Kareem - I did think about him in tier 1, but where I penalized him is he won 3 or 4 of those titles with Magic as the best player on the team. He also got a lot of those MVP’s before the merger and I discount those a little. He was close though and is really the only guy who had an argument for tier 1.

Wilt I just really have no clue how to rank him. He played completely before the merger and mostly in a league that wouldn’t resemble anything we see today. The numbers are hard to contextualize sometimes, they feel video game like. If he had the Bill Russell championship resume I’d probably have to put him there, but because he consistently loss to a player who on paper was worse than him, it brings up questions in my mind. So I played it safe and kept him in tier 2.

Duncan/Kobe - You’re right and I don’t give Kobe credit for being the best player on 5 championships. He gets at least 2 though and I considered him more of a 1b to Shaq than Pippen was to Jordan. Pippen was a 2, but maybe that’s incorrect. My subjective ranking is coming into play here because I was more aware of the league as a whole during Kobe’s career. He was regarded as the best guard in the league for 10 years. He only got 1 mvp, but he spent 10 years in the conversation for best player in the game and his 1st team All-NBA selections support that. Pippen didn’t have that, but I would certainly listen to an argument to drop Kobe a tier.

Duncan did get that last title that was a bit cheap(to credit to him as best player) but he was the best player on the other 4. 2 MVP’s, 10+ 1st Team All-NBA. Ya he benefitted from a good situation, but I’m not bumping him down…only if I create another mini tier between 2 and 3 and split it after Magic/Bird/Kareem.

I’ll agree there’s some luck involved, but that’s just how it goes. I can’t credit guys like Barkley and Malone for things that never happened. Is it possible that if we replayed their careers 100 times that they’d more often than not end up with a title(s) and perhaps get in the tier 2 conversation? Ya possible for sure, but I’ve got to stick with what happened, especially during the eras where I wasn’t around or was too young to have a feel for what the general consensus was on the hierarchy of players.

I am seriously considering moving DRob up, I’ve heard some compelling arguments.

Pippen may have been considered for tier 3 if he won that title. As it stood I had a hard cutoff of needs at least a title(as best player) or an mvp to get in.

TMac- The lack of any postseason team success makes it tough. He’s one you’d love to replay his career over 100 times. What if he’s in LA and Kobe bounced around from Toronto/Orlando/Houston. TMac was incredible in 02-03 and just unfortunately was on a bad Magic team…injuries cut down his prime and shortened his career, but I’d also listen to an argument for moving him up to tier 4.