Hall of Famer Julius Erving listed his top players of all time and to many people’s surprise, he left out Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James from the list.
“He’s the guy who has led the charge in terms of super teams…”@JuliusErving doesn't have LeBron on his top-two All-Time NBA teams 👀
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According to Erving, his top five players of all time are Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell and Jerry West. Meanwhile, his second team would include Lakers greats Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson, as well as Larry Bird, Michael Jordan and Karl Malone.
If there’s a pattern that’s evident in Erving’s list, it’s that there’s no current active player. Some of them played against him while the others are all retired players. It’s also surprising that Jordan, who remains the greatest player of all time for many, didn’t make Erving’s top five.
Moreover, Erving pointed out that the reason why he left LeBron James out is because of how he constantly builds superteams wherever he goes—something that might have not been the case during Erving’s era.
“When you look at LeBron, and anybody that he sort of picks with him… He’s the guy who has led the charge in terms of super teams being put together,” Erving said of the Lakers star, per Audacy.com. “When he put together the team in Miami. He put together the team in Cleveland as well, and he put together the team in Los Angeles.”
Nevertheless, Julius Erving’s list of greatest players of all time is still incredibly talented. At this point, everyone’s list is subjective given how debatable this topic always is. A ton of analysts and former NBA players have different players on their top five because of the era or generation they watched. It just so happened that Erving’s preference are based on the era before James became the face of the NBA.
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