It’s hard to believe but the 76ers’ last Finals appearance is going on its 25th anniversary. I thought this would be a good time to go back and do a moderate dive on the 2000-01 76ers, a gritty group built around Allen Iverson and a bunch of role players. If you don’t recall, the 76ers won 56 games and gutted through two seven-game series before getting stomped by the Shaq-Kobe Lakers in the Finals. Credit was given primarily to Iverson, monster scorer, and coach Larry Brown, who harnessed the mercurial AI and a bunch of hustling non-scorers like Eric Snow, Aaron McKie, and George Lynch, to succeed.
I was able to see this Iverson team a lot (both live and on television) and didn’t recall they were ever a particularly fun team to watch but boy were they gritty. They were your typical 1990s-2000s slow-paced defense-first squad that heavily leaned on Iverson’s offensive output to muster offense. To be fair, a lot of teams in that era relied on the same formula but, for some reason, I found Philly even less exciting because their secondary players were really non-descript. I also felt that they were pretty good but fortunate to make the Finals because the conference was very weak at the time. Were my biases unfair? Let’s take a look back to see what a few decades of hindsight yields….
The state of the Sixers as of 2000
Philly was the first Eastern Conference winner after the 1990s perennial contenders had faded. By 2000-01, the Jordan Bulls had been broken up and the second rung below the Bulls had slipped as well. The Knicks had just traded Patrick Ewing, (who was way past his prime), the Pacers were rebuilding, and the Heat lost Alonzo Mourning with a kidney ailment.
That left a bunch of decent teams to fill the void. According to Basketball-Reference’s preseason odds, the Orlando Magic, who had just signed Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady, had had the highest over/under at 52.5 wins, with Philly second in the conference at 48.5 wins. ESPN had projected the 76ers for third in conference at 49 wins behind Orlando and Charlotte.
In 1999-00, Philly had gone 49-33 with a 4th rated defense and a 25th rated offense. They outperformed their point differential quite a bit (45-37 expected win-loss record). The offense was ugly, even by Y2K NBA standards. Philly was last in the NBA in three-point attempts (7.8 per game) and made only .323% of them (26th in the NBA). The 7.8 three-point attempts per game was so low it is tied for the second fewest by any team in the past 30 years (the lowest rate over that time was 7.4 by Philly in 1998-99). The three-point shooting for the 1999-00 team broke down as follows:
-Iverson: 89-261, .341%
-Rest of the team: 119-382, .312%
Overall, Iverson took 24.8 shots per game and got to the line a ton. His usage percentage was 34.4, which was sixth highest in modern NBA history up to that point but his .496 TS% was close to the lowest of his career (the team had a .501 TS% and the league average TS% was .523). In fact, at the time, AI’s TS% was the second lowest for any player with a usage rate over 30 (the lowest was Pete Maravich in 1977-78 at .492 TS%). This was classic Iverson….he wasn’t efficient but added value by creating a huge amount of shots at slightly below average rate on a team where no one else could create shots. Of 76ers who played over 1,500 minutes, the second highest usage rate was from noted scorer Tyrone Hill.
Outside of Iverson, the Sixers only positive offensive stat was offensive rebounding rate (4th). Basically, the 76ers were packing the paint and waiting to board Iverson’s many misses.
The 76ers looked vulnerable in the playoffs as a fifth seed that was predictable to defend. They were matched up with a Charlotte team that was better on paper. But the Hornets’ homecourt advantage was non-existent because of owner George Shinn’s shenanigans, which alienated fans and kept attendance quite light. Philly gutted out a 3-1 playoff victory against the Hornets, thanks to a 40-point Game 1 from AI that helped them steal homecourt. Iverson wasn’t great after that first game but the 76ers defense was stifling, holding Charlotte to .430 TS%.
In the next round, the 76ers were beaten by the top seeded Pacers, 4-2. Philly tried hard but were handled fairly easily. They went down 3-0 and won the next two games to force a Game 6, only to get blown out at home in Game 6. It was a successful season but Philly didn’t look like a real contender in 2000-01.
Sliding Doors Moment, July 2000: The Almost Iverson Trade
What did Iverson exactly do to irk Brown?
Even though Iverson had led the Sixers deeper into the playoffs than any Philly team since 1985-86, Brown wanted to trade Iverson. According to ESPN in 2001, Brown was “[f]ed up with Iverson’s habitual tardiness, which strained his relationship with Larry Brown to the point where the coach considered quitting.”
There were definite warnings that Brown and Iverson were not simpatico. On March 15, 2000, Brown suspended AI for missing a shootaround before a game in Miami. Brown told reporters that “[h]e missed practice today, but there’s a lot more to it. I’ve let it go too far. It’s just the culmination of a lot of things.” GM Billy King gave more details: “Iverson phoned the team trainer Thursday morning to say he had a headache and wouldn’t be at the 11 a.m. shootaround. King called Iverson’s hotel room shortly thereafter, but there was no answer. King, who finally reached Iverson in his room after the workout, said a headache wasn’t an adequate excuse.”
Iverson was unfiltered in response: “He became agitated when asked if he didn’t feel well because he had been out late on trendy South Beach night before. ‘You think I’m going to come to Miami from freezing Philly and not go out? I know how to take care of my body. I’m not a little kid. I go out and come in when I want to.’”
In a November 2000 Sports Illustrated article, Jeff Pearlman described Iverson’s training habits thusly: “he missed or arrived late to some 50 practices, bickered with coach Larry Brown, lost the respect of several teammates and adhered strictly to the Roseanne Barr Fitness Regimen of minimal exercise and daily Taco Bell runs.” He was so pissed about Iverson’s behavior, Brown resolved to trade AI as soon as possible and the subsequent nice playoff run did not change his mind in any way. In 2001, Philly’s president of operations Pat Croce said that “I did not want to trade Allen Iverson, but I could no longer defend him because he was breaking Larry’s rules.”
AI was clearly a pain to deal with but, in fairness to Iverson, there is a long list of players and executives who found Brown to be an overbearing and impossible to please. Maybe Brown was too stubborn as well but, either way, he wanted Iverson gone and a trade was negotiated in the summer of 2000.
Matt Geiger: No Money, No Trade
In July 2000, the 76ers agreed to trade Iverson to the Pistons in a huge four-team swap that had many big names. The trade was nixed when the thrown-in Matt Geiger, memorably refused to waive his trade bonus, which was about $3.3 million. In 2001, Geiger told ESPN that he did not authorize the waiver of his trade kicker because “I looked at Detroit and didn’t think Allen and I would’ve been better off there, so the decision was easy.”
Nice sentiment but I am skeptical it is truthful. Geiger probably could’ve cared less about whether a trade to Detroit was good for Iverson. Geiger was 30 years old at the time and had significant knee issues. After the summer of 2000, he would play 39 more games before retiring in November 2001 due to chronic degenerative knee swelling. Geiger rightfully knew that he wasn’t getting another NBA contract (his deal ran through 2002-03) and if he waived the $3.3 million bonus, he wasn’t going to ever see that cash again. The only way for Geiger to make any future money was as a salary slot in a trade and that wasn’t happening in this case. With the trade squelched, Geiger still had a theoretical chance at getting that $3.3 million. That trade never happened but Geiger’s decision was totally rational, even if he didn’t want to admit the obvious motivation.
Going Down the Rabbit Hole: What if the Trade Went Through?
As for the proposed trade itself, we aren’t totally sure what the terms were but Marc Stein reported in 2005 that the likely trade was:
76ers Get:
-Eddie Jones: 63 games, 36.2 mpg, 17.4 ppg, .553 TS%, .378 3FG%, 4.6 rpg, 2.7 apg, 18.8 PER, 4.6 BPM
-Glen Rice: 75 games, 29.5 mpg, 12.0 ppg, .540 TS%, .389 3FG%, 4.1 rpg, 1.2 apg, 13.7 PER, 0.5 BPM
-Jerome Williams: 59 games, 20 mpg, 6.3 ppg, .526 TS%, 6.5 rpg, 15.7 PER, -0.2 BPM
Pistons Get:
-Allen Iverson: 71 games, 42 mpg, 31.1 ppg, .518 TS%, .320 3FG%, 3.8 rpg, 4.6 apg, 24.0 PER, 6.1 BPM
-Matt Geiger: 35 games, 15.5 mpg, 6.1 ppg, .430 TS%, 4 rpg, 0.4 apg, 11.5 PER, -4.2 BPM
Hornets Get:
-Jerry Stackhouse: 80 games, 40.2 mpg, 29.8 ppg, .521 TS%, .351 3FG%, 3.9 rpg, 5.1 apg, 21.8 PER, 5.8 BPM
-Christian Laettner: 78 games, 21.3 mpg, 9.3 ppg, .568 TS%, 4.7 rpg, 1.6 apg, 17.0 PER, 0.6 BPM
-Travis Knight: Played only 6 mpg
Lakers Get:
-Anthony Mason: 80 games, 40.7 mpg, 16.1 ppg, .555 TS%, 9.6 rpg, 3.1 apg, 17.4 PER, 1.9 BPM
-Toni Kukoc: 65 games, 24.6 mpg, 11.1 ppg, .553 TS%, .446 3FG%, 4.0 rpg, 3.1 apg, 17.8 PER, 3.2 BPM
-Todd Fuller: Played only 10 games
It’s impossible to know exactly what would’ve happened if the trade had been consummated but let’s take some educated guesses based on the players’ actual 2000-01 stats (listed above):
Lakers: Hard to say any of this mattered for L.A. Instead of trading Rice for Mason and Kukoc, the Lakers ended up trading Rice to get 35-year-old Horace Grant. L.A. won 56 games and ran through the playoffs with ease (they went 15-1 and the only loss was Iverson’s 48-point game in the Finals). Still, Kukoc was quite good and would’ve been an improvement over their total lack of a third bench guy (only Brian Shaw and Robert Horry averaged more than 9 mpg in the playoffs of bench players). Mason, meanwhile, had a great season for Miami and made his only All-Star game. Again, the Kobe/Shaq core was so good that they didn’t need Mason. (Mase was also a little difficult to deal with, which might not have made him a perfect fit for that team).
Hornets: Charlotte would’ve replaced the versatile Jones with Stackhouse, a high usage guy who wasn’t a great shooter. Stack had his best season in 2000-01 (30 ppg) but the Hornets ended up trading Jones for Jamal Mashburn, who was also quite good (20.1 ppg, 7.6 rpg, 5.4 apg, 17.5 PER, 2.1 BPM). Stack had much better raw numbers but he got his shots on a terrible offense with no other options (25th in the NBA) and would likely have put up numbers similar to Mash’s on a more talented Hornets team. With Mashburn, the Hornets went 46-36 with basically the same point-differential and offense/defense rankings as the 1999-00 squad led by Jones. This time, however, the Hornets won their first round series and took the Bucks to seven games in round two. The Hornets were going to be good, but not great, whether they traded Jones for Stack or Mash.
Pistons: This is where things get interesting. The Pistons were a bad team overall (32-50) but with a very good defense (led by new acquisition Ben Wallace) but a 25th offense built almost totally on Stackhouse (35.2% usage). The fun question to try to answer is how much better would the Pistons’ offense have been with an offense built around AI instead of Stackhouse?
Context matters but, on the stats they actually put up in 2000-01, Stackhouse created almost as many shots and on a slightly better TS% (.521 to .518). Stack also had the same free throw rate and shot much better from three (.351 to .320) on higher volume and even had more assists per/minute. Despite these advantages to Stack, Iverson still scored as a more efficient player due to his ability to keep his turnovers low, despite all his touches (Iverson had a 10.0 TO% to12.5 for Stackhouse). Another factor to consider is that Stack put up his stats with the top paced offense in the NBA, while Iverson did it in a slow-paced offense (19th).
In 2001-02, when Detroit hired Rick Carlisle in place of George Irvine, the Pistons’ pace dropped to 20th. They were a much better team at that pace but Stack’s efficiency and usage dropped a bit. His BPM went from 5.1 to 1.5 and his TS% went from .521 to .518, while his usage went from 35.2 to 32.3. A less Stack heavy offense was better. Detroit’s overall offense jumped from 25th (100.0 offensive rating) to 12th (104.8 offensive rating).
Having Iverson in place of Stackhouse would likely have the 2000-01 Pistons a playoff team at or around .500, but probably not a contender. In 2001-02, Iverson would’ve made the Pistons even better and they would’ve had a great chance to make the Finals, where a sweep or near sweep by the Lakers was likely. Would the Pistons have been better off with Iverson over Rip Hamilton (who replaced Stackhouse in 2002-03)? I don’t think so. AI was the better player, but Rip was a much better fit with Chauncey Billups. So, the aborted trade ultimately ended up for the best for the Pistons.
76ers: Would an Eddie Jones/Glen Rice combo be enough to replace Iverson’s huge footprint of offense? Rice had declined to a role play at that point and carrying the offense would depend mostly on Jones. He was an excellent and underrated player but he couldn’t nearly carry that load. Eddie ended up on the Heat in 2000-01 and was solid but the team offense was 20th and Jones’ usage was a career high 23.9, which is just not enough shot creation to replace AI.
An alternate reality where Jones played for Philly in 2000-01 would yield a good 76er team but not a 56-win team. Jones’ Heat team went 50-32 and were a real threat. Despite being the favorite against the Hornets, Miami was swept 3-0 in the playoffs because of its utter inability to generate points. The Heat scored 78.3 points per game (87.5 points per 100 possessions), worst in the NBA for the playoffs. An Eddie Jones-led 76ers team probably would’ve had a similar outcome.
How good were the 2000-01 76ers historically?
Philly’s Iverson-led offense peaked in 2000-01. The 76ers led the East with a 56-26 record and 3.63 SRS. The offense was slightly above average (13th) and the defense remained strong (4th). Philly slightly outperformed their expected record (54-28) but the Sixers were the class of the East, where only one other team with an SRS above 2.0 (Milwaukee at 3.14).
The Sixers won their first round series fairly easily but then barely won the next two rounds:
-In the second round, the Sixers beat a 48-win Raptors team in seven and survived a last second jumper by Vince Carter. Philly outscored Toronto by only 0.8 ppg.
-In the Conference Finals, Philly won in seven games again. This time, the 76ers won Game 7 handily (108-91) but outscored the Bucks by only 0.2 ppg for the series. On the Bucks’ end, they complained that backup Scott Williams was suspended for Game 7 unfairly for elbowing Iverson. Glenn Robinson told ESPN: “That was very tough. I called it the `Conspiracy of the Milwaukee Bucks,’ [i]n the playoffs, everybody gets fouled hard. I’ve been fouled hard a couple of times. I’ve dished out a few hard fouls. And I don’t think that foul was hard enough for him to get a `flagrant 2′ and for him to get suspended.” That same article also reported that: “Williams said he didn’t intend to hurt Iverson with a high elbow and contended he didn’t deserve the suspension because Iverson stayed in the game and finished with 46 points.” George Karl did state that missing Williams, an older backup, probably didn’t change the outcome of Game 7.
More relevant to the loss was an injury to Ray Allen, courtesy of Snow: “What might have hurt the Bucks more was the injury to Ray Allen’s right knee when Eric Snow took a fall in front of him and drew the charge in the third quarter. Allen sat out several minutes. When he returned to the game, he could hardly get back on defense. Still limping on Monday, Allen said he would visit an orthopedist on Tuesday but didn’t feel the injury was serious, although he acknowledged he had never felt so much pain.”
2000-01 76ers compared to other NBA Finals losers
The Lakers easily beat the 76ers in the Finals, but Philly was more competitive against Shaq & Kobe than the Nets were in the 2001-02 Finals. So, the 76ers clearly earned their way to the Finals but were vulnerable and could have easily lost earlier in the playoffs.
Here’s how Philly stacked up with other Finals teams in some other metrics:
-The 76ers are tied for 56th in regular season winning percentage of the 84 Finals teams since the league went to the current 16-team format. Philly’s regular season SRS was 3.64, which ranks 68th of the 84 teams.
-Another method of assessing strength of foes is by adding up the SRS of the team’s they played in the playoffs. This is not a perfect metric to determine relative strength of schedule. It doesn’t take into account injuries, specific match up issues, or teams that are built better or worse for playoff-style ball. Still, it gives some good general context for how hard each team’s road to the Finals was. The collective SRS of Philly’s Eastern Conference match ups was 4.06, which ranks as 15th easiest of the 84 Finals teams since the 1983-84.
-In terms of playoff performance, Philly ranks 81st among Finals teams since 1983-84. The 76ers were outscored by playoff opponents, yielding a -0.09 point differential and a 12-11 playoff record, which is the worst among the 84 teams (the three worst playoff point differentials for teams that made the Finals were the 1989-90 Blazers, at -2.24, the 2017-18 Cavs, at -1.73, and the 1986-87 Celtics, -1.09).
-In 2018, Kevin Pelton wrote that the 2000-01 76ers had the second weakest playoffs for a Finals loser, narrowly followed by the 2001-02 Nets.
–Opta Analyst’s TRACR formula ranks the 2000-01 76ers as the fourth worst NBA Finals loser since 1986-87 and in a near dead heat with the 2001-02 Nets and the 2024-25 Pacers (the 2017-18 Cavs are the clear worst team followed by the 2022-23 Heat).
It’s clear that the 2000-01 76ers were a below average conference champion. In my mind, they rank above the 2022-23 Heat and in a tier with the Jason Kidd Nets, the 2006-07 Cavs, and the 2017-18 Cavs. The other teams do have a tie-breaker argument over Philly that the other teams had more playoff success in other years, while Iverson didn’t make it past the second round outside of 2000-01.
2001-02: Post-Finals Hangover and Talkin’ about Practice
Despite the great season, the 76ers traded a few key players. Lynch was traded for Derrick Coleman and some trinkets. Tyrone Hill and Jumaine Jones were traded for Matt Harpring. The moves worked out okay and the defense was still great (4th) but the offense cratered to 23rd, leading to disappointing 43-39 record for the season. The obvious problem was Iverson’s injuries. They went 37-24 when AI played and were only 6-15 without him. In addition, McKie, who was the only credible bench scorer, was also hurt a lot and the 76ers had no other replacement when he was out (76ers were 27-21 with McKie, 16-18 without him).
The Sixers ended up losing in the playoffs 3-2 to the Celtics in a series that was pretty close until Game 5. Boston won 120-87 as the Celtics got insanely hot from three (19-29 overall and Paul Pierce was 8-10). It was after that series when the famous “practice” rant occurred.
I honestly had totally forgotten the context of the rant but the pain of the loss to Boston seemed to help cause it. The day after the loss to the Celtics, Brown told the press: “My problems with Allen have been the same for six years. I love him, his competitiveness. I’m proud of the way he tries in every game. The issues are things he has control over and he’ll have a problem with me if he doesn’t take care of it. He has to be at practice. He has to set an example. He knows that if he’s willing to do that, he’ll be a Sixer for life.”
The AP reported that Brown was referring to Iverson attendance issues: “Iverson missed several practices this season, sometimes using lame excuses. More than once, he didn’t show up to practice because he said his son, Deuce, was sick. He sat out practice the day before Game 3 against the Celtics because of a cold.”
When questioned about this, Iverson famously said “If I can’t practice, I can’t practice. If I’m hurt, I’m hurt. It’s not about that. It’s easy to sum it up when you talk about practice. I’m supposed to be the franchise player and we’re in here talking about practice. Not a game — we’re talking about practice. How silly is that?”
Iverson was not really as totally as defiant as that soundbite indicated. Later in the same press conference, he said: “I don’t want to deal with this. This is where I want to be. I love this place. I love my teammates. I don’t have no problems with Coach Brown at all. He has a problem with me about lifting, and I don’t know what this thing is about practice because I haven’t been missing practice. But I don’t have a problem with this organization. I don’t want to lose and then all summer go through this.”
The next day, Brown also de-escalated the situation. He met with Iverson to smooth things over and assured AI that they had no plans to trade the star. Brown also made a public statement of support even if he didn’t totally back off the practice point: “I know he wants to do what’s right. I’ve been with him five years, and every day hasn’t been great. But I’ve seen tremendous growth, I’ve seen him improve as a player and I’ve seen him accomplish a great deal and I’m hopeful with me being here I can continue to see him getting better.”
2002-03: AI & Brown’s Last Ride
Despite the publicity this tiff got at the time, it really didn’t hinder the 76ers in 2002-03. Iverson was healthy and the team went 48-34, only two games away from the best record in the Eastern Conference. Still, there were some statistical cracks in the facade. Philly’s SRS of 1.76 was a good deal below the best teams in the conference. Moreover, while the team’s offense recovered to 11th, the defense slipped to 12th.
Philly also got to 48 wins strangely. The 76ers started out 14-4 through November and then had a December/January lull of 11-18, before finishing the season 23-12. The 76ers beat the Hornets 4-2 in the first round and then lost in 6 to the Pistons in the second round. The series was relatively close but that ignores the fact that Chauncey Billups went down with injury and this was before they had acquired Rasheed Wallace. This Piston team wasn’t great in that iteration and they were swept by the Nets in the ECF.
Shortly after the season ended, Brown quickly resigned to take the Pistons job (and win a title). Over the next three seasons, Philly averaged 38 wins and made the playoffs once (they were knocked out 4-1 in the first round) before AI was traded to Denver. The 76ers probably would’ve been a better team had Brown stayed but the team was in decline and management made a number of moves that didn’t help things.
Iverson and Usage Partners
As noted above, Iverson’s usage numbers were astounding, particularly for the late 1990s and early 2000s. Iverson had four of the seven highest usage rates through 2005-06 (the other three were Kobe 2005-06 and two Jordan seasons). Here are the highest 76er usage rates from Iverson teammates in Philly (minimum 1,900 minutes):
- Chris Webber 2005-06, 27.7
- Jerry Stackhouse 1996-97, 25.6
- Derrick Coleman 1997-98, 25.2
- Derrick Coleman 1996-97, 23.7
- Keith Van Horn 2002-03, 23.2
- Marc Jackson 2004-05, 22.7
- Derrick Coleman 2001-02, 21.0
Of interest, most of these higher usage seasons came in years when the 76ers had below average team offenses. The Sixers were above average on offense twice during Iverson’s Philly run: 2000-01 and 2002-03 and only Van Horn had a high(ish) usage for a good 76ers offense.
Iverson versus the other Post Dr. J Philly Greats
Where does Iverson rank among some of the other post-merger 76er greats? Julius Erving seems to be the clear leader and Moses Malone sort of stands apart because his tenure was shorter but involved the epic 1982-83 title run, which Mo gets much credit for. Really, the question is how to rank Iverson versus the two other MVP-level 76ers who also haven’t delivered a title: Charles Barkley and Joel Embiid.
This question is entirely subjective but here is how The Athletic’s recent Top 100 book ranks them:
15. Julius Erving
19. Moses Malone
23. Charles Barkley
41. Joel Embiid
49. Allen Iverson
These rankings largely jive with my gut but if we limit the inquiry to just their time with the 76ers, the outcome might be different. Here are their regular season stats as 76ers:
Barkley: 610 games, 37.3 mpg, 23.3 ppg, .640 TS%, 11.6 rpg, 3.7 apg, 25.3 PER, .224 WS48, 6.6 BPM
Embiid: 480 games, 31.8 mpg, 27.6 ppg, .613 TS%, 10.8 rpg, 3.7 apg, 28.0 PER, .213 WS48, 6.7 BPM
Erving: 836 games, 34.3 mpg, 22.0 ppg, .558 TS%, 6.7 rpg, 3.9 apg, 22.0 PER, .178 WS48, 5.2 BPM
Iverson: 682 games, 41.7 mpg, 28.0 ppg, .512 TS%, 4.0 rpg, 6.1 apg, 21.7 PER, .131 WS48, 3.9 BPM
Malone: 302 games, 37.1 mpg, 23.9 ppg, .569 TS%, 13.4 rpg, 1.4 apg, 22.6 PER, .195 WS48, 1.6 BPM
And now their playoff stats as 76ers:
Barkley: 51 games, 39.1 mpg, 22.4 ppg, .640 TS%, 13.1 rpg, 4.2 apg, 23.3 PER, .184 WS48, 6.3 BPM
Embiid: 59 games, 35.3 mpg, 24.9 ppg, .613 TS%, 10.9 rpg, 3.1 apg, 22.2 PER, .141 WS48, 4.1 BPM
Erving: 141 games, 37.5 mpg, 21.9 ppg, .558 TS%, 7.0 rpg, 4.2 apg, 20.0 PER, .149 WS48, 5.2 BPM
Iverson: 62 games, 45.5 mpg, 30.6 ppg, .512 TS%, 4.2 rpg, 6.1 apg, 22.0 PER, .119 WS48, 5.3 BPM
Malone: 31 games, 40.0 mpg, 22.8 ppg, .569 TS%, 13.3 rpg, 1.6 apg, 21.1 PER, .193 WS48, 3.6 BPM
Iverson’s regular season stats are a notch below the competition, but what sets him apart is that he elevated his game to insane levels in 45 mpg in the playoffs, sort of the opposite of Embiid. The Barkley versus Iverson argument could go either way. Barkley is more physically dominant, but he played fewer games and didn’t lead the 76ers to a Finals. I still lean towards Barkley over Iverson because of Sir Charles’ advantages in stats. The fact that his best teams didn’t make the Finals is of no moment because Barkley’s best teams (1984-85 and 1989-90) rate as good as AI’s 2000-01 Finals team. My final list:
- Erving (obvious top choice)
- Malone (rests entirely on being the engine for 1982-83 title)
- Barkley (slightly ahead of Iverson based on his overwhelming stats and his MVP-level play for multiple years)
- Iverson (almost dead heat with Barkley)
- Embiid (probably the best player but has missed so much time and hasn’t delivered in the playoffs enough)