To give you a peek behind the curtain, our kickoff in-office meeting for this book was on October 11, 2024. And as you can imagine, the last 10 months were an avalanche of nonstop heated debates (like, at each others throats at times), a gazillion follow-up meetings, a plethora of spreadsheets with updated iterations of our top 500 rankings, a whole lotta research and we can go on and on about how crazy you have to be to even attempt to do a list like this as a group without losing your sanity.
But if anyone is going to do it, and attempt to do it right, then you know its going to be SLAM. And yes, there have been other outlets that have taken a shot at doing similar rankings, but what has always separated SLAM from the rest is that weve never covered the game solely from a statistical nerds POV, nor do we only celebrate hoopers based on accolades. Cultural impact can be measured in so many ways and includes so many different variables, and celebrating those who have deeply impacted the culture of basketball has been at the forefront of what weve done for 30+ years.
So, youre probably wondering what exactly we used as criteria for our rankings. For starters, the parameters around who qualified to be on this list were kept as simple as possible: as long as a player had one NBA season under their belt, they qualified. If a guy played exclusively in the ABA, BAA, NBL, etc, but not at least one season in the NBA, then they were out. But, there were important ABA players who either never played in the NBA or whose NBA time was so limited that they didnt make the main list, and who we thought were important to highlight, so you should definitely check out our top-20 ABA rankings, plus some honorable mentions, at the end of the book.
Now, as for the body of work that went into consideration when deciding each players ranking, thats a long list that includes the following: career and season stats, longevity, winning, championships, awards and accolades, records held or set, cultural impact on the style of play, cultural impact off the court and eras in which they played. As you can see, we tried to take into consideration a wide range of contributions while also factoring in variables and circumstances.
Theres only one obvious truth when it comes to this ranking, and thats that there is no right answer. Thats the beauty of it. Eight billion people on this planet with different perspectives, outlooks, preferences, styles, beliefs and ideas. Were all inspired by different things, and when it comes to basketball, that definition of greatness is as subjective as it gets.
Sports continues to prove that its one of the few things today that people still enjoy doing as a community. Whether its watching games, hooping, fantasy leagues or debating at the barbershop or lunch tableit brings people together in ways that not many other things still do these days.
And so ultimately, the goal here was not to claim that our list is the most accurate ranking youll likely find (although we humbly say here that ours is in fact just thatalbeit we might be somewhat biased), but to invite the basketball community to celebrate all the greatness that this game has given us while simultaneously partaking in *healthy* debates about how we should evaluate different players contributions to the game.
We also hope that this serves as a basketball history book of sorts for the younger folks who may not be up on some of the OGs listed in these pages. Truthfully, even for our staff as we went through the research and fact-checking process, it became a great opportunity for us to learn and be reminded about all the great accolades and records that the OGs stacked up back in the day.
The staff who helped create this list was a diverse group stemming across different generations. We also sent the list to respected journalists who dont work at SLAM for an outside perspective. And, so, for those who didnt make the list but felt they should have over some of the names that did, allow me to officially relinquish any ownership over this list as my disclaimerit (more or less) ultimately became an averaged-out ranking of every contributors thoughts and votes.
The original Top 500 issue was published in 2011. So much has changed since. Some of the guys who were in the original rankings slid off this updated version as new names joined the exclusive club. And for the names that did remain, many saw a boost up the rankings while others dropped a few slots down, all depending on where the new names that joined this updated list were placed, as well as taking into consideration the recent accomplishments of those active players who remained.
We have to acknowledge our good friend Al Stark here, who pitched us on the original Top 500 concept back in 2011, and then again last year for this updated version. His knowledge, passion and appreciation for the game is second to nonethis book, or the original list for that matter, doesnt happen without him putting the battery in our backs. And thanks to writers Michael Bradley, Ryan Jones and Ben Osborne for all the words youre about to read.
We hope you enjoy flipping through these pages, learning fun facts about the games greatest hoopers. We added some icons for each player to account for how many All-Star nods, MVP awards and NBA championships they won, and when applicable, a Hall of Fame sticker next to the names of those whove reached that prestigious milestone.
Above all, we hope you partake in the discussions that this list will naturally bring about with your greater community, because at the end of the day, thats the greatest gift this sport has given usthe opportunity to share a common passion with others.
