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#10. Shaquille O'Neal

   Shaq “Diesel” is the most physically dominant force this league has ever seen, it's him and Wilt and that's it. No one else is really even close. He has one of the most unstoppable offensive peaks as well, as no one could keep him and his sheer size  from the basket. Shaq is 1 of only 2 players ever to 3-peat with FMVPs, the only other person is MJ (2x). His career Legacy is extremely well-rounded, as in each category he ranks 11th, 7th, 10th, 10th, 9th, 2nd, and 10th.

   In the finals during his 3-peat, Shaq averaged 35.9p, 15.2r, & 3b on +7.1% rTS%. The strongest criticism against O’Neal is that, yes, his 3-peat was awesome and his 4th ring with Miami has value, but O’Neal’s strongest competition did not come in the finals. The hardest part was getting there through the gauntlet of a Western Conference, which he gets plenty of credit for, but he never had beaten an opponent on the biggest stage in the finals whose team was at least equal to his.  He got swept by the 6th seeded Rockets with Hakeem in ‘95, and then in ‘04 LA got handled by a far less talented Pistons team. That Pistons team was by no means a bad or average team, it’s just when you’re being compared to other top-10 players, it’s hard to get as much credit when most of the teams you beat in the finals are some of the weaker teams to make a finals appearance in decades. If you’d like to be more generous with Shaq in this area, it’s easy to argue him all the way up to 5th or 6th.

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#9. Hakeem Olajuwon

   Hakeem “the Dream” may well be the most offensively and defensively skilled big man of all-time. He was known for his impeccable footwork, series of fakes, spin moves, and all-time shot blocking ability. His game was more face-up than it was back-to-the-basket like Shaq, but both were incredibly dominant despite their polar styles. Olajuwon also has a very real argument to be the greatest defender of all-time, only in conversation really with other defensive titans like Russell, Duncan, and Garnett. For each Legacy Category, he ranks 9th, 10th, 22nd, 6th, 10th, 9th, and 7th, respectively.

   Olajuwon had a 2 year run in the mid-90s that may well be the greatest 2 year stretch  that any player has ever had. In ‘94, Hakeem had a storybook season, becoming the first and only player ever to be named the MVP, DPOY and the FMVP in the same season, running through the West and defeating Patrick Ewing and the Knicks in the finals in 7 games. The next year he rallied the Rockets from a 6th seed in the playoffs to win their second straight title, without homecourt in every round, the lowest seed to ever win it all.  Only 1 other team had ever won a championship while not being a top-3 seed (‘69 Celtics were 4th). In the Calculator’s view, this ‘95 playoff run and ring is the most impressive by far in NBA history, the jewel accomplishment of Olajuwon’s career.

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#8. Tim Duncan

   “The Big Fundamental” comes in barely ahead of Hakeem and Shaq for 8th place. Timmy D earned his nickname because of his non-flashy playstyle and almost stoic like personality. No one since has quite favored using the glass on their elbow jumpers as much as Duncan did either. His dominance on the defensive end cannot be underestimated, as he is in the argument for being the greatest defender ever, only with Hakeem, Russell, and KG. For each Legacy Category, he ranks 10th, 3rd, 8th, 11th, 4th, 14th, and 11th, respectively.

   Rarely has there ever been a superstar who was as consistently and reliably dominant year-in and year-out, and had done so for as long as Duncan.  In his entire playing career, his Spurs NEVER entered the playoffs with less than 50 wins. The only exception was the lockout season in ‘99 when there were only 50 games to play, and the Spurs went 37-13 (which is about a 61-win pace). It’s really difficult to point out a flaw in Duncan’s legacy, as in each Category he is consistently top-15 in each. If anything, Duncan has faced a similar issue to Shaq in terms of not having to play the strongest teams in the finals. He also played the Jason Kidd’s Nets, the superstar-less Pistons, the young LBJ Cavs squad that wasn't supposed to be there, and the 8-seeded Knicks in ‘99. On top of that, he also let a couple FMVP’s slide away from him under his watch. Now this isn't to poke holes or say these teams he beat were bad, they were still pretty good. However, we are getting to a point where we have to start nitpicking, and even tho Duncan is top-10 in RingScore, he could have been even higher if his opponents were a little stronger and if he won more FMVPs too.

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#7. Larry Bird

   I have a personal experience years ago when I got the opportunity to meet former NBA player, Cliff Levingston, former teammate of Michael Jordan and former 2x champion with the Bulls. Long story short, he told some of his best stories of when he was playing in the league, and most of them were about this man, Larry Bird. Cliff, a former teammate of Michael Jordan, swore that Larry Bird was the BEST basketball player to ever play the game.  And yes, he specifically clarified that he thought he was better than Jordan himself. Now most of you probably will not agree here with Cliff, but this is mostly for those who like to pretend that Bird wasn’t “that guy” or wasn’t actually that good. Don’t get it twisted, at the time, even teammates of MJ viewed these 2 guys as on a similar level.

   Bird DOMINATED the league at a whole different level, finishing top-2 in MVP voting 7 times in 8 years, and he also 3-peated in MVPs. He is the only player EVER to do either since the award moved away from player voting. He was the first player ever to record a 50/40/90 season, and he still is the only player ever to do so multiple times while scoring at least 20 a game (he was almost at 30 both times). His effort on both sides of the ball was rewarded with a couple of All-Def selections, and his leadership and clutch play was critical in the postseason too, going through the tougher Eastern conference to make the finals 5 times and win 3 of them.

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#6. Bill Russell

   Bill Russell was the cornerstone of the Boston Celtics’ over-decade-long dynasty of the 60s, an otherworldly shotblocker who entirely revolutionized defense as a whole for the NBA. His many individual accolades were well deserved, a 5x MVP when the award was voted by only the players, as well as a 12x All-Star, 11x All-NBA, and he is 2nd all-time in total rebounds and RPG, and the countless DPOY and All-DEF selections he would’ve won if they had existed back then , as he is arguably the greatest defender ever. For each Legacy Category, he ranks 2nd, 6th, 4th, 28th, 14th, 65th, and 18th, respectively.

   Despite winning all those individual accolades, they were only products of Russell’s philosophy of team play. Bill helped to pioneer and push the fastbreak, one of the first teams ever to do so. His greatest accomplishment was 11 championships in his 13 seasons. Most of them he was in his prime and was the best player. He was the ultimate team player, always putting the success of his squad above his individual achievements. His leadership was exemplified in his ability to elevate the play of his teammates and make them better. He was a master at understanding the strengths and weaknesses of his fellow players and exploiting them to the benefit of the team. There is no greater example of this when he became a player-coach for the final 3 seasons in Boston, winning 2 titles in that span.

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