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#14 Moses Malone


MVPs: 3. Finals MVPs: 1. All-NBA 1st Team: 4. 2nd Team: 4. All Star: 13. MVP: 0.

Defensive POY: 0. All-Defense 1st Team: 1. 2nd Team: 1.

#9 Career Points. #15 Career RPG. #5 Career Rebounds.

Rebounds Champ: 6.

Career Averages: 21 PPG/ 12 RPG/ 1 APG/ .8 SPG/ 1.3 BPG/ .491 eFG%/ .769 FT%.

Best Season: 31/ 15/ 2/ .9/ 1.5/ .519/ .762 (1981-82).

Postseason Averages: 22 PPG/ 14 RPG/ 1 APG/ .9 SPG/ 1.6 BPG/ .479 eFG%/ .762 FT%.

Best Postseason: 26/ 16/ 1/ 1.5/ 1.9/ .536/ .717 (1983).

Championships: 1 (#1 player). Runner-ups: 1 (#1 player).


Why he's below Kobe Bryant: Moses has the better regular season resume, especially with those 3 MVPs. Kobe has the better postseason resume. It's hard to decide between these two players based on resumes alone, so for me the difference is that Moses was traded 4 times in his career. There were rumors that the Lakers tried to trade Kobe, but they never pulled the trigger. I admit I came up with that reason after I ranked them. The real reason is that I can imagine switching Oscar and Kobe, and I can imagine switching Kobe and Moses, but I can't imagine switching Oscar and Moses. So the Oscar-Kobe-Moses order seems best.


Why he's above the rest: He's got 3 MVPs...That's more than anyone left on the list and most of the players above him. He is arguably the best rebounder in NBA history; adjusting for era, his rebounding averages are second only to Dennis Rodman. Moses was the best player in the league for a 5-year period between Kareem's run and the Bird/Magic run. And he wasn't putting up cheap stats either. He outplayed Kareem in both the 1981 first round and the 1983 Finals (averaging 26 and 18 in a sweep). Moses not only had a great peak but had longevity, currently sitting in the top 10 in both career points and rebounds. He's forgotten as an all-time great sometimes only because the Bird/Magic era overwhelmed everything that happened in the league before them.



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