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Welcome in. There's another special edition of What's Right with Nick Wright as we count down the fifty greatest players of the last fifty years in the NBA. Now, last week's was controversial. We knew it would be because last week's was where I had my one almost I don't know cheat code inclusion Luka antij That is, so this list will age well. I understand Luca is not accomplished enough to be twentieth. He hasn't technically accomplished enough to
be on the top fifty. But sometimes when you know, you know, and I'm telling you right now, if people were making a list of the greatest composers in world history, and someone was like, Hey, there's this kid named Beethoven. I think he should be on it. They're like, Eh, he's only on one symphony something. If you put him on the list, you'd feel good about it. So that's
the Luca part of it. However, now we're to the top eighteen, and every single person on this top eighteen not only clearly deserves to be there, but what you are going to see is when you hear who we get to and they're all NBA teams and their MVP finishes, and they're all time rankings as far as scoring or rebounding, whatever it is, you're going to realize, as great as a player such as Chris Paul was, as great as David Robinson was, guys who were just outside of this
top eighteen, this eighteen are head and shoulders statistically better than everyone else on this list, with the possible exception of James Harden. James Harden's the only one who has a statistical resume all NBA's MVP finishes similar to these guys, but Harden obviously has such a non existent great playoff resume that he can't be included here. If he had just one singularly great playoff run, he would have been,
But so eighteen seventeen sixteen will be today's episode. Oddly enough, they are all power forwards, so you probably know who the three guys are already, but what order will they be in? Number eighteen and it pained me to put him here. I'd love for him to be higher. He's one of my favorite people in sports. He was one of my favorite players to watch. But eighteenth is as high as I could put him. Number eighty Charles Barkley.
So Barkley had five times, was for Team All NBA, five times, Second Team All NBA, one time Third Team All NBA. When it comes to MVPs, he was a one time MVP and eight times he finished in the top six. Eight times he was a top top six MVP finisher, and he won a rebounding title if you care about that. Never did win a scoring title. Obviously,
he was the best player on one finalist. And what you will see about Charles when we talk about some of the best players in sports history to never win a ring is Charles' excuse if you will, for never winning a ring. It's not much of an excuse. We'll get to that momentarily, but before we get to, you know, when he came closest to winning rings. Let's just go through the postseason resume as a rookie. A rookie in the playoffs, had a twenty three and eleven in an
Eastern Conference Finals game versus the eighty five Celtics. Again, as a rookie, entire playoff run, he averaged fifteen and eleven for his sixers team that went all the way to the Conference finals. Again, that's as a rookie nineteen eighty six, his second year, in the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, he had a thirty one twenty
six and six. Again, thirty one points, twenty rebounds, six assists, six steals in Game one of the second round of the playoffs in his second year, in Game four of that series, he had a thirty seven, fourteen and nine. He would lose in seven by one point to Milwaukee. Remember, earlier in the list we talked about Sidney Moncrief and those underrated Bucks teams of the eighties. He averaged twenty eight,
fifteen and four for that series. As a second year player nineteen eighty seven, played Milwaukee again, this time in round one. Lost in round one, but averaged twenty five and thirteen. Nineteen eighty nine played Ewing in the Knicks, averaged twenty seven to twelve and five, but again lost in round one. And now this is Barkley's window ninety to ninety five, the end of his time with Philly
and his the beginning of his time with Phoenix. And without spoiling anything here, here's what you need to know. In those ninety to ninety five, that's six seasons. Five of those years he made the playoffs. All five years, Charles Barkley lost to one of two people in the playoffs, Michael Jordan or Akim Olaje one. So why doesn't Barkley have a ring? Well, he kept running into Michael Jordan
or Akim Olaje one, So let's go through it. Nineteen ninety Game one of the playoffs throws up a thirty eight and twenty one to start the playoffs averaged twenty six, fourteen and four in round one to get out of round one for the first time since year two nineteen eighty six that we talked about. Round two against Jordan's Bulls put up a thirty and twenty in game one, put up a thirty four to twenty and eight in
Game three, but they lost the series. Of course. Then the next year he played Michael Jordan, lost to Michael Jordan again, and then shortly thereafter went to Phoenix Phoenix. The spoiler alert, this is gonna end with him losing to Michael Jordan. But how did he get there?
All? Right?
The Western Conference Finals for Charles Barkley nineteen ninety three wins League MVP. It's his best chance to win a title. He's never been to a finals. In fact, he's never been to a game six of a conference finals. So what does Barkley do against Seattle, Peyton and Kemp in the Western Conference Finals? With the series tied two games
a piece? In Game five, throws up a forty three point fifteen rebound, ten assist game again critical game five of the series to get up in the series A game away from the NBA Finals, puts up a forty three fifteen to ten, and then in Game seven has flatley one of the greatest playoff games anyone has ever played. By game score, I think Basketball Reference might have its game score as top two playoff game ever. If you
go back and watch it, it's remarkable. When I was doing the research for this list and I went back and watched what I could find of this game on YouTube, I had Barkley's number from a night of drinking at the NBA Finals years prior. I'd never texted him. I text him just to tell him how amazed I was with the performance. I was. Again, I was a little I was eight years old when he did this Game seven to get to his first and what would be his only NBA Finals again Seattle. Forty four points, twenty
four rebounds to get to the finals. So what does he do in the finals? In Game two, puts up a forty two and thirteen in a game they would lose by three. In Game four, puts up a thirty two to twelve to ten in a game they would lose by six. Averaged for the playoff run to the finals, twenty seven points, fourteen rebounds, four assists. For the finals basically the same twenty seven points, thirteen rebounds, six assists. Now he also is the one that kind of lost
packson on the shot that won the title. That's gonna always, you know, bounce round in his head. But that's what he did. So that's ninety three's first year in Phoenix Wins League. MVP gets to the finals is unbelievable. The run to the finals is very good. In the finals, loses to Jordan and what I think was Jordan's f
finest finals performance ever that series against the Suns. The next year, starts the playoffs off with a thirty six point nineteen rebound, seven assists for steel game averaged for the first round of that's of that playoffs averaged thirty seven to thirteen and six, including a fifty six point fourteen rebound four assist game. But then in round two he plays at Keema LaJuan and they lose in seven.
The next year, another remarkable round one, putting up a thirty four to fourteen and three average, but then in round two they lost to a kim Olajuan in seven, again despite the fact, by the way in that series he had a forty seven and twelve and then if we're being honest, it was kind of over for him. Then shortly thereafter he went and joined a Keem's team.
His body started breaking down. He had one more great playoff game the rest of his career in nineteen ninety nine against Shaq and Gobi had a thirty point, twenty three rebound, five assist game in the only game Houston won in that series, and that was kind of it for Chuck. So he kept running into Jordan's dream the two greatest players of the nineties by a wide margin, those two guys, and he couldn't get thrown. So that's why Charles Barkley is where he is, eighteenth on the list.
We have a caller that wants to chime in on the Chuckster, go right ahead, Heye.
Sehn Gonzalez hosted the Sports Illustrated Weekly podcast here and lifelong Sixers fan as a native Philadelphian. Of course, I think Charles Barkley should be higher the number eighteen on the list. I'm not supposed to reveal who's at seventeen,
but I will say I'm preemptively upset by it. Of course, Charles Barkley should be higher than him, not just because he was a better basketball player, but because of the cultural figure that he is and was then and still remains, so his outsized influence all over the place should have him higher. Anyway, the whole thing is terrible. It's absolutely more terrible than my Charles Barkley acts. I'm so sorry that was awful, but so is your list?
All right? Well, that last part my list is not awful, John, I apologize. We disagree about seventeen versus eighteen. That was the worst Charles Barkley impersonation I've ever heard. So why do I have Barkley eighteen and the person John is talking about at seventeen? Well, we'll discuss that next. Because the guy at seventeen has the regular season resume that everyone knows it's good. I don't think people know quite
how good it is. What do you do with a guy who was good but not great in the postseason, but in the regular season has an argument he was one of the three greatest players ever. That's number seventeen. We'll do him next.
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All right, welcome back in What's Right with Nick Wright fifty greatest players the last fifty years in the NBA's we continue our countdown and we get to truly the most legendary players in the history of the league. Number
eighteen was Charles Barkley. Number seventeen is a player whose postseason resume, one could argue, is not quite as good as Barkley's, but his regular season resume is truly not only unimpeachable, but it's hard to make an argument that anyone other than Lebron and Kareem clearly have a better totality of regular season work than this player. You probably know who he is. Number seventeen Carl Malone, So the Mailman.
Eleven time first team All NBA that is tied for the second most ever, two time second team, one time third team, which gives him the fit tied for the fifth most All NBA teams ever. He's a two time MVP with nine years Top five MVP finisher nine years. He was a top five MVP finisher. When we started making this list, he was the second all time leading scorer. Lebron has since passed him. He is now the third all time leading scorer. He's the seventh all time leading rebounder.
He has the second most minutes of all time. He has a career average of twenty five and ten. He's the only player of the last fifty years to have a career average of twenty five and ten other than Joel Embiid, and Embiid has the benefit of not having that end of his career part of it drag him down like most guys do. He has seventeen seasons of averaging at least twenty points per game. That's tied for
the second most of all time. So again, he's the number three all time leading scorer, number seven all time leading rebounder, number two all time in minutes, top five in all NBA teams. His second most first team all NBA is ever the only twenty five and ten guy of the last fifty years. Second is seventeen years averaging at least twenty points per game. So why is he only seventeenth, Well, it's not because the postseason resume is non existent. But the postseason resume is not nearly what
the regular season resume is. So let's go through the good with a little bit of the bad mixed. In nineteen eighty eight, averaged thirty two to twelve for his first career series win, and then average twenty nine to twelve in a seven game loss to the Lakers who'd gone to win the title, including in Game seven thirty one p. Fifteen and so again, Young Garl malone game seven against a Lakers team that would go on to win the title thirty one, fifteen and four in a
couple of years without much in the playoffs. In nineteen ninety one, had a thirty eight, thirteen and four to beat Phoenix in Round one, and then had a forty and sixteen in a game two loss in Round two to Drexler and the Blazers. They would lose that series in five. Nineteen ninety two, he gets to his first
career Western Conference Finals. How does he get there by eliminating Kemp and Peyton in Seattle with a thirty seven and thirteen, and then in ninety two against Portland in the Western Conference Finals had a thirty eight and fourteen in a critical game five series tied two games apiece, but they lost in overtime. They would go on to lose the series, and he wasn't great in the final game.
Nineteen ninety four, Western Conference semis Game seven against a Kembey thirty one points, fourteen rebound, six assists to get back to the Western Conference Finals, but lost to a team in those Western Conference Finals, and then lost to a team again in round one next year. This is why a team's gonna be so high on this list. If you notice from the Barkley segments, like what happened to Barkley? Why do he make more the finals? Oh? He lost to a keep? What happened to Malone?
Oh?
He lost to akeep nineteen ninety six? Though, for Carl Malone facing elimination in the Western Conference Finals against Seattle in game six, thirty two points, ten rebounds, seven assists, four steals, but then in game seven wasn't great and he still hadn't been to a finals. Now we're a decade into his career, nineteen ninety seven, this is gonna be Malone's moment. He won League MVP that year. Who's controversial a lot of people thought Jordan should have won it.
Jordan should have won it, but Malone won League MVP. It's his first League MVP. He's playing Shack in round two, has a forty two and nine, followed by a thirty two and twenty in games four and five, and they beat Shaq in five. Utah died. It had a thirty seven and ten in game three against the Bulls down oh two and for the series average twenty four, ten and four. Not bad, but he was always efficient in his career. Is only forty four percent in those finals.
The Bulls win in six to another majestic Jordan, you know, performance in Jordan moment, the flu game and all that, and he loses in six to Michael. But twenty four to ten and four not that bad. Nine ninety eight gets a Keem in round one, has a thirty one and fifteen against Akeem. A Keem at this point now a Keem was older but was on the downside. Malone again had just won League MVP, almost wanted again thirty
one and fifteen to beat a Keemen round one. In round in round three against Shaq and Kobe, he had a thirty average. Pardon me, thirty eleven and five to sweep Shack and Kobe out sweep Mountain Western Commends finals. Then in the finals they fall down three to one. What does he do in game five thirty nine points, nine rebounds, five assists, and then in game six the box score looks good thirty one points, eleven rebounds, seven assists, But we all know the story there, Bulls down three,
MJ hits two free throws, Bulls down one. Karl Malone is the ball in the right box. MJ comes around the baseline, strips it from him, goes down, hits the jump shot stocked and misses Desperation three, and the Bulls win the series. Bulls win the title. So we average for that series more than respectable twenty five point eleven rebound, four assists, this time on fifty percent shooting, but not quite enough. Then in ninety nine, he's is the league
MVP in Round two Game six, facing round two. In game six, he has eight points and his team goes home. In two thousand, starts the playoffs off. Carl Malone not dead yet, fifty to twelve to start the playoffs off against Seattle, but they don't go very far. He then eventually signs with the Lakers in four. In four, to his credit, he did have a thirty point playoff game, but he got hurt late in the playoffs. It's one of the reasons the Lakers got blown off the court
against Detroit. Then his career was over. So he doesn't have a lot of singularly great postseason moments. However, fifty four times he scored thirty in a playoff game, that's the ninth most all time. One one hundred and fifty four times he scored twenty in a playoff game, that's the fifth most all time. He is seventh all time in playoff minutes, playoff points, and playoff rebounds. So something
there is some compiling there. I understand that, and he was not No one's gonna argue he was a great playoff four. He got a little worse come the postseason, but in the regular season the resume is unimpeachable. That's how he becomes the seventeenth greatest player of the last fifty years. Karl Malone here is a caller who has a Karl Malone question or comment.
John Stockton. When it came to the Utah Jazz and the Stockton Malone combo was the more important of the two. I'm just saying that means that you've got John Stockton as a top fifteen player.
No, Rick, you know I don't have John Stockton in the top sixteen. We had John Stockton in the top twenty five. We had John Stockton twenty fourth, which is not at all anything to sneeze at. But Rick's the first person I've ever heard make the argument Stockton was better than Malone. I've literally never heard someone make that argument again. Carl Malone eleven times was First Team All NBA. John Stockton two times was First Team All NBA. Karl
Malone had nine top five MVP finishes. John Stockton had zero top five MVP finishes. So listen, I understand Stockton all time leader and assists, all time leader and steals. It's why he's in the top twenty five. But no, no, no, Stockton's not better than alone. Nobody actually thought Stocktor's better than alone. I can't believe Rick actually thought that. I love Rick Buker, He's one of my favorite things say about colleagues of mine. Who I disagree lot Rick Bucker,
great guy, bad takes. This might be the worst non Lebron rip buger take I've heard other than that. I appreciate him contributing to the show. Number sixteen one more power forward, this one with a ring. He's next, all right, welcome back in What's Right with Nick? Right, as we continue our special edition the fifty Greatest Players of the last fifty years. Next week we will be into the top fifteen. I can't believe we've already come that far.
Number eighteen we just listed today was Charles Barkley. Number seventeen we listed today was Karl Malone. Number sixteen plays the same position. However, he has one thing those two men don't have, and he got it under the most difficult of circumstances. And this shows you how much a ring can do for you, because, to be candid, he certainly doesn't have the regular season resume of Karl Malone, and he doesn't. He's probably a little shy of the
regular season resume of Charles Barkley. But the one postseason run was brilliant enough. Plus it's got a pretty damn good regular season resume. Number sixteen the third greatest foreign born player as of today in NBA history. Number sixteen, Dirk Davitz Dirk. Four time first team All NBA, five time second Team All NBA, three time third Team All NBA. He won an MVP and three times he finished in the top three of MVP voting. He was a fifty to forty ninety guy. And this is something I don't
think many people know. He he is the sixth all time leading scorer in NBA history. Again, the number six all time leading scorer in NBA history is won Dirk Novitzky, and it gets forgotten to some, but it matters when I say he doesn't have the regular season resume of Malone. That's fair. Malone's third of Berkley. Maybe I shouldn't have said it to Berkley. Barkley's got more regular top five MVP finishes. However, Dirk had one playoff disaster that I
think MVP voters then held against him. Will get to that, but he, of course more than made up for it. So let's talk postseason. He obviously, you know, was a finals MVP and a champion, but he also was the best player on another finalist. Let's not forget about the six finals, where du after being up two to oh d Wade with a little bit of help from the refs took that title from him, but Dirk carried two Mavericks teams that did not have anything close to another
superstar to the finals, won the title one time. We'll get to that eventually. He came into the league nineteen years old, so it took him a couple of years to make the playoffs. So when he did, twenty two years old, first series of his playoff career, he had back to back thirty three point games against the guy we just talked about, Karl Malone. He also facing elimination in one against Tim Duncan and David Robinson. Dirk Novitzky, twenty two years old, had forty two points, eighteen rebounds,
two assists, and six blocks. Pretty good for a twenty two year old. The next year faces Kevin Garnett, and I think a lot of my colleagues would have Garnet ahead of Dirk on the all time rankings. I don't. It's close, but I don't. The next year played Kevin Garnett averaged thirty three and sixteen to sweep KG, including thirty nine and seventeen to close him out. The next year,
oh three. Now again, Dirks hadn't turned twenty five yet forty six and ten to start the playoffs forty two and ten to go up three to zero to round one. Now he did lose the next three. He was almost a total disaster. But then in game seven thirty one and eleven and then Game seven the very next round against Chris Webber and the Kings, thirty and nineteen in game seven to make his first ever Western Conference Finals. This is an important moment for Dirk. Dirk's still young.
It's his third playoff run ever. He carries a MAVs team to the Western Conference Finals and in the Western Rifence Finals in game one, has thirty eight and fifteen in Game one, but then he got hurt in Game three and that was a rap for them. Now they're done, goodbye, good night, You're out of there. Spurs end up obviously winning the series. They also end up winning the title that year. Could the MAVs if Dirk doesn't get hurt? Do they win that title? Do those MAVs beat the
nets of three? Of course they do, But he didn't get the opportunity. He got hurt six Round one playing Memphis averages thirty one and eight and sweeps them Game seven. Western Conference semis and iconic Dirk Novitzky moment. He's thirty seven and fifteen in an overtime win against Duncan. But more importantly, that's the and one, the Jenobli foul to force overtime. Down three twenty one seconds left in the regulation.
Dirk Drives, gets fouled, makes the layup, it makes the free throw, obviously goes to overtime, gets to the conference finals. In the conference finals and No. Six series tied two games apiece fifty and twelve. Again, let me say that again. He had fifty and twelve to go up three to two on the Suns in the Western Conference Finals. Twenty three and eleven average in the finals, So in the finals numbers go down a bit, no doubt about it. But you're up against Shaq and d Wade. He averaged
twenty three and eleven. And let's not forget about those finals games three, five, and six. They lost by a combined combined six points. And in Game three Dirk had thirty points, seven rebounds. Game six he had twenty nine points fifteen rebounds. But they lose at that point, It's like okay, So Dirk in O three probably wins the title. But he got hurt in six, had some iconic moments, the fifty to twelve against Nash and Amari and the Suns, the and one in the game Game seven against the Spurs.
You lose in the finals, so be it. Then seven they're the one seed, and what he wins League MVP and what happens? They lose in round one to the We Believe Warriors. He had a bad series, average less than twenty points per game, and that's when it was oh soft euro Dirk can't get it done. The next year plays Chris Paul with his best hornet team averages twenty seven to twelve and four, but loses in round one. The next year plays Round gets to round two for
the first time in a few years. Plays Denver, that's the best Carmelo Denver year averages thirty four to twelve and four in the series, has forty four and thirteen in their only win of the series. They lose in five, and it's like, oh boy, like Dirk's not getting back
to the finals. Twenty ten, plays the Spurs in round one three times in that series he scored at least thirty three, but they lose in round one, and then twenty eleven, the Critical Run twenty eleven playoff run, he has thirty three, eleven and four to close out Portland in round one. In round two, he sweeps the two time defending champion Lakers in Kobe and far out played Kobe. Again, that's not some old tired Lakers team. They just won back to back titles. Dirk swept him out and played
better than Kobe in that series. And then the Western Conference Finals against again, they're young, but Katie ross Harden. Game one of those Western Goverends Finals, he plays one of the greatest playoff games anyone's ever played. He had forty eight points on fifteen shots. Derk Nivitzki had forty eight points on twelve of fifteen from the field in game one of that series. In Game three of that series, he had another forty point game. He averaged thirty to
a game to get back to the finals. So round one, you play Portland, Okay, that's not some great Portland team. Round two, you sweep the two time defending champs. Round three you outplay Durant. You have no other stars on your team. You get to the It's young Durant, but still Durant rouss Harden. You get to the finals. In the finals, who's waiting for you? Lebron Wade Bosh and that's all that's the story is told as it's Lebron's meltdown and that did happen, but Dirk still had to
take it from him. Average twenty six to ten in those finals. For the playoff run average twenty eight and eight on he was one percent away from a fifty forty five ninety five for the playoff run. For the playoff run, he is shooting splits, were forty nine percent from the field, forty six percent from three, ninety five percent from the line. And then the next year he's swept by OKC in round one that obviously the thunder team that went to the finals.
Uh.
He averages twenty seven and six for the series and then that was about it for him. But he was amazing in the postseason early then after they made the finals after six before eleven that's seven to ten run. It's not that he was terrible, except for the one year in seven seventy was bad eight nine ten. It just lost to better teams and then back to the finals. One of the most important impressive rings ever that gets you number sixteen on the list, Dirk Novitski, let's go to a caller.
Hey, Nick Megan, O leave here, UFC broadcaster and Spurs basketball fan.
But the fact that I'm a Spurs.
Fan has nothing to do with my opinion that Dirk on your list is way too high.
I mean, yes, he.
Has a ring, Yes, great offensive player, but some of those playoff collapses about losing to the number eight seed Warriors and the defense, I don't know, questionable. So if he's this high in your list, I'm telling you Tim Duncan better be top five.
Okay, well, I'm not gonna reveal where Tim Duncan is, but Tim Duncan being around the top five is not outrageous at all. Listen, Dirk was not better than Duncan. No one rog you Dirk was better than Duncan. But when you say some of those playoff collapses, it's really just one, just one true playoff collapse. Again, three would have won the title if he doesn't get hurt. You can't tell me differently, And that was he was out playing Tim Duncan in that series until he got hurt.
Six gets to the finals. Tough confluence of events with the officiating and d Wade having one of the greatest four game stretches in NBA history, then takes his lumps and O seven again, no superstars, no top seventy five. Well, Jason gives top seventy five guy on the eleven team, but he wasn't in his top seventy five form when he did it. He was a good player, but not
a great player. And Dirk carries him to a ring sixth all time leading scorer, won an MVP, few other top three MVP finishes, unreal playoff run, and some great playoff numbers. Dirk Novitzky your sixteenth best player of the last fifty years. Next week we will get into the player who I believe to be disrespected by history and disrespected by modern analytics more than any other player in NBA history. He'll lead off our list as we get into the top fifteen next week on the fifty Greatest
Players of the last fifty years? On What's Right with Nick Ray