The greatest starting five of all time doesn’t even include Lebron

Lebron is above bird and magic and Duncan imo he can play pg through pf and has more rings . Who decided this?

Curry > Magic

no one is better than Jordan

Kobe or Lebron > Bird

Jokic or Giannis or Kareem > Duncan

Shaq > Wilt

Jordan

Lebron

Kareem

Bird

Steph

Starting five rather than just five best players leaves the question more open. Do you stick with a pretty strict traditional definition of positions 1-5? Do you consider team makeup?

Magic

Jordan

Bird

Russell

Chamberlain

Just miss: Steph, LBJ, Oscar

I'm going to double up on the centers -- there is room for both Russell and Wilt.

I hate to say it, but I keep Lebron with Jordan and Magic. I mean, what Lebron is still doing at 38? Crazy.

Steph is a blast to watch, and Bird is my personal favorite, but I don't think they make my cut.

Duncan his playoff record and stats

Jordan enough said

Bird clutch white boy/pure shooter over LeBron the linebacker

Magic bc he is a general and his size over Curry

Wilt over Russell bc athlete and scoring.

The top three during the era with advanced stats available (WS48, VORP, BPM) are Jordan, Lebron and Jokic. To such a team it would be sensible to add Magic and one of Kareem or Wilt.

I love Duncan but he is a tier below these guys. Bird is closer but still below Jordan, Lebron and Jokic.

I'd start with a 12 man roster which would be the following. Basing this on who I would want to coach and be on my team, not just the best 12 ever.

G Jordan

G Curry

G Paul

G Wade

G Johnson

F Erving

F Garnett

F Bird

F Duncan

C Jokic

C Robinson

C O'Neal

I'd probably start BIG and go with

Johnson

Jordan

Bird

Duncan

O'Neal

Would quickly bring in Curry/Jokic if the game called for it.

I appreciate threads like this for reminding me that you guys don’t know d!ck about sports.

Bird?! 😂😂

That's funny, because I always appreciate threads like this for reminding me that there are juveniles posting here who have absolutely no idea what they are talking about - you being first amongst them.

Advanced stats show that Bird is among the top ten to play the game since 1973, when such stats first became available - certainly someone to be in the discussion for starting five (though probably just missing, as I noted earlier).

Dirk

Dirk

Dirk

Dirk

Dirk

If it is an actual team, I would take Kareem over Wilt. I would not want to see Wilt on the line with a minute to go in a close game.

Not a bad group. Except for C Robinson.

C. Robinson of Portland/Phoenix fame??? Good player, but not even in the same time zone as the rest of your picks. Could you have meant D. Robinson (David)?

Presumably you left off Lebron because you find his personality annoying rather than him not being a top 12 player. I can understand that.

hey chump what were any of those guys doing at age 39? probably not averaging 25/8/7. begone bozo. shoo

Shaq

Kareem

Bird

Kobe

MJ

C'mon man!...Lebron over Magic!

What kind of nonsense is this. 🤣

The first letter are positions, dumb dumb.

Who's going to play defense on these teams? It will just be 5 guys fighting over who gets to shoot.

Jordan: nine time all-defensive first team and a defensive player of the year.

Duncan: eight time all-defensive first team, seven time all-defensive second team.

Those two are probably the best defensive players of all time in their respective positions.