Top 20 NBA Players of the Last 20 Years
Since the GOAT retired in 1998…
32 min readNov 12, 2018
These rankings were weighed by the following seven factors:
- Was he the best basketball player alive at any point in his career? If so, for how long? If not, was he in the conversation?
- Could you win a championship with him as your best player? If not, could you win with him as your second-banana?
- How well did he play on the game’s biggest stage? Did he shrink from the moment, or rise to the occasion?
- At his absolute apex, how high was his ceiling? How long did his peak last? Also, how long did his prime last?
- Individual accolades (in order of most to least important): Finals MVP, NBA MVP, NBA scoring champion, All-NBA selections, All-Star selections, NBA Defensive Player of the Year, All-Defense selections, etc.
- Statistics — Postseason>Regular season
- Team postseason success
Before we get to the top-20, let’s discuss a few things.
- To be considered, a player must be in Year 10 (at least). As a result, disqualified were guys that, while on pace to one day crack the top-20, haven’t played ten years in the league. The notables: Anthony Davis (Year 7), Kawhi Leonard (Year 8), Kyrie Irving (Year 9), and…