THE BASKETBALL 100

Portraits of the hundred best players in the history of the National Basketball Association.

Veteran sports journalists Aldridge, a fixture in NBA arenas since the late 1980s, and Hollinger, author of the well-regarded series Pro Basketball Prospectus, oversaw the compilation and ranking of the 100 greatest players in NBA history to date as determined by the staff of The Athletic. As with a previous title, The Football 100, the players are ranked in descending order, accompanied by vividly written entries that chronicle their on-court exploits and offer a broader look at their personalities, social consciences, and shortcomings. The stories are composed by some of the finest basketball writers around, including Jared Weiss, Sam Amick, and Aldridge and Hollinger themselves. Each seamlessly weaves the history and evolution of the league into the player portraits. In any such exercise of ranking players over a long period of time, it is difficult to balance objective and subjective factors when judging players of different eras and different rules. Hollinger has gamely attempted to mitigate this by introducing his newly minted metric, GOAT points ("Greatest of All Time, duh"), which guided the decision-making of The Athletic staff and is detailed in full. Aldridge adds a fascinating essay that convincingly argues that the installation of the 24-second shot clock in the 1954-55 season saved the league. While it may be the case that contributor Jon Greenberg's assertion that Michael Jordan's ranking as the greatest player in NBA history "is not in dispute," there is plenty for NBA fans to argue about. The editors and Athletic staff did as well as could be expected to avoid recency bias, though some players—most notably Larry Bird—are horribly underrated. The book includes a foreword written by player turned broadcaster Charles Barkley in his inimitable style.

An engaging and fun must-read for any basketball fan.