If you think there was an unusual amount of “greatest players” lists leading up to the 2021-22 season, you weren’t off. In addition to ESPN’s and Sports Illustrated annual ranking of the league’s best players going into the new season, it’s also the NBA’s 75th year and the league announced back in July that in honor of their diamond season, they would be naming the league’s seventy-five most-impactful players of all-time.
That announcement gave bored basketball webmasters and national media sites an easy way to fill their editorial calendars. We got everything from thoughtful, accomplishment-driven NBA75 lists from Yahoo Sports all the way to USA Today’s attempt. Let’s just say there were lists that had George Mikan in the top five. Others that has Draymond Green at #30 all-time. There were a lot of bad takes.
The NBA75 Full List (Official)
Thankfully when the 2021-22 NBA season kicked off on Oct 19th, that put an end to all the angry social media comments and bad takes. The only list that remained was the NBA’s official list of their NBA75. All the Magic Johnson, Clyde Drexler, Dirk Nowitzki, Bob Pettit and Oscar Robertson fans can rest easy, it’s the safest unibet wager that these five players will be on the list as they were chosen to serve as ambassadors for the NBA’s 75th Anniversary season.
Clyde Drexler, Magic Johnson, Dirk Nowitzki, Bob Pettit and Oscar Robertson to Serve as Ambassadors for the 75th Anniversary Season. #NBA75
Learn more: https://t.co/vqf8QDEULU pic.twitter.com/y5fYe68W8s
— NBA (@NBA) October 12, 2021
So who will be the other seventy players to make the list. Well since the NBA decided to release the list over the course of three days; putting out 25 names each day, we would have to wait until Thursday, October 21st to know the answer to all that. Here’s the full NBA75 list with the players name and the group they were announced with sorted by last name.
First Name | Last Name | Group |
---|---|---|
Kareem | Abdul-Jabbar | 1 |
Ray | Allen | 3 |
Giannis | Antetokounmpo | 1 |
Carmelo | Anthony | 3 |
Nate | Archibald | 1 |
Paul | Arizin | 2 |
Charles | Barkley | 1 |
Rick | Barry | 2 |
Elgin | Baylor | 3 |
Dave | Bing | 3 |
Larry | Bird | 2 |
Kobe | Bryant | 3 |
Wilt | Chamberlain | 2 |
Bob | Cousy | 1 |
Dave | Cowens | 1 |
Billy | Cunningham | 3 |
Steph | Curry | 3 |
Anthony | Davis | 3 |
Dave | DeBusschere | 3 |
Clyde | Drexler | 2 |
Tim | Duncan | 2 |
Kevin | Durant | 1 |
Julius | Erving | 1 |
Patrick | Ewing | 2 |
Walt | Frazier | 2 |
Kevin | Garnett | 2 |
George | Gervin | 1 |
Hal | Greer | 1 |
James | Harden | 1 |
John | Havlicek | 2 |
Elvin | Hayes | 1 |
Allen | Iverson | 2 |
LeBron | James | 3 |
Magic | Johnson | 2 |
Sam | Jones | 2 |
Michael | Jordan | 2 |
Jason | Kidd | 3 |
Kawhi | Leonard | 3 |
Damian | Lillard | 3 |
Jerry | Lucas | 1 |
Bob | McAdoo | 3 |
Moses | Malone | 1 |
Karl | Malone | 2 |
Pete | Maravich | 3 |
Kevin | McHale | 1 |
George | Mikan | 1 |
Reggie | Miller | 3 |
Earl | Monroe | 3 |
Steve | Nash | 1 |
Dirk | Nowitzki | 1 |
Hakeem | Olajuwon | 1 |
Shaquille | O'Neal | 3 |
Robert | Parish | 2 |
Chris | Paul | 2 |
Gary | Payton | 3 |
Bob | Pettit | 1 |
Paul | Pierce | 3 |
Scottie | Pippen | 2 |
Willis | Reed | 1 |
Oscar | Robertson | 1 |
David | Robinson | 1 |
Dennis | Rodman | 3 |
Bill | Russell | 1 |
Bill | Sharman | 2 |
Dolph | Schayes | 3 |
John | Stockton | 1 |
Isiah | Thomas | 2 |
Nate | Thurmond | 2 |
Wes | Unseld | 2 |
Dwyane | Wade | 3 |
Bill | Walton | 2 |
Jerry | West | 2 |
Russell | Westbrook | 3 |
Lenny | Wilkens | 3 |
Dominique | Wilkins | 3 |
James | Worthy | 2 |
Some great players will be “snubbed”
The days/groups in which they the players were announced do not indicate anything other than they made the list of 75 players. We’re assuming the NBA won’t release how many votes each player received, so we likely will never know which players barely made the cut. For that, you can see ESPN’s ranking of the 76 players, or The Athletics’ take.
We can speculate whether Bill Walton, Bill Sharman, and James Worthy were probably near the bottom after all the votes were tabulated, but we’ll never know for sure how Stephen A. Smith, Zach Lowe, and Ramona Shelburne voted.
Though the list is 75 players, the way the NBA chose to release the list puts a lot of pressure on day three, when the last batch of twenty-five is announced.
As of this writing, two groups have been announced and LeBron, Steph Curry, Shaq, Kobe, Russell Westbrook, Dwayne Wade and Elgin Baylor haven’t been called. We know for a fact that these seven players are locked to be in the final 25. That means there are eighteen spots leftover.
More specifically, will there still be enough space for players that made the the NBA’s top 50 back twenty-five years ago? We haven’t seen the likes of Dave Bing, Earl Monroe, Billy Cunningham, Pete Maravich, Dave DeBusschere, Dolph Schayes, and Lenny Wilkins yet, so it’s likely a couple of them will be cut.
What about the superstars that missed the NBA 50 back in 1996? Will Reggie Miller, Adrian Dantley, Alex English, Dominique Wilkins, Joe Dumars, Bob Lanier, Bob McAdoo, and Artis Gilmore be better re-considered twenty-five years later now that we’ve had more time to reflect on their careers?
That’s not to mention players that have added made significant inprints on NBA history the last 25 years. Careers that started and ended in the last 2.5 decades include the likes of Ray Allen, Manu Ginobili, Alonzo Mourning, Paul Pierce, Jason Kidd, Dennis Rodman, Gary Payton, Dikembe Mutombo, Pau Gasol, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Tony Parker, Tracy McGrady, and Chris Bosh
Then there’s current players that should also be in the discussion. Has Kawhi Leonard, Damian Lillard, Klay Thompson, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving and Nikola Jokic done enough in their careers to qualify as a legacy?
We just named another 35 deserving players for those very limited 18 spots, so it can’t be all of them. That number doesn’t even include the likes of Shawn Kemp, LaMarcus Aldridge, Chris Webber, Grant Hill, Chris Mullin, and Ben Wallace who have very low odds.
That’s all to say that a lot of players are going to get snubbed. Get ready for some contructive criticism, NBA.
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Back in 1996, the league announced their 50 greatest players during halftime of that season’s NBA All-Star Game bringing together 49 players that were still alive – Pete Maravich passed away in 1988 – on the list and honoring them with custom jackets. For more about the league’s 75th season, go to nba.com/75