Michael Jordan Not Among Top Five NBA Players of All Time, According to John Salley (Video)

by Ricky Doyle on Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 11:49AM

If Michael Jordan isn’t No. 1 on your list of the best NBA players of all time, chances are he holds a spot somewhere between No. 2 and No. 5.

Not so for John Salley.

Salley, a man who won four NBA championships in his NBA career and who I once saw on a flight from L.A. to Boston (remind me to tell you the story some day), broke down his list of the greats while speaking with Colin Cowherd on ESPN Radio. Salley’s No. 1 is Magic Johnson.

Now, that’s an interesting pick for top honors, although not completely irrational. Magic clearly made everyone around him better and had an illustrious career with the Lakers, so putting him above MJ isn’t crazily outlandish. However, what probably does seem a bit off to NBA fans is that Salley continued to go through his list without naming Jordan a top-five player.

Salley said he loves Jordan and that he wasn’t knocking him by any means, but that based on how the game was played and who was most difficult to play against, MJ simply didn’t make the cut.

Check out Salley’s logic in the video below.