Since the average career of an NBA player is 4.5 years, I restricted this to just 5 of their best statistical seasons.
VORP
10 - Kevin Durant
9 - Magic Johnson
8 - James Harden
7 - John Stockton
6 - Larry Bird
5 - Kareem Abdul Jabbar
4 - Kevin Garnett
3 - David Robinson
2 - Lebron James
1 - Michael Jordan
Win shares
10 - Karl Malone
9 - Chris Paul
8 - Dirk Nowitzki
7 - David Robinson
6 - Oscar Robertson
5 - Lebron James
4 - George Mikan
3 - Michael Jordan
2 - Kareem Abdul Jabbar
1 - Wilt Chamberlain
Win-shares/48
10 - James Harden
9 - Stephen Curry
8 - Nikola Jokic
7 - Kevin Durant
6 - David Robinson
5 - Chris Paul
4 - Wilt Chamberlain
3 - Lebron James
2 - Michael Jordan
1 - Kareem Abdul Jabbar
#Notable findings:
Appearing in all 3 charts is Kareem, Jordan, Lebron, annnndd DAVID FUCKING ROBINSON. The Admiral is hella underrated. Petition to make him part of the conversation for NBA’s Mt. Rushmore.
Appearing in at least 2 are Wilt, KD, Harden, and Chris Paul. Kinda surprising for this list to have people that are mostly clowned for not having a ring.
Notable absences are Tim Duncan, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kobe Bryant who are often considered top 10 players.
That’s a good part of the day wasted. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
On basketball reference, they have single season stats. I really just took the top 250 single season numbers and added a count column and removed anything beyond 5 for each player. Jokic is mostly on the WS/48 table. I have to check again but I dont think Elton Brand was there.