Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Stephen Curry
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar leads 3 of 3 categories. Our all-time ranking places Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at #3 and Stephen Curry at #11.
Head-to-head FAQ
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The case for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
The most decorated player ever by individual hardware, and the owner of the most unstoppable single weapon in basketball history. Abdul-Jabbar's six regular-season MVPs remain the record, his 38,387 points stood as the scoring record for 39 years, and his six championships span an almost implausible arc — Finals MVP as a second-year player in Milwaukee in 1971, Finals MVP again at age 38 in 1985. The skyhook gave him a shot that was never solved: he shot 55.9 percent for his career and remained an elite scorer past age 40, retiring with 19 All-Star selections and 17,440 rebounds. His dominance predates the NBA: three straight NCAA titles and three tournament Most Outstanding Player awards at UCLA, where the NCAA banned dunking in 1967 largely because of him — he answered by perfecting the skyhook. The knock is that he was the clear second star on several 1980s title teams, but a career that runs from beating Wilt Chamberlain to feeding off Magic Johnson, spanning 20 elite seasons, has no parallel for sustained excellence at the center position.
The case for Stephen Curry
The most influential player of the modern era and the man who repriced the sport. Curry has won four championships with Golden State (2015, 2017, 2018, 2022), two regular-season MVPs — including the first unanimous MVP in league history in 2016 — and the 2022 Finals MVP that answered the last question about his resume. He is the greatest shooter who has ever lived by a wide margin: the all-time leader in three-pointers made, past 4,000 and climbing, having broken Ray Allen's career record in December 2021 with hundreds of games in hand. His 2015–16 season paired 30.1 points per game with a then-record 402 threes and powered a 73–9 team that broke the 1996 Bulls' win record. The deeper case is systemic — his off-ball movement and 30-foot range force defenses to guard the entire halfcourt, warping coverages without the ball and accelerating the three-point revolution more than any player since the shot clock. Rankings that omitted him a decade ago now routinely seat him among the ten greatest ever.