Ranking the 50 greatest NBA players of all time

12. Moses Malone

• Resume: 21 seasons (NBA and ABA), 1 NBA championship, 1 NBA Finals MVP Award, 3 regular season MVP Awards, 8-time All-NBA selection, 12-time NBA All-Star, 2-time NBA All-Defensive Team, 6-time NBA leader in rebounding, NBA’s third all-time leading rebounder, 2-time ABA All-Star, Hall-of-Famer
• Stats: 20.3 PPG, 12.3 RPG, 1.3 BPG, 1.3 SPG, .495/—/.760 shooting splits, 22.0 career PER, 179.1 win shares

There aren’t many players to ever grace the NBA hardwood that had a better basketball name than “Moses Malone.” Ok, so there aren’t any players with a better basketball name than Moses, but aside from those style points, Malone stands above everyone else as the greatest rebounder this game has ever seen.

He wasn’t known for his eloquence, but Moses didn’t need to be articulate for people to understand his game. To make a short story even shorter, when he was on the floor, he was going to crash the boards like a wrecking ball aimed at the backboard. He’s the greatest offensive rebounder ever, to the point that sometimes his team’s most effective offense was to put up a shot because Moses was going to be right there at the rim to clean it up anyway.

When Dr. J’s Sixers couldn’t get over the hump and win a championship, Moses delivered the people of Philadelphia from captivity. A player of his nature shouldn’t have been traded three times in his career, but Malone put up eye-popping numbers wherever he went and nearly made good on his “Fo’, Fo’ Fo'” promise in the 1983 NBA Playoffs (stating the Sixers would sweep every opponent in four games on the way to winning the title).

It’s easy to wonder why his teams never found the playoff success to match his talent and rebounding skill-set, but there were few centers you’d have rather had on your team during Moses’ prime. He didn’t mind getting physical, he made Kareem Abdul-Jabbar look weak on numerous occasions and he endures as one of the all-time greats to play his position.