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Metta World Peace is best known for being one of the NBA's best defensive players during his 17 seasons, playing for numerous teams like the LA Lakers and the Houston Rockets. Recently, the former 2010 NBA champion ranked his top 10 league players of all time, on X.
World Peace, who was originally Ron Artest and is now known as Metta Sandiford-Artest, played with and against some of the best players in NBA history. From being teammates with Kobe Bryant to going up against LeBron James in his prime, the former Lakers forward had an interesting career.
Here's a look at his ranking of the top 10 NBA players of all time.
Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell form his top three. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johson round out his top five. Next, are Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Stephen Curry. LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal are ninth and 10th for him.
Rankings such as his can often result in debates and opposing opinions from NBA fans. In this case, the former 2004 Defensive Player of The Year is not safe.
"How does retiring bump LeBron up 8 spots?"
From the NBA fans' reactions, they found Metta World Peace's ranking confusing. Some of that confusion stemmed from some of the reasons he gave for some players.
One player who got the most reaction from the list was 19-time NBA All-Star LeBron James. According to World Peace, James is eighth, one spot below Stephen Curry and one spot ahead of Shaquille O'Neal.
Interestingly, he also mentioned that James' ranking will be bumped to No.1 on the list after he retires. The fans were puzzled by this as they wondered what the reasoning could be for James to get a huge increase just from retiring.
Other NBA player rankings who were not safe from being backlashed in Metta World Peace's top 10 list
Aside from LeBron James' placement on the list, fans were also not too fond of where Metta World Peace ranked Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain.
Russell was ranked third on World Peace's ranking, and fans argued that he shouldn't be placed that high on an NBA all-time list. Additionally, the fans also mentioned that LeBron James and Bryant should be placed higher than Wilt Chamberlain.
When it comes to Kobe Bryant, a fan also argued that Magic Johnson should not be ranked ahead of him considering Bryant's advantage in being a better scorer and defender than Johnson.
