Basketball fans love a good argument. Honestly, it’s basically half the fun of being a fan. You grab a drink, sit down with friends, and within ten minutes, someone is screaming about why a guy who played in 1965 would "get cooked" today, or why a modern superstar is "soft." But when we talk about the greatest all time nba players, we often get blinded by the "now."
We’re living in a weird era. It’s January 2026. LeBron James is forty-one years old and just passed the 50,000-point mark when you combine regular season and playoff totals. That's a number that feels fake. It feels like a video game glitch. Yet, despite that literal mountain of evidence, the debate over who sits at the very top of the mountain hasn't settled. If anything, it’s gotten messier.
Why the Standard Rankings for All Time NBA Players are Broken
Most people look at a list of the greatest ever and expect it to be a simple math problem. You add up the rings, multiply by the MVPs, and boom—there’s your winner. But basketball doesn't work like that. If it did, Bill Russell would be the undisputed king with eleven rings, and we’d all just go home.
The reality is that we're comparing different sports. The NBA in 1996 was a wrestling match with a hoop. The NBA in 2026 is a track meet with three-pointers. When you try to rank all time nba players, you have to account for the fact that Michael Jordan never had to guard a 7-foot Serbian who passes like Magic Johnson and shoots like Dirk Nowitzki.
Nikola Jokic is a perfect example of why these lists are so fluid. Just a few years ago, putting him in a top-ten conversation would have gotten you laughed out of the room. Now? With three MVPs and a statistical profile that breaks every advanced metric we have, he’s forcing us to rethink what "greatness" even looks like for a big man. He’s already being called the GOAT by some of his peers, which sounds crazy until you actually watch him play for four quarters.
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The LeBron James Longevity Tax
It’s sorta funny. People actually use LeBron's long career against him now. You'll hear fans say, "Well, he only has four rings in twenty-three seasons, MJ got six in much less time."
That’s a wild way to look at it.
LeBron currently sits at 42,683 regular-season points. He’s played more minutes than almost anyone in history. Does the fact that he’s still a top-15 player in the league at 41 diminish his peak? Or does it prove he’s a different kind of Tier 1 athlete? In the playoffs alone, he has 8,289 points. Michael Jordan is second with 5,987. That’s a gap of over 2,300 points in the postseason—the "real" season.
We’ve never seen a player stay this good for this long. Usually, by forty, NBA legends are either retired or playing twelve minutes a night as a locker-room mentor. LeBron is still out there hunting triple-doubles.
The "Forgotten" Middle Class of Greatness
We spend so much time on Jordan vs. LeBron that we ignore the guys who actually defined the game’s evolution.
Take Kevin Durant. He just passed Wilt Chamberlain for 7th on the all-time scoring list earlier this month. KD is arguably the most efficient high-volume scorer we’ve ever seen. He’s 6’11” with a guard’s handle and a release point that is literally impossible to contest. Yet, because he changed teams a few times, he often gets pushed to the back of the "top ten" line.
Then there’s James Harden. Love him or hate him, "The Beard" just moved past Shaq for 9th on the scoring list. Think about that. A shooting guard who started his career as a sixth man has scored more points than the most dominant physical force in the history of the game. That tells you everything you need to know about how the three-point line has changed the math for all time nba players.
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What Really Happened with the Old School Legends?
There’s a growing trend of "disrespecting the elders" in basketball circles. You’ve probably seen the TikToks. They show Wilt Chamberlain playing against guys who look like they sell insurance on the weekends.
But here is the nuance people miss: You can only play who is in front of you.
Wilt was an Olympic-level athlete who could have played in any era. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's skyhook is still the most unguardable shot in history. If you put 1971 Kareem in the 2026 NBA, he’s still putting up 30 and 12. He might even shoot a few corner threes because his touch was that good.
The reason these older legends stay on the list of greatest all time nba players isn't just nostalgia. It’s about impact. They forced the league to change its rules. The NBA widened the lane because of Wilt. They banned dunking for a decade because of Kareem (then known as Lew Alcindor) in college. When the league has to rewrite the rulebook to stop you, you’re an all-time great. Period.
Comparing Eras Without Losing Your Mind
If you want to actually compare players across time, stop looking at raw stats. Look at "Era Adjusted" numbers.
- Michael Jordan: Played in a league where the average score was 100-95. Scoring 35 a night then is like scoring 42 a night now.
- Stephen Curry: He didn't just win rings; he changed how children are taught to play basketball. Every kid in a gym right now is trying to shoot from the logo. That's a "GOAT" level of influence that doesn't show up in a box score.
- Kobe Bryant: His "Mamba Mentality" thing has become a bit of a cliché, but players in 2026 still cite him as their primary inspiration. Shaq recently put Kobe at No. 2 on his all-time list, right behind Jordan.
The Modern Shift: Shai, Luka, and the New Guard
The list of all time nba players is about to get a major shake-up over the next five years.
Luka Doncic is currently 26 years old and already has more All-NBA First Team selections than most Hall of Famers finish with. He's averaging 33.6 points per game this season. He is on a trajectory that, if he stays healthy, will land him in the top five of every major statistical category.
And don't sleep on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He just led OKC to a championship and swept the MVP awards last season. He’s entering that "exclusive club" that includes Jordan and Kareem—players who dominated both ends of the floor while winning at the highest level.
The "Top 10" is a crowded room. There are probably 12 or 15 players who have a legitimate claim to a top-10 spot. It’s why people get so angry. You have to kick someone like Larry Bird or Hakeem Olajuwon out to make room for the new guys. And nobody wants to be the person to tell Hakeem he’s not a top-ten player.
Why We Should Stop Searching for a "Final" List
The search for a definitive list is a fool's errand. The game evolves. The players get faster, the shoes get better, and the training becomes more scientific.
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A player like Victor Wembanyama is the ultimate "unknown" in this debate. We’re seeing a human being do things that shouldn't be physically possible. If he stays healthy for fifteen years, he might make this entire conversation irrelevant. He might be the one who finally ends the Jordan vs. LeBron argument by simply being better than both.
But until then, we’re stuck with the data we have.
The Current Statistical Reality (as of Jan 2026):
- Total Career Points (Regular + Playoffs): LeBron James (50,000+)
- Most Regular Season MVPs: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (6)
- Highest Career PPG: Michael Jordan (30.1)
- Most Rings (Modern Era): Robert Horry (7) — Just kidding, it’s Jordan/Pippen/Kareem/etc. if we're talking about stars.
Actionable Insights for Your Next Basketball Debate
If you're going to argue about the greatest all time nba players, do it with some actual depth. Don't just shout "Rings!" at the screen.
- Look at Context: Did the player win with multiple franchises? Did they have an All-Star teammate every year?
- Value Peak vs. Longevity: Are you picking the guy who was the best for 3 years (like Bill Walton) or the guy who was "very good" for 20 years?
- Check the Defensive Side: Half of basketball happens on the other end of the floor. This is why guys like Hakeem and Duncan often rank higher for experts than for casual fans.
- Acknowledge the Evolution: Understand that today's players are standing on the shoulders of the legends who came before them.
The conversation around the greatest all time nba players is never really over. It’s a living, breathing story. Every Tuesday night in November and every Sunday afternoon in May, a new chapter gets written. Instead of trying to find the "correct" answer, just enjoy the fact that we’re watching some of these legends still work in real-time.
To stay ahead of the curve, start tracking "Advanced Win Shares" and "Player Efficiency Rating (PER)" for the current crop of stars like Shai and Jokic. These stats often predict who will eventually climb the all-time rankings long before the mainstream media catches on. Watching how these metrics hold up in the playoffs is the real key to spotting the next "Top 10" mainstay.