NBA Player Rankings: How Sports Journalism Has Lost Its Way

As many of you already know, ESPN.com finished its ranking of the 500 NBA players currently active.  While there are many things that are up for debate when looking at these rankings, one thing is for sure: Sports journalists have stopped caring about winning and have started to care only about statistics and “talent.”

Look, I love guys like Blake Griffin and Chris Paul as much as the next guy, but the fact is they are being overrated by these rankings.

These current rankings are such a departure from past beliefs in what makes a player great that it is disturbing. Guys who haven’t even gotten to the conference finals have no place at the top of these rankings.

How do we decide who the best players in the world are? Shouldn’t we rank them with the idea that winning matters?

Blake Griffin is a fantastic talent, incredible really, but he is a rookie who has never made the playoffs. If you want to put a rookie in the Top 10, they better have had Magic Johnson-like success in their first season out. Otherwise, they ought to wait their turn.  Men like Kevin Garnett and Pau Gasol ought to be appreciated more than they are in these rankings. Those who are proven winners should be given favorable positions over those with favorable statistics.

In the end, there is plenty of subjectivity in any ranking, but I think that as journalists and sports fans we can’t forget what matters most in the game: winning.

There’s a reason Bill Russell is considered one of the best players in the game. Just crack open Bill Simmons’ “The Book of Basketball” and read the chapter comparing Bill Russell to Wilt Chamberlain. In the end, we care about wins, not raw talent.

And the truth is, I don’t really have a problem with Lebron being ranked first. The man got to the NBA Finals. He doesn’t have a ring on his finger but at least his team played in the final game of the season. Players that have yet to prove the ability to get deep in the playoffs have no place in the Top 10. Players like Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki deserve better positioning. Why? Because the last time I checked they accounted for the last three NBA finals MVPs.

And that’s a fact no journalist can refute.