NBA Makes Second 75th Anniversary Team Announcement
In my article about Opening Night 2021, I explained why the NBA should have announced the 75th Anniversary Team at once and not in three installments of 25 players each, so I will not cover that territory again.
Here is the second group of 25 players on the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team, announced on Wednesday and listed in alphabetical order:
- Paul Arizin
- Rick Barry
- Larry Bird
- Wilt Chamberlain
- Clyde Drexler
- Tim Duncan
- Patrick Ewing
- Walt Frazier
- Kevin Garnett
- John Havlicek
- Allen Iverson
- Magic Johnson
- Sam Jones
- Michael Jordan
- Karl Malone
- Robert Parish
- Chris Paul
- Scottie Pippen
- Bill Sharman
- Isiah Thomas
- Nate Thurmond
- Wes Unseld
- Bill Walton
- Jerry West
- James Worthy
This group includes four post-1996 players (Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Allen Iverson, Chris Paul) plus 21 players from the NBA's 50 Greatest Players List. Thus, nine of the 50 players announced so far are post-1996 players. There is no rule against selecting a great player from the past who did not make the 50 Greatest Players List (such as Bob McAdoo), but so far the new list does not include any such players. I am not convinced that the 51st best player of all-time in 1996 should be ranked lower than 25 post-1996 players; in other words, when the list is expanded from 50 to 75 that should not mean that only post-1996 players are considered. I will discuss this in greater detail after the final 25 players are announced.
I am happy to see that the 75th Anniversary Team voters have retained at least 41 of the 50 players selected to the NBA's 50 Greatest Players List; recency bias should not cause anyone to forget or diminish the greatness of the NBA's best players from the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
The third group of 25 players will be announced by the NBA tomorrow.
Labels: All-Time NBA Team
posted by David Friedman @ 7:51 PM
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