The NBA will be celebrating its 75th anniversary during the entire 2021-22 season, with part of that commemoration featuring the unveiling of the highly-anticipated list of the 75 greatest players in NBA history.
Twenty-five years ago, the league unveiled its list of the 50 greatest players in NBA history during halftime of the 1997 NBA All-Star Game in Cleveland. Forty-seven of the 50 members of that team were able to attend that momentous ceremony.
The 2022 All-Star Game will return to Cleveland as a symbolic gesture to that treasured moment of NBA history.
According to the NBA website, the NBA’s 75th-anniversary team is compiled by a blue-ribbon panel of media, current and former players, coaches, general managers and team executives.
The NBA released the first 25 members of that team on opening night on Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021, during its marquee doubleheader matchups between the Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors. The names were not listed in any particularly conceivable order, for whatever reason. The next 25 members will be announced Wednesday on NBA Today on ESPN on Oct. 20, 2021, at 3 p.m. ET. The Final 25 players will complete the list Thursday on TNT at 6 p.m. ET.
Check out the list of the first 25 of the 75 greatest players in NBA history, in no particular order:
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Nate Archibald
Charles Barkley
Bob Cousy
Dave Cowens
Kevin Durant
Julius Erving
George Gervin
Hal Greer
James Harden
Elvin Hayes
Jerry Lucas
Moses Malone
Kevin McHale
George Mikan
Steve Nash
Dirk Nowitzki
Hakeem Olajuwon
Bob Pettit
Willis Reed
Oscar Robertson
David Robinson
Bill Russell
John Stockton
