Basketball Legend Names Two Former Celtics To His Top Ten List

Fans across all sports love to debate who’s the greatest in their respective leagues so when an actual legend of basketball makes his all-time Top 10 list, it’s hard to argue.

Except when that list has some pretty dominant players absent from the rankings.

Hall of Famer Julius Erving sat down with social media personality Joy DeAngela to discuss who would be on his top 10 list and the answer, well was rather surprising.

“I have five guys who are untouchable – Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, and Elgin Baylor,” Erving said. “That’s my all-time best team. Everybody else has to be on the second team or the third team, and I made this decision when I was 15 years old. I’m sticking with it now all these years later.

“The next group of guys would be Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Ervin ‘Magic’ Johnson, probably Karl Malone,” Erving continued. “I always argue with my son where Tim Duncan belongs, and he’s like, ‘He belongs ahead of Karl Malone for sure.’ I’m taking Karl Malone and that last position… I like Tiny Archibald.”

DeAngelo asked Erving why current players like Stephen Curry or LeBron James weren’t on the list, he gave a very pointed answer.

“He hasn’t played long enough. He has to finish his career,” Erving said of Curry. “Everybody I named there, their careers are finished.”

Erving is a legend in his own right and it is his own personal list, but Malone over Duncan? That’s a hard one to get behind. Larry Bird could actually make the list over Malone.

Duncan has five championships with the San Antonio Spurs, Bird has three with the Boston Celtics while Malone has come up empty in the NBA Finals in three opportunities, two with the Utah Jazz and one with the Los Angeles Lakers.

The only stats Malone exceeds Duncan and Bird are points per game and field goal percentage. Malone retired with 25 points per game to Duncan’s 19 and Bird’s 24.3 and in field goal percentage, Malone leads the pack with .516 while Duncan and Bird were .506 and .496 respectively.

Duncan (10.8) holds the slight edge in rebounds over Malone (10.1) and Bird (10.0) but dominated in blocks with 2.2 per game to Malone and Bird’s 0.8 a piece.

Not to be outdone, Bird leads the three forwards in assists, steals, three-point percentage and free throw percentage.

Another argument would be why was Kobe Bryant overlooked for Archibald.

The two played in two different eras with Bryant playing in the 90s and 2000s and Archibald in the 70s and 80s, but Bryant has better statistics in all categories with the exception of assists and field goal percentage. Bryant also won five championships to Archibald’s one.

His list is definitely a deviation from the standard lists out there, but can you really argue with most of the players he picked?