Commentary on Simmons' NBA Pantheon

I recently finished reading Simmons' totally awesome The Book of Basketball--700+ glorious pages dedicated to my personal fav

orite of all the professional sports leagues, the National Basketball Association.  The book is written in typical Simmons-style, mixing in personal anecdotes and pop culture references with sports analysis. However, it's a departure from Simmons' usual take as being written solely from the perspective of a fan in that it's clear that he did a fair amount of research on the topic. I'm sure there are some who have criticized the length of the book, but for true NBA fans, I easily could have read several hundred-more pages. 

The centerpiece of the book is Simmons' idea for a revamping of the NBA Hall of Fame:  he suggests that players be voted into a "pyramid system" in which 5 different levels of greatness are recognized.  The highest honor is bestowed upon the top 12 players of all-time:  "the Pantheon."  Here is the complete list, followed by a few comments at the bottom:

LEVEL 5: The Pantheon

1. 1.  Michael Jordan
2. 2.  Bill Russell
3. 3.  Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
4. 4.  Magic Johnson
5. 5.  Larry Bird
6. 6.  Wilt Chamberlain
7. 7.  Tim Duncan
8. 8.  Jerry West
9. 9.  Oscar Robertson
10. 10.  Hakeem Olajuwon
11. 11.  Shaquille O’Neal
12. 12.  Moses Malone

LEVEL 4

13. 13.  John Havlicek
14. 14.  Elgin Baylor
15. 15.  Kobe Bryant
16. 16.  Julius Erving
17. 17.  Bob Pettit
18. 18.  Karl Malone
19. 19.  Charles Barkley
20. 20.  LeBron James
21. 21.  Bob Cousy
22. 22.  Kevin Garnett
23. 23.  Isiah Thomas
24. 24.  Scottie Pippen

LEVEL 3

25. 25.  John Stockton
26. 26.  Rick Barry
27. 27.  Bill Walton
28. 28.  David Robinson
29. 29.  Allen Iverson
30. 30.  Willis Reed
31. 31.  Dave Cowens
32. 32.  Walt Frazier
33. 33.  Sam Jones
34. 34.  George Gervin
35. 35.  Kevin McHale
36. 36.  George Mikan

LEVEL 2

37. 37.  Dirk Nowitzki
38. 38.  Steve Nash
39. 39.  Patrick Ewing
40. 40.  Gary Payton
41. 41.  Wes Unseld
42. 42.  Jason Kidd
43. 43.  Clyde Drexler
44. 44.  Nate Thurmond
45. 45.  Dave Debusschere
46. 46.  Hal Greer
47. 47.  Billy Cunningham
48. 48.  James Worthy
49. 49.  Elvin Hayes
50. 50.  Dolph Schayes
51. 51.  Bill Sharman
52. 52.  Dennis Johnson
53. 53.  Dwyane Wade
54. 54.  Paul Pierce
55. 55.  Dominique Wilkens
56. 56.  Paul Arizin
57. 57.  Tommy Heinsohn
58. 58.  Bernard King
59. 59.  Robert Parish
60. 60.  Nate Archibald
61. 61.  Bob McAdoo

LEVEL 1

62. 62.  Reggie Miller
63. 63.  Ray Allen
64. 64.  Jerry Lucas
65. 65.  Alex English
66. 66.  Adrian Dantley
67. 67.  Earl Monroe
68. 68.  Pete Maravich
69. 69.  Dennis Rodman
70. 70.  David Thompson
71. 71.  Lenny Wilkens
72. 72.  Chris Webber
73. 73.  Sidney Moncrief
74. 74.  Joe Dumars
75. 75.  Tracy McGrady
76. 76.  Artis Gilmore
77. 77.  Dan Issel
78. 78.  Paul Westphal
79. 79.  Bobby Dandridge
80. 80.  Bailey Howell
81. 81.  Dave Bing
82. 82.  Chris Mullin
83. 83.  Vince Carter
84. 84.  Cliff Hagan
85. 85.  Robert Horry
86. 86.  Arvydas Sabonis
87. 87.  Connie Hawkins
88. 88.  Gail Goodrich
89. 89.  Shawn Kemp
90. 90.  Chris Paul
91. 91.  Dwight Howard
92. 92.  Bob Lanier
93. 93.  Kevin Johnson
94. 94.  Jack Twyman
95. 95.  Jo Jo White
96. 96.  Tom Chambers

My own comments:  

-It's hard to argue the Top 12, though I probably would made the cutoff at Shaq and bumped Moses into Level 2--it just doesn't seem like Moses (great as he was) deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the rest of these guys.  

-I think you have to at least consider the possibility of putting Kobe in the Top 12 now--though it's hard to fault the Sports Guy for this since the book was written before Kobe's vindicating 2008-09 NBA Championship.  

-Magic ahead of Bird?  I personally don't think so.  At his peak, Bird was more awe-inspiring than even Magic...and Simmons even admits that his ranking of Magic over Bird was influenced by Magic's improved longevity compared to Bird's, even though he states earlier on in the book that he values quality over quantity with players such as Bill Walton. My instinct is that Simmons ranked Magic ahead of Bird so that he can't be accused of too much homerism, and perhaps the decision gives greater credence to his high overall ranking of players such as DJ, Bill Russell, John Havlicek, etc.  

-It's tough to know how to rank the current players on the list, so it's hard to criticize Simmons for this.  But do we really think that Chris Paul's career (ranked #90) will be worse than Shawn Kemp's (ranked #89) or Vince Carter's (ranked #83)?    

-The rankings of Allen Iverson (artificially high at #29) and Reggie Miller (probably about right at #62) deserve commentary.  Simmons makes the case that the Reggie is overrated by most NBA fans based on his legendary performances against the big-market NY Knicks, and judging him by more objective standards (e.g., # of All-NBA teams made, statistics, etc.) is necessary to put him into the proper context.  However, you can make the case that he completely fails to evaluate in an objective manner Iverson, whose high ranking in Simmons' list is largely due to AI's strong resonance with fans rather than his actual accomplishments. I guess the point I am making is that the ranking process is not 100% consistent here.   

-one of my favorite comments in the entire book was Simmons' description of Artis Gilmore (#76 on the list) as some "half-black, half-Chinese count" (or something like that)--it made me giggle out loud on an airplane.  I remember watching an older Artis Gilmore play at the onset of my NBA infatuation, and the description is an apt one.