Duncan is unquestionably the greatest *player* on this list. But calling him the greatest power forward kinda stretches the definition of a 4. He played 63% of his NBA games at the 5. He was a 5 in college. Tim Duncan's a center. People only call him a power forward because 1) he played the 4 when he first came up and the Admiral was playing the 5, and 2) folks want to give Duncan his flowers (understandably) and don't like putting him up against Kareem, Wilt, Russell, Dream, and Shaq at center.

Holy shit this was such a terrible list looking back at it

Mitch Richmond

Nah sorry... You can't use an argument for one player being lower on the list but totally ignore it when talking about other players on the list. Should have turned the video off when you put Stockton at 10..

Why would you talk about something that you know Nothing about the truth is in the Knowledge?🤔the younger generation Kills Me in Stupidity😨 please do your home Work🤓*

Chauncey was so underrated. Still is. One of the strongest on ball defenders at the point the league has ever seen. Dude could switch 1-2-3. Super clutch. Detroit will always love Mr. Big Shot.

simply james sucks

There is no way that you've got Westbrook over Stockton, Kidd and Nash 🙄

Shaq is way overrated. He wasn't the best player on his championship teams, he was an average rebounder, had hardly any offensive moves, and was a terrible FT shooter. A lot of people say Kareem was the most dominant center of the 70s and 80s, but I think Moses was better from 79 to 84.

Timmy couldn't shoot 3's? I remember when he send the game into double overtime, where the spurs win 117-115 over the suns

hasn't Dirk Nowitzki done enough that people should know how to pronounce his last name?

Best clutch shooter of all time.. Remeber.. If I need a guy withast shot to win the game, MJ.. If I need a guy to take the last shot to save my life, Larry Bird😊

I would take Leonard over Durant.. Defense?

Being a prima Dona... 😅

Ur top 3 is accurate

Already Nash 9..JK 10..Stockton 8

Lol... I disagree because Stockton isn't sexy is the reason lol... I am a huge Westbrook fan but he is better than Westbrook as a PG

During 2016 PO season, Curry was playing through injury. That's why he was uncharacteristically sub-par.

Giannis is still the best in the world, don't let them silence you.

The Mike Dantoni system works at its best if its run by a point guard and the point guard is the leader of that offense (Nash, Billups, Chris Paul). Melo was even at his best in his career when he was playing on a team where the point guard was running the offense (when he was teammates with Billups and Kidd), as Melo made the Conference Finals in Denver with Billups being the leading point guard, and Melo had arguably the best season of his career when he was with the Knicks in 2012-2013 with Kidd as the point guard. But as Billups said in the interview, Melo needed to get his 30+ points no matter what, and only a veteran presence could tell him to snap out of it, like Billups and Kidd. Bottom line, for the Melo-Lin combination to work under Dantoni, Melo would have had to basically become a role-player and let Lin be the leader of the offense, which sounds very iffy, considering Lin only had one year experience and Melo was basically a veteran at that point. Melo could respect Billups and Kidd for obvious veteran reasons, but Lin, it was never gonna happen.

Dirk over KG is criminal

I would like to sit down and have a debate with you

This is just an ESPN list

Wait so the criteria includes the individual being the best in the league during their prime? But you include magic?

Then I might have to go and get tested for brain damage right after you I would put Larry at number one without bias or media influence and being told what I should think or feel but for a healthy debate let's talk

Yeah I was going to try to watch some of your other list on positions. But after your take on Stockton. I'm out.

#1 Bill Russell. He did whatever it took to win Smartest, most versatile, greatest leader, greatest all-around player, and greatest professional sports winner of all time. 11 NBA Championships in 13 years, 2 NCAA Championships, an Olympic Gold Medal. Five times NBA Most Valuable Player. Great defensive player & intimadator, rebounder, shot-blocker, and passer. An unselfish basketball mastermind. If he had to score more to win, he did. However, he was more focused on using his many skills to lift up his teammates and to win.

He quit that’s it

Hakeem is better than Shaq. Hakeem beat Shaq in the Finals when both were in prime form. The gap in their offense does not compare to the gap in their defense. Hakeem had infinitely less help in his career and still had only 2 less rings. Hakeem had no weaknesses unlike Shaqs FT shooting. Hakeem has slightly better individual accolades over a long career with only a slightly lower peak.

it is a myth that wilt was a stat padder. he was not. his coaches literally wanted him to score as much as possible becasue the firs many years he had a team of people with below a .400 shooting percentage and were way under .500 wilt brough thtem to the playoffs every year and to the finals some times. the best shooter is going to shoot the most. i have studies wilt ad nauseum, nobody ever climaed he fought with his team mates to stat pad. also, you are taking away the fact he was the greates tdefender of all time EVER and that includes bill russell. and the 8 team rotation is actually the opposite. it STRENGHTS how many rings russ had and what wilt did. becuase tehre was only 120 spots for people to make it. and there was NO college players allowed no matter how good they were. they also played with fundamntlas, they played with chuck taylore the did not track blocks or steals. wilt literlly average 11-12 blocks per game for 13 years. had games with 25+ as well. he had a quintiple doulbe. there were 4 g ame 7s vs boston he lost to by a total of only 9 points 1 game they wer down by 1 opint, with 5-6 seconds left, they were supposed to throw the ball to wilt with his craz apeed and strength and abiilty he would have easily socred to win. but the guy threw it right to Hondo ending the game. another game, his team was up by 1 point and boston scored a baskeet that bounced off the rim 12 feet high, hit the rim. bouneced around several times and went in to win it with massive luck a 3rd game later. wilt felt a slight pain but was better with 5 minutes to go they were down by 2, and wound up losing by 2. his idiot coach refused to put him back in becasue he had a beef with chamberlina and wanted to show who was boss . had he put wilt in they would have easily won.

10 Scoring Titles AND A Defensive Player Award IN His First 5 Seasons

Patrick , David Robinson never choked against Hakeem they still put up numbers it’s Hakeem was a better player 💯💯

Yea naw fam

Gotta disagree with your take on Kobe not being one of the great perimeter defenders to ever play. That's a ridiculous statement. The top 2 defenders of the 2000's were Tim Duncan at #1, and Kobe at #2. He didn't get his 1st-team All Defense selections in his prime years just because he was Kobe. If that truly was the case, then why hasn't Lebron made the All-Defensive team for years now just based off of his name? Kobe got those selections by forcing turnovers, blocking shots, forcing tough shots, etc. You can look at plays here and there where he gets beat on a play, or watches the ball too much, but those are isolated plays in long 82 game seasons, including playoffs. That's far from what happened most of the time. Everyone has those lowlights, including Duncan, and Garnett (the best rim protectors in the game at that time). MJ has those as well, and he's the GOAT. Also, keep in mind, Kobe played both ends of the floor at the highest level, and didn't miss many games at all. As for rim protectors being more valuable defenders, that's true from a team standpoint, but that doesn't make a rim protector the better defender. Rim protectors aren't usually guarding opponents in space, and they often have help defense, especially back before teams started to space the floor like Michael Irvins front teeth. The paint was usually clogged with 2 or 3 defenders by the time the opponent drove to the hoop.

A lot of logical leaps in this video. Melo has his faults, thats a fact, but Lin had his chance to be the guy in Houston, and their org philosophy was of offensive efficiency. Lin would shine in spurts, and he was a good player, but this is a huge logical leap to ASSUME that Lin would be head and shoulders of what he was. Lastly D'Antoni wanted to cut Lin, bc he wasn't impressed and it was his brother that talked him into keeping him. Lets not pretend that there was some magical connection bwtn the coach and playet.

You really couldn’t help yourself but chose a man who has let so many other teams have so many rings on his watch. What is this prime where Lebron still has less rings, less mvp, less all NBA dense, less DPOY than many of these other players while he is played longer? It’s very a controversial statement. He is played longer but has less accomplishments but somehow he is better? I’d argue Hakeem, Kareem, Shaq, Magic and MJ had a better prime.

The Holiday slander not age well lol

There's an inherent issue with your logic here. Your video is titled "Who Has The Greatest Prime in NBA History?", but you value longevity > peak. Longevity and prime are two different things. Longevity here refers to how long a player was able to sustain greatness. Prime refers to their peak, or in the case of the argument in this video, how high a player peaked at their best. Saying a player has the greatest prime because of their longevity is like saying a race car is the best because it can drive the most miles. A race car is judged by its speed and performance in a short burst, just as an athlete’s prime is about their peak performance over a few years. Longevity is more like a family car’s ability to go the distance; it's important, but it doesn’t determine how fast or powerful the car is in its prime.

Giannis at number 2? No way. The guy is one tricky pony player. on top 10 yes, on top 5 no

maybe it's you who should go and have a brain scan.

Larry Bird should be number 1

U sound like an un-educated clown. He mostly led his teams to the top seed in the east that’s why he mostly didn’t face the top 2 or 3 team on the east in the first round. U fell to mention that also fell to mention Indiana with PG, Rose in the bulls, Boston big 3 etc he had to face wen they was making noise in the east smh

I appreciate that he made this video fr, it makes sense. I can’t see why people are trippin in the comments.

Mustang w the heat ho’ 🔥

1v1 loser biatch like james beard. Boston is best team play. See how that wins rings. Cool man koo 5$ bill bitches

Larry Bird isn't even in this conversation? I don't think he was the best ever, but there are several players mentioned here who I'd put below him. Edit - just finished watching. You've gotta be kidding on LBJ having a better prime than MJ. Longer and better are 2 way different things. Jordan accomplished more in half the time lol. BTW, I can't stand Jordan... But his prime was levels above LBJs.

I blame the nba for this guy. After everyone realized he doesn’t give a shit why did teams continue to sign him? American sports need to learn how to look past the name on someone’s jersey.

Larry Bird won 3 straight MVPs in the middle of Magic’s run. Most people that I’ve heard from give Bird the edge as an individual talent. So having Magic but not Bird, no mention of Wilt, and his overall conclusion is obviously wrong; so that’s three strikes. Nice try youngster. I guess you just had to be there.

If only melo would have beat Kobe in 2009. That would have been his championship right there.

This aged like milk sitting in the sun for a year. Can you all apologize to Eastern Conference MVP, Finals MVP and NBA Champion Jaylen Brown!