1.Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
What? The leading scorer in National Basketball Association (NBA) history is just the 10th-best player ever? Indeedy. While Kareem put up a whopping 38,387 points during his playing days, I can’t look past the fact that he spent a good chunk of his career receiving passes from Oscar Robertson and Magic Johnson, the two greatest point guards of all time. Also, his career totals were inflated by the fact that he played roughly 10,000 years in the NBA. (Or 20. Whatever.) Nevertheless, he was an awesome force who dominated the sport for two decades and perfected the sky hook, one of the most gorgeous shots the game has ever seen. Plus, he was hilarious in Airplane! and fought Bruce Lee in Game of Death, so his cool quotient is easily the highest of anyone on this list.
2.Tim Duncan
I have a confession to make: even though I’m a lifelong devotee to all Seattle sports team, I had a fan-fling with the San Antonio Spurs teams of the late ‘90s and early 2000s. Yes, they played the kind of slow-paced ball that put most fans to sleep by the third quarter, but there was often a thing of pure beauty hidden among the tire-fire of a 78–71 final score: Tim Duncan’s bank shot. In his prime, Duncan, nicknamed “The Big Fundamental” by no less a nickname authority than Shaquille O’Neal, was one of the most sound players of all time. While his famously vanilla playing style and quiet demeanor kept him from having a cultural impact similar to the other greats, his four championships, 14 All-Star Games, and two NBA MVP awards are indisputable evidence of his fantastic ability.