This list was put together in the first half of 2021, ahead of the NBA's 75th anniversary on June 6, 2021. Rankings are based only on a player's accomplishments in the NBA, not in other professional leagues, college, or international play.

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All accomplishments are factored into a player's ranking: Career stats, career peak stats, per-game stats, awards, postseason stats, team success, single great games or series, or if a player changed the way the game is played. Career totals and awards were weighted more heavily when choosing the final 75; other accomplishments were factored more to determine where on the list the player would fall.

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Basketballreference.com was the main source for stats. Stats are available for everyone who ever played in the NBA or ABA and are easy to read and sort. I used their advanced stats a bit, especially their version of win shares, but the "Adjusted Shooting" section was most useful to me. They compare each player's shooting percentages to the average percentages each season. A 48% shooter in 1960 is much more valuable than a 48% shooter in 2010, and the Adjusted Shooting section helps to quantify that.

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I used a few YouTube channels to watch game footage of some older players. Most of them show up in the game video on the players' individual summary pages, but two I want to highlight are Hal15Greer and Torontos. And, of course, the NBA's official YouTube channel has a lot of great content, both highlights and full games.