31 for 31: the 31 Greatest Players in the NBA since 1984

I remember watching the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History ceremony during the 1997 All-Star Game, and in addition to being in awe that they could gather all those legendary players at one time, I was so proud because my Houston Rockets had 3 of them on their current roster: Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, and Charles Barkley.  (We would get another one named Scottie Pippen the next year, but I'm sure the entire city of Houston is still trying to forget that ever actually happened.  Sorry for bringing Quitten back up.)

Anyway, I was watching this video the other day with some players talking about the list and who would be the next 10 added.  If you love the NBA, you'd probably enjoy the video, but it's definitely one of those "watch at work" videos and not something you need to be checking out at home when you got better things to do.


Anyway, I was talking it over with my friend Timmy, and there's so many names on here that we can't fully appreciate because they played so long ago, and since we were both born in 1984, we decided to come up with a revised list of "31 for 31," or the 31 greatest players since 1984.

Our criteria was that the players' credentials had to be worthy based on their contribution starting from 1984.  So even if their career started prior to that year, the preceding years essentially didn't count.  This list is in no particular order.

(* denotes an original top 50 member)

1	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar*
2	Charles Barkley*
3	Larry Bird*
4	Clyde Drexler*
5	Patrick Ewing*
6	Magic Johnson*
7	Michael Jordan*
8	Karl Malone*
9	Kevin McHale*
10	Hakeem Olajuwon*
11	Shaquille O'Neal*
12	Scottie Pippen*
13	David Robinson*
14	John Stockton*
15	Isaiah Thomas*
16	Lebron James
17	Tim Duncan
18	Kobe Bryant
19	Allen Iverson
20	Kevin Garnett
21	Dirk Nowitzki
22	Dwyane Wade
23	Jason Kidd
24	Steve Nash
25	Dominique Wilkins
26	Gary Payton
27	Kevin Durant
28	Dikembe Mutombo
29	Chris Paul
30	Dwight Howard
31	Paul Pierce

The tiebreaker for #31 was broken by our friend Albert, who conned Timmy into allowing Paul Pierce onto the list.  TMAC, if you're reading this, I'm sorry.