Announcing the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team Selection

NEW YORK, NY. – A total of 158 NBA championships and 730 NBA All-Star selections.  A combined 110 Kia NBA Most Valuable Player Awards and Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP Awards.  More than 1.5 million points scored.

Those are just some of the collective accomplishments of the players who comprise the NBA 75^th Anniversary Team, which was announced across TNT and ESPN from Oct. 19-21 as the league tipped off its landmark 75^th Anniversary Season.

The NBA 75^th Anniversary Team was selected by a blue-ribbon panel of current and former NBA players, coaches, general managers and team and league executives, WNBA legends and sportswriters and broadcasters.  Voters were asked to select the 75 Greatest Players in NBA History without regard to position.  Panelists did not rank their selections.  Current and former players were not allowed to vote for themselves.

As a result of a tie in the voting, the 75^th Anniversary Team features 76 players.  Team highlights include:

• Eleven active players have been named to the 75^th Anniversary Team: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Carmelo Anthony, Stephen Curry, Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, James Harden, LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, Damian Lillard, Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook.
• All 50 members of the NBA 50^th Anniversary Team, which was named in 1996, have been selected to the 75^th Anniversary Team.
• The 75^th Anniversary Team includes four players who played in the first NBA All-Star Game in 1951 (Paul Arizin, Bob Cousy, George Mikan and Dolph Schayes), the first winner of the Kia NBA Most Valuable Player Award (Bob Pettit for the 1955-56 season) and the first winner of the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP Award (Jerry West for the 1969 NBA Finals).
• Bill Russell joins Cousy, Mikan and Pettit as the only four players who have been named to all four NBA Anniversary Teams: the 25^th Anniversary Team (10 players named), 35^th Anniversary Team (11 players named), 50^th Anniversary Team and 75^th Anniversary Team.  (The 25^th Anniversary Team was the only one of the four teams that did not allow for the inclusion of active players at the time.)
• Six international players from six countries and territories have been selected to the 75^th Anniversary Team: Antetokounmpo (Greece), Tim Duncan (U.S. Virgin Islands), Patrick Ewing (Jamaica), Steve Nash (Canada), Dirk Nowitzki (Germany) and Hakeem Olajuwon (Nigeria).
• The five NBA legends who are serving as ambassadors for the 75^th Anniversary Season are part of the 75^th Anniversary Team: Clyde Drexler, Magic Johnson, Nowitzki, Pettit and Oscar Robertson.  Representing different eras of the league’s history, the ambassadors will make appearances throughout the 2021-22 season and have a significant presence at NBA All-Star 2022 in Cleveland.

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The NBA 75^th Anniversary Team is listed below in alphabetical order, followed by the list of voters.  The balloting was tabulated by the independent accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP.

 

 

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NBA Contributed to this coverage