Old school or modern? Which all-time NBA team are you taking?

There is nothing that NBA fans love arguing about more than which players are the greatest of all time.

Especially when it comes to comparing old school greats against modern players, as many young fans believe the current NBA talent would crush the guys from the 80’s and 90’s, while many older fans believe the modern players are too soft to play with guys from that era.

It’s a silly argument really, as most of the all-time greats would have been great in any era and would have adjusted to changes in the game just as they always have. Sure, if you go way back to the 50’s and 60’s it’s harder to argue that those guys would compete in today’s game, but there is no doubt that players like Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson would be great if they were playing now.

Recently, Julius “Dr J”Erving listed his top-10 players of all time and there was plenty to argue about. Before you read it and freak out, know that Dr. J DIDN’T INCLUDE PLAYERS WHO ARE CURRENTLY PLAYING, a detail most of the enraged commentators ignored.

It never ceases to amaze me how people can get so angry on Twitter (X, whatever it is now) over things they haven’t even watched or read. But rage engagement sells on the old algorithm.

Anyway, here is Dr. J’s list:

Some younger fans are probably wondering who these players are, and there are some obvious omissions even if you don’t include players who are currently in the game.

So how does Dr. J’s top-10 stack up against a team of modern players plus the ones he excluded? Pretty well.

Top-10 modern NBA players vs. Dr. J’s squad

For my list I am only going to include guys who are playing now or who were obvious omissions from Dr. J’st list.

It wasn’t easy to narrow it to 10, but I can live with this list:

• LeBron James
• Kobe Bryant
• Tim Duncan
• Larry Bird
• Kevin Durant
• Stephen Curry
• Shaquille O’Neal
• Hakeem Olajuwon
• Giannis Antetokounmpo
• Nikola Jokic

I just said screw guards and went with a giant team mostly made up of versatile forwards and bigs. The two omissions that most were angry about were Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan, who are difficult to leave off any top-10 list given their individual and team accomplishments.

Hakeem might be the most underrated player of all time and a guy I would put up against any modern or old-school center on both ends. Curry is shooting his way into the top-10, and he too has plenty of rings on his fingers. As much as I hate Larry Bird, I would take him over Tiny Archibald (sorry Tiny) and Karl Malone wouldn’t sniff my list unless it was Top-10 biggest scumbags to ever play in the NBA (google him).

In the end this is all just a bit of fun and something to debate during the offseason, so who would you take, my modern team or Dr. J’s old-school greats?