So the purpose of our research was to find out which NBA legends had been the most fortunate (or however you want to call it) when it came to being surrounded by star power during their pro careers. This is what we did:
1. We looked up the teammates of the Top 60 NBA players of all time, according to the very thorough list ESPN put together recently. Those 60 are unquestionably legends of basketball.
2. We looked up the number of All-Stars those teammates attended while playing with those legends. Also the number of times those teammates were selected either to the 1st or 2nd All-NBA Team and the amount of MVP awards they collected. Again, we only take into account accolades while playing with those legends.
3. We awarded each legend one point for each teammate with an All-Star berth, two points for each All-NBA selection and three points for each MVP trophy.
Some considerations before we go ahead.
The election of All-Stars, All-NBA team members and MVPs is based on people’s opinions and thus somewhat arbitrary. Some undeserving players get those accolades and some deserving players don’t. Overall, there’s no denying such recognitions say a lot about the stature of NBAers. Super high-quality players are bound to receive such accolades.
Legends from the NBA’s earlier days were more likely to play with All-Stars since the number of players and teams was significantly smaller back in the day. Only 96 NBA players played in the 1959-60 season and 20 of them were selected to the All-Star Game. That’s 20.8 percent of the league. So far, 463 players have taken part in game action this season. Only 26 were named All-Stars. That’s 5.6 percent.
Meaning? Old-school legends are more likely to be at the top of our Star Company ranking since back then it was easier to team up with other stars.
So this is how the rankings look