The definitive ranking of the best players in the NBA today…
by Russ Bengtson
Dwyane Wade awakened with a start, nearly spilling a half-full red G2 all over his 3,700 thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets. Over on the nightstand, his Sidekick buzzed out the first few notes of an old 
Mike Jones song. Odd, Wade thought. That’s not what it’s supposed to be. Wade suspected Daequan Cook was the one who kept changing his ringtones, but had never caught him at it. Without lifting his head from his triple phat goosedown pillows or even opening his eyes, he reached out his arm and brought the phone to his ear.
“What, Chuck?”
“Chuck?”
“Yeah. Chuck. What?”
“This isn’t ‘Chuck’.”
“Who is it then?”
“Dr. Edmund Bertschinger, the physics department head at MIT. This is Dwyane Wade, right?”
With that Wade sat up, capping the G2 and setting it next to his iHome. Rubbed the sleep out his eyes.
“Oh right, right—Dr. Bertschinger. Thanks for getting back to me so soon. Did you figure that stuff out for me?”
“Yes, Dwyane. I had my team look into it. We went through it again and again, and no matter how many time we crunched the numbers, we concluded that there is absolutely no way you can fall down seven times and get up eight. It simply isn’t possible. I’m sorry. And as a theoretical astrophysicist, I explored EVERY possibility. Trust me. Oh yeah—can I be in your five?”
Bertschinger was still talking, but Wade had stopped listening. Crestfallen, he let the phone fall aw…
Man, I’m sorry. There I go, just using Wade’s spot on this list to be all clever and look-at-me writery. My bad. Let me try this again.
The first time we wrote about Dwyane Wade in SLAM, we spelled his name wrong. It was an honest mistake. Truly. He was still at Marquette then—not anywhere near a household name obviously—and spellcheck doesn’t help when it comes to proper names and who the heck spelled Dwayne “Dwyane” anyway? Yet in a world littered with Anfernees and Andrays we should have known better and double-checked.
Now? It’s the traditional “Dwayne” that looks wrong. And if Mr. Wade keeps playing the way he’s been playing, 20 years from now guys named Dwayne are gonna be the ones getting their name spelled wrong. Because familiarity will go the other way. All becau…
Ah, that’s no good either. Personal reminiscence and still no real reasoning as to why he’s ahead of Player A or behind Player B. Maybe I should go to the numbers?
31.
That’s how many games Dwyane Wade missed each of the past two seasons, thanks to an assortment of painful and surgically repaired reasons. It was all or nothing too—Wade averaged 37-plus minutes and 24-plus points per game in each of the 102 games he did play. Either Dwyane Wade played as Dwyane Wade, or he didn’t play at all. And in 2007 he averaged career highs in points (27.4) and assists (7.5) despite missing all of March and playing just five hobbled games in April.
15.
That’s how many games the Miami Heat won last season. In the 51 games Wade played, the Heat went 10-41, including a stretch from late December to late February where they lost 24 of 25. Yeesh. His best game of the season—a 48-point, 11-assist, seven-rebound effort in an overtime loss to Orlando—came during that stretch. He played nearly 52 minutes. Other great games produced similar results. Back-to-back December nights of 36, 10 and six against the Hawks and 41, six and five against the Nets resulted in two more losses. His last game of the season came on March 8th. He played 39 minutes and stacked up 24 points and eight assists. The Heat lost, dropping their record to 11-50. I would have taken the rest of the season off, too.
1.
That’s how many times Dwyane Wade has won Finals MVP. It’s also his number of NBA Championships and Olympic gold medals. He was the best player on the court in the summer of 2006 playing in Miami and Dallas alongside Shaquille O’Neal, and he was the best player on the court in the summer of 2008 playing in Beijing alongside Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. Olympic success doesn’t necessarily translate into NBA transcendence—see: Anthony, Carmelo—but all signs point to Wade being fully recovered from the injuries to his knee and shoulder that slowed him for so long.
77.
That’s the most games Dwyane Wade has ever played in an NBA season. It was his second season, his 24.1/6.8/5.2 breakout year. The following season he kicked it up yet another notch with a Jordanesque 27.2/6.7/5.7 line and the championship that had people wondering whether he was actually the class of the Class of ’03. Then came the injuries and the sweep at the hands of the overachieving Bulls and 10-41 and LeBron’s hey-Mike-look-at-me digits and there went the neighborhood.
8.
That’s the spot where we ranked Dwyane Wade. You probably don’t agree. His talent and career averages and Olympic performance place him higher, his injury history places him lower. His age—he turns an older-than-you-might-think 27 in January—places him right square in his prime.
So let’s see what happens next. Will he be able to resume his rugged game of controlled recklessness? Will his surgically repaired body hold up for >37 x 82? Will he mesh properly with a new coach and a new scorer and a new point guard? Will he bang and dunk and shoulder (NPI) his way right back into that LeBron/Kobe/CP3/TD/KG best-player-on-the-planet discussion?
I don’t know what the answers to those questions will be. He might come out of the gate on fire, energized by that gold, he might go down seven times and get up six. Either way, it’ll be fun to watch.
Want more of the SLAMonline Top 50? Check out the archive.
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2,) Bryant
3.) James
4.) Duncan
5.) Garnett
6.) Nash
7.) Pierce
2.LeBron
3.CP3
4.Garnett
5.iRobot
6.Nashty
7.PP
2.Bryant
3.Paul
4.Garnett
5.Duncan
6.Nash
7.PP?
1.Kob
2.Bron
3.CP3
4.Garnett
5.Wade
Is he better at all?
2.) 76ers
3.) pistons
4.) cavs
5.) orlando
6.) toronto
7.) washington
8.) atlanta
PAUL FREAKING’PIERCE
2. Kobe
3. Paul
4. Pierce
5. Pierce
6. Bron
7. KG/Pierce
really ridiculous choice.
i wonder Wade receiving Garnett and Allen…
2. Kobe
3. LeBron
4. CP3
5. PP
6. KG
7. Nash
1. Kobe Bryant
2. LeBron James
3. Chris Paul
4. Tim Duncan
5. Kevin Garnett
6. Steve Nash
7. Paul Pierce
@Clockwork…..:no you cannot. Cause as C.Barkley said last year “hey,man the average fun,… don’t know a lot about basketball,well..let me..most funs don’t know lot about basketball,all they know is points rebounds & scores….”
6. Nash
5. The Robot
4. KG
3. CP3
2. 24
1. The Young King
DP & Eboy!!! (and the day just started…)
1.24
2.Lebroom
3.cp3
4.TD
5.KG
6.Nash
7.no one…
and what is that you don’t get darling…?
BIG DESAPPOINTMENT @ U SLAM.
And on a side note: the “rumors” on D.WADE made it to Bucurest.(i was really amased to hear from people not close to the NBA..)
2. Chis Paul
3. Lebron
4. TD
5. Wade
6. KG
7. Nash
8. Paul Pierce Should have looked like this, even thought I do not endores 7 or 8.
Good Lord.
@Allenp….:he SHOULD based on the criteria they claimed they used .
Ok, I’m calm again. Simply, it can’t be all about last year because Gilbert hasn’t played in two years. It can’t be about last year because Baron was disappointing last year. I assumed it was about player potential and performance. Wade RIGHT NOW wins when it comes to both of those things.
I just don’t understand this list sometimes. I like to understand things.
PEACE…
Gilbert & Baron not only have more potential-future than A.I but the had a more positive impact to their team than A.I. although they played less games than his usual 80. This is the magic of our cute “ANSWER”: he would have made his team more succesfull if he hadn’t play at all. Next year he will be out of the top-30, and hopefully 3 years from now out of the league to Panathinaikos!!!(Although Obradovic wouldn’t sign him even if it was for free…) .
1)Starbury
2)Lebron
3)Telair
4)”Skip to my Lou”
5)”Franchise”
at NO 8???
therefore, you’re implying that PP is better than him Dear Slam Online Boooo!! That is all
.. BOOOOOOO!!
Just saying.
If we were that good we’d be in the NBA getting paid (see Tony P, Manu etc) BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! on the ranking Russ, BOOOOOO!!, HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN TOP 5!!!
Your quote about why MJ did many of the things he did is clear evidence that your basketball knowledge doesn’t cross the Atlantic. MJ was ten times the corporate whore that Lebron is. Easily. Sure, MJ was great at ball, but he has always, ALWAYS been about his money. You do realize Jordan still has the single season record as far as salary, right? A cool $30 million each of his last two years with the Bulls. It was always about the money with MJ. He just loved basketball as well.
Your bias is showing Nikos and it’s really, really not pretty. I’d like you to point to one European star in the league that is complete on offense and defense. And if you name Manu, you fail.
i thought he’s like…25
@Eboy…:you got that right, i am sick on my office since last night.
As if I didn’t need another reason to ignore all of your “intellectual” comments.
lol
You’re right, I mis-read your MJ comment and somehow got the impression that you were saying you preferred MJ over Lebron because MJ presented an image of self-sacrfice instead of his true personality of a power hungry uber capitalist. I got the impression that either you were grossly underestimating how self-serving Jordan was, or that you just didn’t care about making sense in your arguments.
Sorry I missed that.
@Kostas…..:if you also listened to what i used to say we will still be together now .Admit it ,IT WAS YOUR FAULT ALSO!!!(i told you a thousand times: no teeth…)
Welcome back KIERAN!!! We missed you cool!!!
2. LeBron
3. Chris Paul
4. Kevin Garnett
5. Tim Duncan
6. Paul Pierce
7. Steve Nash
Unfortunately, Nikos has allowed his disappointment that Iverson did not maximize his talent to turn into insanity. This is unfortunate.
The Lakers that beat Philly were arguably one of the greatest playoff teams of all time. They swept everybody else, including a Tim Duncan lead Spurs team in a series where I think Kobe destroyed Bruce Bowen. I don’t know much about CSKA or whatever that team was Nikos mentioned, but I no damn well that they were not as good as that Lakers team, and therefore would not have beaten the Sixers 4-1. Yes, that Sixers team was talent deprived, but they found ways to win games against three quality teams that year in Indiana, Toronto and the Bucks.
2. Wade
3. LeBron Wade will be right with Kobe after his next two seasons.
i was expecting Wade to be #3 or #4
^_^
^_^
^_^
2.)Lebron *kotz*
3.)Garnett
4.)Duncan
5.)PP
6.)CP
7)Nash
Even I know that!!!
From Giessen, Germany,
yassi
@MyKal….:you wanna give you the chances of A.I. making national team of Croatia if he was eligible…? You already know them if you have any kind of relation to this bball country…get back to your cereals now.
a lady
2.james TOP 3 could be switching
3.wade around after this
4.kg season!
5.cp
6.howard
1.DWADE
2.Lebron
3.kobe
4.CP3
5.Superman
6.CB4 guys
wade is the best player in the league right now, he is still averaging 29 a game even though he had 2 games in a row that were under 20. plus hes the best shot blocking guard in the league which is always good
and does lebron have a ring… nope
and dont say its cuz of shaq, shaq did nothing but scarethe guards so they wouldnt penetrate
Dwyane Wade MVP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If the Heat want to keep him in Miami they better be ready to sign a big check!
2)LBJ
3)CP3
4)K BRYNT
5)KG
6)MELO
7)SUPERMAN
8)ME
2)Lebron James
3)Dwyane Wade
4)Chris Paul
5)Dwight Howard
He can’t be #8!!!
2)LBJ23
3)WAD3
4)CP3
5)DK40
6)BR7
7)DW12
8)JJ2
2- Lebron
3- CP3
4- KB24
5- D-Will
6- Melo
7- Superman Howard
8- Kevin Durant
9- Billups(not because of his stats the nuggets play a lot better with him)
10- Joe Johnson
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