LeBron over Jordan; Magic or Jokic? Which era had the best NBA players?

In light of strong claims by LeBron James that "Giannis Antetokounmpo would have 250 points in a game in the '70s", this article aims to solve the never-ending argument of which era had the best NBA players?

When the BAA, the forerunner of the NBA, was founded in 1946, the sport was still in its infancy. The foundations and legends of the 1950s–60s Golden Age were therefore still under development.

George Mikan held up the fort with nearly overwhelming domination in the 1950s. The 2.08-metre behemoth rewrote the laws of the game, compelling the league to impose an attacking time limit (the 24-second shot clock) and a joint-zone defence just to restrain his relentless performances.

Although basketball had not yet developed from its raw early form in this period – no three-point line, no sophisticated transmission equipment, and not even the contemporary idea of commercial packaging – the first real superstars were born in this golden era marked by the rivalry between Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain.

With 11 championship rings, Celtics star Bill Russell redefined success with his creed, "Defence wins championships," thereby imprinting the team-first basketball philosophy into history. 

On the other hand, Chamberlain pushed personal heroism to its very extreme with his incredible single-game 100 points and season average of 50.4 points. His rebounds, blocks, and almost compulsive quest for excellence set the seeds for the "team above all" of the future.

If we were to compare the NBA to a structure, the 1960s would be its foundation. The games of this era were loaded with raw power and tough aesthetics. Players collided with sparks flying from their flesh and blood; the floors were wooden, and the protective gear was simple.

Jerry West's clutch shots in the Finals, Elgin Baylor's powerful dunks, and Oscar Robertson's season average triple-doubles were the model of the "all-around warrior".

But the restrictions of medical technology made their careers as fleeting as meteors, and racial barriers, not yet completely eliminated, still existed.

This was an era where determination and success coexisted. The crowning glory of the 1960s resides in setting the groundwork for modern basketball, with the naivety of the regulations and the peculiarity of the competition making it an irreparable farewell song for future generations.

The 1970s were a turbulent transitional age. Pioneers of the aerial technique like "Dr J" Julius Erving emerged from the rivalry between the AVA and the NBA, with his dunks not just a means of scoring but an artistic statement.

While Julius Erving changed the definition of flight with his elegant slam dunks from the free-throw line, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's "skyhook" became a classic emblem of scoring and demonstrated that technique could go beyond human limits.

However, drug misuse and financial troubles dogged the NBA of this era, which resulted in a fractured star power for the league. Still, these giants' raw force and ability gave basketball its original heroic qualities.

The NBA finally had its own rebirth in the 1980s as the three-point line was formally adopted in 1979 and gave the game fresh tactical options.

The "Black and White Rivalry" of this era truly ignited the world when the ABA and NBA merged in 1976, with Magic Johnson's passing vision and Larry Bird's shooting philosophy merging team basketball with superstar charisma. Their rivalry helped the league avoid low ratings and transformed basketball from a game to a cultural emblem.

Apart from the continuation of the Celtics and Lakers' legendary rivalry, Larry Bird's battle with "Magic" Johnson was the ultimate confrontation of basketball intelligence and performance art.

While Magic turned basketball into an endless celebration with the fast-break storm of "Showtime", Bird's trash talk, clutch shots, and innovative image that "white men can jump" broke the ingrained prejudices of race and style.

Their rivalry turned basketball from a game into a cultural phenomenon and helped to salvage the NBA's ratings.

Around this time, the NBA started to welcome globalisation. Michael Jordan exploded onto the scene during the 1984 draft, launching the NBA into the future with his "Air" persona while Hakeem Olajuwon from Nigeria and Rik Smits from the Netherlands landed in America.

Though defence during this period stayed rough (the "hand-checking" rule allowed for more aggressive close guards), the brilliance of superstars and the growth of the commercial landscape made the 1980s a golden bridge between the past and the future.

Beyond that, the glory of this age resides in Moses Malone's title as the "King of Offensive Rebounds", Isiah Thomas's "Bad Boys" ironclad philosophy, Dominique Wilkins's amazing dunk contest performance, and so on.

With the careful strokes of collaboration and the daring splashes of individual heroism, the NBA of the 1980s was like a brilliantly coloured oil painting. More importantly, this generation of players set the stage for the modern basketball movement towards positional flux. Centres started passing, and guards could rule the paint.

When discussing the NBA's golden age, the 90s are a permanent monument. Globalisation of the NBA started to quicken in this era as Michael Jordan guided the Chicago Bulls to two three-peat championships. 

Jordan hit his prime in this period, with his hang-time jump shots, death-defying dunks, and the clutch aesthetics of “The Last Shot” defining the visual standards of a new age.

The "Dream Team" dazzled the globe at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, making the NBA a genuinely global language, and Jordan's personal brand elevated basketball to a front stage in popular consumer culture.

The mere presence of Michael Jordan brought transcendent splendour to this era. His six championships, two three-peats, "The Shot", and "Flu Game" have long transcended wins and losses, becoming icons of global pop culture.

The elites of this era combined power and skill, but Jordan's brilliance resides exactly in the fact that he was not a lone star: Hakeem Olajuwon's "Dream Shake", Charles Barkley's furious sensibilities, and Karl Malone and Stockton's pick-and-roll playbook. Though they battled in Jordan's shadow, these stars shone brightly.

Additionally, Shaquille' O'Neal's dominance in the paint was like a modern tank, Charles Barkley's post-up game was as ruthless as a bulldozer, and Kobe Bryant personified the "Mamba Mentality" with his renowned 4 AM training sessions.

Basketball in the 1990s was a masterclass of muscular collision. With the Pistons' "Jordan Rules" and the Knicks' "Mugging" strategies, which turned scoring into a battle, the rules allowed for a more aggressive defence.

But the value of technique was immensely enhanced for this exact reason—Jordan's fadeaway shot, Reggie Miller's devastating three-pointer, and Patrick Ewing's footwork in the paint were all ultimate definitions of the word "survival".

Approaching the twenty-first century, the NBA went through a brief ideological crisis. On one side were traditional giants like Shaquille O'Neal, who smashed the paint with weight and muscle, while technical perfectionists like Kobe Bryant sharpened the best scoring weapon in history through 4 AM training sessions.

Their synergy and eventual fallout created a tragicomedy of the Lakers dynasty that represented the continuous struggle between individualism and teamwork.

By this period, the speed of the game had been utterly changed by technological innovation. Tim Duncan's low-post mentality and Kevin Garnett's defensive artistry hinted at the beginning of the small-ball trend, while the three-point shot gradually evolved from a "tactical supplement" to a "deciding factor".

The stealthy emergence of basketball science and the globalisation trend also underlie this era. Steve Nash's "Seven Seconds or Less" Suns broke the conventional half-court attack with speed; Dirk Nowitzki's "one-leg fadeaway" jump shot predicted the rise of the stretch four; and Yao Ming's arrival totally opened the Asian market for the NBA.

Though the three-point shot had not yet been a common weapon during this period, the legacies of Ray Allen and Reggie Miller as shooters had already paved the way for the future revolution.

While super teams—from the OK Pair to the Big Three in Miami—redefined the boundaries of competitiveness, the widespread use of the internet allowed spectators to track every game in real time at the beginning of the twenty-first century. 

But this age is also controversial: amid drug scandals, labour conflicts, and complaints of too much commercialisation, people started to wonder, if purity had quietly disappeared with basketball becoming a capital game? 

By the second decade of the twenty-first century, the NBA had become a utopia for "giant killers". Should basketball have an ultimate form, the 2010s would be the closest fit.

LeBron James, the "Chosen One", redefined "dominance" with his all-around prowess. From scoring to assists, from block chasing down to game-winning throws, he demonstrated how a player can be an engine, a finisher, and a leader at once.

Stephen Curry—with his rebellious logic of "the farther from the basket, the deadlier"—started a spatial revolution with his three-point shooting. His arrival compelled the whole league to rethink the worth of shooting—even reorienting youth training programmes.

There's also Nikola Jokic, who has been named MVP as a "passing centre".

The buzzword of this era is "efficiency", as spatial stretching, pick-and-roll strategies, and endless switches have broken basketball into mathematical formulas.

Players of this age grew up in a time of social media boom and data analytics. Their skills are more all-encompassing (Embiid's three-point shooting as a centre; Jokic's passing vision); their training is more scientific (load management; biomechanical analysis); and their impact has long exceeded the court (LeBron's social activity; Curry's brand effect).

Perched on the brink of the 2020s, the NBA is going through a fresh wave of genetic mutation. Doncic commands the floor with a European-style rhythm; "Victor Wembanyama"-style unicorn players have stretched the bounds of positions, and Giannis Antetokounmpo shows that talent and hard effort can modify a player's limits. 

Simultaneously, the younger Americans—Tatum, Booker, and Morant—have already globalised their skills; their repertoire blends the quickness of Asian players with Eurostep and South American crossovers.

Though it lacks clear designations, basketball in our era is surely the strongest battlefield in history where players of any height, country, or background can discover their path to survive. But this variety also complicates the criteria of "greatness": what is the description of an era where everyone has the chance to be a star?

The amazing vertical leap of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Dončić's perfect rhythm, and Kevin Durant's indefensible shooting range all attest to the advancements achieved in technology and training science, which have resulted in physical conditioning reaching the limits of human capabilities.

However, the price of modern basketball is also clear-cut. The "back-to-back" playoff schedule and the extension of the playoff ticket economy have truncated players' careers, while the rise in playoff intensity has resulted in regular injuries.

Thanks to the storm of public opinion created in the era of social media, superstars walk on eggshells as they are both global symbols and "products" under a microscope.