Lakers. I apologize. I honestly forgot he was even on that team.

To me the very most important thing an all-time great can do is win a championship by being the best player on that championship team. Duncan has done it 5 times. Certainly there are other factors to championships, but to me that is the most prestigious any player can get. Losing 5-0 is a flat blowout.

You really think the competition was better for Malone? LOL, first there is no point naming centers. Malone was not a center nor did he guard centers. Kevin Garnett is a top 5 PF of all-time and his career mirrored Duncan's, not Malone's. Dirk Nowitzki is another top 10 PF of all-time whose career mirrored Duncan's. Other great PFs in the West? Love, Webber, Stoudemire, Brand etc. Excluding those other guys, having 3 top 6 PFs of all-time in one conference is unprecedented. Duncan's competition was loaded.

The stats between Duncan and Malone are actually very similar per 100 possessions. Duncan is at 30 points per 100 while Malone is at 34. Malone at 13 boards while Duncan is at 17. Assists are with .2 of each other. One glaring difference is in blocked shots. Duncan has nearly 3 times more than Malone. With a superior defensive rating, it is pretty easy to see that Duncan was the superior defender.

So where is the difference... well I told you one has 5 rings and the other 0. Why? Because Duncan was just as good in the playoffs as he was in the regular season. The stats held up well for him. Malone's fg percentage dropped 6% (statistically significant), his offensive rating dropped 6 points and his defensive rating rose another 2. Malones' VORP is just barely over 1/2 of what Duncan's was. The box score plus minus is the same.

So what does this mean? When it mattered most going against the very best competition the world had to offer Duncan was dominant. Malone was dominant in the regular season, but when he played the very best competition with the most on the line he was not nearly as good. I'm sorry, but that is what makes an all-time great. Had Malone had the same effect on games that Duncan did in the playoffs there is an extremely high probability that he has multiple championship rings.