The 2022 All Star Weekend just finished and it was a pretty memorable event full of great highlights... except for the dunk contest. I've been a broken record for 10 years complaining and making suggestions how to improve the contest. Just type "dunk contest" in the search box of this blog and you will see what I mean. As much as I'd like to continue whining about that, I'm going to cover a different event from the weekend which is the NBA's new 75 Greatest players list. I know this list came out months ago, but the official presentation was yesterday so I'm covering it now.
Many things have changed over the last 25 years when the NBA released their original 50 greatest list. So many great players since then have developed and contributed to the game. Back when the original list came out, I was shocked that Dominique Wilkins and Bob McAdoo were omitted. I also couldn't believe Shaq was included after only 3 years as a pro. I know some people were surprised that Luca Doncic, Klay Thompson, Joel Embid, and Nicola Jokic were not on the new list, but I am ok with it since they are still young players and will definitely be on the 100 list down the road. I'd rather see that than a premature appointment like we saw with Shaq. By the way, Jokic and Derrick Rose are the only 2 MVPs who did not make the list.
I have to admit I am biased when it comes to who I think the best players are. I didn't start watching the NBA until the early 80's so many of the players who have black and white highlights didn't do much for me. I think it would be in bad taste to remove them from the updated list but it's also hard seeing some of their names up there while there are other players I feel are better and more deserving.
I mean no disrespect with these comments. Anybody who plays in the NBA is obviously good to begin with but the ones nominated to these lists are the most elite ballers of all time. That being said, there were about 10 players on the original list I don't think belonged. I'm not going to name names here, but I will do another post later where I rank the top 100 and you will see who they are.
There were surprises with the new list. I don't think Anthony Davis, Carmelo Anthony, Damian Lillard, or even Kawhi Leonard who I love deserved the honor at this point, especially if we can't remove any old timers from the original list. The biggest snubs for me were Dwight Howard, Vince Carter, and T-Mac. I'd also like to see Alex English, Joe Dumars, Bernard King, Pau Gasol, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili make the list.
Congratulations to all the new additions to the list. Fans will always disagree with each other as to who the greatest players are, but we can all agree we have been blessed for a long time being able to watch so much talent.
