There is no one greatest NBA player of all time. Differences in how the game is played, officiated, and adjusted over time show that every era has standout players. It is impossible to predict if Bill Russell could have logged eleven championships had there been more teams when he played.
The quadruple-double has been limited to four players, but could Wilt Chamberlain have accomplished that had those stats been recorded during is time in the league?
By contrast it is hard to imagine Steph Curry being the greatest shooter of all time had he played in the in the 90s when rules didn’t as strongly protect the shooter.
As a Spurs fan, the greatest player (thus far) has been Tim Duncan. He is often left out of the GOAT conversation for any number of reasons, being -but not limited to- not enough titles, not flashy enough, or not enough MVPs.
Duncan is 20th all time in NBA scoring. He’s sixth all time in blocks, seventh in rebounds, 113th in assists, 176th in steals. By comparison, LeBron is in the top 100 for all categories.
Tim Duncan has the best all-time regular season win-loss record percentage. He’s one of only four players with more than 1,000 wins.
But what recently struck a chord as an impressive stat.
Tim Duncan has the highest career plus/minus of all time.
Plus/minus indicates how many points a team gained or lost relative to the opponent when a player was on the floor. If a player comes in the game and his team us up by 10, but they’re tied when he exits the game, his plus/minus for that stretch will be -10. Add up all his stretches for the evening and you have the cumulative plus/minus stat for that game. Add it up for a career and Timothy Theodore Duncan has a +/- of 10,000 points.
Again, this stat has only been used since the 1997-98 season, less than 30 years. No telling how some of the earlier greats stack up.
A look at Duncan’s contemporaries Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Shaquille O’Neal reveal they are all thousands of points away. His closest competitor, LeBron James, in his 22nd season, is still more than 1,200 point behind The Big Fundamental.
Duncan’s court awareness and ability to elevate everyone around his does make him a different type of leader.
While it is not enough to overshadow the accomplishments of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, or Larry Bird, his legendary status deserves a reminder from time to time.
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