- Julius Erving shared his top 10 of all-time list, which didn’t include players like LeBron James or Kobe Bryant
- Karl Malone was on the list despite never winning a championship
- Tiny Archibald was a shocking inclusion in Erving’s list
One of the things that NBA fans and players love to do when discussing basketball is to create lists featuring the best players in NBA history. There is no doubt that the way people rank players is often different, but there are definitely some lists that are more controversial than others.
Recently, Julius Erving revealed his list featuring his personal top 10 players of all time. There is no doubt that this list is missing prominent legends such as LeBron James and Kobe Bryant.
“I’ve got five guys that are untouchable… Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, and Elgin Baylor. That’s my all-time best team… There’s no order really, the next group of guys would be Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Earvin Magic Johnson, and probably Karl Malone… I like Tiny Archibald.” (9:38)
There’s no doubt that this is a controversial list, but it is easy to see why Erving picked these players. This list is clearly due to Erving having played and watched basketball in an earlier era, and of course, he would pick the legends that he grew up idolizing or playing against.
LeBron James Is Traditionally Considered To Be A GOAT Candidate
LeBron James is clearly one of the best players in NBA history, and it is shocking that he is not on Julius Erving’s list. Traditionally, James is viewed as a top-3 player ever, with some like Gilbert Arenas considering him the GOAT.
“When you say he’s not a better scorer than Jordan… but he’s first… If Jordan was a scorer first and LeBron is the passer first, and the passer first has more points than the scorer first… Just let it go… LeBron is not a natural scorer. That’s what makes it worse. The non-scoring mind is leading the most selfish stats… If Jordan had Kareem’s scoring record, If Jordan has John Stockton’s assist record, if Jordan had Bill Russell’s rings, I get it. But Jordan is not No. 1 in any of the categories.”
There is no doubt that most people would put LeBron James on their list of the 10 best players of all time. With that being said, Julius Erving is entitled to his opinion, even if the majority of us won’t agree.
