Positionless All-NBA, Part 5 (1990s)
Welcome back! This is part 5 in our series on All-NBA teams without positional restrictions. Part 1 provides necessary context on how these results were determined, as well as detailing the results of the 1950s All-NBA teams. Part 2 covers the 1960s, Part 3 the 1970s, and Part 4 the 1980s. We recommence with Part 5 below covering the 1990s, the first decade in which every year includes a Third Team of players. This presents way more opportunity for movement and lots more opportunities for players to receive recognition.
Note — The parentheses next to each player will indicate whether they had moved up or down from their actual All-NBA spot. A hyphen indicates no change.
1990
First Team — Charles Barkley (-), Patrick Ewing (-), Magic Johnson (-), Michael Jordan (-), Karl Malone (-)
Second Team — Larry Bird (-), Tom Chambers (-), Hakeem Olajuwon (-), David Robinson (Up), John Stockton (-)
Third Team — Clyde Drexler (-), Joe Dumars (-), Kevin Johnson (Down), Isiah Thomas (Up), James Worthy (-)
Out — Chris Mullin
We start off the decade with a ho hum hypothetical First Team, as all five actual players retain their spots this year. Things get spiced up a bit on the hypothetical Second Team though with David Robinson moving up from the Third Team. Despite being a rookie, Robinson averaged 24/12/2 and 4 blocks per game, led an astounding 35-win turnaround for the Spurs, and finished sixth in MVP voting and one spot ahead of Hakeem Olajuwon, who beat him to the actual Second Team center spot. Robinson’s move up comes at the expense of Kevin Johnson, who had a tremendous season in his own right, going for 22/3/11 on a 54-win Suns team.
Alongside KJ, Clyde Drexler and Joe Dumars automatically retained their Third Team spots due to receiving a handful of MVP votes each. The remaining two spots were open to the two actual Third Team forwards, Chris Mullin and James Worthy, and the highest remaining vote-getters at guard and center, Isiah Thomas and Robert Parish, respectively. It was an easy pick to include Worthy due to his respectable stat line of 21/6/3 and the Lakers’ league-leading 63 wins. The final spot was much tougher to discern though. I removed Parish from consideration quickly, but Mullin and Thomas was a difficult duel. Thomas went for 18/4/9 for the 59-win Pistons and received a solitary MVP vote. Mullin also had a strong stat line of 25/6/4 and had the inside track due to his inclusion on the actual Third Team, but these accomplishments came for a sub-.500 Warriors team and he did not receive any MVP votes. As such, Isiah’s MVP vote, superior win total, and his reputation in the league coming off of a championship in 1989 were ultimately enough for me to lean his way and bump Mullin off the team.
1991
First Team — Charles Barkley (-), Magic Johnson (-), Michael Jordan (-), Karl Malone (-), David Robinson (-)
Second Team — Clyde Drexler (-), Patrick Ewing (-), Kevin Johnson (-), John Stockton (Up), Dominique Wilkins (-)
Third Team — Joe Dumars (-), Bernard King (-), Chris Mullin (Down), Hakeem Olajuwon (-), James Worthy (-)
Out — None
For the second straight year, the actual All-NBA First Team remains unchanged in this hypothetical. John Stockton moves up to the hypothetical Second Team this year though on the back of what was either the best or second-best statistical season of his career, going for 17/3/14 with 3 steals per game. Chris Mullin is once again the unlucky player bumped to make room for the ascending player, though he had another strong season in 1991, going for 25/5/4 with 2 steals per game for a 44-win Warriors team enjoying the peak popularity of the Run TMC era.
The Third Team had four automatic spots this year going to Dumars, King, Mullin, and Olajuwon. The remaining spot was up for grabs between James Worthy, who was the remaining actual All-NBA Third Team forward, as well as the highest vote-getting guard, Tim Hardaway, and center, Robert Parish. Just like last year, Worthy was an easy pick given his per game stats of 21/4/3 and the Lakers impressive 58 win total. Although Hardaway and Parish weren’t much competition for Worthy, I felt that Larry Bird and Terry Porter were very deserving of a spot on the hypothetical Third Team had either been eligible. Bird and Porter tied for ninth in MVP voting, ahead of several players who made the above hypothetical teams in 1991, including Ewing, Stockton, Dumars, King, Mullin, and Olajuwon. Bird averaged 19/8/7 with 2 steals per game and Porter averaged 17/3/8 with 2 steals per game. Bird’s Celtics won 56 games and Porter’s Blazers won 63. Between the wins, MVP recognition, and impressive stats, both players would have been easy picks for the Third Team had they been available for selection. But, as it stands, both unfortunately miss out.
1992
First Team — Clyde Drexler (-), Patrick Ewing (Up), Michael Jordan (-), Karl Malone (-), David Robinson (-)
Second Team — Brad Daugherty (Up), Tim Hardaway (-), Chris Mullin (Down), Scottie Pippen (-), John Stockton (-)
Third Team — Charles Barkley (Down), Kevin Johnson (-), Hakeem Olajuwon (Up), Mark Price (-), Dennis Rodman (-)
Out — Kevin Willis
We finally see a shakeup on a First Team in the 90s, as Patrick Ewing moves up in place of Chris Mullin.¹ We also see Brad Daugherty move up to the Second Team. Daugherty went for 21/10/3 for a 58-win Cavs team. Daugherty actually had fewer MVP votes than his teammate Mark Price but makes the Second Team ahead of him due to Price being blocked behind Stockton and Hardaway in All-NBA voting.
Stockton and Barkley tied for twelfth in MVP voting but only one spot remained on the Second Team between the two. I ended up going with Stockton for the final spot due to his Jazz winning far more games than Barkley’s 76ers, though both had great stat lines, per usual.
A tiebreaker was necessary on Third Team again, as only four automatic spots were claimed by Barkley, Price, Rodman, and Kevin Johnson. Both Price and Rodman actually finished in the top ten of MVP voting but were unable to move on to the hypothetical Second Team due to being blocked by Hardaway and Stockton, and Barkley, respectively. Kevin Willis had the inside edge for the final Third Team spot due to his selection to the team in real life, but I felt that both the next-best vote-getting guard, Jeff Hornacek and the next-best vote-getting center, Hakeem Olajuwon, had stronger cases than Willis. Willis had a strong stat line of 18/15/2,² but his Hawks were below .500 and he actually had fewer All-NBA votes than Hornacek and only one more than Olajuwon, so it was fairly easy to remove him from consideration in favor of Hornacek and Olajuwon.
Olajuwon averaged 21/12/2 with 2 steals and 4 blocks per game, which makes Hornacek’s 20/5/5 and 2 steals per game look pedestrian. However, Hornacek’s Suns won 53 games to just 42 by Olajuwon’s Rockets. That being said, Olajuwon played in only 70 games and the Rockets were 40–30 when he suited up, meaning they went 2–10 when he didn’t. Drastic changes in winning percentages like that are tough to ignore, so Olajuwon barely gets in over Hornacek. Both players were extremely close to making the actual Third Team, as Hornacek was just 28 voting points behind his teammate Kevin Johnson for the final actual All-NBA Third Team guard spot, and Olajuwon was just 23 points behind Daugherty for the actual Third Team center spot.
1993
First Team — Charles Barkley (-), Patrick Ewing (Up), Michael Jordan (-), Hakeem Olajuwon (-), David Robinson (Up)
Second Team — Karl Malone (Down), Shaquille O’Neal (Up), Mark Price (Down), John Stockton (-), Dominique Wilkins (-)
Third Team — Derrick Coleman (-), Joe Dumars (Down), Tim Hardaway (-), Larry Johnson (Down), Scottie Pippen (-)
Out — Drazen Petrovic
It looks like the mid-90s are going to seem a lot like the mid-70s, when dominant centers roamed the paint and dominated this exercise as a result. Both Patrick Ewing and David Robinson rise up to the First Team this year after having been on the actual Second Team and Third Team, respectively. Additionally, a rookie Shaquille O’Neal moves up to the hypothetical Second Team despite not having made any of the three actual All-NBA teams. Ewing finished fourth in MVP voting with averages of 24/12/2 with 2 blocks per game for a 60-win Knicks team beginning to assert itself as the league’s stingiest, scariest, and meanest defense. Robinson finished sixth in MVP voting with averages of 23/11/3 with 3 blocks per game. His Spurs won 49 games and he began to receive some Defensive Player of the Year consideration. And Shaq finished seventh in MVP voting and won Rookie of the Year, going for 23/14/2 with 3 blocks per game. Shaq led a 21-win turnaround for the Magic to accomplish their first .500 season at 41–41.
Karl Malone and Mark Price get bumped from the First Team in lieu of Ewing and Robinson. Karl Malone was one of my picks to contend with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the longest consecutive streak of hypothetical First Teams, so his relegation here removes him from that possibility.
Only Joe Dumars and Larry Johnson grabbed automatic Third Team spots, so the three remaining spots had heavy competition between Drazen Petrovic and Tim Hardaway as the actual Third Team guards, Scottie Pippen and Derrick Coleman as the actual Third Team forwards, and highest remaining vote-getter at center in Brad Daugherty. Pippen was an easy pick given his stats and the Bulls’ winning record. I ultimately opted for Coleman and Hardaway as well due to their double-double averages, but I came very close to including Brad Daugherty in one of their places. Daugherty received minimal All-NBA consideration, though that was likely due to the heavy competition at center. The fact that he still grabbed four points in All-NBA voting despite the presence of Ewing, Olajuwon, Robinson, and Shaq is impressive in and of itself. He averaged 20/10/3, just about replicating the totals from his actual All-NBA selection in 1992, and helped the Cavs to 54 wins and grabbed a solitary MVP vote. Coleman and Hardaway did not come close in team wins and did not get any MVP votes, but NBA voters of the time would likely have latched on to their double-double stat lines, which makes it difficulty to justify their removals. Given their inside track, there just isn’t enough of an argument for Daugherty to knock them out.
It breaks my heart to drop Drazen Petrovic out of the teams here given his influence on the game and the league. The Nets were 4–8 without Petrovic but 39–31 with him this season, though he had the weakest stat line of the group and I don’t think voters at the time would have totally grasped the impact of his shooting skill at that point in time, so the popularity of Coleman and Hardaway barely edge out Petrovic.
1994
First Team — Patrick Ewing (Up), Hakeem Olajuwon (-), Shaquille O’Neal (Up), Scottie Pippen (-), David Robinson (Up)
Second Team — Charles Barkley (-), Shawn Kemp (-), Karl Malone (Down), Latrell Sprewell (Down), John Stockton (Down)
Third Team — Kevin Johnson (Down), Gary Payton (-), Mark Price (-), Mitch Richmond (Down), Dominique Wilkins (-)
Out — Derrick Coleman
For the first time in a while, we have a season that was able to be determined without any tiebreakers. And yet, we still get some crazy movement here. We get a quartet of centers on the hypothetical First Team, as all of Ewing, Shaq, and Robinson join Olajuwon due to all four finishing in the top five of MVP voting. Ewing is the first players since 1979 to go from no actual All-NBA team to the hypothetical First Team, and the first to do so since the expansion to three All-NBA teams. All four of these players had incredible seasons. If we look at the statistical output of all four players and pick the worst of the four in each category, we still have a player averaging 24/10/2 with 2 blocks per game and 50 wins. If we take the averages of all four players, we have a player averaging 27/11/3 with 3 blocks per game and 55 wins. If we handpick the best of each of the four players, then we get a 30/13/5 player with 3 blocks per game and 58 wins. Clearly, these four big men were commanding the NBA at the time and it’s unfortunate that only one of them could grab an actual All-NBA First Team spot.
Karl Malone, Latrell Sprewell, and John Stockton are the three players bumped to the Second Team and that creates a trickle effect which causes both Kevin Johnson and Mitch Richmond to fall to the Third Team and Derrick Coleman to fall out of the Third Team altogether due to being the only player from the actual Third Team not to receive any MVP votes. Also on the Third Team is Gary Payton, though he is very unfortunate to not jump up to the Second Team. Payton finished sixth in MVP voting, averaging 16/3/6 with 2 steals per game for a 63-win Sonics team. He also garnered 9 first-place Defensive Player of the Year votes. Although he finished ahead of every other guard in MVP voting, he finished behind all of Sprewell, Stockton, Richmond, Kevin Johnson, and Mark Price in All-NBA voting, and that caused him to end up sticking to the Third Team despite the strong MVP showing.
1995
First Team — Patrick Ewing (Up), Karl Malone (-), Hakeem Olajuwon (Up), Shaquille O’Neal (Up), David Robinson (-)
Second Team — Charles Barkley (-), Penny Hardaway (Down), Gary Payton (-), Scottie Pippen (Down), John Stockton (Down)
Third Team — Shawn Kemp (Down), Reggie Miller (-), Mitch Richmond (Down), Dennis Rodman (-), Detlef Schrempf (-)
Out — Clyde Drexler
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For the second year in a row, centers dominate the First Team and we get the same quartet of Ewing, Olajuwon, Shaq, and Robinson occupying the perch at the top of the league. There’s not much more to say this time around, all four of these guys were at the peak of their powers³ and were very deserving of First Team recognition.
Yes again, the guards are the casualty of this shift and both Penny Hardaway and John Stockton fall to the Second Team alongside Scottie Pippen. Interestingly, both Pippen and Stockton did receive a single first-place MVP vote in 1995. Shawn Kemp and Mitch Richmond are the two players to fall to the Third Team but, unlike last year, tiebreakers were necessary for the final two spots on the Third Team, as Dennis Rodman was the only other player to automatically clinch a spot alongside Kemp and Richmond.
The eligible players were Clyde Drexler and Reggie Miller as the actual Third Team guards, Detlef Schrempf as the remaining actual Third Team forward, and Alonzo Mourning as the highest vote-getter of the remaining centers. Reggie Miller was a fairly easy pick, as he was the best player on the 52-win Pacers and easily had the largest share of All-NBA votes of the remaining eligible players. Deciding between the remaining three players was really tough though. Mourning only had two All-NBA votes but, like Daugherty in 1993, this was very likely due to being blocked by the four First Team players above. Mourning averaged 21/10/1 with 3 blocks per game, received two first-place Defensive Player of the Year votes, and helped lead the Hornets to 50 wins for the first in franchise history. Drexler averaged a very strong 22/6/5 with 2 steals per game and received 4 votes to the All-NBA First Team. However, he was also famously traded to the Rockets midseason and I feel like that likely would’ve hurt his cause. Furthermore, the Rockets had a losing record of 17–18 with Drexler, but were 30–17 without him. Schrempf also had a strong stat line of 19/6/4 and his Sonics were the best of the bunch with 57 wins, but he also was third fiddle behind Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp, who already made teams above.
My personal pick of the trio would likely be Mourning, but I don’t think there’s quite enough of an argument in terms of raw per game stats to justify bumping him in over Drexler or Schrempf, so he was removed from consideration. Between the remaining two, I leaned very slightly towards Schrempf given the winning record, Drexler’s midseason trade, and the fact that Schrempf had a few more All-NBA votes than Drexler. But it was a tough call.
1996
First Team — Penny Hardaway (-), Michael Jordan (-), Hakeem Olajuwon (Up), Scottie Pippen (-), David Robinson (-)
Second Team — Grant Hill (-), Shawn Kemp (-), Karl Malone (Down), Shaquille O’Neal (Up), Gary Payton (-)
Third Team — Charles Barkley (-), Reggie Miller (-), Alonzo Mourning (Up), Mitch Richmond (-), John Stockton (Down)
Out — Juwan Howard
With the return of Jordan, the emergence of Penny Hardaway as a top tier star, and an injury to Shaq, the 1996 First Team is no longer center-centric. We still get a duo at the top thanks to Hakeem Olajuwon moving up to the First Team alongside David Robinson, but Shaq settles for the Second Team this year and Patrick Ewing misses out altogether for the first time since 1988. Hakeem makes the First Team on the back of his fourth-place MVP finish and a mammoth 27/11/3 and 3 blocks. Karl Malone falls to the Second Team as a result. Malone finished seventh in MVP voting with a 25/10/4 stat line, though his Jazz had more wins (55) than Hakeem’s Rockets (48).
Shaq moves up to the Second Team from the Third Team, but was prevented from another First Team spot due to only appearing in 54 games this season. In those game, Shaq was his usual beastly self, going for 26/11/3 and 2 blocks per game. The Magic posted an amazing 40–14 record (.740 winning percentage) with Shaq on the floor. Perhaps even more impressive, Penny Hardaway was able to keep the Magic around the same winning percentage in the games without Shaq, going 20–8 (.714 winning percentage) in those games. John Stockton gets bumped to the Third Team to make room for Shaq, which breaks a streak of seven straight Second Team appearances for Stockton.
Stockton, Barkley, and Richmond are the only three automatic selections to the Third Team. For the remaining two spots, Reggie Millers gets consideration as the remaining actual Third Team guard, Juwan Howard gets consideration as the remaining actual Third Team forward, and Alonzo Mourning gets consideration as the highest remaining vote-getter at center. I was surprised to find that Alonzo Mourning was my pick as the most likely inclusion of the bunch. Mourning had the best stat line at 23/10/3 with 2 blocks per game, besting Juwan Howard in terms of scoring and rebounding. The Heat also had a 10-game improvement in 1996 following the addition of Zo. The Heat were 39–31 with Mourning in the lineup, but 3–9 without him. But the most important detail is that Mourning received six MVP points, whereas Howard and Miller received none.
Patrick Ewing was the next best center and I gave him some consideration following Mourning’s inclusion, but the lack of MVP votes made it less likely to insert him into the team so the final spot came down to Reggie and Juwan. I initially felt that Reggie was an easy pick due to his superior All-NBA voting share and his notably better team record at 52–30 compared to Juwan’s 39–43. However, Howard deserves a ton of credit for keeping the Bullets around .500 considering that his star teammate, Chris Webber, was limited to 15 games due to injury. Howard’s effort kept the team afloat, but Miller’s 52 wins and better share of votes was ultimately too much to overcome, so Reggie gets in and Juwan barely misses out.
1997
First Team — Tim Hardaway (-), Grant Hill (-), Michael Jordan (-), Karl Malone (-), Glen Rice (Up)
Second Team — Patrick Ewing (-), Hakeem Olajuwon (Down), Shaquille O’Neal (Up), Gary Payton (-), Scottie Pippen (-)
Third Team — Anthony Mason (-), Alonzo Mourning (Up), Dikembe Mutombo (Up), Mitch Richmond (Down), John Stockton (-)
Out — Vin Baker, Penny Hardaway
Following the run of dominance from Hakeem, Shaq, Robinson, and Ewing, 1997 brings us our first year without a center on the hypothetical First Team in nearly a decade. Olajuwon was the actual First Team center but falls to the Second Team due to his seventh-place MVP finish. Hakeem is unfortunate though, as his Rockets won 57 games and he produced a respectable 23/9/3 with 2 blocks per game. Perhaps these aren’t up to the standard of his prime output in the early and mid-90s, but it was still impressive. Olajuwon is joined on the Second Team by Ewing and Shaq, the latter of whom moved up from the Third Team, though Robinson missed the season due to injury and doesn’t make any All-NBA team as a result. Ewing was similar to Olajuwon in that he continued to post strong per game averages (22/10/2 with 2 blocks) for strong teams, but he wasn’t hitting the same heights he had earlier in the decade. Conversely, Shaq was still producing monster numbers, going for 26/12/3 and 3 blocks per game in his debut season with the Lakers, but injuries limited him to 51 games and reduced his likelihood for First Team inclusion.
Glen Rice had been a borderline star for years prior to the 96–97 season, but he broke out in a big way this year. He went for an extremely efficient 27/4/2 and guided the Hornets to 54 wins, the best total in franchise history as of this writing. He ultimately finished fifth in MVP voting and makes his way on to the hypothetical First Team in this exercise. This reminds me a lot of Dan Roundfield in the previous article, who also upgraded an actual Second Team selection into a hypothetical First Team spot. Much like Roundfield, Rice’s legacy would’ve gained much more notoriety with a First Team All-NBA spot.⁴
Mitch Richmond fell to the Third Team following Shaq’s rise, and Anthony Mason and John Stockton were the only two players to automatically retain a Third Team spot. Vin Baker and Penny Hardaway had the inside track to the two remaining spots, but two centers ultimately pipped them. Mourning was an easy pick, as he actually had more All-NBA votes than either Baker or Penny but didn’t make the actual All-NBA teams due to positional limitations. He also had a few MVP votes, whereas Baker and Penny did not. Baker’s stat line of 21/10/2 was marginally better than Mourning’s 20/10/1, but Mourning was more efficient and his Heat were significantly better than Baker’s Bucks. In the end, the superior All-NBA vote tally made it an easy pick. Mutombo was the next highest vote-getter at center and his tally of 55 was just behind Penny’s 62 and Baker’s 61. Mutombo won Defensive Player of the Year this season, grabbed a few MVP votes, and anchored a 56-win Hawks team. All of this made Mutombo an easy pick over Baker, though Penny was a closer call. Penny’s Magic won just 45 games, but this was the team’s first year in the wake of Shaq’s departure for LA. The fact that the Magic could keep their heads above water despite losing an all-time great player speaks to Penny’s talent and leadership. Furthermore, the team was 38–21 when he played but 7–16 when he didn’t. And yet, the superior MVP tally, win total, and team wins, as well as the DPOY, the comparable All-NBA vote tally, and Penny’s number of missed games, made Mutombo an easy choice.
1998
First Team — Tim Duncan (-), Michael Jordan (-), Karl Malone (-), Shaquille O’Neal (-), Gary Payton (-)
Second Team — Vin Baker (-), Tim Hardaway (-), Grant Hill (-), Scottie Pippen (Up), David Robinson (-)
Third Team — Reggie Miller (-), Dikembe Mutombo (-), Glen Rice (-), Mitch Richmond (-), Rod Strickland (Down)
Out — None
There is only one change in 1998, as Scottie Pippen moves up to the Second Team and Rod Strickland falls to the Third Team. Pippen played in just 44 games in 1998 but clearly left a lasting impression on voters. Pippen collected fourteen points in MVP voting to finish tenth overall. He also finished on the All-Defense First Team and earned two first-place Defensive Player of the Year votes. When he played, he averaged 19/5/6 with 2 steals per game. Most importantly the Bulls had a practically unstoppable .818 winning percentage and 36–8 record with him in the lineup.⁵
Strickland, Rice, Richmond, and Reggie all claimed automatic spots on the Third Team, which left the final spot open for Dikembe Mutombo as the actual Third Team center and John Stockton and Antoine Walker as the next highest vote-getters at guard and forward, respectively. Mutombo was a somewhat easy selection to retain his spot because he won Defensive Player of the Year and achieved a 50-win season with the Hawks. Antoine Walker had a solid 22/10/3 season, but it came in a sub-.500 effort with the Celtics. Conversely, Stockton’s Jazz won an impressive 62 games, but his per game averages of 12/2/8 may have been too pedestrian for voters, thus making Mutombo the man for the spot.
1999
First Team — Tim Duncan (-), Allen Iverson (-), Jason Kidd (-), Karl Malone (-), Alonzo Mourning (-)
Second Team — Kevin Garnett (Up), Grant Hill (-), Shaquille O’Neal (-), Gary Payton (-), Chris Webber (-)
Third Team — Kobe Bryant (-), Tim Hardaway (Down), Antonio McDyess (-), Hakeem Olajuwon (-), John Stockton (-)
Out — None
This has to be a record for the most new players to appear in a single group of All-NBA teams, as all of Bryant, Garnett, Iverson, Kidd, McDyess, and Webber make their debuts this year. There’s only one minor change this year, as Kevin Garnett moves up to the Second Team in place of Tim Hardaway. Garnett had just nine points in MVP voting, but that was good enough for a tenth-place finish and a move up to the Second Team. Garnett averaged 21/10/4 with 2 blocks per game and nearly 2 steals per game. He had made All-Star appearances in 1997 and 1998, but 1999 was the year when he truly began to break out in a big way.
Unlike last year, the tiebreakers to decide the Third Team were exceptionally difficult. Only Hardaway and Olajuwon grabbed automatic spots, which left Kobe, McDyess, Stockton, and Dikembe Mutombo, the next highest vote-getter at center, to battle it out for the remaining three spots. This was a difficult call, as Mutombo had a solid winning record with the Hawks, finished runner-up as Defensive Player of the Year, and possessed a strong 11/12/1 and 3 block per game stat line. A very good case could be made that he would be more enticing to voters than any three of Kobe, McDyess, and Stockton, but I ultimately felt that there wasn’t quite enough there to warrant the removal of those three. Kobe was the most well-rounded of the trio, as he posted strong per game numbers of 20/5/3 for a winning Lakers team, but McDyess and Stockton had more noticeable flaws. McDyess had a monster 21/10/1 season with 2 blocks per game, but it was achieved with a miserable Nuggets team. Stockton was the opposite, as the Jazz tied for the best record in the league, but Stockton produced just 11/3/7 per game. And yet, I think both did just enough to warrant retention on the Third Team. I’m guessing voters fell in love with McDyess meeting the traditional benchmarks for big men in ascertaining a 20/10 season. He was top ten in the league in both categories, and he was better than or close to Mutombo in these areas. Given the reliance of McDyess’ case on stats, it feels counterintuitive to also retain Stockton. That being said, the winning is tough to ignore, and it was clear that the voters valued Stockton’s play and winning reputation.⁶ All in all, I think this is enough for him to fend off Mutombo and retain his spot.
I should also note that I felt that David Robinson had as strong, or perhaps even stronger, of a case than Mutombo this year. Had Mutombo leapfrogged any of Kobe, Stockton, or McDyess, and an additional spot remained, then Robinson likely would have gotten in this year too.
Conclusions
Karl Malone appeared in an All-NBA team every single season this decade, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Russell as the only players to accomplish that feat. Hakeem Olajuwon and John Stockton were right behind him with nine appearances each, and David Robinson was also close with eight appearances. Malone and Michael Jordan tied for the most First Team appearances with seven, with Robinson next in line at six, followed by Patrick Ewing with five. I was very surprised to find Ewing had more hypothetical First Team appearances in the 1990s than Hakeem Olajuwon!
Ewing was undoubtedly the biggest overall winner this decade. He went from one actual First Team appearance and four actual Second Team appearances for five overall appearances in the 90s, to five hypothetical First Team appearances and two hypothetical Second Team appearances for seven overall appearances. This is an incredible increase of four First Team appearances. Only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Dave Cowens were also able to increase their total of First Team appearances by this much in a single decade. But all three of Ewing, Kareem, and Cowens pale in comparison to Bill Russell, who added an astonishing seven new First Team appearances in the 1960s.⁷ Would contemporary fans and historians remember Ewing differently had he attained five First Team appearances instead of his actual two? I suspect so. At the very least, I believe it would be much less likely for all of us to instinctively consider him as the worst of the 90s quartet of Hall of Fame centers consisting of him, Shaq, Robinson, and Olajuwon. Although Ewing doesn’t have a championship or MVP like the other three, his peak was likely parallel to or extremely close to theirs.
Even beyond Ewing, all centers prospered in this hypothetical this decade. Shaq and Robinson each increased their tally of First Team appearances by two, and Olajuwon increased his by one. Brad Daugherty moved his sole Third Team appearance up to a Second Team appearance, and he was very close to adding another Third Team appearance. And Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo each joined the ranks of All-NBA players this decade due to the removal of the cap of All-NBA centers at three. Glen Rice is the only non-center to move on to the First Team this decade and Isiah Thomas is the only non-center to add a Third Team appearance. Overall, it was clear that the 90s were a decade that belonged to the big man.
Thanks as always for reading! Next week we’ll transition to my favorite decade of basketball, the 2000s.
¹ Mullin’s multiple relegations this decade places him alongside the likes of Walt Frazier in the 70s and Isiah Thomas in the 80s as players who just couldn’t seem to catch a break in this hypothetical despite having really strong cases. From 1989 to 1992, the fours seasons in which Mullin fell down a team in this exercise, Mullin averaged 25/4/5 with 2 steals per game on a strong TS% of .605. However, he didn’t receive serios MVP consideration due his Warriors wallowing in mediocrity for the most part, averaging 44 wins across that time span. They did win 55 in 1992 though, but this still wasn’t enough to crack the top five of MVP voting. Much like Frazier and Isiah before him, Mullin’s misfortune in this hypothetical shouldn’t be seen as a negative.
² Willis’ rebounds per game rate of 15.5 was second best in the league and an impressive 3.2 rebounds per game better than Dikembe Mutombo in third place with 13.2… but it was also 3.2 rebounds per game behind Dennis Rodman in first place with an amazing 18.7.
³ An argument could be made that Shaq had not yet reached his peak given that this was just his third season in the league, but I’d argue he’s still in his early prime at this point. His numbers and influence are still undeniably impactful at this stage in his career. It must have been scary for rival players and teams to imagine at the time that he’d be even better come the turn of the century.
⁴ I loved Glen Rice in the mid-90s. Guys like him, Reggie Miller, Hersey Hawkins, Jeff Hornacek, and Dale Ellis were beginning to truly weaponize the three-point shot, and they made it look cool in the process. But even by the 90s the shot had merely upgraded to something like a novelty instead of the joke or rarity it was considered in the 80s. But when Rice and Ellis started to climb the per game scoring charts, deep shooting began to feel more like coveted weaponry than helpful but unnecessary skill. Rice’s role in the league’s acceptance of the three pointer is an underappreciated aspect of his legacy.
⁵ Even without Pippen, they were still 26–12 for a still-impressive .684 winning percentage.
⁶ Stockton obviously must have been making wining plays that don’t show up on the stat sheet. Although his per game numbers began to decline in 1998, his per possession numbers remained exceptionally strong throughout his career and he finished in the top two of assists per possession every year through his retirement following the 2002–03 season. His advanced numbers and offensive and defensive ratings also continued to be stellar. Most importantly, the Jazz continued to be a winning team when he played. The voters must have noticed this, because he remained in serious All-NBA contention from 1998 through 2001 despite averaging 11/2/8 per game within that stretch. I think this is indicative of a shift in voters’ methods from prioritizing the big three per game stat categories to placing value on winning basketball.
⁷ If we remove the arbitrary categorization by decade, then we see that Kareem added another hypothetical First Team appearance in the 80s, giving him six new overall First Team appearances in total, and Russell had previously added another First Team appearance in the 50s, giving him eight new overall hypothetical First Team appearances.
