RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame's class of 2026 will be inducted on Saturday night. It includes Amar'e Stoudemire, Candace Parker, Chamique Holdsclaw, Elena Delle Donne, coaches Mike D'Antoni, Mark Few and Doc Rivers, and the entire 1996 U.S. women's national team.
Naturally, it got us to thinking about future classes and who may or may not be included among current players. We will not be covering any retired players who are either not yet eligible or not yet voted in. This would include the likes of Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook (who just announced his retirement on Wednesday), both of whom are surefire first-ballot inductees. Kyle Lowry is going to get in, too. I would bet on Andre Iguodala eventually.
But those are debates for another day. We're focusing on currently active players and have broken them into tiers ranging from first-ballot locks to those on the outside looking in.
Arguably the GOAT. All-time leading scorer in both regular and postseason, both by extreme and still-growing margins. Four championships, including the only 3-1 comeback in Finals history over the 73-win Warriors in 2016. Four league MVPs. Four Finals MVPs. Three Olympic gold medals. LeBron has played for three franchises and won at least one MVP and a championship with each, the only player in history to do so. He's trying to go four-for-four with the 76ers, but obviously, his legacy and Hall of Fame spot are cemented no matter how this (presumably) final chapter turns out. -- Brad Botkin
Once Michael Jordan took official control of the NBA, save for his two-year baseball hiatus, nobody else won. Curry winning four titles in the LeBron era begs an honest question: Was it actually the Curry era? Since 2015, Curry has won two MVPs, including the only unanimous one in history, to LeBron's zero and the four titles to LeBron's two. Three of those titles came via a head-to-head Finals win over LeBron. Who was the better player during the heart of Curry's run is a real debate, but obviously Curry's first-ballot Hall of Fame status is not. He's the all-time 3-point leader and the greatest shooter to ever live by a wide margin. He changed the game in a way very few players, if any, ever have. -- Botkin
Perhaps the purest scorer to ever play, Durant ranks fifth all-time with 32,597 points and counting. His 50% career shooting percentage is remarkable given his primarily jump-shot diet. A four-time scoring champion, Durant won MVP in 2014 and has four top-two finishes and five top-fives to go with two championships, two Finals MVPs, 16 All-Star and 12 All-NBA selections, including six first-teams. He's also a two-time member of the exclusive 50-40-90 shooting club. In addition to his NBA résumé, Durant is the only male basketball player in history with four Olympic gold medals and is Team USA's all-time leading Olympic scorer. -- Botkin
The best player on the planet for no less than a half-decade and his reign is arguably ongoing. To call Jokiċ the best passing big man of all time is an insult; he's one of the greatest passers the game has ever seen, period. He won three MVPs in four years and hasn't finished lower than second since 2020. Led the Nuggets to the 2023 title without a single other All-Star on his roster. In fact, Jamal Murray (one selection) and late-career Russell Westbrook are the only All-Stars Jokiċ has ever played with. An advanced stats god, Jokiċ is the only player in history to lead the league in assists and rebounds per game in the same season, which he did last year when he averaged a triple-double. When it's all said and done, he'll have a legit case as the greatest offensive center of all-time, if he doesn't already own that title. -- Botkin
A two-time MVP and the 2021 Finals MVP, Antetokounmpo tallied nine straight All-NBA nods, including seven straight first teams, before his run ended last season when he played in just 36 games. He has also made five All-Defense teams, and in 2020, he became the third player in history to win MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season. Antetokounmpo is one of the most physically overwhelming and forceful downhill drivers the league has ever seen with a relentless motor. Had he ever really learned to shoot, we might've been talking about him with the GOATs one day. -- Botkin
One of the greatest individual creators to ever play, Harden, in his prime, was a virtually indefensible one-man offense, and he's still doing it as he enters his 18th NBA season. Two years ago, Harden was a third-team All-NBA selection. Last year, he averaged 23 and 8. Between 2015 and 2020, Harden finished in the top three in MVP voting five of six years and won it in 2018. That was the year he came closest to the championship that has eluded him. Harden's Rockets had the juggernaut Warriors in a 3-2 hole before Chris Paul went down for the rest of the series with a torn hamstring. It's true that Harden has an inconsistent playoff profile with some pretty loud no-shows on big stages, but this is a guy who averaged north of 33 points per game over a three-year span, something only four other players (Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Rick Barry and Luka Dončić) have ever done. He's a no-doubt first-ballot Hall of Famer. -- Botkin
Gilgeous-Alexander is one of 14 players in history to have won two MVPs and one of eight with a Finals MVP and scoring title to boot. The other seven who check all three of those boxes are Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Moses Malone, Wilt Chamberlain and Giannis Antetokounmpo. A little lower on this list, we're going to look at players who are certain to eventually make the Hall of Fame through an "if they retired today" lens, but SGA is already too secure for that list even though he's only played eight seasons. His last four simply have been too historic to deny, even if he somehow never played another game. -- Botkin
Embiid's peak may end up being among the shortest of any player on this lis...
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