» Is LeBron James In Your Top 15 All-Time? Barstool Sports: Philly

Is LeBron James In Your Top 15 All-Time?

Inquirer columnist Bill Lyon apparently got drunk last night and penned this top 15 all-time list with LeBron James at #3, but I’m not here to discuss the audacity of his rankings and sad PR stunt of having King James so high on his list. I’m here to see if you guys believe if LeBron James — right this moment — is a top 15 all-time basketball player.

Personally I believe anybody who is watching the NBA Finals because they like basketball and not because they want to see LeBron fail should have him in their top 15. The guy’s a phenom with a combination of size and speed never before seen in basketball history. Certainly has the natural gifts, drive, and talent to be top 3 one day. Now all he needs are the continued stats and a few championships.

But on the other hand: The Decision. This comment. This t-shirt. No rings.

Anyway, here is Bill’s list:

1. Wilt
2. Jordan
3. LeBron
4. Kobe
5. Oscar Robertson
6. Bill Russell
7. Magic Johnson
8. Julius Erving
9. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
10. Elgin Baylor
11. Rick Barry
12. Larry Bird
13. Shaquille O’Neal
14. Charles Barkley
15. JohnStocktonKarlMalone. You can’t have one without the other.

And here is mine:

1. Michael Jordan
2. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
3. Wilt Chamberlain
4. Kobe Bryant
5. Magic Johnson
6. Bill Russell
7. Larry Bird
8. Oscar Robertson
9. Tim Duncan
10. Shaquille O’Neal
11. Jerry West
12. LeBron James
13. Julius Erving
14. Hakeem Olajuwon
15. Charles Barkley

Is LeBron James in your top 15 all-time?
Vote 1 for No and 10 for Yes.
1 Star 2 Stars 3 Stars 4 Stars 5 Stars 6 Stars 7 Stars 8 Stars 9 Stars 10 Stars (332 votes, average: 5.19 out of 10)

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By maurice posted June 18th, 2012 at 12:52 PM

Top 2 Comments

39 comments Sort by Popularity Sort by Date

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by crownasty on June 18, 2012 at 12:56 pm
How can people put Wilt Chamberlain ahead of Bill Russell? Bill won 11 titles and 5 MVP's -- Wilt won 2 titles and 4 MVP's. It's not a contest.
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by jennamarblesmidgetpenis on June 18, 2012 at 12:57 pm
Did you break down hours and hours of gamefilm on Jerry West before making that proclamation that he is the 11th greatest player of all time?
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by belichickscup on June 18, 2012 at 1:00 pm
Kevin Durant is better than charles barkley ever was, is, or hopes to be. and what about wade? no room for him? Your list is better but both have some serious flaws including malone/ stockton being 15, remember when he won the MVP over jordan? cuz i do. The fact that sir charles is on either list is embarrassing
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by above_the_clouds on June 18, 2012 at 1:02 pm
I hate Lebron, but come on. He is obviously a top 15 player.
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by VMart on June 18, 2012 at 1:04 pm
That's a clown list, bro
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by thatnikkuh010 on June 18, 2012 at 1:04 pm
Noway is LBJ top 15 guy has no rings blows in the 4th quarter and thinks about himself before his team.. plus where's KD if u think LBJ is top 15 u need to have Durant
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by rinehart21 on June 18, 2012 at 1:06 pm
if lebron blows his knees out tomorrow night and his career is over i think you still need to hold him out of top 15 all time....if he keeps playing the way he is for another 6-8 years then he will be a top 10
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by freddie mitchell on June 18, 2012 at 1:14 pm
Both of your lists prove that you are both retarded. Bill Russell won 11 championship'd in 13 years and 2 of them were as a PLAYER-COACH and you both have him as 6. But anyway i can't decide which of these lists is stupider, how the fuck did barkley make both?
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by snailtrail291 on June 18, 2012 at 1:14 pm
Shawn Kemp?? David Robertson??
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by bigstick on June 18, 2012 at 1:18 pm
Bill Russell 6th? I don't know who is dumber, you or Bill Lyon.
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by darklighter on June 18, 2012 at 1:20 pm
Rick Barry and Dr J ahead of Bird says it all for either list....moronic. By the way who the fuck is Bill?
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by TonyTwotoes on June 18, 2012 at 1:22 pm
No John Starks? No Allan Houston? No Charles Oakley? Typical anti-NY propaganda
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by honkeytonk on June 18, 2012 at 1:24 pm
Belicheckscup - Wade? Are you fucking serious? He doesn't make the top 50. Bernard King was better than him.
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by provcity1 on June 18, 2012 at 1:26 pm
Neither list has Moses Malone?
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by EZBreezey2222 on June 18, 2012 at 1:28 pm
Russell, Wilt, Kareem, Jordan, Bird, Magic - if this isnt your top 6 (in whatever order) dont waste your fucking time acting like you know anything about the NBA cause you dont. Shaq and Duncan are ahead of Kobe all day, everyday btw
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by whorefrost on June 18, 2012 at 1:29 pm
Dr J shouldn't be up there, he was more entertaining than great. Olajuwon should be higher.
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by pedrofartinez on June 18, 2012 at 1:45 pm
whoa no offense, actually im trying to offend, but your list is shit. of course lebron is top 15 of all time, talent wise he's top 5 but nba greatness is tied with your actual legacy/accomplishments. but i can tell you have just started watching because you have kbe 4th. kobe has five rings, 2/1.5 as the main guy seeing hoe gasol should have one of kobe's non-shaq fmvps. but kobe is/has been a glorified chucker. in terms of pure basketball talent, he is a top 20 player of all time, closer to 20 than he is to ten. west, dr.j and barkley are also way way too high. watch the sport
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by TheCheat on June 18, 2012 at 1:50 pm
Bird is way to low. If Magic was't around Bird would have won 6 titles easy. Wilt played against 6'6 white dudes. Honestly I think Wilt is a little over rated. Just way ahead of his time physically. NO WAY NO HOW is Kobe better then Bird. He is superior in one category, defense. You put Bird ahead of Kobe and your list is pretty good. Lebron is a top 15 all time as much as I hate to say it. whether or not that pans out for him we will see
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by organix85 on June 18, 2012 at 1:57 pm
Why do people need to talk about this already? Dude is not even halfway done with his career.
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by Kay Jewelers on June 18, 2012 at 2:06 pm
maurice is not in my top 15 of current BS bloggers
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by langdon1975 on June 18, 2012 at 2:17 pm
Titles don't mean shit. Just because Russell played with a dozen HOF players doesn't put him in front of Wilt. Same goes for Kobe: he gets respected for 3 titles where for 2 of them it didn't matter if he played or not. He contributed more vs the Nets but vs Indiana and Philly he wasn't even close to being the best SG in the series. Also putting Lebron and/or Kobe in the top 5 means you have no sense of history and the attention span of a 3 yr old. Hell Charles Barkley has more so-called "big" playoff perfomances than Kobe, but because he's "not a winner", people put him down. Hard to win titles when your peak is wasted with Johnny Dawkins and Charles Shackleford.
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by vickattack on June 18, 2012 at 2:39 pm
Im just gonna assume that all of you losers who are screaming that Sir Charles does not belong on this list are kids who have no idea how great of a talent Charles Barkley was..lets not forget that
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by rod_beck on June 18, 2012 at 2:44 pm
langdon...titles dont mean shit unless you were the centerpiece of all those championship teams and basically revolutionized defensive play in the nba
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by guestbutt on June 18, 2012 at 3:01 pm
@langdon agree with basically everything you said. It's not that titles don't mean shit, it's that idiots think they are a trump card in every argument. Put Russell on Wilt's teams and Wilt on Russel's and I guarantee Wilt wins more championships than Russell. Put Lebron James on all of the teams Kobe played on and Kobe on the teams Lebron played on and Lebron has 6+ rings, Kobe zero. Lebron won 50+ games multiple times with those shitty Cavs teams, and if those teams had Kobe instead of Bron they probably would have been a 7-seed. All that said, Kobe is still top-15 all time (probably somewhere around 12-15) and it's hard to call Lebron top-15 when he's only played 9 seasons and has no rings. If the list is based on who was best at their peak and not an accumulated thing, then Lebron is top 10 easily. It's sad how many people on this site subscribe to the Dave Portnoy view of sports which basically involves not watching or reading about sports and then acting like you know everything. Not to mention a bit of subtle racism, disgusting homerism, and a complete inability to avoid brainwashing by the media. Funny that Portnoy only half-jokingly calls himself a "media mogul" and yet he completely bought into the media-created anti-Lebron bs. Man has a coach who calls retarded plays at the end of games and he had one bad playoff series against a fantastic Dallas team, so now he's a choker? The idiots like Portnoy don't remember Game 5 against the Pistons because they have no attention span and no use for anything that didn't happen 5 minutes ago. Lebron is no MJ, but I think he's put the whole "choker who only plays big when it doesn't count" thing to rest. 31-10-5 in the 2012 playoffs, suck his cock Portnoy you un-funny pussy who runs a has-been site that is rapidly dying and only holding on because of KFC.
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by EZBreezey2222 on June 18, 2012 at 4:29 pm
"titles dont mean shit" might be the dumbest phrase ever uttered on this site, what the fuck do they play sports for? QB ratings and PPG stats? jesus fucking christ, here i am thinking the goal of professional sports is to win a championship, guess ive had it wrong all these years....its all about # # # # # # # #
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by casewheat45 on June 18, 2012 at 4:37 pm
guestbutt = truth
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by pats16 on June 18, 2012 at 4:40 pm
@snailtrail291 did you say shawn kemp? in the top 15 ever? and did you say david robertson, when you mean david robinson? kill yourself
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by Mike Felger on June 18, 2012 at 4:44 pm
Snailtrail, Maybe I am being biased here because I hate the Yankees, but I don't think that making one All-Star team as a reliever qualifies David Robertson as one of the top 15 hoops players ever. He's a decent set-up man, but that is about it. Where are you watching him play anyways? Pick up hoops in the park?
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by siprodgers on June 18, 2012 at 5:00 pm
Robert Horry?
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by eman21x on June 18, 2012 at 5:31 pm
I dislike lebron as much as the next guy but if you dont think he is top 15 then you simply dont know basketball. And kevin durant is my favorite athlete today, but you cannot put him in this conversation thatnikkuh.On another note, congrats mo on finally starting to get more than 3 comments a blog
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by peytonsucksballs on June 18, 2012 at 6:15 pm
Whoever said Wade is a FUCKING idiot. Durants nowhere near this list either. Way too soon for Durant.But seriously, Wade? Are you fucking dense?
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by republicoftexas on June 18, 2012 at 7:04 pm
How is hakeem below shaq? You must not remember the rockets sweeping the magic and hakeem making shaq his bitch. Shaq admitted as much after he retired.
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by honkeytonk on June 18, 2012 at 7:58 pm
Hakeem...top ten. When you change how the game is played, which he did, you make top ten.
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by theetrain34 on June 18, 2012 at 8:42 pm
Maurice you have 2 point guards on your list. That's unreal. John Stockton has to be in consideration 100%. Dr. J should not be on there. How is LeBron bigger than Olaujawon that makes no sense. Bill Russell not only has more championships that Wilt Chamberlain but he beat Wilt Chamberlain 7 our of 8 times. Russell completely outplayed Wilt in 7 out of 8 NBA championships. Head to Head. This isnt a Bird vs. Magic argument. Russell and Chamberlain played the same position and guarded each other and Russell crushed him. Thats your philly bias. Somehow Moses Malone was left off this list. Karl Malone averaged over 25 points a game for his career and over 10 points a game for his career he would have 3 rings if it weren't for Jordan. Barkley only played 80 games 3 times in his career. You are so biased
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by langdon1975 on June 18, 2012 at 9:14 pm
@ezbreezey Maybe if you finished the rest of white I wrote, you would know what I meant. Titles don't mean shit in a sense that you have no say who you get to play with. If Barkley was drafted by the Bulls with Jordan, he'd be the greatest PF ever. But you can't turn a franchise around when the best two players you had in your prime were Mike Gminski and Hershey Hawkins. That kind of a lineup won't put the fear of god into Parish, Bird and McHale, for example. But all I remember from Charles' career, is when he got to a big game, he had some monster performances. All I remember about Karl Malone's career is having average or below average (to his level) games when it mattered the most. It's all about who you get to play with and what you do when you get there. Kobe Bryant has zero memorable Finals series in his resume and he's being shoved into the top 5 of all time, just because he was lucky to get five rings. If he and Mcgrady were traded head to head in 1999, this conversation would be had about T-Mac. And again about championships not meaning anything: if there was a playoff game where my life was on the line, and I had to pick between AI in his prime or Kobe in his prime, I'll take AI and win the game. He has done more in big game situations in the playoffs than Kobe has or will ever do, but again you can do only so much when you play with Jumaine Jones, Tyrone Hill and Eric Snow. AI had a terrible attitude but he sure as hell showed up when the chips were down.
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by mccish13 on June 18, 2012 at 10:12 pm
Let's not forget about scalabrine come on now
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by richgarces on June 18, 2012 at 10:37 pm
Putting Russell at 7 is the dumbest thing ever written on this site and I'm not being sarcastic
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by poop is a palindrome on June 18, 2012 at 11:31 pm
david robinson has to be on the list. lebron? yes.. but maybe not yet.
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by EZBreezey2222 on June 19, 2012 at 8:42 am
@langdon - "you have no say who you play with"??? you fucking kidding me dude? have you seen how this Miami Heat team came together? the rest of your post is just pure retardedness - Tracy McGrady just didnt have the luck Kobe did? really, THATS what separates them? (and keep in mind i hope Kobe gets AIDS and Cancer on the same day) I think you're forgetting how massive a choker McGrady was even with solid casts around him, pretty sure he never got out of the 1st round EVER (at least before he became an 8th man off the bench). this hypothetical shit is a joke. "So and so would have ___ rings if they were on a team with ___ & ____ & ____" well they werent and it didnt happen and making those assumptions is flat out stupid. you played with who you played with, you and your team was good enough to win a title or they werent. it just sounds like the crying we heard about Lebron in Cleveland "didnt have enough help". thats sports, not every team has the same roster
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