SI:AM | The Top 10 Players in the NBA

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. During this one-day lull in the baseball season, let’s talk about basketball.

In today’s SI:AM:

🏀 The NBA’s top 10 players are …

⚾ Why the Angels fired Joe Maddon (according to Joe Maddon)

📈 Men’s college basketball’s best breakout candidates

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Who’s No. 1?

SI’s annual NBA Top 100 is one of the most ambitious projects our NBA crew undertakes. Thoughtfully ranking the best players in the league is no small feat, and our guys take it very seriously. Jeremy Woo, Chris Herring and Rohan Nadkarni put together this year’s list, combining statistical analysis with their own subjective evaluations to create the rankings. We’ve been rolling out the list in installments all week. You can see Nos. 100–51 here, Nos. 50–31 here and Nos. 30–11 here.

But it’s time for the big reveal. Today’s Daily Cover is the final installment: the Top 10. This is where the discussions get really fun. If you rank LaMelo Ball (No. 42) behind Tyrese Haliburton (No. 41), who really cares? It’s just one spot. But at the top of the rankings, it’s easier to get upset about one player being placed a hair above another.

Here are my biggest takeaways from the list:

LeBron’s spot

LeBron James comes in at No. 7 on the list, his lowest ranking since we started doing this exercise in 2014. But still, it is astounding that James, who turns 38 in December and is entering his 20th season in the NBA, is still this good. He posted his best shooting percentage last season since ’17–18 and averaged more points per game (30.3) than he had since ’05–06.

There will be a day sometime soon when he’s not in the top 10 of this list. There may even be a day, if he follows through on his plan to play with sons Bronny and Bryce in the NBA, when he barely even cracks the top 100. But for now, he’s still one of the game’s elite.

Steph isn’t slowing down, either

On the topic of older guys who continue to excel, Stephen Curry has more than earned his spot at No. 3 on this list. After an injury-marred 2019–20 season, Curry has picked up right where he left off, benefiting significantly from having a strong supporting cast once again. He turns 35 in March but Nadkarni writes that Steph “is still one of the most feared players in the known universe.”

Where do you put Kawhi?

Ranking Kawhi Leonard has to be one of the most difficult parts of compiling this list. He came in at No. 3 in the 2020–21 list. But after tearing his ACL in the ’21 playoffs, he earned a sort of lifetime achievement spot at No. 10 on last year’s list. So where does he belong this year after a year off the court? Our team put him at No. 8, which seems fair enough. Who knows what Kawhi is going to look like? Part of the reason that he was able to move up from No. 10 is that James Harden and Anthony Davis fell out of the top 10 this year.

The battle at the top

This is why I’m glad I wasn’t responsible for putting this list together. There’s no arguing that Nikola Jokić and Giannis Antetokounmpo—the guys who have won the last four MVPs—are the two best players in the NBA. But which is the right order to put them in? To make matters worse, they’re two completely different types of players. Antetokounmpo is physically dominant and combines his unrivaled athleticism with an ever-increasing skill level. Jokić, meanwhile, barely leaves the ground but still gives teams headaches with his flawless interior footwork and creative passing. Check out the full list to see how our experts dealt with this conundrum and what Nadkarni had to say about both players.

The best of Sports Illustrated

Mississippi State football coach Mike Leach told Ross Dellenger about his ambitious plan to fix NIL. … This excerpt from Joe Maddon’s upcoming book with Tom Verducci explains how a changing baseball culture led the Angels to dismiss their former manager. … Albert Breer argues that it would be rash for the Colts to fire their coach and GM at this point. … Kevin Sweeney thinks these five men’s college basketball teams are likely to have breakout seasons.

Cowboys fans look to be all the way in on Cooper Rush. Divisional-round playoff ticket reservation prices for Dallas rose 65% after Sunday’s big win over the Commanders, according to SI Tickets. You can check out more playoff ticket trends here.

Around the sports world

Draymond Green could be disciplined for his role in an altercation with teammate Jordan Poole. … Green and Poole weren’t the only athletes to get physical yesterday. AEW wrestlers Andrade El Idolo and Sammy Guevara reportedly had a legitimate physical altercation backstage. … Colts running back Jonathan Taylor won’t play tonight against the Broncos. … Aaron Judge’s mini slump over the past few weeks (.244 batting average since Sept. 21) cost him the triple crown, as the Twins’ Luis Arraez claimed the AL batting title. … As the fallout from the NWSL’s player abuse scandal continues, the Red Stars removed their owner as chairman of the board and the Thorns fired two high-ranking executives.

The top five…

… things I saw yesterday:

5. Lucas Zelarayán’s free-kick goal from near midfield. (The sequence that led up to the free kick was pure chaos.)

4. Another pretty goal in MLS.

3. Mike Trout’s 40th home run of the season and 350th of his career. (He’s one of only four players to hit 40 home runs in a season while also missing 40 games.)

2. Stephen Vogt’s home run in the final at bat of his career.

1. Vogt’s kids announcing his name as he came to the plate earlier in the game.

SIQ

This seems like a good trivia question with the Phillies set to make their long-awaited return to the playoffs. On this day in 2010, Roy Halladay threw the second postseason no-hitter in MLB history. Which Phillies fielder made an impressive defensive play for the final out?

• Jimmy Rollins
• Chase Utley
• Shane Victorino
• Carlos Ruiz

Yesterday’s SIQ: Which actor has co-owned the South Sydney Rabbitohs in Australia’s National Rugby League since 2006?

• Russell Crowe
• Mel Gibson
• Hugh Jackman
• Nicole Kidman

Answer: Russell Crowe. He and Australian businessman Peter Holmes à Court bought a 75% stake in the team in 2006, with the club’s members retaining the remaining 25%. In ’12, Crowe announced his intention to sell his share of the team in hopes of spending more time with his family. But after he split from his wife, Danielle Spencer, Crowe decided to hold on to his investment. Two years after announcing he would sell, the team won its first title in 43 years.

The Rabbitohs have enjoyed plenty of success under Crowe, who was born in New Zealand but spent some of his childhood in Sydney. The team had once been one of Australia’s most dominant, winning nine championships from 1950 to ’71, but struggled financially in subsequent years and was excluded from the top league when it underwent restructuring in 2000. But the Rabbitohs turned things around fairly quickly after Crowe and Holmes à Court took over in ’06. In addition to the ’14 championship, they also made it to the Grand Final (championship game) in ’21, losing 14–12 to the Penrith Panthers.

From the Vault: Oct. 6, 1975

It may seem outlandish now, but the A’s were once one of the most dominant dynasties in baseball. Oakland won at least 90 regular-season games every year from 1971 to ’75 and won three World Series in a row from ’72 to ’74. In ’75, after posting the best record in the AL at 98–64, the A’s were poised to go for their fourth straight, and SI’s Ron Fimrite set out to weigh whether the Red Sox would be able to deny the A’s in that quest.

Boston was led by a trio of outstanding young outfielders—Dwight Evans, Fred Lynn and Jim Rice, none older than 24. But Fimrite concluded that the A’s had the advantage in power, the bullpen, defense and speed. You know, most aspects of the game.

Those A’s teams were loaded. They had excellent hitters like Reggie Jackson, Gene Tenace and Joe Rudi, as well as top-notch pitchers like Vida Blue and Rollie Fingers. It would have been silly to pick against them, and Fimrite didn’t:

Strange things can happen in so short a series, but no one is better equipped to deal with things strange than the feisty young men from Oakland. Expect Boston to suffer their wrath.

Fimrite was wrong, though. The A’s were swept in the best-of-five series.

Check out more of SI’s archives and historic images at vault.si.com.

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