The usual suspects forming the top 9 of the greatest basketball players list in some order are
- MJ
- LeBron
- Kareem
- Wilt
- Bill Russell
- Magic
- Tim Duncan
- Larry Bird
- Shaq
Who rounds out the top 10 list at #10? Some names that come to mind are
- Kobe
- Hakeem
- Oscar
- Steph
Magic is not in my top 10. Defense matters. He’s not top 10
Offense is valued higher than Defense overall for me…not dismissing the impact of D though at all. Eras also are a factor. This is specifically about Bill being a low leverage, mediocre efficiency even for his era offensive player. Magic wasn’t a great defender but he was better on D than Bill was on O and his O makes up for it.
Mostly joking, but I disagree with the sentiment of Magic Defense > Bill Russell Offense. Bill’s defense lead to offensive opportunities in transition, and he ran the fast break. The offense of the Celtics was also predicated on Bill Russell passing in the high post, moving the ball around and running dribble handoffs.
He’s no Shaq or Jokic on offense, but it’s not clear cut whether Magic defense vs. Bill offense, especially since Magic was a mediocre wing defender at best.
This is all my opinion anyways as a Bill Russell fan, so agree to disagree, but I think people don’t really realise how impactful his defense was, it was literally history changing the way the Celtics transformed with him on their squad
This is all very fair. Thank you for giving me something to think about a little.