Nick Wright's Top 50 NBA Players of the Last 50 Years #2: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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on this for a number of years. There was a period of time as I talked about where I thought this was going to be a book. We then decided we were going to turn it into a video and audio series. And the reaction to it, while polarizing at times, has been really what I hoped it would be, which is people can get angry about the rankings and about

the list, but this was also an informational exercise. Informational for me where I, you know, learned more about a guy such as as a for instance, Sidney Moncrief, who now MI pal Chris Brussard tells me that I have ranked I learned too much about him, or I think I hold him in two eye of a regard, and informational for me when an older guy like pistol Pete Marivitz that to me, once you actually dug into it, the legend outstripped the actual performance and also informational, because

I learned if I didn't already know how die Hard so many of the Michael Jordan folks were. Because I knew people would be upset with Michael Jordan being number three, I didn't necessarily know that it was going to cause the firestorm it did, because I did think, while I know that Jordan is by most considered the greatest player ever, that there was an understanding that that is a three player race between Jordan, Lebron, and Kareem, and therefore one of them has to come in third, and that then

brings us, of course to number two, which will you know, reveal by definition who number one is. So I spent the better part of this past week defending and explaining the case toab Kareem above Jordan. And the reason I spent the time doing that this week was because we've spent a lot of time on Lebron versus Jordan, and it has led a lot of people to speculate, wait, is Nick going to have Kareem number one? And Kareem

has an excellent case to be number one. And when you dig into it and you look at what Lebron's accomplished, what Jordan's accomplished, came into three, and what Kareem's accomplished, you say, oh, man, even a guy like me who's called Lebron the goat for a few years now take a step back and you say, is it actually Kareem is the guy who when we'd said the fifty greatest players of the last fifty years, and really this list was the fifty greatest players of the last fifty two

years because we were doing Kareem's rookie year to now, because we that was kind of modern NBA was Kareem's rookie year. But we started this in twenty twenty and we're debuting it in twenty twenty two. Is the guy who's one of the oldest guys on the list going to be the one standing at the very end? And the answer to that question is.

Five times he was second Team All NBA. They didn't have third team All nbas during his career. He has fifteen total All NBA teams. That is the second most ever, only behind Lebron. He is a six time MVP, as I mentioned, which is the most ever. Fifteen times. Kareem Abdul Jabbar finished in the top five in MVP voting fifteen times. That is the most all time the first twelve years of his career. If he stopped playing after the first twelve years of his career, he would be

a top ten player ever. In those first twelve years, he won six MVPs and he was a top five MVP finisher every single year his first twelve twelve years in the league. He's eleven time All Defense. He's a two time scoring champion. He is a four time blocks champion. Despite the fact that his athletic prime, his first five years in the league. Blocks weren't a stat He's a one time rebounding champ. First dozen years of his career, he averaged twenty eight fourteen, four and three blocks on

fifty seven percent. His third year in the league, he averaged thirty five points per game. He famously has scored the most points in NBA history. Not as famous as this. He broke the previous record, which was Wilt record in April of nineteen eighty four. He still holds it. That means Kareem Abdul Jabbar has been the NBA's all time leading scorer every day that I have been alive. It's

been thirty eight years running. He has held that record. Lebron, of course, is gonna break it at some point this season. Third most rebounds ever, the most of anyone on this list. He's behind only Wilton Russell. The third most blocks ever, behind only akiemen to Kimbay. But again keep in mind, blocks weren't even counted the first few years of his career. The second most games ever, the most minutes ever, the most field goals made ever, and that won't be broken.

Lebron's gonna come for everybody's records on almost everything field goals made. He won't because Kareem made the point not that long ago. I think it was to Dan Patrick. And he's right. He's the NBA's all time leading scorer and he never made a three pointer is so his raw baskets made. That's his record forever. I believe, a career average of twenty four and eleven, the only guy in the last fifty years to put up those numbers. He had three hundred and fifty five career thirty and

ten games in the regular season. That is almost five full seasons of thirty point ten rebound games. Only will tas more. He of course, has the most unstoppable, unblockable shot in NBA history. And listen, we don't count high school for this list or college, but if you're the greatest ever, hands down its words at least mentioning before you get to the playoff stuff. In high school, he was seventy nine and two with three state titles, and at one point in high school had a seventy one

game winning streak. In college, he was eighty eight and two. His freshman year is not allowed to play. His freshman team goes twenty to zero against other freshman teams and beats the UCLA varsity team in practice and in an organized scrimmage. That UCLA varsity team won the title. In his next three years in college, when he was allowed to play, despite them changing rules to try to minimize his impact, he went eighty eight and two. The two losses one game against Houston he was banged up. They

lost by two points. The other game I think was Indiana. They did the four corners offense to try to prevent UCLA from top to the ball. Eighty eight to two. Three years of college, all three years, Player of the Year all three years, First Team All American all three years, Final foremost outstanding Player all three years, National champion, and then his rookie season. At his rookie season, Milwaukee had won twenty seven games. The previous year they had cream.

They don't add oscar, yet they add cream. They were from twenty seven wins to fifty six wins. And as a rookie he averages twenty nine to fifteen to four who knows how many blocks and finish his third in MVP voting. So that's the regular season stuff, and we could go on longer in the regular season stuff, but the playoffs stuff with Kareem is going to take so long. We have to get to it. So we already mentioned it.

Six time NBA champion, two time finals MVP, and you're gonna understand shortly why him only having two finals MVPs is criminal. Also ten total finals appearances, ten finals appearances, six time champion. By the way, those two finals MVPs I mentioned, he won one of them at age twenty four and the other at age thirty eight. Let that

wash over you for a minute. At age twenty four playing for the championship, he was the best player on the court, and at age thirty eight, fifteen seasons later, he was the best player on the court playing for a championship winning finals MVP. So let's start in nineteen seventy rookie season. It's twenty three years old. First playoff game ever thirty six and twenty thirty six and twenty is a rookie first game ever in the playoffs. Pretty

good first playoff round ever. His rookie season, scores thirty three points in every single game, including forty six and twenty five to win the series in twenty five point playoff game. As a rookie average for that series thirty six and sixteen on fifty eight percent first four games against Willis Reid, who would win the title that year in the Knicks. Here's what he did is his rookie year.

First four games in Round two thirty five, fifteen and five, then thirty eight, twenty three, eleven that's Game two, then thirty three, thirty one and five a thirty thirty and five as a rookie in the playoffs against Willis Reed, and then in Game four thirty eight to nine. In those first four games of the series, he averaged thirty six points, twenty rebounds, six assists in forty seven and

a half minutes per game. That's a real story. Forty seven and a half minutes per game is what he averaged for those first four games in the series against Willis Reed as a rookie. His team wasn't very good. They lost three of those four games. For the playoff run, as a rookie, he averaged thirty five five point seventeen rebounds forces on fifty six percent shooting. Okay, that's how he starts. So what's he do for a year? Two? I put together what is up to that point, the

single greatest season NBA history start to finish. Okay, pretty good Round one and so in the play they won sixty six games. In the regular season they had added Oscar, and Oscar was still very good, but it was not the prime Oscar. Round one he averages twenty eight and sixteen, including a thirty and twenty game. By the way, for Kareem, for brevity's sake, we're gonna have to do a lot of averages instead of game by game because there's too many games. The guy played so many games, was so good.

For the Western Conferends Finals averages twenty five, seventeen, and four, including two separate thirty point twenty rebounds games to Gentlemen sweep the Lakers to make the first finals. In the finals, he sweeped the Bullets in his first finals game. Ever he is thirty one and seventeen. In his second finals game, ever is twenty seven and twenty four. In his third finals game, ever is twenty three and twenty one, and

then it is in the fourth finals game ever. To complete the sweep, he has twenty seven points, twelve rebounds, seven assists to win the title. Averages twenty seven and nineteen on sixty percent for the finals finishes the season with MVP Finals MVP an up to that point in time record twenty game winning streak, twenty game winning streak, twelve and two in the playoffs, overall record of seventy eight to eighteen. I think it was the best start to finish season in NBA history up to that point.

Nineteen seventy two title defense opens it up against the Warriors with the twenty eight to fifteen to five, but they lose. They then win four straight to advance the Western Effends Finals. I believe this Western Conferends Finals. By the way, is this two best teams that have ever played outside of an NBA finals, the seventy two Bucks and the seventy two Lakers, or two of the greatest teams ever to face? Are the two greatest teams ever to face each other outside of an NBA finals, I believe.

So how does he do against the Lakers, who, by the way, had Wilt Chamberlain. Yes, he was an older Wilt Chamberlain, he was still Wilt Chamberlain. Well. Game one, he had thirty three and eighteen. Game two, he had forty points, seven rebounds, seven assists. They lost by one. Game three, he had thirty three points, twenty one rebound, six assists, they lost by three. Game four, critical game he has thirty one and eighteen to even the series.

Then in Game six, down three to two, he throws up thirty seven points, twenty five rebounds, eight assists, but they lose. Oscar got hurt and Oscar averages nine points per game for that series. Wasn't great for that series. Will averaged eleven points per game. Kareem, trying to defend his title, averaged thirty four points, eighteen rebounds, five assists. So that was nineteen seventy two. Again we are We're three years into his career. I'm out of breath, almost

nineteen seventy three and actually not great. Lost to the Warriors in six. He was good, he wasn't great. Average twenty three and sixteen for the series. Again, twenty three points, six rebounds per game. One of his worst playoff series of the first decade of his career nineteen seventy four. Didn't like that hole. Not going deep into the playoffs thing. It's Oscar's final year and it's Kaream's final year with

the Bucks. As it would happen. It's also the first time we get the statistical record of Kareem's steals and blocks in the playoffs. We don't have that record, at least Basketball Reference doesn't happen. I wasn't able to find it elsewhere. Any official record for his steals and blocks prior to nineteen seventy four. Okay, first game of the playoffs thirty five points, twenty one rebounds, two assists for Steel six blocks, played all forty eight minutes. Seems good.

Thirty five twenty one two four six, playing all forty eight against Lakers. Game two, had thirty two points, twenty five rebounds. Game four, he had thirty one points, sixteen rebounds, eight assists, six blocks. Jesus christ Man thirty one, sixteen, eight and six against the Lakers in Game four. Average for that series against the Lakers thirty points, eighteen rebounds, five assists, two steals, three blocks forty five minutes per game.

Chicago in Round two just kicked the shit out of them. Sorry, Chicago, it was an annihilation. Had a forty four and twenty one game in Game two at thirty eight and twenty four game in Game four. Average for the series thirty five points, twenty rebounds, four assists, and in the four game sweep, played every single minute but three set for three minutes. Averaged thirty five to twenty and four. In

the finals against John Havelchick and Dave Cowens. I believe this is the first finals MVP that he was robbed of, even though they lost in the finals. I'll try to make the case for it. By the way, they had just given a finals MVP to will losing player a few years prior in Jerry West, so it wouldn't have been at all unprecedent. So what did you do in those finals? Game one they lost? He had thirty five points,

fourteen rebounds, five assists. In Game two, he had thirty six points, fifteen rebounds, six assists in an overtime win, playing all fifty three minutes. Game four thirty four points, fourteen rebounds, six assists to tie the series. Game five had thirty seven points, eleven rebound, six assists, but they lost. Game six, facing elimination, has thirty four points, eight rebound, six assists, playing fifty eight minutes in a double overtime win.

In the finals, they lose. Game seven obviously, averages thirty three points, twelve rebounds, five assists, two blocks, and an unbreakable record. This is as unbreakable as any record there are. Will be played three hundred and forty five minutes in a single finals. That is, break out your calculators. Forty nine minutes per game in a seven game series, average forty nine minutes per game in a seven game series.

For the Finals, they gave Finals MVP to John Havlichek, who averaged twenty six and eight on forty two percent shooting over Kareem's thirty three to twelve five and two on fifty six percent shooting. For the playoffs that year, Kareem averaged thirty two to sixteen to five and two and averaged more than forty seven minutes per game. Then he gets traded to the Lakers and they actually missed the playoffs two straight years. That's a ding on him.

It's a small ding, but it's a ding. Now. One of those years they missed the playoffs in Parks, they started so terribly. He's broke his hand, but still a ding. They need to punch Kurt Benson. If I remember correctly, nineteen seventy seven, we're back in the playoffs and against a kick ass Warriors team. Rick Berry Jamal Wilkes, Young, Robert Parrish, Gus Williams. They had just won the title a couple of years ago, they being the Warriors. He

has one of his most dominant series ever. Game two, already up one to zero in the series, has a forty point nineteen rebound, three assist, three steel, nine block game the old forty nineteen three to three and nine box score in Game four has forty one and eighteen, but they lost that and the series was tied. Game five has forty five and eighteen to go up three to two. Game six to try to close them out, this great Warriors team try and close them out has

forty three and twenty, but they lose Game seven. Game seven against the Warriors team that's just won the title a couple of years prior. Lakers team has done nothing in MISSIS playoffs two straight years. Game seven thirty six points, twenty six rebounds, four assists, five blucksh for the series averaged thirty seven points, nineteen rebounds, four assists, two steals,

four blocks on sixty percent shooting. Pretty good. Round two, Facing the one time Bill Walton's fully healthy with Portland, I thought he vastly outplayed Walton again, I'm not gonna act I was able to watch all those games. You see clips of them. There's one full game you can find on YouTube, but a lot of it is reading the box score. I will admit that.

history here. As the NBA started adding more teams to the playoffs, they started doing this thing where if you weren't a top seed, the top seed or a top three seeded dependentives, they added teams. In the first round of the playoffs, you played a best of three. I wish they hadn't done this because I think it robbed us of some better potential conference finals and finals. But because of that best of three, it's not quite a single elimination, but it's close as you can get to it.

So in nineteen seventy eight, the Lakers lose to the Sonics two to one, despite Kareem averaging twenty seven points, fourteen rebounds, four assists, four blocks for the series. Nineteen seventy nine Round one, facing another Douardi Game three again Douardi Game three sounds, Weird has twenty nine points, sixteen rebounds, eight assists, six blocks, playing all forty eight points in a one point win to advance. So that's the game

seven version of round one. Back then he has twenty nine, sixteen, eight and six and they win by one. He played all forty eight minutes again. Now you're facing Seattle, the Lakers losing five to the eventual NBA Champs team that had beaten him the previous year in round one despite Kareem averaging twenty nine points, twelve rebounds, five assists. Then nineteen eighty they get Magic Johnson. The rest of Kareem's career, which was another decade, he would make the finals eight

of his final ten years. The two times he didn't make the finals, one of them was again because of a fluky best of three round one thing just unbelievable. Once he got paired up with Magic, but he was still the lead dog for the beginning and one could argue the first five years of the eighties, let's go through it. Wow, we're only nineteen eighty, spent a lot of time here and we're about to have eight five more finals trips to get to. I'll try to speed up,

but it's it's hard. So the Lakers get magic in nineteen eighty and they're a true juggernaut for the first time with Kareem. He opened the playoffs with a thirty point, twelve rebound, five block performance. In that third thirty point performance, he played only thirty five minutes and he only took fourteen shots. The rest of that series, he has a couple more thirty five plus point games, and he averages for the series thirty two points, eleven rebounds on fifty

nine percent gets Seattle. Against Seattle remembers knocked him out of the playoffs the previous two years against Seattle, gets revenge on him, including to close Seattle out, throws up thirty eight points, eleven rebounds, six assists, two steal, seven blocks. See that really makes me wonder what Kareem's block tolls we're gonna would have been like right when he got to the league, But we don't have that data and in fairness, we don't have for will for Russell either,

obviously for the entirety of their careers. So he closes out Seattle with a thirty eight, eleven, six, two and seven averages for the series thirty one twelve, four to two and four. In the finals, this is the second time I think he is robbed of a Finals MVP. In game one, he has thirty three points, fourteen rebounds, five assists, six blocks. In game two he has thirty eight points, fourteen rebounds, three assists, two steals, five blocks.

In game three he has thirty three points, fourteen rebounds, three steals, four blocks. And then in game five, with the series tied, gets hurt, comes back and has forty points, fifteen rebounds and four blocks to win the game, but because of the injury in game five, he has to miss game six. That's when Magic put up his magical forty two, fifteen and seven and they gave Magic the Finals MVP, despite the fact again Kareem did not win Finals MVP. For Finals he won where he averaged thirty

three points, fourteen rebounds, three assists, five blocks. Just unbelievable. Nineteen eighty one, they're the defending champs and they're playing another one of these best of threes. And this is when they played the best of three against Seattle in what it's seventy eight. They had a mediocre regular season. In eighty one, they had the second best record in

their conference. They won fifty four games. Yet they end up having to play a best of three because the weird seeding rules in the NBA had added teams, and they lose Game three. Despite in Game three against Moses Malone, Kareem had thirty two points, eighteen rebounds, four assists, four blocks. So that ends the first twelve years of Kareem's career. In those first twelve years in the playoffs, he averaged thirty points, sixteen rebounds, four assists, three blocks on around

fifty five percent shooting. All right, nineteen eighty two, another championship best record in the West, they sweep through the Western Conference playoffs and Kareem only averages twenty two to nine, four and three. Again, only twenty two points, nine and rebounds, forces three steals, and in the finals, for the first time in his career, he's outplayed by somebody, but it's

his teammate. Magic Lakers win the title. Magic gets his second Finals MVP should be his first Finals MVP because Kareem should have won in eighty and this marks Kareem moving into a slightly different phase of his career. And this phase I would call I don't even know why I would call it this phase. He was still better than Peake David Robinson, but he was no longer playing like world beating Juggernaut every single night. Instead, he saved

those for the biggest nights. So nineteen eighty three, he led all players in playoff points per game and blocks per game. Again, this is his what is this? This is his fourteenth year in the league, and he led all players in playoff points per game, in blocks per game twenty seven points per game by the way, four blocks per game. He opened the playoff with four straight thirty plus point games and averaged thirty one points, eight rebounds, and five blocks per game in round one against Portland.

In the Western Armends Finals against George Gervin and the Spurs, he averages twenty six points, eight rebounds, four blocks to get back to the finals. In the finals, Moses and the Sixers were too much for him. I would argue that Sixers seems one of the two greatest teams ever.

They sweep the Lakers. Despite the fact that Kareem averaged again against Moses twenty four points, eight rebounds on fifty five percent nineteen eighty fours year fifteen, and in these playoffs, Kaream seemed to pick his spots until the inevitable finals trip. Game four of round two, up to one, has a chance for the kill shot, has thirty three points, eleven rebounds, four blocks on seventy four percent shooting to essentially lock

up the series. Games three to four of the Western Conference Finals against Phoenix, Kaream has thirty one in each game, and in those two games was seventy three percent from the field for seventy two. He was twenty four of thirty three from the field combined in those two games, scoring thirty one in each. Then in the finals against the hated Celtics, Kareem once again was out of his mind.

Also keep in mind this is the regular season this year he breaks the all time scoring record, so he already had played long enough to break the all time scoring record. It's year fifteen for him, okay, And in the finals Game one, he has thirty two points, eight rebounds, five assists. Game four, with a chance to go up three to one and really take a stranglehold of the series, he has thirty two points, eight rebounds, six assists, four steels, two blocks, but they lost in overtime, so the series

is tied. Game six, facing eliminations, they also lost Game five, he has thirty points, ten rebounds, five assists. Again, this is year fifteen for Kaream. So they win that game, they force the game seven, and in that game seven, Magic really struggled. We've talked to the tragic Johnson stuff, really struggling. That game seven, Kaream had twenty nine. It's not enough. Kaream averaged for the finals twenty six points, eight rebounds, four assists. Now we're to nineteen eighty five.

Kaream is thirty eight years old, fourteen years removed from his first Finals MVP. Should have two more, but he doesn't, and he gets his second Finals MVP. He's good in the playoffs leading up to the finals. The Lakers are nobody's touching him. In the West. They're eleven to two in those three rounds. They never trail him. Series, they face no real adversity, and in the Western Conference playoffs, heading into the Finals, he averages just twenty points per

game in just thirty minutes per game. He's not playing a lot that it's a lot of blowouts. Then in the Finals he gets his revenge on Boston. Game one, the Lakers are beat by a thousand points. He guys can google it the Memorial Day masker. Boston thought they were gonna go back to back. So what does Kareem do after that? Game two? Thirty points, seventeen rebounds, eight assists. Again, he's thirty eight years old. He had broken the all

time scoring record a year and a half earlier. He has a year earlier, he has thirty, seventeen and eight. In game two, Game three, he has twenty six, fourteen and seven. Game five, with the series tied, he has thirty six points, seven rebounds, seven assists. And then to win the title in Game six, he has twenty six points and seven rebounds in just thirty five minutes because he fouled out. For the series, he averages twenty six points,

nine rebounds, five assists on sixty percent shooting. Going against Kevin McHale and Robert Parrish. He was thirty eight years old. As defending champions and finals MVP and Kareem, at thirty nine years old, is just still kicking people's asses. In nineteen eighty six Round two, he averages against Dallas twenty nine points, six rebounds, four assists on sixty percent shooting, and scored at least twenty six in every game of

the series. He's thirty nine. In the Western Reference Finals against a couple of big men known as a chem Olajuan and Ralph Sampson, he went for thirty twice, averaged twenty seven and seven for the series for the Lakers, losing six. So this is the only other time other than the best of three that we talked about against Houston kind of flukey thing when they won fifty four games, so ill hat to play best of three. This was the only other year of the entire nineteen eighties where

Kareem is not in the finals those playoffs. In year nineteen, I'm sorry at thirty nine years old, not year nineteen, Kareem averaged twenty six points, four rebounds. Twenty six points, six rebounds, four assists, two blocks on fifty six percent shooting while playing thirty five minutes per game. Nineteen eighty seven, Kaream is now forty years old and the Lakers are a legitimate juggernaut. Some people argue this is the best team ever. I don't think it is. Some people argue

this they won sixty five games. They were eleven to one route to their championship. Not surprisingly Kaream's best games or eleven and yeah, eleven and one in route to the finals, I should say, and not surprisingly Kaream's best games pre finals with the two close ones. The Lakers had their one loss and they're one close win which was by only a point. Where Kareem's two best games. He had twenty seven and twenty eight points respectively in

those two games. Then in the finals again you're facing the Celtics. In Game three, he has twenty seven and seven and then up three to two with a chants to win the title, he has thirty two and six with four blocks on seventy two percent shooting in just twenty two minutes. Again, I want to reiterate this, guys chance to win the title. Game six against the Celtics, he has thirty two points, six rebounds, four blocks on seventy two percent shooting in twenty nine minutes. He's forty

years old. For those playoffs. Let me let me give you a little context here. For those playoffs, he averaged nineteen points and seven rebounds on fifty three percent shooting at forty years old. Nineteen points, seven rebounds, fifty three percent shooting. He did it at forty Who has done that? Who averages for their playoff career at least nineteen points, at least seven rebounds on at least fifty three percent shooting. Well,

Kareem did at forty years old. You want to know the full list of people, Well, obviously Kareem's on it. The rest of the list Shaquille O'Neal and Anthony Davis. That's it.

a different player. But that again, you can't be the second best player of the last fifty years, which by the way, also means second best player ever because he's had a wilt Ann Russell without finding a way to make an impact even at age forty one. He averaged seventeen and five in round one at age forty one and in the biggest spots, showed up down two one in round two to Carl Malone and John Stockton had a twenty and eleven. Western Armerends Finals tied to two.

Had twenty one and five in the finals Game five, tied too two had twenty six and six on fifty seven percent at forty one, god dang years old. But they lose. And then in Game six, with the championship on the line, with Isaiah shooting, flames out his ass with the with the spray and angle in the twenty five point quarter. Down a point, what do the Lakers do? They give the ball to Kareem with the game on

the line. He gets fouled, maybe he doesn't get fouled, but he gets the call and he goes the line and sinks both free throws. They force the game seven. They win Game seven, they win another title. So at forty one years old, they don't win that title with Alan, hands down the biggest play of their season. They ran it for Kareem. For the finals, he averaged thirteen and four, which, by the way, doesn't sound that impressive, but then you realize that is exactly what Joe Dumar's average for those

Joe Dumars was in the prime of his career. They win another title, Ring number six, nineteen eighty nine. Cream's forty two years old. The Lakers do make another finals with the Pistons are the best team in basketball. But again, Kaream has one last big game in him. He's forty two years old. Down oh two in the finals, not wanting to get swept, throws up a twenty four to thirteen in the finals against the eighty eight Pistons or eighty nine Pistons. Pardon me, but they lose and they

get swept, and then it's over. Then it's over. He only gave you twenty years. So the final playoff resume in short, is led the playoffs in points per game five times and blocks per game five times. Third most playoff points ever, behind only Lebron and Jordan. Fifth most playoff rebounds ever, second most playoff blocks ever, fifth most playoff games over, third, most playoff minutes ever, third most

finals points ever, behind only Jerry West and Lebron. Fifth most finals rebounds ever, behind only Lebron in the last fifty years, most finals blocks ever third, most finals games ever, behind only Russell and Sam Jones. Fourth, most finals minutes

ever played, behind only Russell, Jerry West, and Lebron. Fifty two career thirty and ten playoff games third most ever, behind only Lebron and Elgin, seventy five career thirty point playoff games fourth most all time behind only MJ, Lebron and Kobe, and a career playoff average of twenty four and ten on fifty three percent. That, my friends, is how you become the second greatest player of the last fifty years. One Kareem abdul Jabbar. I don't know that

I did him justice there I hope I did. We will take some calls on it and do a quick preview of number one, which was maybe the only predictable result of this entire list. Will do that next to What's Wright? All Right? Welcome back in What's Right with Nick Wright special Edition and our second to last special edition. As we are counting down the fifty guards players the last fifty years, we just revealed number two, Kareem abdul Jabbar, which means you know who Number one is Lebron, but

we'll have plenty of time talking about Lebron. We might even do a few minutes on Lebron before the end of today's show. But first, as we have listen, I just did I think it was thirty five minutes on Kareem's career. Could have done thirty five hours on it. I so for all these guys, I put these notes in a document, and by the way, the full document, and it's just the notes of it. The full document is at last check, seventy two typed pages, twelve point font,

single space. That's for the fifty players, which makes sense because the early guys, each of them, it took about a you know, so I'm looking at Bernard King, Bernard King and Carmelo, those two guys took one page combined, and then you get down to those were fifty and forty nine on the list. Then you get down to, for example, Steve Nash. Steve Nash took about three quarters of a page, and then you scroll down to guy number thirty five, Russell Westbrook, and Russell Westbrook took a

full page himself. It's like, oh okay, because again they have more of a playoff resume more of more of everything, sort of speak. Let's jump down a lot. You go down to, for example, find a good one here. Number well twenty is Luca Lucas a little short one. Gosh, Luca. People still mad with the Luca thing again, people watch Luca video. I explain there's precedent for it. I'm gonna keep leaving on that. President d Wade, number nineteen on the list. D Wade takes about a page and a half.

And then we get down even further to where it's like, okay, so Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant is almost two full pages for the notes I have, not every it's obviously not scripted, but the notes I have because there's a ton of numbers to remember. And then you get down to a guy like a chem long career, a ton of stuff to go through. A chem is more than two full pages. And then when I didn't Magic Kobe was three pages, super long career. Duncan was three pages. Magic was nearly

three pages, even though the career was shortened. Michael was I want to get it right. Michael was five full pages. Cream is six and a half pages in my notes, and I and I had to cut a lot of stuff, felt like someone editing that. Wait, no, I'm sorry. Cream was seven and a half full pages of my notes, and so that's why that took so long. So now I want to turn it over to some callers here, God if that's by the way, So this thing is seventy two pages, and I haven't even added the Lebron

stuff to it. So, in other words, if it's seventy two pages about Lebron stuff, this thing'sa end up being one one hundred and seventy two pages long. Okay, here's our first caller on Kareem. Let's do it.

He turns thirty eight that year and wins finals MVP again that playoffs. He's older than Lebron is right now. And by the way, the next year in the playoffs, when he was thirty nine, he averaged twenty six points per game. Again, I don't have to reiterate it. Al

did it. I did it for thirty five minutes. But he for Kareem at fifteen years old, fifteen years old to start a seventy one game winning streak and win three state championships, and then to go to college and go eighty eight to two and win three national championships, and then from his rookie season until age thirty eight, be arguably the best player in the league, if not the whole time for top three player, the entirety of

that time. Like you're talking about almost a quarter century of just kicking ass and taking names at every level of basketball you're allowed to play. No one will ever have a basketball life the way Kareem did that much, I know is true, the best basketball life ever. Because Lebron was great in high school, didn't dominate the way Kareem did, and didn't play in college. Jordan famously, you know, was didn't make varsity as a freshman in high school.

Was good, but wasn't even the best player on his freshman his freshman year playing college basketball at North Carolina hit the biggest shot in team history, but well, yeah, the biggest shot in team history, but wasn't the best player until his sophomore in his junior year, and then sophomore in his junior a disappointingu Tar Hills did NCAA tournament. And guys these days aren't gonna play college basketball, you know, for three plus years like Kareem did. It's no one

will ever have the basketball life Kareem did. I know that. All right, Now, let's go to one of our I have a little preview on who this is one of our most special callers. Yet let's go to it.

Couldn't double the triple team the cat because he was gonna sky hook you. Second thing is when you did double a triple team him, he was dropping that ball off the magic or the coop for some scores. And last, but not least, which makes Kareem my goat is because you couldn't file the big guy, Kaream was gonna knock down his free throws. Three things that make goats, Kareem has them all goat of all time.

But if we can all arrive to the same place that all three of these guys have an argument, then we must acknowledge that by definition to tutology, that if three people have an argument to be the best ever, someone who has an argument to be the best ever must come in third, and in the contemporary Jordan Lebron debate, Kareem has always been sleffed off as third, and I just don't think it's accurate. And certain some folks do a Jordan Kobe thing and they don't or they throw magic.

I don't think it's tenable, and I don't think after listening to what we just did with Kareem, it is tenable to make an argument for anyone other than Lebron and Michael ahead of it. Now, I don't think Michael did enough. If Michael would have played longer, I made this joke on First Things First, and I stamp by it. I think Antoine Walker made the point, Well, Michael left to go play baseball. Yeah, which is why if I were doing a list of the greatest baseball players ever,

Michael Jordan would be ahead of Kareem. But Kaream never left. Kaream just kept playing basketball. And at some point these type of these rankings, these tiers, these hierarchies have to be about what you accomplished. And I know when it comes to the Michael and Lebron thing, everyone gets hung up on six rings versus four rings. But you can't play that game with Kareem. Kaream has six rings versus six rings, and then the whole finals appearances thing with

Lebron people use as a slight. But when when Kaream and Michael have the same number of rings, that's when the finals appearances take on a different light. And I'll use the analogy I always use and I used on the podcast earlier this week. If the NBA Championship is a gold medal, and making the finals but not winning the championship is a silver medal. Michael has six golds and zero silvers. Now, if you want to argue that's more impressive than Lebron's four golds and six silvers, so

be it. That's at least an argument. But six golds and zero silvers in no universe is more impressive than Kareem's six golds and four silvers. The idea that one should be penalized, or let me put a different way, rewarded for losing earlier in the postseason and therefore avoiding a finals loss is illogical and would It's only proffered because it helped protect the legacy of Jordan and anyone that has watched these videos and if you're this deep into this one that I assume you have knows I

paid tribute to Jordan. It's just that Kareem and Lebron we'll get to next week. They're going to end up playing No, no, no, no, that's that's not even close to right. They're seventy percent more games than Michael Jordan. They're going to Lebron's going to if you do total games, I'm doing the math top my head and I've probably screwed it up, but I'll just the Jordan played what is considered twelve full seasons, Cream played twenty. Lebron is

entering year twenty. So you're talking about a demonstrative amount of more games and more time to accomplish things, and that's got to count on these things. So why is Lebron number one? Give you a sneak peek of that? Next wrap up today? All right, welcome back in final segment. What's right? Nick Wright special Edition Premiumbbar Edition, As he's number two on our fifty earers players last fifty years, And I said I was going to give you a

sneak peek of why Lebron is number one. Instead, I will just refer you to just see literally anything I've done on television or on this podcast over the last five years. Hey, you can get a little sneak peak there. This podcast went way longer than I'm supposed to. It screws us up on our commercial inventory all that. So, if you want to hear the full Lebron James oral history, if you will tune in this time next week, I'll try to keep that podcast under an hour and a half.

I can't promise I'll succeed. That's next week. What's ranging? Hey, thanks for watching smash or just lightly tap that subscribe button. It all works the same to get more from the show and make sure you click. Why don't you want to mash the bell too, You guys are just you know, lightly tap the bell to get notified every time new content drops. Check out full episodes of What's Right wherever you get your podcasts, or just hit a link in the description below.