The Athletic Get’s It Wrong With Top 10 NBA Defenders All-Time

Russell sits atop the list, but it’s hard to find criteria to justify it. The Defensive Player of the Year award didn’t come out until the 1982-83 season (long after Russell retired), and the All-Defensive Team wasn’t started until his final season. The NBA didn’t start tracking blocks or steals until the 1973-74 season, so the only defensive statistic that exists to measure Russell is rebounds (not even defensive rebounds, because those weren’t tracked separately until 1973).

Russell finished his career averaging 22.5 rebounds per game. Astonishing when compared to today’s league leaders, but not quite as good as his contemporary, Wilt Chamberlain, who averaged 22.89 (24.3 before Russell retired). The gap is even wider when comparing the two in head-to-head matchups. Russell averaged 22.9 rebounds per game when he played against Chamberlain, while the “Big Dipper” averaged 28.1. If Russell was not as good a rebounder as Chamberlain, and that’s the only defensive statistic to measure the two players, why does the former Celtic top this list, while the NBA’s all-time leading rebounder isn’t even in the top 10?

The answer is false reputation. A game of telephone passed down through the years that ends with someone saying Russell is the best defender of all time. This false narrative is perpetuated by people saying nonsensical things like, “Russell had Chamberlain’s number” or “Russell shut down Chamberlain when they played against each other”. Chamberlain’s career scoring average when playing against Russell was 30 ppg (his career average), while Russell’s was 14.2 (below his career average). So who was really the better defender?

Guards Don’t Play Defense?

The list is also loaded with big men. In fact, Pippen is the only player on the list who didn’t play power forward or center. John Stockton isn’t on this list, despite having 500 more career steals (3,265) than the second-place finisher (Chris Paul has 2,717). What’s even more perplexing is the absence of Michael Jordan. His Airness is fourth all-time in career steals (2,514) and fourth in steals per game (2.35). He won Defensive Player of the Year in 1988 and was first-team All-Defense nine times in his career.

Olajuwon, who is second on Hollinger’s list and was drafted the same year as Jordan, was first team All-Defense just five times (and he played more seasons than Jordan). Kobe Bryant was also first-team All-Defense nine times, and like Jordan, is considered one of the fiercest on-ball defenders in league history. In fact, both Jordan and Bryant have more first-team selections than every player on this list except for Garnett. Why are both players missing from this list?

Ben Wallace and Draymond Green?

Green makes this list, like Russell, solely based on the misconceptions about his defensive prowess. He has won DPOY just once in his career (same as Jordan), and has been All-Defense first team just five times in his career. If enough people say a phrase incorrectly, the incorrect version of the phrase is then considered the correct way to say it (could care less for example). That seems to be the case with NBA players’ defensive abilities as well. The more someone says a player is a good defender, the more it will become a matter of fact, even though it actually isn’t.

Wallace has a case to be on here. He won the DPOY four times (tied with Rudy Gobert for the most ever), but he was a shooting star. He shone brightly, but disappeared quickly. He made the first-team All-Defense five times in his career and won the league’s rebounding title twice. It’s disingenuous to include him on a list that doesn’t feature version 1.0 of Wallace, Dennis Rodman.

The worm was first team All-Defense seven times, won seven rebounding titles (consecutively from 1991-92 to 1997-98), and two defensive player of the year awards. Unlike Wallace, who could only guard centers and slow forwards, “The Worm” could guard all five positions. He is in every way a better defender (and a better player) than Wallace was, even at his peak.

End Of My The Athletic Rant

This list by Hollinger needs more than five minutes of research and thought. It’s way too full of holes, and it’s clear the motivation behind it was to create somewhat of a viral meme on social media. Everyone has a right to their opinion, and tioers of greatness are just that. Based on the facts outlined here, it’s hard to imagine that this list is truly a reflection of anyone’s opinion. It’s a list that was fabricated with the sole purpose of starting debates.