ESPN.com's Greatest Power Forwards

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2074360

Editor's note: With Tim Duncan leading the Spurs back to the NBA Finals for the third time in seven years, we decided it was time to determine ESPN.com's greatest all-time power forward. This ranking was compiled using top 10 lists from a panel of ESPN.com NBA experts. The voters were: Greg Anthony (GA), Chris Broussard (CB), Ric Bucher (RB), John Hollinger (JH), Scoop Jackson (SJ), Brian James (BJ), Tim Legler (TL), Eric Neel (EN), Jack Ramsay (JR), Marc Stein (MS), Tom Tolbert (TT).

Players received 10 points for a first-place vote, nine points for second and so on down to one point for a 10th-place vote. If you don't like our rankings, click here to make your own.

Top 10 Power Forwards Player/Voter GA CB RB JH SJ BJ TL EN JR MS TT Total
1. Duncan 10 10 10 8 8 9 9 9 8 10 10 101
2. Malone 9 9 6 9 10 10 10 8 10 9 8 98
3. Barkley 5 8 5 6 9 4 8 7 2 8 9 71
4. McHale 4 4 9 3 7 8 5 6 6 7 6 65
5. Pettit 8 5 7 10 6 6 4 5 9 3 -- 63
6. Garnett -- 7 4 7 1 7 6 10 7 4 -- 53
7. Hayes 6 6 8 -- 5 3 7 1 -- 6 7 49
8. Debusschere 7 -- -- -- 3 5 2 -- -- -- -- 17
9. B. Williams -- -- -- -- -- 2 1 -- 4 2 4 13
10. Nowitzki -- 2 -- 4 -- -- -- -- -- 5 -- 11

Others receiving votes (points): Amare Stoudemire (9), Chris Webber (9), Dennis Rodman (7), Dolph Schayes (7), Horace Grant (5), Ben Wallace (4), Spencer Haywood (3), Luke Jackson (3), Gus Johnson (3), Rasheed Wallace (3), Shawn Kemp (2), Bob McAdoo (2), George McGinnis (2), Charles Oakley (2), Connie Hawkins (1), Jerry Lucas (1), Vern Mikkelson (1)

1. Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs, 1998-present
TD dominates at both ends of the floor. The Big Fundamental has two NBA championships with San Antonio in 1999 and 2003 (more than Malone, Barkley and Pettit combined). Stats and awards don't begin to tell the Tim Duncan story, but here are a few. MVP awards in 2002 and 2003, an all-league defender, and a 22.8 points per game average in his first seven seasons.


2. Karl Malone – Utah Jazz, L.A. Lakers 1986-2004
The Mailman is simply the best low-post scoring power forward ever. And he was a lethal mid-range shooter. The 11-time NBA first-team player is second all-time in NBA scoring. The guy scored 36,928 points. That's a lot of picks and rolls and post ups. His 25.0 career average is another reason why this two-time MVP was voted onto the NBA's Top 50 squad.

continued--hit the link...better format
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my sig is always correcthttp://spurstalk.com/forums/images/s...smiblabber.gif

surprised dirk made top 10--duncan is hands down the best of all time - his rings/stats from today are alone worthy enough for first all time--wait till he adds 8 more seasons to his total

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6. Garnett -- 7 4 7 1 7 6 10 7 4 -- 53

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Holy cow, someone voted for Garnett as number one?

:wtf

^ That was Rick Kamla.

The potential of AMARE is scary.

Of course, the Nash/Amare combo could end up like the Stockton/Malone duo...and forever delegate Amare to 2nd tier.

If they get more of a team around him, that plays both ends...lookout.

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Originally Posted by T Park

^ That was Rick Kamla.

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Rick Kamla wasn't even voting. It was Eric Neel.

John Hollinger (JH), Scoop Jackson (SJ) Jack Ramsay (JR) All said Malone was better than Duncan. Duncan was killing Malone long before Malone left his prime.

I'm surprised some didn't rank McHale higher.

i loving it---i would have thought mchale would have been third just ahead of barkley and petite

i didnt even realize that garnett got first place vote :wtf

Tolbert and Greg Anthony didn't even rank KG in the top ten.

Stockton is the reason why Malone is on this list to begin with. :rolleyes

I didn't see Bob McAdoo play until he was with the Lakers near the end of his career...but based on what I have read it's an absolute joke that he finished second to last in that poll..

He won 3 scoring titles and an MVP his first 4 years in the NBA...Bill Russell called him the greatest shooter in NBA history...3 scoring titles puts him behind only Wilt, MJ, Ice and AI...and he was a big part of showtime also...

Without ever having seen him in his prime(but being about the same age as Anthony and Legler)...there is no way he should be last. I bet you those guys don't even know who he is.

agreed they dont even know the game

It was Scoop Jackson who gave Garnett one point, below Elvin Hayes and Dave DeBusschere. Puts him at idiot status in my book.

Legler and Marc Stein also rated Garnett low. Stein rated Dirk above KG--I know he used to cover the Mavs but WTF???? Big time credibility loss there, Stein.

I saw McAdoo play in his prime. Far and away the best shooting big man ever, but he was really more of a foward and he played absolutely NO defense. Kind of the center version of Steve Nash. No way he should be behind Horace Grant et al., though.

George McGinnis was an ass and didn't take care of his body, but for about five years he was definitely a top-5 PF.

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Originally Posted by Kori Ellis

Holy cow, someone voted for Garnett as number one?

:wtf

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might be Greg Anthony :lol

This was nothing but a headline for ESPN.

No way Dirk should be on that list. Dude has not accomplished jack. Good shooter when he's hot but that's it.

I meant to say McAdoo played center, not forward, even though he was more of a forward.

Actually, Dirk is a good comparison to McAdoo, except Mac was probably an even better shooter.

1997 to present

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Originally Posted by MajicMan

No way Dirk should be on that list. Dude has not accomplished jack. Good shooter when he's hot but that's it.

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I'd say Dirk is the 3rd best power forward right now so it is not out of the question Dirk can be on the list.

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Originally Posted by mookie2001

1997 to present

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i'd have to agree-lots of the players mentioned are current players from the past 10 years. old school players barely got any attention.

however i still rank duncan higher then mailwoman

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Originally Posted by inagra

Luke Jackson (3)

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I saw this same article posted on another board, and somebody actually thought that was the same Luke Jackson from Oregon. But it's the one that played next to Wilt on the 60's and 70's Lakers.

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Originally Posted by SouthernFried

The potential of AMARE is scary.

Of course, the Nash/Amare combo could end up like the Stockton/Malone duo...and forever delegate Amare to 2nd tier.

If they get more of a team around him, that plays both ends...lookout.

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The thing is that Nash is already 30? 31? 32? He's not going to have the years and years with Amare that Stockton had with Malone.

Amare, however, will probably wind up on this list eventually. He'll find another running mate when Nash starts slowing down with age in a couple years.

I think McHale was too rated too high. He has to be one of the most overrated players ever. He only averaged over 20 points four times in his career. His three best scoring years were in years the Celtics didn't win titles. Yeah he had some awesome postup moves, but he should be a lot closer to ten than one.

From what I have heard, seen, and read, Bob Pettit was a monster.

I wonder if he should be higher on the list.

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Originally Posted by Kori Ellis

Holy cow, someone voted for Garnett as number one?

:wtf

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Garnett has to pay his dues before he gets any #1 votes. Get some more great years in and win a championship. I still wouldn't put him ahead of Duncan.

Nice to see Ben come in at #16 and Rasheed at #20. :lol

garnett on the greatest pf list is very similar to sir charles. they both put up awesome numbers but never won the ring. but atleast bark took his team to the finals.