The GOAT series is back for year three and there was a lot of movement from 2021 to 2022.

The fun thing about this list is that there are many active players who are still moving up the list and those who are exiting their prime years and sliding down.

The list is based on a formula you can find on the Methodology page. You will also see that I changed the weight of some awards based on how far the game has come and I had to decide who would have received some awards in the early years of the league before things like MVP and All-Defense teams existed. You can find those details on the Added Awards and Adjustments pages.

You may have some questions about where certain players landed and I’ve tried to anticipate those so check the section after the table to see if your question is already answered.

Bold = Active Player

Rank	Player Name	GOAT Points	Movement
1	Michael Jordan	1300.3	–
2	Lebron James	1243.14	–
3	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	1136.65	–
4	Bill Russell	986.4	–
5	Julius Erving	847.2	–
6	Wilt Chamberlain	812.5	–
7	Larry Bird	711.4	–
8	George Mikan	703.8	–
9	Tim Duncan	686.44	–
10	Magic Johnson	679.5	–
11	Kobe Bryant	670.24	–
12	Karl Malone	647.57	–
13	Shaquille O’Neal	636.18	–
14	Bob Pettit	585.4	–
15	Kevin Durant	584.5	–
16	Hakeem Olajuwon	562.01	–
17	Stephen Curry	534.87	Up 1
18	Moses Malone	489.1	Down 1
19	Giannis Antetokounmpo	472.9	Up 1
20	Jerry West	443.2	Down 1
21	Bob Cousy	421	–
22	Dirk Nowitzki	416.71	–
23	Neil Johnston	411.9	–
24	Oscar Robertson	404.3	–
25	Allen Iverson	396.47	–
26	Elgin Baylor	371.1	–
27	Rick Barry	369	–
28	Nikola Jokic	344.1	Up 17
29	Charles Barkley	342.87	Down 1
30	James Harden	336.37	Down 1
31	Mel Daniels	323	–
32	Artis Gilmore	321.75	–
33	Russell Westbrook	321.24	Down 3
34	Steve Nash	316.74	Down 1
35	Kevin Garnett	301.84	Down 1
36	George Gervin	295.4	Down 1
37	David Robinson	276.58	Down 1
38	Paul Arizin	274.7	Down 1
39	John Havlicek	264.4	Down 1
40	Dolph Schayes	254.8	Down 1
41	Bob Feerick	254.5	Down 1
42	Connie Hawkins	248	Down 1
43	Kawhi Leonard	233.5	Down 1
44	Willis Reed	231.8	Down 1
45	Dwyane Wade	221.81	Down 1
46	Dwight Howard	217.24	–
47	Chris Paul	215.84	Up 5
48	George McGinnis	211.6	Down 1
49	Anthony Davis	208.6	Down 1
50	Spencer Haywood	204.5	Down 1
51	Jason Kidd	203.1	Down 1
52	Billy Cunningham	199.8	Down 1
53	Dominique Wilkins	195.24	–
54	Elvin Hayes	179.9	–
55	Damian Lillard	179.27	–
56	John Stockton	166.81	–
57	Bill Walton	166.1	–
58	Bob McAdoo	161.8	–
59	Dave Cowens	158.2	–
60	Luka Doncic	158	*New*
61	Isiah Thomas	155.7	Down 1
62	Gary Payton	152.24	Down 1
63	Wes Unseld	146.5	Down 1
64	Joe Fulks	139	Down 1
65	Scottie Pippen	136.84	–
66	Devin Booker	135.7	*New*
67	Bernard King	135.27	Down 3
68	Derrick Rose	130	Down 2
69	Walt Frazier	128.5	Down 2
70	Ben Wallace	122.84	Down 2
71	Clyde Drexler	117.94	Down 1
72	Dan Issel	113	Down 1
73	David Thompson	112	Down 1
74	Bill Sharman	111.5	Down 1
75	Carmelo Anthony	110.08	Down 6
76	Tony Parker	106.67	Down 1
77	Chauncey Billups	104.84	–
78	Alex English	104.2	Down 4
79	Patrick Ewing	104.1	Down 3
80	Hal Greer	103.7	Down 2
81	Sidney Moncrief	103.5	–
82	Paul Pierce	103.11	Down 3
83	Dennis Johnson	103	Down 3
84	Pete Maravich	101	Down 1
85	James Worthy	100.84	Down 1
86	Dikembe Mutombo	99.84	Down 1
87	Tracy McGrady	97.34	Down 5
88	Rudy Gobert	97.21	–
89	Tiny Archibald	93.6	Down 3
90	Bob Davies	93	Down 3
91	Donovan Mitchell	88	Down 2
92	Joe Dumars	86.84	Down 2
93	Joel Embiid	85.5	Up 5
94	Jerry Lucas	84.7	Down 2
95	Tom Heinsohn	84.5	Down 2
96	Adrian Dantley	84.2	Down 5
97	Max Zaslofsky	83	Down 3
98	Dennis Rodman	80.24	Down 2
99	Sam Jones	80	Down 2
100	Kyrie Irving	78.94	Down 5

Steph Curry: Steph is an interesting case. For one, most think he should have an additional Finals MVP and if he did win that award, he would have 50 additional points and be 1 spot ahead of Kevin Durant. Since we can’t undo history, there are other ways for him to catch KD.

Many don’t realize this, but Steph isn’t a top 50 All-Time scorer yet. That should change this season. He currently sits at 51 with 20,064 points. He has not played 70 games since 2017 with a 5-game and 51-game season mixed in but we will assume he plays around 65 games this season. He scored 1600 points last season so if he repeats that number he could jump as high as 42nd.

The Warriors are also in a great position to repeat which would put him in line for a potential MVP and/or Finals MVP. Let’s say he has a perfect season winning both of those awards, he’d be All-NBA 1st team as well. A season like this would put him around 7th All-Time in next year’s update.

Nikola Jokic: The man has two MVP awards. That’s going to boost him tremendously based on the way the formula is set up. In a future iteration, I may weight MVP by the percentage of 1st-place votes but for now, all MVPs are created equally.

Luka Doncic and Devin Booker: Both jumped into the list after reaching the minimum playoff games played threshold for their playoff averages to matter. You can always look at this ranking as a projection for the younger guys. For example, Donovan Mitchell fell in the rankings.

The Robins of Dynasties: The formula is designed to find the Batmans. While many Robins are on the list if you were not THEE guy on any of those teams it was going to be difficult for you to break the top 50.

Closing

I linked to a few of the articles that give you more information about the top players on this list and in the future, each player will have their own dedicated page.

So sound off! Which rankings do you hate? Which ones do you love? Who do you think will make the biggest leap going into next season?

Stay tuned for the WNBA GOAT Series coming before the start of the next WNBA season!

-Bibs