Wilt Chamberlain
Tim Duncan
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Wilt Chamberlain leads 2 of 3 categories. Our all-time ranking places Wilt Chamberlain at #6 and Tim Duncan at #8.
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The case for Wilt Chamberlain
The most statistically dominant athlete any team sport has produced. Chamberlain's 1961–62 season — 50.4 points and 25.7 rebounds per game, including the 100-point game in Hershey on March 2, 1962 — will never be approached; he averaged 48.5 minutes that season by playing overtimes on top of full games. He led the NBA in scoring seven straight times, in rebounding 11 times, and, after being criticized as selfish, led the league in total assists in 1967–68 — the only center ever to do so. His career marks of 30.1 points and a record 22.9 rebounds per game came with four MVPs and, contrary to the empty-stats caricature, two of the most dominant championship teams ever: the 68–13 Philadelphia 76ers of 1967 and the 69–13 Lakers of 1972, both of which broke the Celtics' grip. The honest case against him is Russell — a 1–7 head-to-head playoff series record and repeated Game 7 defeats — plus chronic free-throw shooting near 51 percent. But as a force of nature, no one else comes close.
The case for Tim Duncan
The most reliable great player in NBA history and the anchor of the modern era's longest-running excellence. Duncan won five championships spread across three different decades of Finals — 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014 — with three Finals MVPs and back-to-back regular-season MVPs in 2002 and 2003. His 15 All-Defensive selections are the most ever, the statistical spine of a two-way case built on flawless positioning rather than highlights. The team record is the argument: San Antonio never missed the playoffs in his 19 seasons and won 71 percent of its regular-season games across his career — the best sustained run of any franchise in the four major American leagues over that span. His peak was higher than the humble reputation suggests: in the 2003 title run he averaged 24.7 points, 15.4 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 3.3 blocks in the Finals, closing with a near quadruple-double in the clincher. Career averages of 19.0 points, 10.8 rebounds and 2.2 blocks, delivered with identical temperament in November and June, made him the standard for winning without noise.