To celebrate the NBA’s 75th anniversary festivities, the league has rolled out its official list of the 75 greatest players of all time. The voters got it right by finally including Dominique Wilkins and Bob McAdoo.
When the league released similar rankings for the 50th anniversary back in 1996-97, Wilkins and McAdoo were especially egregious omissions. It’s not easy to include everybody but those stood out at the time.
Wilkins, the longtime Atlanta Hawks superstar wing, was arguably the most glaring omission from the NBA’s 50th-anniversary list.
When Dominique Wilkins didn't make the NBA's 50th-anniversary list of the best players of all time, he said:
"Some of the players that were voted top 50 could not even hold my jock."
For the NBA's 75th-anniversary list, the league righted the wrong and he made the list. #NBA75 pic.twitter.com/hpIMldwnjb
— Bryan Kalbrosky (@BryanKalbrosky) October 21, 2021
He was surprisingly excluded despite the fact that he ranked among the top-10 leading scorers of all time when the list was released in 1996-97. Fairly disappointed with the exclusion, he said at the time:
“Some of the players that were voted top 50 could not even hold my jock.”
He was the only nine-time All-Star as well as the only player to earn All-NBA consideration on six different occasions to not get included.
Only 13 players in league history have scored more points than Wilkins. It was an absolute travesty to have not Wilkins included then, but fortunately, the league has righted its wrong.
Congrats Bob McAdoo #NBA75
Many thought the former MVP & 2 x NBA Champ should have been on the NBA50 team. pic.twitter.com/fMBhvNWLcJ
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) October 21, 2021
It also corrected the mistake of excluding Bob McAdoo, who had won two NBA titles and an MVP award. McAdoo was the only MVP excluded from the NBA’s 50th-anniversary list. As he told ESPN:
“I don’t get as upset anymore … but I bet if you asked the people that voted, they’d say, ‘Oh, we forgot about that guy.’ “
He was selected as an All-Star for seven consecutive seasons, defining what it meant to be a great NBA big man in the 1970s.
At the conclusion of his final NBA season in 1985-86, ‘Doo’ ranked among the 15 best scorers and shot blockers on record while also finishing as one of the 25 best rebounders.
It was a good move by the voters to give these guys the credit they deserved 25 years ago.
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