The foundation for 2000s NBA basketball was laid in the late 90s, when the Lakers traded for Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant and the Spurs drafted Tim Duncan. As Michael Jordan and the Bulls took their last dance, those two teams, on the backs of those three players, won five of the first six titles of this century, and together those three players have won a combined 14 titles.
Add in four each for LeBron James and Stephen Curry, and that’s 22 championships over the last 25 years spread among just five players.
Sure, there’s overlap in that number, but it illustrates just how dominant these guys were — and in some cases still are — as we take a look back at the NBA’s top 25 players 25 years into the 21st century. Keep in mind, this ranking only accounts for basketball played after Jan. 1, 2000. Nothing Shaq did in Orlando, or in his first few years with L.A., counts. Technically, neither does Duncan’s first title in 1999, though in spirit that one still resonates as the true beginning of the Spurs dynasty.
This ranking, arrived at by way of our CBS Sports NBA staff voting, is sure to be debated. I can already hear the cries of the Kobe contingent for what does, in all fairness, feel like too low a ranking to accurately capture his greatness, even though I agree with all the players ranked above him. Such is life in what has been by far the most collectively talented era in NBA history. To crack the top half of this list, you had to be an all-time great, and even the guys on the lower half are headed straight for the Hall of Fame, if they’re not already there.
So, let the arguing begin. Just try to keep it civil.
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1. LeBron James
Years in NBA: 2003-presentTeams: Cavaliers (twice), Heat, Lakers
LeBron was crowned “The Chosen One” on the cover of Sports Illustrated before he played a single NBA game. It was an impossible level of hype to live up to, and yet, somehow, James has actually…
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