NBA Great players Introduction

INTRODUCTION

Comparing great NBA players of different eras to make an all-time ranking is a game that interest most of NBA fans, especially the older ones who had the chance to watch the best players at work live. NBA offers all the statistics in the world one could dream of. I only took into consideration the three main statistics to make it simpler without making my study irrelevant. PPG (points per game), APG (assists per game), and RPG (rebounds per game). I selected the best NBA players (with great individual statistics) from the 70s til now, leaving aside the NBA old era. A guy like Wilt Chamberlain couldn't reach the standards he had if he played nowadays. It would just be impossible to average 50 PPG and 27 RPG in the modern era of NBA. That said, it wouldn't make sense to consider him in my study, as it would look weird and irrealistic.

I took a player 5 best regular seasons and made an average for PPG, APG and RBG. I did the same with the 5 best playoffs. And then the same with the 3 best NBA finals. 2, 1 or none depending if the player actually played in a NBA final as some very good players being part of this study never made it to the final. Finally, I made an average between the different averages (regular seasons, playoffs and NBA finals). And these final results (orange box) are the one I will use to compare the players.

To me points and assists worth more than rebounds cause they mean 100% as the shoot got in. Rebounds mean only getting back the possession. And as players only shoot at 40-50%, I decided to give rebounds 50% weight instead of the 100% points and assist get. To make it easier I just granted to points and assists a special coefficient (x2), and leave rebounds at it is.

Something else I did, and you'll see it in the final comparison table, is put players in different categories. Some players are specialists and some others not (rebounder-scorer, assist-scorer, only scorer, all around...). I think it made more sense to compare players having the same characteristics and roles than putting them all in the same bag. You still can compare very different players if you want to, but it's harder and I don't garantee the results will be 100% relevant.