The Not NBA 76

Last year, upon the NBA’s 75th Anniversary, they unveiled the NBA 75: their list of the 75 greatest players in league history. A shocker to absolutely no one, that list had quite a few notable omissions. So now, on the eve of the NBA’s 76th season, I thought I would gather The Not-NBA 76, a list of 76 players (and some, well…not players) who deserve their own share of recognition.

1. Dwight Howard. Probably the most outrageous omission from the NBA 75. Sure his knees didn’t have the same hop in them in his 30s, but the beginning of his career is all he needed. The guy was basically the second coming of Shaq. A defensive powerhouse, rebounding machine, and blocking weapon. Truly unstoppable.

2. Nate Robinson for being 13 inches shorter than Howard, but leaping over him both literally and figuratively for victory in the 2009 Dunk Contest.

3. Chris Bosh, another big man not getting the respect he deserves. So many reasons for him to be on this list, but mainly for being one half of Mike Breen’s iconic call, “Rebound Bosh, back out to Allen, his three-pointer – BANG!”

4. Mike Breen, for all of his BANG calls. In fact, let’s bust out a few iconic play-by-play folks while we’re here:

5. Kevin Harlan 

6. Chick Hearn

7. Doris Burke 

8. Marv Albert

9. Former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski because since this list is the NOT NBA 76, we can think about some great basketball minds outside of the pros. Coach K is the greatest NCAA Men’s Basketball coach of all time – period. Let’s go through some college names that should be on this list, whether they played in the NBA or not.

10. Pete Maravich, the NCAA D1 all-time leading scorer before the institution of the three-point line.

11. Ralph Sampson

12. Christian Laettner 

13. David Thompson

14. Len Bias

15. Maya Moore – because who said women can’t be on this list? It is the NOT NBA list after all, so let’s go through the best women to play the game and a few WNBA icons.

16. Sue Bird

17. Lisa Leslie

18. Diana Taurasi

19. Candace Parker

20. Tamika Catchings

21. Breanna Stewart

22. Okay, before we get back to the NBA players, let’s do one more digression and name the best teams of all time – since this is a team sport after all. We will start with the greatest basketball team of all time, the Harlem Globetrotters.

23. The 90’s Chicago Bulls. The only NBA dynasty whose dominance even comes close to that of #22.

24. 2016-2017 Golden State Warriors – their best season.

25. The Bad Boys: 1988-1990 Detroit Pistons 

26. 1992 Olympic Dream Team

27. 2004 Olympic Redeem Team

28. 2011-2012 Kentucky Wildcats

29. 2015-2016 UConn Huskies Women’s Team

30. 1997-98 Tennessee Vols Women’s Team

31. The Tune Squad

32. Back to the NBA players: Pau Gasol. I love Kobe (I think he’s No. 2 all time), but he needed a big man. Shaq made the original list, but his best buddy Pau needs some love too. In fact, let’s give some love to those big men who got overshadowed (no pun intended) by their flashier counterparts…

33. Zydrunas Ilgauskas

34. Bill Laimbeer

35. Dikembe Mutombo 

36. Ben Wallace

37. Amar’e Stoudemire

38. And speaking of No. 2s, behind Steph Curry, JJ Redick is the best three point shooter I’ve ever seen.

39. Klay Thompson, for similar reasons.

40. Kyle Korver, for similar reasons.

41. Derrick Rose, for those few seasons.

42. Jeremy Lin, for those few weeks.

43. Yao Ming, for similar reasons.

44. Vince Carter
    

45. Tracy McGrady

46. Tony Parker

47. Manu Ginobili, for inventing the modern-day 6th Man role.

48. Lamar Odom, for perfecting the modern-day 6th Man role, and keeping up with the Kardashians.

49. Kris Humphries, for also keeping up with the Kardashians.

50. Devin Booker, for also keeping up with the Kardashians.

51. Nikola Jokic

52. Luka Doncic

53. Udonis Haslem, for still playing.

54. Alex English

55. Bernard King

56. Jack Nicholson, for his iconic Lakers fandom.

57. Spike Lee, for his iconic Knicks fandom.

58. Drake, for his iconic Raptors fandom.

59. Hoosiers (1986)

60. He Got Game (1998)

61. Hoop Dreams (1994)

62. White Men Can’t Jump (1992)

63. Air Bud (1997)

64. NBA Jam

65. Your MyPlayer in NBA2k

66. Michael Jordan in NBA 2K12

67. Chris Smoove

68. Chauncey Billups

69. Grant Hill

70. Mark Eaton

71. Jayson Tatum

72. DeMar DeRozan

73. Jimmy Butler

74. Kawhi Leonard

75. Joel Embiid

76. Kyrie Irving before 2021