43. Easy by Commodores

 

"Easy" by Commodores

Written by Lionel Richie
Produced by James Anthony Carmichael and Commodores
Released on Commodores (March 30, 1977)
Released as a single, March 18, 1977
Peaked at #4 on Billboard Hot 100
amazon itunes spotify

I first heard this song on an advertisement for the NFL. I guess that makes sense. Football on Sunday is easy, and this song is incredible. Lionel Richie's velvet voice helps to ease everything else away. Except that now this song will always be linked in my mind to American football, which is kind of annoying. But it also makes me think of easy Sundays mornings: sleeping in, church, brunch, walks in the park, good times in general.

I can ultimately live with the sports connection because I love sports. American football has never been my favorite sport, but it's still sport. It affords the opportunity for us all to witness true greatness and transcendent acts of skill that somehow shatter the limits of what it means to be human. Plus there are lots of fun stats. American football is easy like Sunday morning (if you can look past the concussions and shortened lifespans of its competitors).

Baseball may have been my first love, but basketball has long been my greatest love. I love coaching high school basketball. I love watching all levels of basketball, but my favorite is the NBA. NBA basketball is the best. It features the best athletes, the best story lines, and the most transcendent moments. Watching a posterizing dunk can bring me the same kind of joy as listening to a favorite song.

What does the NBA have to do with this song. Nothing really. I've just been looking for any excuse to write about the NBA, and this seemed like my best shot. So the rest of this post will now devolve into a rant about another list that someone made that I spent way too much time obsessing over.

 

Last year, to celebrate their 75th anniversary, the NBA released a list of the 75 greatest NBA players of their first 75 years. Just as happened when they released their list of the 50 greatest NBA players of their first 50 years, there was a lot of criticism and commentary on who was left out and who shouldn't have made the list. 25 years ago, I thought the list and ceremony was pretty cool. It introduced me to a lot of the history of the NBA. I heard the comments about those left off (Dominique Wilkins, Bob McAdoo, Alex English, Adrian Dantley) and those who maybe shouldn't have been included (Pete Maravich, Shaquille O'Neal). These lists are always impossible. There are always a certain number of players that almost any sane fan of the sport should agree about, and then another chunk of players who have strong arguments for making the list.

I love lists (as can be seen from this blog), so today I will be presenting my own arguments for what the NBA got right and what they maybe got wrong. My list will almost certainly be incorrect, for a number of reasons, but I still can't help myself. I have to try.

When the NBA released their list, they included everyone who had made the original list of 50. That was their first mistake. This could have been an opportunity to correct some errors and ommisions from the 50th anniversary team. Between the players who got snubbed 25 years ago, and the great players from the past 25 years, there were more than 25 new players who needed to be included. (The NBA cheated a bit here by declaring a tie for the 75th spot. While they didn't rank the players on the list, the list they released included 76 players.) I'm going to cheat a bit as well. Since I'm ultimately one year late, my list will be the greatest 76 players of the first 76 years of the NBA.

I'm going to reveal the list below, then explain a few things. I ranked them just to show a little bit into my thought process. The rankings don't really matter until the bottom of the list where we get to the guys who maybe should or should not have made the list.

So here's my list of the top 76 NBA players of all time.

* - named to the NBA 75th anniversary team

** - named to both the NBA 50th anniversary team and the 75th anniversary team

1. Michael Jordan**
2. LeBron James*
3. Kareem Abdul-Jabar**
4. Wilt Chamberlain**
5. Bill Russell**
6. Tim Duncan*
7. Magic Johnson**
8. Larry Bird**
9. Kevin Durant*
10. Shaquille O’Neal**
11. Kobe Bryant*
12. Steph Curry*
13. Hakeem Olajuwon**
14. Oscar Robertson**
15. Jerry West**
16. Kevin Garnett*
17. Moses Malone**
18. Julius Erving**
19. Giannis Antetokounmpo*
20. Dirk Nowitzki*
21. John Havlicek**
22. Elgin Baylor**
23. David Robinson**
24. Bob Pettit**
25. Isiah Thomas**
26. Charles Barkley**
27. Karl Malone**
28. Dwyane Wade*
29. Jason Kidd*
30. Bob Cousy**
31. Scottie Pippen**
32. Sam Jones**
33. Rick Barry**
34. Allen Iverson*
35. Elvin Hayes**
36. Kawhi Leonard*
37. John Stockton**
38. Walt Frazier**
39. Willis Reed**
40. Gary Payton*
41. Chris Paul*
42. George Mikan**
43. Clyde Drexler**
44. Dave Cowens**
45. George Gervin**
46. Patrick Ewing**
47. Steve Nash*
48. Russell Westbrook*
49. Dwight Howard
50. James Harden*
51. Kevin McHale**
52. Reggie Miller*
53. Dennis Rodman*
54. Dolph Schayes**
55. Bob McAdoo*
56. Wes Unseld**
57. Dominique Wilkins*
58. Paul Arizin**
59. Bill Sharman**
60. Tiny Archibald**
61. Hal Greer**
62. Jerry Lucas**
63. Tracy McGrady
64. Dennis Johnson
65. Paul Pierce*
66. Ray Allen*
67. Nikola Jokic
68. Bill Walton**
69. Ben Wallace
70. James Worthy**
71. Robert Parish**
72. Tony Parker
73. Carmelo Anthony*
74. Pau Gasol
75. Chauncy Billups
76. Billy Cunningham**

First a note about the early era players. As I started researching, one of the things that really screwed me up was what to do with the early years guys (players who joined the league before Bill Russell). There are a handful who made the list (George Mikan, Dolph Schayes, Bob Cousy, Bill Sharman, Paul Arizin, Bob Pettit), and as I went back through stats and awards, I found a handful of guys who looked like they maybe had a case too (Ed Macauley, Vern Mikkelsen, Neil Johnston, Tommy Heinsohn). These early era guys are so tough to figure out because with how much the game has evolved, none of them would be able to compete in the modern NBA. There isn't much video available for these guys, and what is available doesn't reveal much. Some of them, given modern training and techniques, were good enough athletes to be at least good, if not great, players today, but it's such a different game, so we will never really know. (Plus the league was effectively segregated, so they weren't even competing against the top competition at the time.) I ultimately decided that I couldn't add anyone from that era who wasn't already on the list (so St. Louisan Ed Macauley will have to stay home again). After pouring over stats and awards and history, the other guys from the original list probably still deserved to make the 75th anniversary team because of their contribution to the history of the game. So they made it.

The top 3 guys are players who have the best argument for the Greatest-of-all-Time. Because of when I was born, I'm not sure how Michael Jordan can ever be bumped off that top spot. I never saw peak Kareem, so I can't really speak to his greatness, but his accomplishments certainly put him on the short list. Paradoxically, it was one of LeBron's losses that almost moved him up to the number one spot for me. Somehow in 2015 without Kevin Love (injured in the first round and out for the rest of the playoffs) or Kyrie Irving (played one game in the finals, which the Cavs lost), LeBron managed to win two games against the Golden State Warriors. In case you forgot, the second leading scorer for the Cavs in that series was Timofey Mozgov. Michael Jordan is the GOAT, but I have to question whether he could have pulled off a miracle like that. LeBron was robbed of the Finals MVP trophy that year. The NBA will never give that award to another player from the losing team (Jerry West will forever hold that honor), but they should have in 2015. No one from the Warriors was better that year (especially not Andre Iguodala).

The next chunk (from 4-15) are all guys who are hovering around the GOAT conversation. Some have legitimate arguments; some are simply all-time great champions. All of them fall just short of GOAT status for me. The order here is probably incorrect, and can be nitpicked to death, but those guys are all champions, MVPs, world beaters and have to be auto includes on anyone's list.

There are probably other levels of greatness I could continue to differentiate, but ultimately what matters to me is that every guy down to number 62, absolutely, 100%, without a doubt belongs on this list. There is no coherent argument to exclude any of them. That includes one guy who was left off the NBA's list: Dwight Howard. You cannot make this list without him. When the list came out, I was shocked that he wasn't number one on everyone's snubs list. Somehow his late career struggles gave enough voters selective amnesia to forget his incredible accomplishments. Howard is the only player who made at least 8 All-NBA teams and did not make the NBA's list. He made 1st team All-NBA 5 times, and was once again the only guy who reached that milestone to be left off the NBA's list. In addition, he was named to the all-defensive team 5 times, finished top 5 in the MVP voting four times (including a second place finish in 2011), was named Defensive Player of the Year three times, led the league in rebounding five times, blocks twice, and was the best player on a team that went to the NBA finals (where his two best teammates were Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu). For those who want to make excuses on that last point because the east was still weak then, he had to beat both LeBron James and a Celtics team that had Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. It was not cake walk.

Now I could be wrong about including Dwight Howard on the list. (I'm not.) Lists like this are always subjective. (By every objective measure Dwight Howard needed to make this list.) The idea that I am right and a bunch of voters who have all played and watched way more NBA basketball than I ever will are wrong is highly improbable, but not impossible. Let me explain:

While I was making this list, I was curious about who was the best player to never make an All-NBA team. I looked at the vote totals, but we only have complete vote totals starting in 1986. It could be someone from an earlier era like Artis Gilmore, Bob Lanier, Lenny Wilkens, or Nate Thurmond. It could be Kenny Anderson, the guy with the most total voting points (180) never to make a team (mostly because of the 1994 season when he got a ton of votes but fell just behind an ultimately more desrving Gary Payton). It could be Rasheed Wallace, the man who recieved votes the most years (8 different years) without being selected once. Or it could be Mookie Blaylock, the guy who finished second in both those categories (167 voting points over 7 different years). Mookie Blaylock was also the only NBA player who almost became the name of one of my favorite rock bands of all time (lawyers made them change the name of their band to Pearl Jam instead).

That exercise ultimately didn't tell me much and didn't help me answer the question of who was the greatest player to never make an All-NBA team, but it did reveal one thing very clearly: even the so-called experts make horrible decisions and ultimately cannot be trusted. In 2002 the All-NBA teams looked pretty straight forward. When you look at who made the three teams, and who else got votes but didn't make it, the voters got it right. But when I scanned the vote totals from that year, I was shocked and befuddled to discover the name Michael Olowokandi among the vote getters. Olowokandi is one the short list for the worst number one overall draft picks of all time (in any sport). 2002 might have been his best year, but advanced metrics don't even rate him as a replacement level player that year. Somehow, despite all this, he recieved two all-NBA voting points. Which means that either someone thought he was the second best center in the league or two voters thought he was the third best center in the league. This is an unconsionable opinion to have, especially for someone who is paid to write about the NBA.

What does all of that have to do with Dwight Howard? It simply serves as evidence that I could be right about Dwight Howard. The fact that Michael Olowokandi once received all-NBA votes leads me to believe that the so-called experts cannot always be trusted to be right. I never even liked Dwight Howard that much, but he absolutely should be on this list. Arguments against his inclusion are invalid. Now, on to the rest of the list...

After my 62nd ranked player, things get pretty murky pretty quickly. There is a lot of wiggle room for those last 14 spots. Among those 14 players are 7 players who did not make the NBA's list. Here are those seven players:

• Tracy McGrady
• Dennis Johnson
• Nikola Jokic
• Ben Wallace
• Tony Parker
• Pau Gasol
• Chauncy Billups

And here are the eight players they (and Dwight Howard) replaced from the NBA's list:

• Damian Lillard*
• Anthony Davis*
• Lenny Wilkins**
• Dave Bing**
• Earl Monroe**
• Nate Thurmond**
• Dave DeBusschere**
• Pete Maravich**

If I had followed the NBA's lead and auto included all the 50th anniversary team players, the six I left off would have taken the place of Nikola Jokic, Ben Wallace, Tony Parker, Paul Gasol, Chauncy Billups, and Carmelo Anthony.

So let's start with the two players I would have on the list either way: Tracy McGrady and Dennis Johnson.

• T-Mac is the only player who made 7 All-NBA teams who did not make the list (other than Dwight Howard). He never had great playoff success, but he did lead the league in scoring twice, finished top-4 in MVP voting twice, received MVP votes four other times, and for a couple of years was in the conversation for the label: best player alive. His case is not rock solid because of his playoff struggles, but his overall resume is pretty similar to Dominque Wilkins, who made both my list and the NBA's.
• DJ was a top-3 player on six teams that made the NBA finals, three of whom won the championship, and was the best player on one of those championship teams (the 1979 Sonics). He only made two all-NBA teams, but also made nine all-defensive teams, including first team all-defense six of those times. He was also top-five in the MVP vote once. He is one of the biggest snubs from the 50th anniversary team, but the other big snubs (Dominique Wilkins and Bob McAdoo) made it on to the 75th anniversary team. His case isn't as solid as T-Mac's, but he's definitely in the conversation. It's also hard to stay totally objective with DJ. He brought the only NBA championship to Seattle (the city I was born in), and although he is in the Basketball Hall of Fame, the committee did him dirty by not electing him until three years after his untimely death at the age of 52. He died knowing he got snubbed from the 50th and thinking he got snubbed from the hall of fame. He's not getting snubbed from my list.
  

The next five guys I decided to include who did not make the NBA's list, all have decent cases, but are also flawed (like the players I left off the list):

• I guess too many people thought it was too early in Jokic's career for him to make the list (he had only completed six NBA seasons when the 75th anniversary team was revealed). I guess the voters all forgot that Shaq was named to the 50th anniversary team during his 5th season. Jokic was a little easier for me to include because I had an extra year to consider for my 76th anniversary team. He's a two-time MVP, and would be the only multiple MVP winner not on the list, so he's in. He hasn't had much playoff success yet, but he's on pace to rack up enough accolades and accomplishments to be an auto include on the NBA's 100th anniversary team. He's on the list.
  
• There are quite a few players on the list who were amazing offensive players, but were somewhere between flawed and awful defensively. Ben Wallace deserves to be recognized for being the best defensive player during the most defensive minded era in league history. He was named Defensive Player of the Year four times, and did not win the award during his best defensive season because the so-called experts got tired of voting for him and decided to award the much less deserving Metta World Peace (who was going by the name Ron Artest at the time). Now the last year Wallace won, Tim Duncan had a very strong case, even if the voters ignored him that year. Either way, Ben Wallace won four DPOY awards during an era defined by it's defensive intensity. He was somewhere between flawed and awful offensively, but that could be forgiven during that era of basketball. In addition, he was the best player on a championship team and another that made the finals (apologies to the finals MVP from that team Chauncy Billups). He also led the league in rebounding twice and blocked shots once.
  
• On that note, let's skip ahead to Chauncy Billups. I'm still not sure he should be on the list, but that's the beauty of these things. I can be both adamant in my opinion of Dwight Howard, and kind of unsure of others on this list. Anyone who claims to have an exactly correct 75 (or 76 in my case) is fooling themselves. Chauncy won a Finals MVP (on a very balanced team with at least two other players with very strong arguments for the award: Rip Hamilton and Ben Wallace) and made the finals again the next year. He only made five all-star teams, three all-NBA teams, and two all-defensive teams. He did finish 5th in MVP voting once. He's a gamer, and ultimately I liked him a bit more than the guys who just missed my list. I could be talked out of including him, but at some point I needed to finalize this list, so today Chauncy makes my list.
  
• Pau Gasol and Tony Parker are linked because they were great international players during an era when the league was still unsure what to think of international players. They were both great players who won multiple championships. Pau was the second best player on both his championship teams, while Parker was somewhere between the second and fourth best player on four championship teams. He did win one Finals MVP, but that was just because the Cavs that year had no one who could stop him. The Cavs got so desperate that they even brought back an injured Larry Hughes to try to see if him playing on effectively one foot could make a difference. (It did not.) Tim Duncan was still the best player on that Spurs team, but Tony got the award because of the circumstances. Regardless, I ultimately felt like both Gasol and Parker deserved spots on this list. When they came into the league, there was still a lot of questions about whether international players were tough enough to survive in the NBA. Both Parker and Gasol played outsized roles in showing the NBA that international players could not only survive, but thrive in the NBA. I felt like there was not enough international representation on the list, so ties went to the internationals.

I gave the last spot on my list to Billy Cunningham. But really it could have gone to any of the guys who made the 50th, but were left off my list. Cunningham as a pretty strong case, but it would have been stronger had he won an NBA MVP rather than an ABA MVP. DeBusschere, Monroe, and Thurmond probably have the strongest cases from the rest, but when looking at the raw numbers, none of those guys (Cunningham included) quite stacked up to a lot of what I was seeing from other players. Today I picked Cunningham. Tomorrow it could be DeBusschere or Earl the Pearl.

In putting together this list, I looked at stats from nearly 250 players. Most of them eliminated themselves from consideration once I plugged their stats in the spreadsheet, but I wanted to do my due diligence. A few more guys I strongly considered for the spots I ultimately gave to Billups and Cunningham included: Damian Lillard, Tim Hardaway, Sidney Moncrief, Manu Ginobili, Chris Webber, Kevin Johnson, Dikembe Mutombo, Bob Lanier, Anthony Davis, Chris Mullin, Yao Ming, Draymond Green, David Thompson, and the other guys who made the 50th anniverary team. (As you can see, no one from that group absolutely has to make the list, but each of them has an argument.)

So that's my list. Ask me again tomorrow, and I'll probably have talked myself into at least one change and will have more arguments for why Dwight Howard was the biggest snub of this whole affair.

Anyway...

Right now "Easy" by Commodores is, probably, my 43rd favorite song of all time.