500 Greatest Players List FAQ
Any list on the website that is counting down the all-time greatest or worst players in any capacity, including the overall Top 500, is compiled using purely objective data broken down into the following tranches:
Total Career Stats: points, rebounds, assists, blocks, steals, field goals, turnovers, etc.
Career Stat Averages: points per game, rebounds per game, assists per game, PER, field goal percentage, etc.
Playoffs: playoff appearances, Finals appearances, titles, playoff stats
Awards/Accolades: MVP, Finals MVP, DPOY, All-NBA, All-Defensive, All-Star appearances, stat titles
Yes. All stats, accomplishments, and accolades take that context into account. Each NBA and ABA season has been assigned a rating score based on various factors, including the average stats for the season and the overall rankings of the players who won accolades in that season. That rating score is then applied to each player based on when they compiled stats, awards, titles, etc. For example, winning MVP or a championship in the ABA in ’74-’75 or the NBA in ’77-’78 isn’t as valuable as winning NBA MVP or a championship in ’91-’92. Averaging 30+ points per game isn’t as valuable in ’62-’63 (at the height of up-tempo offenses) as it is in ’02-’03.
Yes. There are slight adjustments to active players, depending on how much time they’ve spent in the league, to take into account that stats tend to slope downward towards the end of even the greatest player’s career. That’s why retiring is often a small bump in-and-of itself for players on the list. And players who performed as a power forward or center have a slight statistical adjustment, as they consistently show a statistical advantage over their small forward and guard counterparts.
Yes. There are slight adjustments to active players, depending on how much time they’ve spent in the league, to take into account that stats tend to slope downward towards the end of even the greatest player’s career. That’s why retiring is often a small bump in-and-of itself for players on the list. And players who performed as a power forward or center have a slight statistical adjustment, as they consistently show a statistical advantage over their small forward and guard counterparts.
Though these performances and accomplishments are often mentioned in player’s top 500 bios in order to give context to their career, only NBA and ABA careers are actually used in the ranking system.
There are adjustments made to account for those differences. For example, the NBA and ABA did not track steals or blocks as a statistic until the ’73-’74 season, so the stat totals of players whose career came before that are adjusted slightly to account for that. Same for rebounds before ’50-’51, three-pointers before ’79-’80 and a handful of others.
The list is updated yearly at the conclusion of the NBA Finals and the announcement of league MVP. Therefore, the 2026 list is a snapshot of the league’s 500 greatest all-time players at the conclusion of the ’25-’26 season.
Active players will typically move up or down the list depending on how their latest season went (usually upwards, but occasionally downwards if they really struggled or missed a lot of time due to injury). Non-active players can also move up or down the list based on the context of their stats, awards, and titles changing due to changes in active players’ rankings. For example, LeBron James’ career coincided with numerous other legendary players who are now retired, such as Tim Duncan, Dwyane Wade, and Shaquille O’Neal. Because James contended against those players for titles, awards, etc., when he rises up the list as an active player, he also increases the context score of those retired players and they could possibly rise up the list (slightly) as well.