Ranking the 75 best players in NBA history for 75th anniversary

Ranking the 75 best players in NBA history: No. 26 – Giannis Antetokounmpo

Career: 2013 – present

Achievements: 2021 NBA Champion; two-time MVP; All-NBA (5x); All-Star (5x); All-Defense (4x); Finals MVP; Defensive Player of the Year; Most Improved Player

At No. 26 we have our first up-and-comer, a player who still has a massive runway with which to move up this list. Still just 26 years old, Giannis Antetokounmpo has the trifecta of MVP, Finals MVP and Defensive Player of the Year. He joins Michael Jordan as the only other player to win multiple MVPs and a Defensive Player of the Year award. He is a lock to make the Hall of Fame even if he retired tomorrow.

What’s incredible about Antetokounmpo is that he wouldn’t retire tomorrow, and won’t until he absolutely has to. He both loves the game of basketball and is burning with an incredible competitive fire. The lanky kid from Greece has become a jacked rim-rattling point forward who can handle in transition, set screens and catch alley-oops, and overall destroy opposing defenses anywhere inside the arc. His transition Euro-step seems impossible given how much ground his huge strides cover.

Defensively he is every bit as special, with his Mr. Fantastic arms swallowing up passing lanes and snatching shots out of the air. He is far from a perfect player, but he looks like the modern version of the dominant centers of yesteryear, be that Shaq or Garnett or Wilt. Given his current trajectory, Antetokounmpo could join them near the top of this list by the end of his career.