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Welcome.
In another special episode of the What's Right with Nick Wright Podcasts and YouTube shows, we continue our countdown of the fifty best players of the last fifty years in the NBA. We've gone through the rules, We've gone through the honorable mentions. We are now into the top twenty
five guys. I highly encourage you if you're just now joining us, check out the previous episodes of this We give some love to some overlooked guys in NBA history, guys like Bob McAdoo or Sidney Moncree for Bernard King, but we also deep dive on guys you actually might have an opinion on like Alan Iverson or Russell Westbrook or Dwight Howard, all of.
That in the previous episodes.
But now we are too the twenty five best players of the last twenty five years. You're gonna see a handful of active players still remaining. And this is where the rankings become incredibly difficult. And some of our you know player was more difficult to rank than number twenty five.
Number twenty five James Harden.
So Harden's regular season resume is of one of the twelve best players the last fifty years. Six times he's been All NBA First Team. Throw a third team in there as well. He not only he has one league MVP, but what's more impressive than that, three times he has finished second, and six times in his career, all of his first team All NBA seasons he was first.
He had a top five MVP finish.
He's a three times scoring champ, including one season scoring thirty four points per game, one season scoring thirty six points per game. He also has an assist title. So who's won a scoring title and assist title? Well, Wilt did it, Tiny, Archibald did it, Lebron did it, Russ did it, James Harden did it. From twenty fifteen to twenty twenty his peak in Houston. That is a five year,
six year run. He was thirty one, six and eight over five years, thirty one points, six rebounds, eight assists per night.
His career averages are.
Twenty five, six and seven and that includes the beginning of his career when he was a role player and then a sixth man where he won six million of a year.
By the way for Oklahoma City.
He has twenty three career point games twenty three times he's gone for fifty fourth most all time. Wilt, Michael, and Kobe are the only ones with more. He has four career sixty point games, third most all time, tied with Michael, behind only Wilt and Kobe. So that's the regular season stuff. That is an all time, transcendently great regular season player. So why is he only the twenty fifth best player of the last fifty years Because the postseason stuff is let's call it a mixed back started
off pretty well. He had a thirty point five rebounds, seven assist four steel game off the bench as a bench player in twenty twelve in the Western Conference Finals, a series they would end up winning to go to the finals, but then in the finals he struggled mightily, and some would say, I think it's because the ownership in Oklahoma City was cheap, but whatever, some would say that's one of the reasons.
They then traded him to Houston.
He lost in the first round in Houston in twenty thirteen, and he lost in the first round in Houston in twenty fourteen. Twenty fourteen was the Dame Lillard Game, the game where Dame Lillard hit the first of his two career series winning buzzer beaters. But in that Dame Lillard game, the final game of that series, Game six, a game they lost by one on the last second shot, he had thirty four points, four rebound, six assists, four steals,
and shot sixty percent from the field. So at that point it's like, oh aside from those finals, James Harden building a good regular season resume, solid postseason performer twenty fifteen playoffs. The next year, finally gets his first playoff series win with the Rockets and starts off pretty well. He had a forty two five to nine in round one to go up three to zero in round two. He's part of a three to one comeback against the Clippers. That sounds great, but it wasn't really Game six, the
big comeback game. He was glued to the bench and he wasn't a part of the comeback. Then in the West Conference Finals against Golden State, you look at the box scores and it seems okay, It's like, ah, the Rockets were overmatched. He had twenty eight, eleven, nine and four in Game one, a game they only lost by one. He had thirty eight, ten, nine and three in Game two, a game they only lost by one.
Game one they actually lost by four. Pardon me.
He had forty five, seven, nine and five in Game four and they're like wow, and they won that game, but they were down three to zero. How serious was Golden State in that game? And then in Game five he was two for eleven and had twelve turnovers and amazingly, that would be one of three different two for eleven playoff games Harden hats in twenty sixteen, they lose to Golden State in round one. In twenty seventeen, he's good, very good. In Round one, they're playing the overmatch Thunder
for the series. He's thirty three, six and seven, but forty percent from the field, six turnovers, and then that year he had one of the most bizarre games I've ever seen Game six, second round against the Spurs with no Kawhi Leonard. He has another two for eleven and they lose by thirty nine points.
It's like wait.
The next year, though, they get Chris Paul, they win sixty five games.
He's excellent in the regular season. He wins League MVP.
He opens the playoffs with a forty four and eight, opens the Western Western Armends Finals with a forty one four and seven, but they lose. He has thirty in Game four. They even the series. They win game five despite the fact that he's not very good, but Game six and seven he has thirty two in each game, but Chris Paul's gotten injured.
The Rockets are up fifteen in both games.
They lose both games by they're not even close at the end, despite being up fifteen home for Game seven, and he's six for twenty five from three in that in the final two games of that series. Twenty nineteen Western Armonds semi Finals. You look at the raw numbers thirty five, seven and five, You're like, Wow, it's pretty damn good. But if you watch that series, what happened in that series, it's two to two. Game five, KD
goes down and they can't win another game. Game six, in Houston, Steph has zero points at the half.
The Rockets are gonna win that game. Then Steph explodes for thirty.
Harden doesn't do much and they lose, and so that's and that's the end of it. Then he goes to Brooklyn, doesn't do anything in the postseason, goes to Philly, and right now as we're recording this struggled throughout the postseason and so all this regular season stuff, but real struggles in the postseason. Even though the overall numbers his career in the postseason in Houston he averages twenty six, twenty eight, six and seven in eighty five career playoff games, and
he has two Conference finals appearances. But if you watch him, you know the biggest moments have not been kind to him. So that's the full James Harden resume. It's why is the twenty fifth best player?
No higher, no lower.
Over the last fifty years, we have a couple different James Harden callers.
Let's let them chine in.
Hey, Nick, you're on from Fox Sports. First time, long time. So here is my question about James Harden. How can a player who has a career playoff shooting percentage under forty three percent I believe it's forty two point six and who has never made the finals since leaving OKAC when he was a sixth man be even in the top twenty five. Thanks, I'll hang up and listen.
Do we have another James Harden caller?
Hey?
Nick is Brian from Philly, and I got a couple questions for you.
Now.
I absolutely love James Harden because he's leading my seventy six ers in the playoffs. But does he have some rings that I just don't know about? Because you gotta ranked above guys like Scottie Pippen who have six rings. You also gotta ranked above guys like Kawhi Leonard who has two rings in two finals MVPs.
Does James Harden play defense because.
That same guy, Kawhi Leonard, who has two finals MVPs in two rings. Oh yeah, he was a defensive Player of the Year two times. Last question, Nick, how do you have a guy a your top twenty five who has never made in the finals appearance as a starter how does that happen?
Answer those questions.
For me, Nick, So those are fair points, and but here's the answer to those questions.
The answer those questions is simple.
His regular season resume is that of one of the greatest players of all time. And so you say, how does he above Scotty Pippen? Like I understand, Scotty Pippen has six rings and Harden has zero. But Harden has six times been top five MVP, four times been first or second. So, like Kawhi Leonard, I understand having Harden ahead of Kawhi seems controversial. Kwi is obviously a better playoff performer, but Harden's regular season resume so far out strips Kawhi.
I think it's a fair ranking.
Like I said, he's one of the hardest guys to rank twy We've spent so much time on him.
There.
We will now turn the page move on to number twenty four.
Number twenty four, John's stocked.
So John Stockton is also very difficult to rank because he's a longevity guy, all time leader in assists in steals, and it's not close. He has fifteen thousand, eight hundred assists. That's thirty seven hundred more than second place. He has over thirty two hundred steals. That's six hundred more than second place. Two time first Team All NBA, six times second Team All NBA, three time third Team All NBA. But he never had a single top five MVP finish. We just told Ja Harden, who I have him ahead
of six times his top five MVP. Stockton finished seventh once, but he won nine assist titles. He won two steals titles. He's five time All Defense and he played nineteen seasons.
Seventeen times. He played every single game.
The guy was the longevity will never be matched, and he's the all time leader, and no one will ever catch him in assists. I don't think you will ever cutcherman steels. Over a decade of his prime, he averaged sixteen points thirteen assists per game. He has a little context here in the regular season double digit assist games eight hundred and sixty three, eight hundred and sixty three times John Stockton had ten plus assists in a game. Thirty four times he had twenty plus assists in a game.
What about the postseason? So again, similar to Harden is where he gets tough. He was the second best player on two finalists, he averaged ten assists per game for one hundred and eighty two career playoff games. He has one one hundred career double digit assist games and four career twenty.
Assists playoff games.
Does he have any great playoff games though, just a handful lot of really solid ones. But in the Western Conference Semifinals in nineteen eighty eight, he put up a twenty three point twenty four assist five steeal.
That's pretty damn good.
And then a twenty nine point twenty assist game against the Lakers in the eighty eight Western Grummers semis in the twenty eight and twenty nine point twenty.
Assist game was a game seven.
He averaged nineteen and sixteen for that series, but they lost that series.
The Lakers did go on to win.
The title, and so that to me is it's relevant, but I know it probably doesn't move you. And then his best individual moment, he hit the game winner to send the Jazz to the finals and score the final nine points of that game against Houston, breaking Charles Barkley's heart and scored twenty five points with thirteen assists in that game. And that's about it. Like he had amazing
consistency and amazing longevity. But if you go through his full career playoff game log I just gave you the three games that jump out, So what do you do with a guy like that? Most assists of all time, most steals of all time, unbelievable long devity was the second best player on two finalist, but never had the individually great moments that are not consistently and not more than a handful. I think twenty fourth is fair. I think it's hard to say Harden's had a better career
than John Stockton had neither won a ring. Stockton at least got closer, Stockton at least play you know, did it for such a long period of time. It is a bit of a compiling award, I understand. But when you compile your way to the most ever, I think the top twenty five, twenty fourth last fifty years makes sense.
We have a John Stockton caller for us now. Nick.
As much as I'd like to argue with you about putting John Stockton twenty fifth on your list, it's kind of hard, simply because I don't know who is in your top twenty four except that Karl Malone must be among them, and that, my friend, is a mistake, because if there was a driving force of that Utah Jazz team, it was John Stockton. If there was a true killer
and clutch player, it was John Stockton. And if there was anybody responsible for Carl Malone being as high on the scoring list all time scoring list as he ended up being, it was John Stockton.
All right.
So that's my friend, Rick Buker, and I understand he's inextricably tied to Carl Malone. Spoiler alert, I have Malone ahead of him. You gotta have one ahead of the other. Malone was better. Malone was the guy who you are. You are at least I am more convinced would have worked without Stockton. How many of Stockton's assists would have come without Malone? A lot, But he wouldn't have the numbers he does quite to the same level. But the guy who was that good of a defender for that
long the all time assists leader. I'm not gonna lie to you. I don't have a super passionate John Stockton. Take but when you're the all time leader in two major categories, I feel like you deserve to be the top twenty five the last twenty of the last fifty years, so that's where John Stockton is. We will come back with one of my favorite players ever and one of the most underrated players ever as we round out players twenty three and twenty two.
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All right, welcome back in What's Right with Nick Ray Podcast Special Edition, fifty best Players the last fifty years in NBA history. We just gave you players twenty five and twenty four, James Tarden and John Stockton. We now moved player twenty three, who I think, historically speaking, is a tad underrated When you really dive into what he
did and what he accomplished. He is an iconic player because honestly, of how God Dog good he looked in a uniform, the most chiseled arms you'll ever see in NBA history, and because you know he was in the Navy and missed the first two years of his career, came to the NBA and was immediately excellent.
Numbered twenty three David Robinson.
Four time first Team All NBA, two time second Team All NBA, four time third Team All NBA. So for ten years he was one of the three best centers in basketball at a time where there were some unbelievable sinners. Ninety four, ninety five, ninety six second place MVP, won the MVP, second place MVP, so a three year stretch where either won the MVP or came in second each three years. One time Defensive Player of the Year, eight time All Defense. He won a scoring title, a rebounding title,
and a blocks title. His first seven years in the league, he was twenty six and twelve. Now he came into the league older than most because he had to do those two.
Years in the Navy.
But for seven years in the league, twenty six and twelve, then he got hurt. It was one of the most fortuitous injuries in NBA history because because he was hurt, the Spurs totally tanked and they ended up getting Tim Duncan and then they immediately won a title. Now people act like that when they won the title, David Robinson was not a huge part of that. He was not a huge part of the second title they won with Duncan when he was still there. Duncan obviously won five,
he won two with Robinson the one in three. Robinson was a role player at best. In ninety nine. However, Robinson was excellent. We'll get to that.
So what are his big postseason moments?
Similarly to Stockton, David Robinson doesn't have a bunch of oh my god, eye popping postseason moments, only one career forty point playoff game, but amazing postseason consistency and did have some great postseason moments. Nineteen ninety three down in the series to Charles Barkley and the Suns Western Armond Semifinals, throws up at thirty six and sixteen in nineteen ninety five to get to the Western Armends Finals. For the series,
averaged thirty and sixteen. Now, unfortunately his reward for getting to the Western Conference Finals was to play a keem Olajuwan who was furious that David Robinson won the MVP, and a Keeam just annihilated him the entire series. But a team is going to show up very, very high on this list. Losing to a team, there's no shame in that. In ninety six is one of his first games after a team had annihilated him the previous year.
He has his one career forty point playoff game forty and twenty one, and averaged thirty to twelve for that series and sent Charles Barkley home again, So that I shouldn't say again ninety three Charles beat him, but he got even with Charles in ninety six. And then in the ninety nine Spurs. This's the point I was making earlier. Those ninety nine Spurs went fifteen to two in the playoffs.
He was clearly the second best player on that team, and in the finals he averaged sixteen points in twelve rebounds. So the idea that he didn't have a big role in that is a historic. Now what is interesting is and one other David Robinson know is David Robinson.
They're used to be this thing called the.
IBM Award, where they would they created some algorithm pre algorithms becoming popular in NBA parlance, put in people's numbers, said who's the best player in the league, and almost every single year David Robinson won it. Jordan was playing, Robinson won it a keen with his peak, Robinson won it. Now that overstated Robinson's dominance, But I do think people these days forget about how good he was during his peak in the late from the very late eighties until
his injury in ninety six. However, that is a bit of a testament to one of the flaws even back in the early nineties with some of the basketball algorithms, they're gonna reward high efficiency, high rebounding big men and make them seem a touch better than they are. If that reminds you what's happened with Nikola Jokic, where the numbers say he's the best player in the league when he's clearly one of the ten best players in the league, but nobody watches the game actually thinks he's the best
player in the league. That is what's happening to Nicole Jokicic. So there is the twenty third best player of the last fifty years one David Robinson. Now, oh my god, I almost skipped our caller. I thought that David Robinson commentary was so good I didn't need any addition. Let's go to the caller that I assume the callers is gonna say, Nick, that was brilliant, even though this was recorded before I actually said that.
What is the caller I have to say about David Robinson?
So let me see if I get this right. You have David Robinson the admiral at twenty three.
Yeah.
See, this is just disrespect and it continues to happen against the San Antonio Spurs. You've got Barkley, Malone, Cage and Dirk All ahead of him, which makes no sense. Rookie of the Year, MVP Defensive Player of the Year, he led the league in blocks, points, rebounds. Those were in different years, by the way, two rings. He was the best player on one championship team, the second best player on another one? And ps how is Charles Barkley
no offense? I love Chuck, but how is he ahead of the Robinson Robinson titles, finals, appearances, points, rebounds, is this flat out disrespect.
I won't have it all right.
First of all, much respect to Michelle Beatle and what appears to be about forty thousand dollars worth of shoes behind her and Lenice a little stunt by Michelle Beatle. And I appreciate her joining us, and I know she's a Spurs fan. However, I cannot of bide there are some factors there. David Robinson was the best player on zero title teams. Tim Duncan was the best player on
that team by a mile. One finals MVP unanimously, no one thought he was the best player on that team, and he was not the second She said he was the best player on one finalist and the second best player on another.
It's not true.
He was the second best player on the ninety nine finalist and like the sixth best player on the three finalist and champion. As far as why do I have him behind other big men or you know, post players like Barkley and Dirk. And that's not spoiling anything about the list. I haven't mentioned those guys. They're obviously going to be mentioned. I think you're going to see those guys have similar regular season resumes and greater postseason accomplishments.
What they What they didn't have was the ability to play with Tim Duncan. Color me crazy. I think of Berkley, you know, at the tail end of his prime, would have gotten Tim Duncan. He probably would have won some titles too. So I'm confident with where I have with respect to Michelle Beatle, where I have David Robinson twenty third best player of the last fifty years. Now we get to number twenty two. I was excited to get to one of my favorite players.
Ever, number twenty two. Kevin Garnett.
Four time first Team All NBA, three times second Team All NBA, two time third Team All NBA. He won an MVP and O four. He finished second two other times, five times he was top five. He won a Defensive Player of the Year and twelve times All Defense. One of the greatest defensive players of his era. I think you could argue the best defensive players who also impacted you on offense. So I'm not talking about Ben Wallace or Dennis Rodman. I'm talking about guys who could drop
thirty on you and were great defenders. One would argue, of the last thirty some years, it's a team Duncan and then Kevin Garnett. He won the rebounding title four times from his age twenty one season through the year he won.
The championship in Boston.
So that's eleven years because his career numbers are hurt by the fact that he came into the league at eighteen and he played super long. But if we take his eleven year prime age twenty one season until the title year in Boston, he averaged twenty two points, twelve rebounds, five assists, and three.
Steals and blocks combined.
He is one of only two guys his height or taller with five thousand assists or more. It's him and Kareem six eleven guys with at least five thousand assists, and so his passing is underrated. Now the postseason stuff with kg's difficult because he does have two finals appearances, and I would argue he was the best player on the eight Celtics. I think it's inarguable he's It's certainly inarguable he was the best player that regular season. Paul Piers won finals MVP, I think it should have gone
to KG. The next year he got hurt and then he's on the team obviously in twenty ten at that point, is he's still the best player. I'm not sure. They lose that brutal seventh game to the Lakers in Kobe. However, prior going to Boston to Boston, he went to the playoffs seemingly every year in Minnesota and got out of the first round once.
So let's talk about this.
In three, when he had had five straight first round defeats, he has thirty five, twenty and seven and thirty three fourteen, four and four to go up two to one on the defending champion Lakers in three in round one. Averages for the series twenty seven points, sixteen rebounds, five assists. But they lose the next three and they go home in round one again. How much is that on him?
Not much.
Second best player on that team was Troy Hudson, but it was once again a first round exit. The next year, he finally got some help Latrell Spree well Sam cassell So and they got to the Western Govermends Finals. The run there, first game of the playoffs, he throws up a thirty and twenty. He averaged twenty six, fifteen and seven that series against Denver for his first career series victory in the Western Conference semifinals, faces a Game seven
against Chris Webern Sacramento. Keep in mind when I tell you these numbers for this game seven. The final score was eighty three to eighty, so eighty three points his team scored.
In that game. He had thirty two points, twenty one rebounds to assists for steels, five blocks in a game that was eighty three to eighty.
He carries them to the Western Govermends Finals. Average for that series twenty four, fifteen and four overall to get to the conference finals. In the Western Armends Finals, they're in rough shape. They're playing the Lakers. That's gonna be a tough matchup for them.
Now.
Shack only average like twenty points in that series. KG defended him well. KG however, he had thirty and nineteen down three to one to force the game six. But they were never winning that series, and then he misses the playoffs for three straight years until he goes to Boston.
On that run to the title.
In Boston, however, he had twenty six and sixteen in Game five against Lebron and Cleveland in round two, he had twenty and eleven average for that series against Lebron and Cleveland in the conference finals. In Game five, he had a thirty three and seven to go up three to two on Detroit, and in the title clinching game, the Anything as Possible Game, had twenty six and fourteen.
For the finals, averaged eighteen points, thirteen rebounds, three assists, and I think should have been finals MVP had the all time Greade anything as Possible moment. One of the greatest defenders ever, one of the greatest prep to pro players ever. We're talking about high schoolers to go pro, it's got to be Lebron, Kobe, Moses, KG. Those are your top four by a minle. He also, his relentlessness probably worked against him.
He was so intense. I think it probably hurt him a bit.
I give him a slight bonus point for an underrated acting performance. In Uncut, Jim's twenty second greatest player of last fifty years one Kevin Garnett.
We have a caller on Garnett before we move on.
Hey, Nick at your old friend, mister Kilbourne. I'm a big fan of yours. However, your East Coast snobbery is showing. You're treating Minnesota like a flyover state. KG is a Timberwolf, not a Celtic. Obviously, he had the team championship in Boston, but individually he was the league MVP in Minnesota and he had his best years as a Timberwolf. Just a quick heads up. Also, if Larry Legend is not in your top five, this list is not legit. It's what
we call it debacle. Thanks for listening, Nick, proud of you.
Well, look at Craig Kilbourne there. First of all, I didn't know he's my friend. We've never spoken, but I now say we are friends. That was exhilarating. That was exciting. Second, old, there's no East Coast snobbery. I'm from Kansa, Missouri. I am Midwestern born and KG I wanted to have him higher. And I'm not going to reveal the other people on the order of the people on the list. What was KG better than Barkley? Was he better than Dirk Dirk? Some will argue Dirk is the sixth most points ever
Dirk's championship. He didn't have Paul Pierson Ray Allen with him. I love KG twenty two. I'm very comfortable with his spot there. Quick break come back with some of our toughest decisions yet as we get into the top twenty one.
All right, So there it is.
We have now gone through players fifty through twenty two of the fifty best players of the last fifty years in NBA history. Top twenty one is incredibly difficult, and I will admit it is still fluid because uz you have six guys in the top twenty one that are active players now right now in your head you're probably thinking, you're like, I know he's gonna have Lebron in there. We haven't heard Katie, we haven't heard Stah.
We haven't heard Wait.
I know you can think of five of the six, but have you been paying close enough attention to the list to figure out who the sixth of those six active players are? No spoilers, but did two of them play each other in a playoff series this year? Maybe we'll discuss that and we will get into what is the impossibility of ranking the top twenty players in order of the last fifty years. That's next week on What's Right with Nick Ray