The 10 Most Influential Players in NBA History

11.

Coming up with our best NBA players of all time list was way easier than this.

Because it’s a piece of cake showing love or completely shading the game’s best players based on metrics and ordering them in some sort of coherent/authoritative fashion the way we did when we dropped the 30 Greatest Players in NBA History.

Debating who deserves GOAT status between Michael Jordan or LeBron James, for instance, was lightwork and way less messy than trying to figure something so subjective—and some might say arbitrary, or even obtuse—as declaring LeBron James a more influential player than, say, Steph Curry.

Have you ever thought about how to measure their influence? Definitively weighing how impactful their career was while taking into account their brilliance on the basketball court, coupled with their uniqueness off it that’s captivated audiences, captured imaginations, and fused pop and basketball culture? Or how they changed the game’s trajectory? It was a much harder task than we bargained for.

Just ask Dwyane Wade.

“That’s just like asking somebody how they like their peanut butter and jelly,” Wade, the future Hall of Famer and TNT NBA analyst, tells Complex Sports. “You could like it anyway. Jelly, jelly. Peanut butter, peanut butter. Or peanut butter and jelly. They’ve had special careers that are one-of-one.”

LeBron’s arguably the GOAT on the court, but he’s also become a pop culture icon and undoubtedly left his stamp on the culture of basketball. But to the same degree as Curry? Considering Steph gets credit for helping the Association evolve into a league that shoots exponentially more 3-pointers per game now compared to a decade ago? Wade would like to know how we can weigh someone’s influence while they’re still playing.

“We’re still watching both guys playing and continuing to create his legacy. LeBron’s had 20 years to create his legacy, and Steph hasn’t,” says Wade, James’ former teammate in Miami and Cleveland. “I think both have done something that’s been unique and special and puts them on the Mount Rushmore for what they’ve been able to accomplish in this game, this rich history of the NBA. We’ve never seen LeBron and we’ve never seen Steph.”

That’s completely fair, Dwyane. But before we reveal our highly subjective results, that admittedly skews more modern, allow us to explain how we ranked the legends.

First, we came up with a list of roughly 20 guys, then whittled it down to the 10 we felt were truly the most influential. Legends like Dirk Nowitzki, Dr. J, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, and Bill Russell just missed the final cut. Then our voting panel was asked to order the players one through 10 in terms of their influence in four categories.

Transcendence: How broadly did a player capture the imagination of basketball fans? All are/were supremely talented, and each brought a unique skill set and dominated in their own distinct fashion. But how exalted was/is their game compared to the other candidates?

Innovation: How big of an impact did the player have on changing the trajectory of the game of basketball? The best example: Curry’s shooting prowess from 3-point range has completely changed the strategy of today’s game. But has he been more influential than Wilt Chamberlain who forced the league to rewrite the rule book?

Impact on the Culture: How influential was the player in terms of fashion, pop culture, sneakers, and how ubiquitous was/is their celebrity? The best example here is M.J., who is the granddaddy of sneaker culture, and who also made the original (and more tolerable) Space Jam, pitched all kinds of products during his prime, and remains one of the most popular athletes in the world despite not having played in 20 years.

Legacy: Voters were asked to take a 30,000-foot view of each player’s career and weigh the impact of their time in the NBA compared to others. Recency bias will certainly play a part, considering the careers of Jordan, Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kevin Garnett have all come to a conclusion within the past two decades, while Curry and James are still cementing their own.

After tallying up the results, here are Complex Sports’ 10 most influential players in NBA history.

10.Kevin Garnett

Transcendence Rank: 10th

Innovation Rank: 4th

Cultural Impact Rank: 10th

Legacy Rank: 10th

There are two big reasons why the Big Ticket belongs on the list ahead of some other names basketball heads may have expected to see before K.G.

For starters, Kevin Garnett deserves all the credit in the world for being the trailblazer who reopened the high school-to-NBA pipeline. When K.G. opted to turn pro instead of heading to an institution of higher learning in 1995, he became the first person in 20 years to leap to the league without making a pit stop in college. Few thought Garnett was ready, or expected him to have the kind of impact he’d have in the NBA right away. But his success sparked a revolution, and a year after he went fifth overall to the Timberwolves, high schoolers (like Kobe Bryant and Jermaine O’Neal) became regular fixtures in the draft until the NBA instituted the one-and-done rule in 2006.

The second reason Garnett positively, absolutely, 1,000 percent belongs on this list is his historic contract with the Timberwolves—that mind-boggling, record-breaking six-year, $126 million deal signed in 1997—which set off a bomb in NBA circles. Not too long after Michael Jordan’s final game with the Bulls—Game 6 of the 1998 Finals—owners voted to reopen the CBA in an attempt to completely reconfigure the league’s finances, worried things were titling too far in the players’ favor… example No. 1 being Garnett’s supersized contract. The 1998-99 lockout lasted 204 days and reportedly cost the league and players well over $1 billion.

While K.G. is ultra-proud that his massive pact shook up the league—“NBA wanted to be fucked up, let me correct that part,” he told us last year—serving as an influencer to all the ballers who didn’t need a year or two of school, so they could get paid and flourish a lot quicker, ultimately meant way more to him.

“I’d say coming in out of high school, man, betting on yourself when everybody’s looking at you like, ‘What the hell are you doing? Why don’t you go to college? Why don’t you do what everybody else did? Why are you doing it differently? You’re not going to even be in the league for that many years,’” says Garnett. “You know, just all those what ifs and those questions and having people in your own circle question. That’s the biggest flex. Betting on yourself and then you winning and looking like a fucking genius in the whole thing of it.” —Adam Caparell

9.Wilt Chamberlain

Transcendence Rank: 9th

Innovation Rank: 5th

Cultural Impact Rank: 9th

Legacy Rank: 9th

Where would you like me to begin? Standing at 7’1” and weighing 275 pounds while featuring the kind of athleticism that professional sports had never seen before and struggled to comprehend, Wilt Chamberlain defied all kinds of logic when he entered the league in 1959. To be that big, that skilled, and that nimble—he was also a track and field star in college—Chamberlain truly was the NBA’s first cheat code. And the league has never been the same since he arrived because, I can easily argue, there’s never been such a disruptive force. I could start by highlighting the astounding number of records he still holds decades after he last played a game. Like putting up 100 in a game,19 more than Kobe Bryant once dropped. Or all the 50-point or more performances—122 of them, to be precise—while Michael Jordan only finished his career with 39 combining his regular-season and playoff outbursts. Or how about Chamberlain being the only player to average 50 points a game for a season—nobody’s ever topped the 38.0 PPG mark. Overall, Chamberlain, who died at age 63 in 1999, owns 68 NBA records, many of which nobody will ever come close to eclipsing. At one point, he held over 100 of ‘em.

But really his ultimate NBA-influencer status stems from the fact other teams had to fundamentally change their strategies to deal with his presence and the league had to alter the rules to make the game fairer while Chamberlain played. Few have ever approached the level of influence Chamberlain had on the league’s style of play and undoubtedly nobody has altered the rule book—to make things more fair on his opposition—the way Wilt the Stilt did. Among other changes, the league was forced to widen the lane and outlaw offensive goaltending (today it’s called basket interference) because of Chamberlain.

Off the court, Chamberlain added to his legendary status by appearing in films post-retirement, including Conan the Destroyer, alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger. Hilariously, there are tales of Wilt putting the action hero star to shame when they hit the weight room together. And nobody is more famous for bedding as many ladies as Chamberlain. While his boast of sleeping with 20,000 women, made in his autobiography, clearly was a bunch of bullshit that Chamberlain years later would acknowledge, it’s a number he’s arguably more famous for than the 100 points he dropped on the Knicks that night in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Love and basketball aside, you can easily argue that Chamberlain became the first individual in NBA history to use his oversized frame and endearing personality to live larger than his measurements away from the game, paving the way for future ballers of all shapes and sizes to capitalize on their Q Score and charisma. —Adam Caparell

8.Shaquille O’Neal

Transcendence Rank: 8th

Innovation Rank: T-7th

Cultural Impact Rank: T-6th

Legacy Rank: T-6th

Once upon a time, Shaquille O’Neal didn’t appear in two-thirds of every commercial and wasn’t Charles Barkley’s foil on the greatest sports studio show of all time, Inside the NBA. Believe it or not, Shaq used to be a wrecking ball of an offensive force, an unstoppable physical specimen who displayed the kind of speed, power, and agility not seen from someone his size since Wilt Chamberlain. He even took down a few backboards during his early days in the league, sending out the occasional reminder that the “Diesel”—one of his many, many nicknames—was an entity unlike any other. Past, present, or future.

Legendary feats of strength aside, O’Neal stats were prolific—two-time scoring champ, 15-time All-Star, 14-time All-NBA, six trips to the Finals, and four titles split between the Lakers and Heat. O’Neal was such a force and so unstoppable during his prime years—let’s say roughly from 1999-2005, when he led the league in FG% each season except 2002-03—that you easily could’ve made the case that he was worthy of being the MVP each campaign. No one meant more to his team than O’Neal and the fortunes of the Lakers and Heat often rested on the back of the 7’1”, 300-plus-pound behemoth. He was so revolutionary that he was named to the NBA’s 50 Greatest Players team in 1996 after just four seasons in the league.

But really it was the way O’Neal—a genuinely good dude with a megawatt smile and gregarious personality—went about his business on the court, and even more so off of it, that earned him inclusion on this list. O’Neal’s $15 million deal with Reebok that he signed in 1992 was unique because never before had one of the major footwear brands courted, designed for, and produced a sneaker on that scale around a modern center. Big men were never considered serious sneaker endorsers—if the average guy couldn’t relate to someone so big, why would they buy his shoes?—until O’Neal blew up that antiquated way of thinking. He took over the mantle of NBA’s most marketable player post-Jordan and, considering how prodigious of a pitchman he remains 11 years after his retirement, I can easily argue he’s practically unrivaled in NBA circles when it comes to being a corporate partner/spokesman. And from a pop culture perspective, never had an NBA player gravitated toward hip-hop or Hollywood in the middle of his career the way O’Neal did. Recording entire albums or starring in movies like Blue Chips and Kazaam, before the age of 25, O’Neal blazed a path other ballers would try to emulate but of course never could. —Adam Caparell

7.Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Transcendence Rank: 7th

Innovation Rank: T-7th

Cultural Impact Rank: T-6th

Legacy Rank: 5th

Michael Jordan had the fadeaway. Steph Curry has his threes. But nobody in the NBA was associated with a shot—one that was un-guardable and practically guaranteed to go in—like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s skyhook.

With his long, gangly limbs, and precision positioning, the 7’2” center spent two decades torching teams with his majestic signature shot. Abdul-Jabbar would raise his huge frame off his left foot, cup the rock in his right hand, and delicately flick the ball through the hoop with such perfect rotation every single time it almost makes you wonder why the helpless defenders bothered to throw up their arms. Abdul-Jabbar was a unique offensive player thanks to that skyhook and unlike so many others who are similarly labeled as revolutionary, he’s one of the few who dominated the NBA without being super athletic. He didn’t out-leap guys or blow by them with freakish abilities a la Giannis Antetokounmpo. Abdul-Jabbar just used his size precisely and efficiently, proving to be mind-bogglingly durable for a guy who played into his early 40s. Over his 20 seasons in the league split between the Bucks (six seasons) and the Lakers (14 seasons), Adbul-Jabbar never appeared in fewer than 65 games.

Stats-wise, few will ever approach the prolific numbers Abdul-Jabbar put up. He’s been the league’s all-time regular-season leading scorer for 38 years and counting, although LeBron James is pacing toward breaking it in the near future. But just imagine what that number would look like if Abdul-Jabbar didn’t spend four years at UCLA, as was the custom over half a century ago. And he did that only making one 3-pointer during his entire career. Nobody has won more MVP awards (six) or made more All-Star teams (19) than the center.

But his biggest contribution, to the game and beyond, just might be his voice and the example he set for future generations of athletes. Despite a frame and notoriety that made him stick out and are ripe for vicious verbal attacks and even death threats, Abdul-Jabbar never cowed toward bigots or the ignorant, proudly speaking up about society’s injustices from an early age. Abdul-Jabbar was present for the Cleveland Summit, a gathering of the most prominent Black athletes in 1967 that was organized by NFL great Jim Brown in the wake of Muhammad Ali being stripped of his heavyweight titles for refusing to serve in Vietnam. A year later, Abdul-Jabbar boycotted the Summer Games, missing out on his only chance to earn an Olympic gold medal (since pros weren’t permitted to play then) because he couldn’t bring himself to represent the same country that was so dismissive of the issues facing Black Americans. Those are just two examples of the lengths Abdul-Jabbar went to illuminate society’s ills and it continues today, even at age 74, as he regularly pens essays and editorials on topics from the plague of racial injustices to the benefits of vaccines.

Abdul-Jabbar has also accumulated an impressive number of film and TV credits—like The Simpsons and the cult-classic basketball movie The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh, to name but two of his 50 credits on IMDB—beginning in the early 70s when he was still with the Bucks. You’ll still see him pop up randomly on a TV series or film, that’s how powerful Abdul-Jabbar’s persona remains three decades after he retired from the NBA. —Adam Caparell

6.Allen Iverson

Transcendence Rank: 5th

Innovation Rank: 10th

Cultural Impact Rank: 2nd

Legacy Rank: 8th

Was Allen Iverson the best little man to ever play the game? Nah, that’s Zeke, if you ask me. But in terms of impact? A.I. blows by Isiah Thomas and only answers to His Airness. The braids, the tats, the streetwear, the unabashedness to be himself at all times and take back ownership of his narrative were all things generations of pro athletes have tried to emulate since The Answer, just a rookie, crossed up Jordan that fateful night on March 12, 1997, in Philadelphia. The fast, undersized Iverson made Black Jesus look human and we all took heed to a cultural phenomenon. A.I. was giving it up so street, so real, the NBA instituted a dress code because damn near every player followed suit and dressed like kids raised on hip-hop would dress. His off the court influence hit even harder when you watched him leave it all on the floor; this wasn’t just for show, Iverson was playing for keeps. A.I. had four scoring titles, after all. Twenty-five years later, Bubba Chuck remains an endearing figure in basketball culture and beyond. —Angel Diaz

5.Kobe Bryant

Transcendence Rank: 4th

Innovation Rank: 9th

Cultural Impact Rank: T-3rd

Legacy Rank: 3rd

While Kobe Byrant’s legacy has become more bulletproof since his unexpected passing two years ago, taking a step back and realizing how much he influenced the younger players in the league makes it hard to downplay his overall impact—even if some feel he bit most of Michael’s style. Jayson Tatum and Devin Booker are the players that remind me of him the most. Tatum has the same frame and all-around game, while Book, who revered Kobe, has the tenacity to be the absolute best; night in, night-out. Bryant psychotic competitiveness rivals only Mike with his #MambaMentality has spawned books and is a philosophy that’s been adopted by top athletes from every major sport on the planet. Playing his entire career with a storied franchise such as the Lakers, while winning five rings, also ups his popularity. Kobe was a two-way player making the All-Defensive team 12 times and winning the scoring title twice. He was about as good as it got on the floor. Between Adidas and Nike, his sneaker legacy is unquestioned. Before he passed, he was making strides in business and as a mentor, winning an Oscar for the 2017 short film, Dear Basketball, and building young folks up with the Mamba Academy. There are few that had a second act quite like Kobe’s. —Angel Diaz

4.Steph Curry

Transcendence Rank: 6th

Innovation Rank: 3rd

Cultural Impact Rank: 8th

Legacy Rank: T-6th

There’s no more debates, there’s no more “what ifs,” there’s no more conspiracy theories. Steph Curry is the greatest shooter ever to live. The numbers back it up, the eye test backs it up, and even Reggie Miller backs it up. Similar to LeBron James, we have never seen a player like Curry before. He has mastered the art of shooting and his rise represents a turning point in how the current generation of players views the game. Because of Steph and the Warriors, the 3-pointer became more valuable and it influenced other teams and players who grew up watching them to make the three a focal point of their game. Whether it’s 7-footers launching deep threes or teams playing small with five shooters on the court, that is all a product of Curry. While he may not have the presence or accolades that LeBron has, Curry definitely changed the game of basketball more than LeBron did.

As much as the 3-pointer has added to the game, it’s also devalued players incapable of shooting the three at a consistent rate. If you’re a guard that can’t shoot, your value will be low in the NBA. It’s even phased out traditional bigs who might play with their back to the basket or may not be as quick defensively on the perimeter. If you’re a big and you’re repeatedly getting cooked when switching onto or guarding perimeter players that can shoot, your value takes a hit. Well, you can thank Steph Curry for that. With all that being said, when you review Curry’s legacy, you can’t deny the impact No. 30 had on the NBA and the game of basketball at large. Now that the two-time league MVP picked up his fourth championship and his first Finals MVP, he’s put himself in the conversation for a top 10 greatest player of all time. Steph ranks No. 10 on our all time list and he has a chance to build on that legacy in the next few seasons as his career comes to close. —Zion Olojede

3.Magic Johnson

Transcendence Rank: 3rd

Innovation Rank: 2nd

Cultural Impact Rank: 5th

Legacy Rank: 4th

Since he’s known by his moniker—Magic—of course, he’s one of the most influential basketball players of all-time.

The essence of Earvin “Magic” Johnson’s magic isn’t the easiest thing to nail down for those of us who barely got a chance to see him play toward the final few years of his legendary career. But if you have at least one working eye and can read and watch highlights and listen to others tell incredible tales about his innovation, transcendence, and the revolution he ushered into the NBA during the 80s—he was a precocious point guard who stood at a preposterous 6’9”, yet could play every position, will his team to wins it otherwise had no business pulling out, and dished out the kind of dimes the league had never seen before. Sure, there had been players before Johnson who defied positions and whose athleticism was next level—like Oscar Robertson or Elgin Baylor. But nobody possessed the combination of an electric personality and flair for the dramatics, while simultaneously paving the way for guys like LeBron James, like Johnson did.

Magic was essentially LeBron decades before LeBron blessed us with his basketball genius. Johnson was the hybrid scorer/distributor who saw passing lanes nobody saw, helping Los Angeles win five titles during the ‘80s as the ringleader of the Showtime Lakers. His effervescence, and the regular meetings with the Celtics in the Finals, helped the NBA transition out of cultural irrelevance—i.e. the Finals were regularly broadcast on tape delay into the mid-80s—to mainstream acceptance.

Johnson did it all with a swagger, eons before the term became ubiquitous. The league had never featured an entity like him before—flashing that megawatt smile on the court then rocking a fancy fur off of it. But his biggest impact came from his lowest moment, when he announced to the world in 1991 that he was HIV positive, which sent him into early retirement. Johnson’s diagnosis can easily be credited with debunking many of the ugly and false stigmas associated with a disease that used to paralyze people with fear. His perseverance over it has served as one of the most notable examples of AIDS no longer being a death sentence.

As a businessman post-retirement, Johnson has laid a blueprint for other athletes to follow. Johnson’s time as a basketball executive and TV commentator weren’t as sterling as playing his career, but Magic’s arguably been more successful off the court than he was on it. A part-owner of the Dodgers who possesses an impressive portfolio that one day could easily make him a billionaire, like his BFF Michael Jordan, Johnson’s still leaving his mark on popular culture. His run (and off-the-court antics) in the 80s is about to be dramatized by HBO, the revered premium cable network known for its storytelling. When a drama centered around Magic and the infamous antics of the Showtime Lakers debuts next month. I’d call that pretty damn influential. —Adam Caparell

2.LeBron James

Transcendence Rank: 2nd

Innovation Rank: 6th

Cultural Impact Rank: T-3rd

Legacy Rank: 2nd

If you don’t have him as your No. 1 player of all time, you better have LeBron James at No. 2. While LeBron may not have changed the actual game of basketball as much as Steph Curry or M.J. did (because Magic Johnson came before him), LeBron is still a figure we have never seen before on the basketball court. Standing at 6’9”, weighing 250 pounds with elite speed, skill, and IQ, the NBA’s never seen an athlete like LeBron. I mean, come on… we are on Year 18 of his reign and he’s still dominating the game at a ridiculously high level. And to be honest, I’m not sure he’s declining anytime soon. LeBron’s presence and impact goes far beyond what he does on the court as well. He’s one of the most recognizable names globally and because his rise came during the era of social media, there is an argument that his popularity exceeds Jordan’s. The world has been following this guy since the start of high school in the early 2000s and The Chosen One’s exceeded expectations despite overwhelming hype. When it’s all said and done for King James, after he plays his final game with his son Bronny in the future, he will rightfully have earned a farewell tour unlike any we’ve seen, because we probably will never witness what he’s done ever again. —Zion Olojede

1.Michael Jordan

Transcendence Rank: 1st

Innovation Rank: 1st

Cultural Impact Rank: 1st

Legacy Rank: 1st

Ten scoring titles, nine All-Defensive First-Team nods, six Finals MVPs, five MVPs, and got his first one in 1988 when he was also the All-Star Game MVP and the Defensive Player of the Year. That’s also the same year the seminal Jordan III dropped. I mean, what is there left to be said? The alpha and the omega when it comes to pro athletes, Jordan transcended basketball, becoming a global pop culture icon, his name and logo synonymous with the game and sneaker excellence. There are people in other countries with the Jordan logo tatted on them or plastered on bumper stickers, mopeds, taxis, you name it. He and Bill Russell are still the game’s top winners—nobody dominated their peers like they did. Both undeniable on-the-court leaders that did nothing but win when it mattered most. While Jordan gets rightfully shitted on for his record on social issues, there’s no athlete in sports history who influenced American culture or big business like M.J. He’s the first NBA player to outright own a team and his endorsement deals, along with their marketing campaigns, were revolutionary. Every NBA player that entered the league after he decided to hang ‘em up is following in his footsteps, ultimately never being able to fit in his size 13 and 13.5 kicks.

I feel like I’m just regurgitating Jordan talking points we’ve all heard before and I’m not one of those guys that thinks he can never be topped, it’s just hard for it to be done. Too much ground to make up, too many unprecedenteds, too many minds to change. There was nothing like watching Jordan turn it on during an uneventful mid-season game when you thought your squad had a win in the bag. He fed off adversity, almost taking it easy at first, so that he would have something to play for or maybe just to be able to rip hearts out on the road. Won three chips in a row, left to play minor league baseball, came back and won three straight again with his comeback season being the best season a team has ever had in the league’s 75-year history. But we know this already and yet you don’t listen. Stop being hard-headed, this isn’t complicated. The sneaker GOAT. Jordan Brand. Space Jam. The Last Dance. The first former NBA player to become a billionaire and own a team. His Airness—the most influential. Are we done here? —Angel Diaz