The Basketball 100

Over the course of 100 luminous player profiles, the best sports newsroom on the planet paints vivid portraits of the game’s most compelling characters. There’s George Mikan, who was cut from his high school team because he wore glasses, then went on to become the fledgling NBA’s first transcendent star. Gary Payton, called “The Glove” for his skintight defense, who talked as much trash to his teammates as he did to his opponents on the court. Dennis Rodman, who started playing basketball at age 20, and in a few short years went from working as a janitor at the airport to being one of the strangest superstars that sport has ever known. Allen Iverson, who drew inspiration from hip hop for his inimitable style and swagger, on and off the court. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was so dominant in the paint that they changed the rules—and Steph Curry, who was so dominant outside it that he seemed to expand the very boundaries of the court.

The Basketball 100, The EPB, edited by award-winning reporters David Aldridge and John Hollinger, also answers the toughest, most important questions in basketball history: How should we weight championship rings, versus statistical profiles, versus the “eye test”? Were the great players of yesteryear, like Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell, propelled by the inferior athleticism of their competition or would they have been transcendent in any era? And of course, who’s the GOAT—MJ or LeBron? Speaking of GOATs, for the book, Hollinger (a pioneer in sports analytics and inventor of the statistical metric PER) has created a new benchmark, GOAT Points.

Wonderfully written, authoritative, and full of joy, The Basketball 100, The EPB is a must-read piece of basketball biography and a fitting tribute to the greatest sport in the world.

This is more than just a list—it’s a deep dive into the players who defined their eras.

• NBA Legends: Vivid, deeply-researched portraits of 100 icons, from George Mikan and Wilt Chamberlain to Allen Iverson, Steph Curry, and LeBron James.
• The Great Debate: Authoritative analysis that tackles the toughest questions, like how to weigh championships versus statistics, and of course, who is the ultimate GOAT.
• Advanced Stat Metrics: An all-new benchmark, GOAT Points, created by The Athletic’s John Hollinger to bring new data to the timeless arguments.
• Expert Sports Journalism: Featuring incredible writing from the celebrated newsroom of The Athletic and a foreword by the legendary Charles Barkley.