The All-Time NBA Team: Bench and Alternates

If Johnson had played a few more years, his accomplishments might have eclipsed Jordan entirely. In only 12 seasons, he won four NBA Championships and three MVPs, while making the finals nine times.

He won his first Championship when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was nearing towards the end of his career—so while it looked like he was part of a dynasty, Johnson simply avoided playing for a team in rebuilding mode.

Johnson was the second coming of Robertson, as he was also versatile and big for his position. Magic was one of a few players who could play any of the five positions if he wanted to—but most of his damage came as a point guard.

Magic's presence on the floor singlehandedly made the Lakers a better team than they would be without him. And he did it averaging around just 20 points per game. Many of today’s dominant players must average at least 25 points—and usually closer to 30—in order to make their teams competitive.

9. Dolph Schayes (1950-1959)

Schayes is a very difficult player to rank on an all-time list.  There is no question that he was the best player of the 1950s, but he played in a league with few competent big men—besides Bob Pettit and George Mikan—and undoubtedly scored a lot of his points at the free-throw line.

Schayes played in a time before the shot-clock was invented and during a close game, fouling became almost a necessity to stay competitive. Schayes ended his career with more points than Pettit or Mikan.

The other thing that makes Schayes' accomplishments superior to Mikan's, who dominated exclusively with his size, was the outside shooting touch and passing ability. He was the first big man not to rely exclusively on his post game.

But again, the only thing that knocks him down is that it’s impossible to say if he would be as great of a player against defenders his size or even bigger than him.

10. Julius Erving (1970-1979)

It’s very hard to assess how good Erving really was, because he played in two separate leagues. His ABA numbers are nearly impossible to track—but luckily I got some help from Kalb’s research.

He averaged 24.9 points and 15 rebounds in his rookie season with the 1972 Virginia Squires, although it’s hard to figure out if he would have had those numbers in the NBA.

But there are a few other indicators that show why he belongs on this list.

First of all, he glorified the art of dunking, and was really the first player to dominate the game with his athleticism.  Erving simply did things that nobody in the game has ever seen before.

In the NBA, Erving averaged 22 points per game in 11 seasons, which is nothing eye-popping—but Erving wasn’t the clear No. 1 option on his team. The best players from the 70s were owned by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bob McAdoo, and Pete Maravich.

McAdoo made my team, but I felt there were other centers more deserving than Kareem, and Maravich had a short career, so I chose other guards that I thought were more qualified than him. I don’t have anything against Erving—I just can’t qualify his dominance in the ABA because he was never substantially better in the NBA.

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