The last decade has been the decade of the power forward and point guard. The only great small forward to come along since Larry Bird retired has been Grant Hill and his ankle injury has kept him out of the top 10.
Here are the 10 greatest small forwards:
1. Julius Erving, 1971-1987, 20247.8
2. Larry Bird, 1979-1992, 19386.9
3. Elgin Baylor, 1958-1972, 17552.2
4. Rick Barry, 1965-1980, 16677.6
5. Scottie Pippen, 1987-2004, 16536.3
6. John Havlicek, 1962-1978, 16248.4
7. Connie Hawkins, 1967-1976, 14956.0
8. Paul Arizin, 1950-1962, 14906.3
9. Billy Cunningham, 1965-1976, 14869.1
10. Dominique Wilkins, 1982-1999, 14542.8
Hill is at No. 12 and it's possible, if his ankle holds up for a couple more seasons, that he could pass Alex English and Wilkins to get into the top 10. More realisticly is in about three seasons LeBron James will break into the rankings and eventually challenge Bird and Dr. J. James is already ranked No. 20 (ahead of Chris Mullin and Bernard King) with just four seasons played.
Any NBA fan my age (38) or younger believes Bird was better than Erving. They are all missing how dominant Dr. J. was in the ABA. Even putting a 10 percent discount on his stats in that league didn't lower his score to Bird's. When Bird was battling Erving in the 1980s, Dr. J. was already on his way down.
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