4) Kobe Bryant
The late Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant is arguably the most popular player on this list and was also among the most skilled and accomplished. Kobe's first three seasons in the NBA don't count here, but he won three straight championships with Shaquille O'Neal to start the 2000s.
He also made it to a fourth NBA Finals in 2004, with Kobe usurping Shaq and the Lakers' best player. After they lost to the Detroit Pistons in the Finals that year, Shaq demanded to be traded and was moved to the Miami Heat while the Lakers opted to rebuild around Kobe.
That led to some down years for the Lakers with Kobe being paired with random players, though he was able to show what he could really do. He led the NBA in scoring in 2005-06 and 2006-07, including dropping 81 points in a game against the Toronto Raptors.
However, it wasn't until the Lakers acquired Pau Gasol in 2009 that they got back into title contention. From 2008 to 2011, Los Angeles made the NBA Finals three straight times and won back-to-back championships, with Kobe being named Finals MVP both times.
That turned out to be the high point of the decade for Kobe, and after the Lakers flamed out in 2011 with him, Dwight Howard, Gasol, and Steve Nash, he failed to make the playoffs the final four seasons of his career. Still, he went out with a bang, scoring 60 points in his final game. 17 all-star and 11 All-NBA first teams, a league MVP, five championships, and two Finals MVPs are more than enough to make him a top-5 player of the 21st century.