NBA's 75th Anniversary Team contains some illogical omissions
By Ric Bucher
FOX Sports NBA Analyst
The grousing that followed the NBA releasing its 75th Anniversary Team to honor its 75 all-time greatest players this week was relatively subdued.
Which is completely understandable, given who was selected — and by whom.
Sure, Dwight Howard, a five-time All-NBA first-team center and three-time Defensive Player of the Year, tweeted, "Disrespectful," after he was not chosen.
George Karl questioned Alex English not making the list, calling him the best Denver Nugget of all time, which assuredly didn’t go unnoticed by Carmelo Anthony, who happened to play for Karl in Denver and did make the list of 75.
Klay Thompson, a three-time NBA champion, said, "In my head, I’m top 75 all time."
For the most part, though, it was pretty quiet, and it’s not difficult to see why.
First, there’s the chumminess of the selection committee — more than half of the members are either players who wound up on the top 75 list or media affiliated with the league’s broadcast partners. When your broadcast voices and former stars have the biggest hand in the selection, it would be hard for them to express dissatisfaction with the results, even if they should.
And they should.
It’s a nice list, so much so that they pushed it to 76 rather than take the added step of a tiebreaker when two players — unidentified — wound up with the same number of votes. There’s an undeniable whiff of home cooking and favor toward current popularity and/or visibility over actual accomplishment.
It’s almost as if the selection committee purposefully steered clear of controversy. In fact, not one of the 50 players from the 50th Anniversary Team, named in 1996, was left off.
The surprise inclusions — Reggie Miller and Damian Lillard — are highly visible and/or currently popular, while the most glaring snubs — Kyrie Irving and Dwight Howard — are players who aren’t, or all that long ago weren’t, very popular.
But there is plenty of potential for grousing down the line, if not outright shrieks of "What they were thinking?"
It’s who the committee did and didn’t select among players currently in the league that poses a potential problem.
Defending league MVP Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic, the current favorite to win the award this year, did not make the list. Meanwhile, Lillard and Anthony Davis both did, despite neither of them having been a serious contender for MVP and having had limited postseason success to this point in their careers.
"Including current guys without longevity at a high level is questionable," said Hall of Famer Rick Barry, who was both on the selection committee and among the 75 players chosen. "I’m not saying they aren’t worthy, but you need to do it for an extended period to be in this category."
Hall of Fame journalist Peter Vecsey doesn’t have an issue with recognizing all-time greats early in their careers — as long as their potential as all-time greats is clear. Vecsey was on the selection committee for both the 50th and 75th Anniversary teams. In much the same way that he voted for Shaquille O’Neal for the top 50, even though Shaq was only three years into his career, Vecsey was in favor of giving Doncic and Jokic the same early recognition, confident not only that they are bound for Hall of Fame careers but also that the 75 list will look outdated relatively quickly because of their absence.
"I’d seen enough with Shaq to know he deserved to be there, and I’ve seen enough with Luka and the Joker," he said. "It was a mistake not putting them in there. "
Barry was hardly alone as a selection committee member and all-time great selection. Thirty-five of the players selected to the 75 were part of the selection committee, though they could not vote for themselves, and nearly 20 of the committee’s media members are affiliated with the league’s broadcast partners: ESPN, TNT and NBA TV.
Miller, now a TNT color commentator, was not on the selection committee and apparently had no expectation to be included on the all-time 75 list. When his TNT colleagues told him he had been, he appeared genuinely confused and could only say, "Wow."
Miller spoke for many of us. Unlike with Dominique Wilkins and Bob McAdoo, whose absences from the top 50 were viewed as oversight that was corrected with their inclusion among the top 75, no one ever questioned Miller not being among the top 50, seeing as he had already played half his career when that list was selected, and he had been an All-Star just once. Miller played 18 seasons in all, finishing with five All-Star selections and making the All-NBA third team three times as a shooting guard. He never won a scoring title or led the league in any category other than free-throw shooting, and the Indiana Pacers reached the Finals once with him as their best player.
"Scored a lot, gave up a lot, never won anything," Vecsey said of Miller.
The longtime writer named several players more worthy than Miller, including Joe Dumars, a two-time champion, six-time All-Star, three-time All-NBA selection and five-time All-Defensive choice, or the late Dennis Johnson, a Finals MVP with Seattle, three-time champion, nine-time all-defensive selection and all-NBA twice.
Dumars, of course, has kept an immensely low profile as a consultant for the Sacramento Kings, and Johnson died in 2007. Between fast-food commercials and working as TNT’s lead game analyst, there’s no avoiding Miller.
"Reggie does not belong," Vecsey said flatly.
The most perplexing aspect of the list is that there appears to be no guiding principle or philosophy in making it. How does Ray Allen make it over Thompson playing a smaller role on fewer championship teams and sporting lower career averages?
Also, apparently being controversial wasn’t an issue as long as it was a while ago. Case in point: hearty partier Dennis Rodman, who made the list despite a healthy record of disruptive behavior. Or maybe controversial behavior was OK as long as you’re not playing anymore, which would explain Paul Pierce getting in with his one championship instead of Howard, who also has a ring and far more extensive individual accolades.
Does being a champion matter or not? It’s impossible to tell.
If being an integral part of a title-winning team carried weight — as it presumably did in Bill Walton's making the top 50 as a two-time champion and remaining among the top 75, despite a career limited to fewer than 500 regular-season games and only 49 playoff appearances — then Thompson or four-time champions such as Manu Ginobili or Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs should’ve made it over Miller, Lillard and Davis — and, arguably, Walton.
If it’s individual excellence that mattered most, there’s no rationale for leaving Howard off or putting Miller on. Simply as scorers, Vince Carter and English were far more exceptional for longer stretches. Miller isn’t even the most distinguished or talented Indiana Pacer. That would be Paul George, a six-time All-NBA and four-time All-Defense choice.
Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the top 75 is how much it ignored the infusion of foreign talent when the league has gone to such great lengths to advertise itself as a global entity. Aside from Ginobili, Parker, Jokic and Doncic, two-time champion Pau Gasol and Yao Ming, an eight-time All-Star and five-time All-NBA selection, were overlooked.
International players were also noticeably absent from the selection committee, with Giannis Antetokounmpo, Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki the lone representatives.
The celebration of the league’s 75th anniversary, which the unveiling of the list kicked off, is expected to continue throughout the season. When it comes to throwing anniversary parties, though, it’s not just about inviting the people you want to be there — it’s about inviting the people who deserve to be there.
It will be 25 years before the NBA gets another crack at revising this list. It might be no more than 25 weeks before the need to do so becomes painfully apparent.
Ric Bucher is a national NBA writer for FOX Sports. He previously wrote for Bleacher Report, ESPN The Magazine and The Washington Post and has written two books, "Rebound," the story of NBA forward Brian Grant’s battle with young onset Parkinson’s, and "Yao: A Life In Two Worlds," the story of NBA center Yao Ming. He also has a daily podcast, "On The Ball with Ric Bucher." Follow him on Twitter @RicBucher.
