The Sporting News' Top 50 NBA Players

Stan McNeal, managing editor of The Sporting News, ranks the top 50 NBA players. I see several oddities on his list (Steve Nash is higher than Kevin Garnett???), but it's interesting that 5 of the top 10 players are Americans who ascended directly from high school to the NBA, and yet only 8 percent of NBA players are Americans who ascended directly from high school to the NBA. I'm sure top college programs would have loved to have had the Lebron James and Tracy McGradys of the world, even for just one year -- think of all of the money they could have made off of them. But with the new NBA age floor, D1 schools can now "hire" those types of players--for free--for a year. Along those lines, I find it incredibly amusing how the NCAA contends that by preventing college basketball players from benefiting from their labor, it "protects them from exploitation by professional and commercial enterprises." That may be the most ironic comment ever.

Anyway, here is the top 10 of The Sporting News list:

1. Tim Duncan
2. Shaquille O'neal
3. Steve Nash
4. Kevin Garnett
5. Amare Stoudemire
6. Lebron James
7. Dewayne Wade
8. Kobe Bryant
9. Tracy Mcgrady
10. Dirk Nowitzki

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