Since stats don’t tell everything lets use an awards based ranking of the top 50 NBA players.
1) I’m going to start from the 1950s which means there’s no such awards like defensive player of the year, sixth man of the year, all nba third team, blocks leader or steals leader so I don’t count those.
Edit: I realize this will skew the numbers in favor of offensive players, but there’s simply no way to account for defensive statistics when they weren’t recorded back in the day. No blocks, no steals from such defensive players as Russell, Wilt, West, Frazier, 4 years of Kareem, Thurmond, etc. It wouldn’t be fair to those guys to record it for modern players but not them.
2) I’m going to give some imaginary Finals MVPs to players before 1969 so that Finals MVPs can be properly accounted for.
1955 – Dolph Schayes
1956 – Paul Arizin
1957 – Bill Russell
1958 – Bob Pettit
1959 – Bill Russell
1960 – Bill Russell
1961 – Bill Russell
1962 – Bill Russell
1963 – Bill Russell
1964 – Bill Russell
1965 – Bill Russell
1966 – Bill Russell
1967 – Wilt Chamberlain
1968 – Bill Russell
3) And some MVPs as well
1955 – Bob Cousy
4) the following rules:
All star selections are worth 1 point.
All star MVPs are worth 2 points.
All NBA second team selections are worth 1 point.
All NBA first team selections are worth 2 points.
Rebounding/Scoring/Assist titles are worth 3 points
Rookie of the Year is worth 2 points
Championships are worth 3 points
MVPs and Finals MVPs are worth 5 points
ABA awards will be treated as NBA awards to be fair to ABA players
The results are, surprisingly, very close to what you would expect, except some players (like Bob Cousy and Bob Pettit) are vastly underrated by the public, and some players (like Reggie Miller and Patrick Ewing) are overrated by the public. The scores range from a measly 5 (Reggie Miller) to a staggering 146 (Michael Jordan).
Surprisingly, it also lets us see which players are essentially equal with each other. Oscar Robertson is about as good as Bob Pettit in terms of greatness. Rick Barry, Jerry West and Karl Malone are about equal. Allen Iverson and Sam Jones are about equal. Or Jason Kidd and Steve Nash. Or Willis Reed and Isiah Thomas. Or Dave Cowens and Wes Unseld. Or Charles Barkley and Dwayne Wade. These sound about right to me.
You can download the results here:
awards and stats based ranking
Top 25 scoring results (top 25 players all time)
1. Bill Russell
2. Michael Jordan
3. Wilt Chamberlain
4. Kareem Abdul Jabbar
5. Magic Johnson
6. Bob Cousy
7. Kobe Bryant
8. Tim Duncan
9. Julius Erving
10. Shaquille O’Neal
11. Lebron James
12. Bob Pettit
13. Larry Bird
14. Oscar Robertson
15. Moses Malone
16. Jerry West
17. Hakeem Olajuwon
18. Karl Malone
19. John Havlicek
20. Rick Barry
21. George Mikan
22. Allen Iverson
23. Kevin Garnett
24. Dolph Schayes
25. Elgin Baylor
This is somewhat what people expect, besides Cousy being ranked so high possibly due to his championships, and surprisingly, Julius Erving over Bird/Lebron possibly due to his ABA credentials.
Going by these, results who are the All-NBA teams of all time?
All time All-NBA First Team
1. Bob Cousy
2. Michael Jordan
3. Julius Erving
4. Tim Duncan
5. Wilt Chamberlain
All time All-NBA Second Team
1. Magic Johnson
2. Kobe Bryant
3. Lebron James
4. Bob Pettit
5. Bill Russell
All time All-NBA Third Team
1. Oscar Robertson
2. Jerry West
3. Larry Bird
4. Karl Malone
5. Kareem Abdul Jabbar
All-NBA 50s/60s Team:
Guards: Bob Cousy, Oscar Robertson
Forwards: Bob Pettit, Elgin Baylor
Center: Wilt Chamberlain
Combined points: 829
All-NBA 70s Team:
Guards: George Gervin, Walt Frazier
Forwards: Julius Erving, Rick Barry
Center: Kareem Abdul Jabbar
Combined points: 681
All-NBA 80s Team:
Guards: Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas
Forwards: Larry Bird, Dominique Wilkins
Center: Moses Malone
Combined points: 645
All-NBA 90s Team:
Guards: Michael Jordan, John Stockton
Forwards: Karl Malone, Charles Barkley
Center: Hakeem Olajuwon
Combined points: 706
All-NBA 00s Team:
Guards: Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson
Forwards: Tim Duncan, Lebron James
Center: Shaquille O’neal
Combined points: 735
So 50s/60s > 00s > 90s > 70s > 80s which is interesting considering most people think the 80s is the most competitive decade.
Again, more or less what you would expect. If you have any feedback about these rankings please comment!