Kareem Abdul-Jabbar beats out Michael Jordan in Nick's Top players in 50 years | FIRST THINGS FIRST

Nick Wright has been slowly unveiling his Top 50 players of the last 50 years over these past few weeks. Now that we're finally at the Top 3, he makes an 'audacious' statement by putting Michael Jordan at No. 3 behind LeBron James and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Chris Broussard is not here for the ranking, but Nick explains that once you look at the numbers, it's the only logical choice.

#FirstThingsFirst #NBA #MichaelJordan

About First Things First:
Nick Wright, Chris Broussard, Kevin Wildes, and Jenna Wolfe team up on First Things First, a discussion and opinion-based studio program that covers all the headlines weekdays on FS1.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar beats out Michael Jordan in Nick's Top players in 50 years | FIRST THINGS FIRST

First Things First

[rhettjackson]

Kareem is very under rated in my opinion. Young Kareem in Milwaukee was power and grace personified. Laker era also extremely impressive.

[KenFisk]

Im convinced Nick made this list just to NOT put Jordan at one.

[RunBack]

Its official, Lebron is the 3rd Best with Nick’s arguments 😅

[lojickseen]

I had LeBron 2nd all time but after Nick's argument I'm putting Kareem ahead of him. Thanks Nick!

[nehemiahnewman]

All Nick did is make a stronger case for Lebron to be 3rd all time 😂

[numbroneheadband]

Nick Wrong slamming on MJ for winning 37 games with the Wizards at age 38. Mr. Wrong forgot to mention this fact. In the 2021-2022 NBA season, a 37-year old LeBron James led the LA Lakers to a 33-win season.

[DMalltheway]

Kareem is always arguably the best ever, if anyone puts him at 1, there’s always an open debate but he deserves to be in that talk.

[udinelumbu]

Putting the GOAT at 3rd is a clever way of generating views & ratings.

[Derpfriar]

I can always rely on Broussard to make me feel better that not all analysts are mental. Disrespecting the double 3 Peat is just horrific

[Ttcw]

*Nick Really just made us all want to put Kareem now ahead of LeBron!* 😂😂😂 Congrats Nick you played yourself! Jordan is 🐐 followed by 2.Kareem and 3.LeBron 😂 Nicky really didn’t think this one through

[alltheworldsastage]

I knew I could count on Broussard to break it down. Kareem does have a case for GOAT but just because you have a case don’t mean you win.

[KevinHernandez-qzsb]

Would love to see prime MJ, Bron, and Kareem go head to head in their prime. 90's Bulls, 2016 Cavaliers, and 70's Kareem.

[rhonecherrington]

Nick made LITERALLY the exact opposite case for why Magic Johnson is clearly the greatest Laker ever over Kobe, as well as Duncan on his list. It was all about the finals he got in such few seasons, and because he’s trying to make finals appearances a thing, how many finals appearances he had in so few seasons. He talked about per game stats over the accumulation of them is why clearly Magic was a better passer than Stockton, (which btw I’m from Utah and was at Michael’s final ring where he broke my heart). Anyway, I just think it’s funny once he gets to where Lebron obviously should and would land on his list, he switches it to the accumulation of stats over per game one’s, and rings won where you weren’t the main reason behind those rings are equivalent to, well for example all six of Jordan’s.. It was all about how much he did in such a short career, now it’s been switched cause Lebron got to come first and to do that accumulation of stats and how many times you came in second place (or in Nick terms “finals appearances”) is what you have to make your case, and if your going to do that then you gotta consider Kareem..

[hk]

My favorite MJ fact that not many ppl know:

Jordan was age 38 turning 39 during his 1st year with the Wizards. A year older than current Lebron.

During that 1st year with the Wizards Jordan averaged :

22.9 PPG 5.7 RPG 5.2 APG .416 FG% .790 FT%

However, for his first 46 (pre-injury) games, he averaged:

25.1 PPG 6.2 RPG 5.3 APG .420 FG% .790 FT% in 36.8 MPG

And his last 14 (post-injury) games, he averaged:

15.7 PPG 3.8 RPG 4.8 APG .391 FG% .787 FT% in 28.4 MPG

What I found most interesting though is that as the season progressed and MJ played himself into shape and shook off the 3 year retirement rust - he was playing better and better.

For his last 20 games pre-injury he averaged :

27.5 PPG 6.4 RPG 5.2 APG .440 FG%

And for his last 10 games pre-injury he averaged a blistering :

29.7 PPG 6.6 RPG 6.1 APG .470 FG%

Those are some crazy, crazy numbers for a dude who at this point was a month or two away from being 39 years old and coming back after three years removed from the game of basketball - and during early 2000s when it was a much slower pace than today's NBA.

[ncholas]

I thought Kareem got unfairly fouled out in that 76ers series. After watching the game, I thought the refs were highly critical of Kareem and some foul calls seemed wrong. Holding that series over Kareem negatively is wrong.

[bernardfauntleroy]

Nick Wrong just cannot get it right! His entire take is that Lebron played longer than Jordan. So what. Even after playing 3 or 4 more seasons than Jordan, Lebron still has not accomplished as much as the real GOAT.

[eldenrace]

I absolutely think Jordan should be #1 and Nick is just being petty because he wants to make it seem like there is a gap between Lebron and Jordan. But my god some people take these GOAT discussions too seriously.

[wirth]

I can be convinced that Kareem has been underrated. So then it should be 1. MJ, 2. Kareem, 3. LeBron.

[metalpharaoh]

It’s funny how Nick uses this argument for Kareem over jordan but if you use it for Kareem over LeBron it’s not even close but Nick won’t do that obviously bc then it really wouldn’t be close

[dimitrythomas]

Kareem won an MVP when he didn’t make the playoffs because the players voted. So there’s that