Among basketball fans, comparing players and arguing about who is better is a hobby in itself.
The most common debate is “Who is the greatest player of all time?” However, comparing players across time periods and positions involves too many variables, as NBA players throughout history have had different roles and played under different rules.
Separating players by position and time period allows for more nuanced debates. Incomparable variables are less common, and a standard for viewing them can be implemented. In addition, players can be analyzed by how they competed against each other.
Arguably, the most talented position at any time period is the small forward position in the 21st century. For perspective, 10 of the last 17 NBA Finals MVPs have been small forwards. That number becomes 11 if you regard Jaylen Brown as a small forward rather than a shooting guard. Although there have been many great players at the position, only five can make this list.
Every game, every breakthrough, every score, has made these small forwards legendary. Use Custom Lapel Pins to record their glory and carry your love for basketball.
Customize the pins with your favorite player’s name, iconic action, and match the NBA logo. Use these pins to decorate your sports backpack. Whether you are going to exercise or attend a fan gathering, these pins can show your love. Let this love shine every time you wear it, and let these legendary names be remembered forever.
No. 5: Paul Pierce
Paul Pierce averaged 19.7 points and 5.6 rebounds per game during his career. Considering he played 19 seasons, those are pretty good numbers.
Pierce first became an All-Star in his fourth season (2002), where he also led the Celtics to the Eastern Conference Finals. The Celtics lost in six games, but it was their first playoff appearance since 1995 and their first conference final appearance since 1988.
Pierce was a core piece in Boston ever since he was drafted. He led the team in win shares in his first eight seasons, six of them being in the 21st century. The streak was only broken in the 2006-07 season when he endured an injury that kept him out for several weeks. Boston’s 24-58 record that season was one of the worst in franchise history, but things turned around for Pierce and the Celtics the next year.
The Celtics added Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen in the 2007 offseason, making a big four in Beantown. Those two, along with Pierce and Rajon Rondo, led the Celtics to a title in 2008. Pierce led the team in scoring in the NBA Finals and won Finals MVP.
Pierce would only make one more NBA Finals appearance after that (2010). That time, the Celtics were downed by the Lakers in a rematch of the 2008 Finals. After that, Pierce and the Celtics would never be able to overcome LeBron James, the man whose life they made hell for years. He would take a page out of their book and make a big three in Miami, but more on that later…
No. 4: Carmelo Anthony
Even with the existence of LaMelo Ball, when people hear the name “Melo,” they think of this man. Carmelo Anthony is one of the best scorers to ever grace an NBA court. His game was relatively straightforward. While he was capable of putting out highlight plays, jab steps and pull-up jumpers were the bread and butter of his game.
Melo was drafted in the legendary 2003 draft along with LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade. He had just come off winning the 2003 NCAA tournament with Syracuse and would continue the positive momentum in his rookie year. He averaged 21.0 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.2 steals per game in year one with the Denver Nuggets.
In most NBA seasons, this stat line would have won him Rookie of the Year. The only problem? He was in the same draft class as LeBron James, who averaged 20.9 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 1.6 steals per game. Even still, many people argue to this day that Melo deserved to win Rookie of the Year over James.
Melo is one of the best players who never won a championship. Like Paul Pierce, he played 19 seasons. Over his career, he averaged 22.5 points, 6.2 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.0 steals per game. He also won the scoring title in the 2012-13 season, arguably his best shot at winning a championship.
However, Melo’s Knicks could not defeat Paul George’s Pacers, a great team in their own right, in that year’s playoffs.
No. 3: Kawhi Leonard
Offensively, Kawhi Leonard might be the least talented player on this list.
But he is ranked this high due to his two-way impact. In just his third season, he won the 2014 NBA Finals MVP primarily for his ability to limit LeBron en route to a Spurs championship.
He is a two-time defensive player of the year, aided by his 7-foot-3 wingspan and 11-inch hands while standing at 6-foot-7. He impacted winning despite not averaging over 17 points per game until his fifth season. Furthermore, he made the All-NBA First Team multiple times, a feat that Carmelo Anthony and Paul Pierce never accomplished.
Leonard won a second championship with the Toronto Raptors in 2019, taking down the last iteration of the Kevin Durant Golden State Warriors. One could call that revenge after the Warriors’ Zaza Pachulia injured him on a dirty play in Game 1 of the 2017 Western Conference Finals.
What Doesn’t Show Up On Paper
Perhaps that game is one of the shining examples of Leonard’s impact. Although the Spurs lost that game 113-111 and were swept in that series, they led the Warriors 76-55 when he went down. Leonard’s Spurs made the ultra-superteam Warriors look weak in a way that even LeBron James’ Cavaliers could not do in the NBA Finals that year.
A healthy Leonard in that series is one of the biggest “what-ifs” in NBA history that flies under the radar. If Pachulia hadn’t pulled off the dirty play, the Spurs may have upset the Warriors in that series. In that case, the world would see the 2016-17 Warriors as the biggest NBA failure of all time.
Would Kevin Durant have wanted to leave the Warriors after that? Maybe Leonard would have become known as LeBron James’ kryptonite. Maybe James would have a fifth ring. Maybe the Spurs would never have dealt Leonard. Maybe Leonard would be number two on this list. But we can’t live in a world of “what-ifs,” which means number two is…
No. 2: Kevin Durant
This man is arguably the best scorer ever. Standing at 6-foot-10.75 barefoot, he has the height to shoot over just about anyone at his position. Every time he rises up for a jump shot, you think it is going in.
And the numbers back it up. KD has averaged at least 20 points per game for every season of his career. He’s a multi-time scoring champion, claiming that accolade four times in five years. In that span, he averaged over 30 points per game twice. He’s in his 17th season and somehow still averaging over 27 points per game while shooting over 50% from the field and over 40% from deep.
People thought KD’s time as one of the league’s best was over after he tore his Achilles. It’s the same injury that turned former MVP Derrick Rose’s career upside-down. But he came back to the Brooklyn Nets and averaged 29 points per game during his stint there. KD has been so good for so long that people often forget he suffered that injury in the first place.
KD is a former MVP, Rookie of the Year and a 14-time All-Star. He has also been on the All-NBA First Team six times. Yet the one thing that plagues his résumé is the invisible asterisk around his two championships.
The Legacy Haunter
While on the OKC Thunder, he appeared in the NBA Finals once, where he lost to LeBron James’ Miami Heat.
He almost made it back in 2016 for a rematch with James, but the Thunder blew a 3-1 series lead to the Golden State Warriors. He then turned NBA fans’ July 4th sour, electing to sign with the exact team that just eliminated him. The Warriors already had the best regular season record in 2015-16 at 73-9, and adding Durant arguably made the 2016-17 Warriors the best team ever.
KD would win two championships in his first two seasons with the Warriors. People said his decision eliminated any competition left in the NBA. They felt that he cheated his way to a ring by creating a big four that included reigning MVP Stephen Curry. As a result, they gave him nicknames such as “snake” and “cupcake.”
He almost won a third championship in his third season in Oakland, but he injured his Achilles during the NBA Finals. That dashed the Warriors’ hopes of toppling Kawhi Leonard and the Raptors.
However, people will always remember that the Warriors needed Kevin Durant for one big purpose, the same one Boston had when they formed a big four a decade before— to stop this man:
No. 1: LeBron James
Not only is LeBron James the best small forward of all time, he’s arguably the best player of all time.
James might have been the most hyped-up prospect ever going into the 2003 NBA Draft. He made it onto the cover of Sports Illustrated and had national fame before ever getting selected. This makes it all the more impressive that he surpassed those expectations.
It didn’t take more than four seasons for James to take the Cleveland Cavaliers to the NBA Finals. James was the only All-Star and the only player to average over 15 points per game on the 2006-07 Cavs team.
However, James, lacking help from other stars, would be unable to carry the Cavs to the NBA Finals again for the next three years. In 2008, 2009 and 2010, the team that defeated the Cavs played the Lakers in the NBA Finals. Twice, it was Boston’s big four.
The Decision
So, in the 2010 offseason, James joined Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade in Miami, giving him a better chance at a championship.
James fell short in the first year, as the Heat lost three straight after going up 2-1 on the Dallas Mavericks in the Finals. But for the next two years, the Heat would go back-to-back.
This would be the beginning of an eight-year stretch during which James would never miss the Finals. During that stretch, he went 3-5 in the Finals, including the greatest, most difficult championship ever in 2016. James would capture one more title for the Lakers in 2020.
In his first 15 NBA seasons, James would play less than 70 games only twice. In that time frame, he never played less than 60 games. Only in his rookie season in his career of 21.5 seasons and counting has he finished averaging less than 25 points per game. He’s a 20-time All-Star, a four-time NBA champion, a four-time MVP, a former scoring champion, a former NBA assists leader, and he has made the All-NBA First Team 13 times.
At 40 years old, James’ time in the NBA is winding down. He cannot play at the level he used to, but he is still one of the best players in the league. Many great small forwards have played in the NBA, including ones that didn’t make this list.
But LeBron James’ skill and longevity undoubtedly place him at the top.
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