Since the average career of an NBA player is 4.5 years, I restricted this to just 5 of their best statistical seasons.
VORP
10 - Kevin Durant
9 - Magic Johnson
8 - James Harden
7 - John Stockton
6 - Larry Bird
5 - Kareem Abdul Jabbar
4 - Kevin Garnett
3 - David Robinson
2 - Lebron James
1 - Michael Jordan
Win shares
10 - Karl Malone
9 - Chris Paul
8 - Dirk Nowitzki
7 - David Robinson
6 - Oscar Robertson
5 - Lebron James
4 - George Mikan
3 - Michael Jordan
2 - Kareem Abdul Jabbar
1 - Wilt Chamberlain
Win-shares/48
10 - James Harden
9 - Stephen Curry
8 - Nikola Jokic
7 - Kevin Durant
6 - David Robinson
5 - Chris Paul
4 - Wilt Chamberlain
3 - Lebron James
2 - Michael Jordan
1 - Kareem Abdul Jabbar
#Notable findings:
Appearing in all 3 charts is Kareem, Jordan, Lebron, annnndd DAVID FUCKING ROBINSON. The Admiral is hella underrated. Petition to make him part of the conversation for NBA’s Mt. Rushmore.
Appearing in at least 2 are Wilt, KD, Harden, and Chris Paul. Kinda surprising for this list to have people that are mostly clowned for not having a ring.
Notable absences are Tim Duncan, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kobe Bryant who are often considered top 10 players.
That’s a good part of the day wasted. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
How did you run these numbers? Curious to see where guys like Tim Duncan, Elton Brand, and Jokic are.
On basketball reference, they have single season stats. I really just took the top 250 single season numbers and added a count column and removed anything beyond 5 for each player. Jokic is mostly on the WS/48 table. I have to check again but I dont think Elton Brand was there.