in Philadelphia before a move to San Francisco, Chamberlain was a dominant scorer from his maiden campaign in the league. Chamberlain’s scoring would peak in his third professional season, when the big man averaged a staggering 50.4 points per game, along with 25.7 rebounds.
Interestingly enough, Chamberlain’s success in terms of titles came in a different era of his career, when he was more team-oriented and there was less individual dominance reflected in his stats. His two titles, one for Philadelphia and one for the Lakers, came in seasons that saw Chamberlain’s point totals drastically decrease, with improved assist numbers.
6 Larry Bird
Small Forward
Larry Bird
Comfortable as either a small forward or power forward, Larry Bird was drafted sixth by the Boston Celtics in the 1978 draft. After a further year at college, Bird debuted the following season for Boston and made an immediate impact, with the Celtics winning over 30 games more than they had in the season prior and reaching the conference finals of the play-offs.
Bird spent his entire 13-year career in Boston, during which time he cemented his legacy as one of the best players of all time. “Larry Legend,” as he remains known, was a lethal three-point shooter and one of his era’s first players to really take advantage of what was a newly-added way of scoring at the time.
Injuries contributed to Bird’s retirement in 1992, but even in a career that was shortened by a few years, Bird finished his career as a three-time NBA Champion and a three-time MVP, the latter of which were won consecutively between 1984 and 1986. The front court that consisted of Bird, Robert Parish and fellow forward Kevin McHale, is often regarded as one of the NBA’s greatest.
5 Magic Johnson
Point Guard
There may never be another point guard like Magic Johnson. At 6’9”, Johnson’s frame only contributed to his already amazing passing range and vision. Drafted first overall by the Lakers in 1979, Johnson was an integral part of the “Showtime” Lakers that won five NBA Championships.
Johnson averaged 11.2 assists over the course of his career, an NBA record and a testament to the reliable playmaker he was throughout his playing days. Johnson topped the assist charts in four separate seasons as a professional, spending much of his career playing alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, an elite scorer.
At the time of his retirement, Johnson had the second-most triple doubles in NBA history. While both Russell Westbrook and Nikola Jokic have since exceeded this, it shows just how valuable Johnson was in every aspect of the sport, a player who could pose a threat even without scoring.
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4 Bill Russell
Center
Only one player in the history of the NBA has won 11 championships, something achieved by Celtics legend Bill Russell. Given the modern landscape of the league, it is hard to imagine that any player will reach that figure in the near future. In a 13-year career, Russell ended just two seasons without a championship ring.
A five-time MVP and a four-time league-leading rebounder, Russell’s defensive capabilities and rebounding ability made him a dominant force, something proven by the staggering number of championships he won. Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, though friends off the court for most of their careers, were opponents for years, facing off in several brilliant play-off matches.
Russell remains a revered figure amongst Boston fans and his jersey number, six, sits retired in the rafters of TD Garden, such was Russell’s impact and resulting legacy.
3 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Center
A professional for 20 years, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar entered the NBA as Lew Alcindor, being drafted to the freshly-created Milwaukee Bucks in 1969. Just two years after being drafted, the center guided his team to their first-ever NBA Championship in the same year he won his first MVP award.
After winning that title, Alcindor changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, winning two more MVP awards with the Bucks before moving to the Lakers in 1975, where he would spend the remaining 14 years of his career. In Los Angeles, Abdul-Jabbar won five further titles and was named MVP five further times. No player, at the time of writing, has matched such a tally of MVP awards.
With his famous skyhook technique, Abdul-Jabbar was unguardable at times, for years being one of the league’s most consistent scorers. At the time of his retirement in 1989, Abdul-Jabbar was the highest scorer in league history with 38,387 points, a record that has been beaten only by LeBron James.
2 LeBron James
Small Forward
At 40 years old, LeBron James is still going strong in the 22nd year of what has been a purely magical career. The forward was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers back in 2003 and immediately displayed a level of talent that suggested he was destined for the top, having been drafted first overall while coming straight from high school.
James improved rapidly, reaching an average of 31.4 points per game in just his third professional season. His scoring would remain at an average of at least 25 for years and in 2009, James was named as the league’s Most Valuable Player. This was the first of four such awards, all of which were won between 2009 and 2013.
In 2010, James moved to Miami where he won the first two titles of his career in successive years, 2012 and 2013. He returned to Cleveland in 2014, guiding the city, two years later, to their first championship, in any sport, for 52 years. James brought his second stint as a Cavalier to an end in 2018, moving to the Lakers where he has been ever since.
With the Lakers, James won his fourth career championship in 2020 and extended his streak of being named an All-Star, which has happened in 21 successive years. James is also the highest scorer in league history and has appeared in 10 NBA Finals. Considered by many as the greatest of all time, James is of such a high calibre that he is only ever, really, compared with one other player, also regarded by many more as the absolute best.
1 Michael Jordan
Shooting Guard
A superstar in every sense of the word, Michael Jordan played in six NBA Finals throughout his career. In those instances, Jordan ended every series as a champion and as the Finals’ Most Valuable Player. All of Jordan’s six rings were won with the Chicago Bulls, who he led through what was undoubtedly their best era as a franchise.
No player in league history has averaged more points per game across a career than Jordan, who retired with a point average of 30.12. In 13 seasons with the Bulls, Jordan finished a campaign as the leading scorer in 10 of them, not achieving such a feat only in his first two years as a professional and the 1994/95 season, his return season after his first retirement.
“Air Jordan” was a versatile scorer, comfortable either shooting from range or driving to the basket and dunking in an eye-catching manner. The guard was scarcely injured throughout his career and became regarded as one of his generation’s most clutch players. As a guard, Jordan was named both the league’s MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in 1988, a testament to his capabilities on both ends of the floor.
Arguments around Jordan and LeBron James, and which is better, will rage on for years to come. Given Jordan’s record in NBA finals and scoring average across his career, along with the global impact he had on basketball, it still seems fair to argue that he remains the greatest NBA player of all time.
( All stats are fromBasketball Referenceand are correct as of 17/05/2025 )
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