At the risk of making this too long for “some” of you to read, I thought that I would give an update on my post last week about the best shooter of all-time. I had over 300 responses and many of you were kind enough to share it. Most of you agreed with my selection of Steph Curry. Many of you picked Larry Bird as your #1 greatest of all time shooter. No arguments there. However, I am a little confused about Wilt Chamberlain getting several votes. I have never thought of Wilt as being a great shooter. Obviously, he was a great SCORER, but as I said in my post, I think shooter and scorer are two different skill sets. Anyone that has followed basketball for any period knows Wilt scored a lot of points. He still holds many NBA scoring records.  He was a dominant offensive player and a great athlete. But he scored most of his points around the basket. I saw him play a hundred times and never remember him shooting farther than 15 feet from the basket. His career free throw percentage was 51.1%. (The fact that he ran track has no significance on his shooting ability.) 

In order, here are the players you voted for:  Curry, Bird, Maravich, Allen, Wilt, West, Durant, Barry, Jabbar, Jordan, Miller, Thompson, Dirk, Lillard, Mount, and Oscar. Again, my post was about shooters, not scorers or the best players. I want to get to my pick as the best defender but just for review here are my top 5 shooters: (I picked 10 but to save time and space here are my top 5.)          

                              2PT%          3PT%          FT%         PTS(AV.) 

Curry                  .523             .426            .910          24.8 

Bird                     .496             .376            .886         24.3 

Durant               .501             .387            .884          27.3 

Allen                  .452             .400            .894          18.9 

Miller                 .471             .395            .888          18.2 

I began these posts over three weeks ago to share with you who my “yardstick” was in each of the 5 facets of basketball. i.e. scoring, shooting, defending, rebounding, and passing/ballhandler. In my book, “The G.O.A.T.: The Quest to Find the Best”, I defined 10 criteria that I used to pick my Top 75 greatest players of all time and my #1 overall greatest player. Yardstick refers to the very best player in each one of these categories by which all other players are measured. Obviously, research and statistics will only tell you so much so there has to be some degree of subjectivity involved. I try to limit the subjectivity by using criteria that are fact based, sound, thoughtful, and unbiased. As I have said many times that I have coached and followed this great game for 70 years, but I do not claim to be the judge and jury.  

In choosing the best defensive player of all time there are a few stats that we can use to support our choice. One of the key stats that helps to define defense, at least for big men, is blocked shots.  However, blocks were not a statistic that was kept in the NBA until the 1973-74 season. Hakeem Olajuwon is the leading shot blocker in the “recorded” history of the ABA/NBA with 3,830. Mutombo is second with 3,289, and Jabbar is third with 3,189. Mark Eaton averaged 5.6 blocks a game in 1984-85, an NBA season record. But as Paul Harvey famously said on his nationally broadcast news program “here is the rest of the story”. Both Chamberlain’s and Russell’s careers were over when blocked shots became an NBA stat. Wilt and “Russ” by all newspaper accounts averaged 6-8 blocked shots per game. Wilt “reportedly” had over 20 blocks in ONE game. Russell “perfected” the art of blocked shots by keeping the blocked shot “in play”, not merely swatting it out-of-bounds.  

The other stat that has a great bearing on determining who is an outstanding defensive player is steals. John Stockton is the all-time steals leader with 3,265. Alvin Robertson has the most steals in a season, 301 in 1985-86. He also has the best career averages with a 2.71 and 3.67 season average steals per game.  Olajuwon is ranked in the top 10 in steals and blocks for a career.  The steals stat also has a Paul Harvey “rest of the story” caveat. Three of the greatest defensive guards to ever play in the NBA played “before” the steals stat was kept in the NBA. KC Jones of the Celtics, who played in the 1950s and 1960s, Jerry West of the Lakers played in the 1960s and early 1970s, and Walt Frazier played for the Knicks from 1967-1980. They did not benefit from the recorded steals stat. Walt’s stat sheet only has the last 7 years of his career when steals were recorded. He still averaged 1.9 steals per game. (West considered Frazier the best perimeter defender of his era.)  

There are other factors to consider when trying to distinguish the greatest defender to ever play the game, such as, on ball defender, team defender. Who gets assigned the best offensive player from the other team?  Is a great defensive player one who “shuts down” an outstanding offensive player or is a player a great defender because he “contains” a great offensive player by himself without needing his teammates to give him “help”? Big guys have a significantly greater impact than a perimeter defender. They disrupt everything in the paint and can affect multiple players. Before the explosion of the 3-point shot the offense tried to get as close to the basket as possible to score. A big, athletic center had a greater influence on the game, both offensively AND defensively, twenty years ago.  Statistics like blocks and steals only tell part of the story. My point is that it is difficult to define a great defensive player!

Here are my top 12 all-time defenders; #1) Bill Russell, his defense was a MAJOR factor in the Celtics 11 NBA Championships, enough said  #2) Hakeem Olajuwon, #1 all time in blocks (3,830) and #10 in steals (2,162), 9xAll-Def Team, 3xBlks Champ, 2xDPOY  #3) Tim Duncan, 15xAll-Def Team, finished in the top 5 for DPOY 6 times, 3,020 career blks (6th)  #4) Wilt Chamberlain, just like over 50 offensive records that Wilt still holds, if defensive stats were kept when he played, he would probably own those as well, he is responsible for 5 rule changes in the NBA, he dominated offensively AND defensively around the basket  #5) Kevin Garnett, 12xAll-Def Team, 1xDPOY (finished in top 5 six times), finished career with 1,859 steals and 2,037 blocks  #6) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 11xAll-Def, 4xBlks Champ, 3,189 career blks (3rd)  #7) David Robinson, 8xAll-Def Team, 1xDPOY, 1xBlks Champ, 2,954 blks in career (7th)  #8) Dennis Rodman, 8xAll-Def Team, 2xDPOY, Rodman is on everyone’s top 75 list BECAUSE he could rebound AND play defense  #9) Dwight Howard, 5xAll-Def Team, 3xDPOY, 2xBlks Champ, 2,228 Career blks (13th)  #10) Gary Payton, known as “The Glove”, 9xAll-Def Team, led NBA in steals in 1995-96 (231), finished career with 2,445 (5th)  #11) Scottie Pippen, 10xAll-Def Team, led league in steals in 1994-95 (232), 2,307 steals in career (7th), many NBA followers consider Pippen the best small forward “on ball defender” in history of the game  #12) Michael Jordan, 9xAll-Def Team, 1xDPOY, led the NBA 3 years in steals, 2,514 career steals (2.3 average) and my bonus pick  #12.1) Kawhi Leonard, 7xAll-Def Team, 2xDPOY, 1xSTL Champ, defends guards and forwards, 1,196 steals (currently 13th all-time for 2.7 career average) It is commonly believed in basketball circles, at every level, that defense wins championships. These 13 players have won a combined 54 NBA titles.

I know this is a lengthy post but I hope I’ve made it worthy of your time. I can’t end this without mentioning Victor Wembanyama, who could rewrite the record book on both ends of the court. Led the NBA in blocks his rookie year with 354 (3.6 average) AND a lot of those were from 3-point land.  Next: All-Time Greatest Rebounder