NBA 100th Anniversary Team Power Rankings — 2026 Edition

The NBA’s 2021 announcement of the 75th Anniversary Team was a seminal, massively influential documentation of the league’s history. It also resulted in a plethora of predictions, analyses, and cheeky debates about the selected and omitted players. Although these announcements are incredibly enjoyable and result in extensive coverage, they reflect just a single point in time and capture only a sliver of the debate that goes into the decisions.

In an effort to shine a light on the important discussions that build up to these announcements, at the end of each NBA season I list my power rankings of the players most likely to appear in the NBA’s list of 100 greatest players for its 100th anniversary in 2046. These rankings will document the ebbs and flows of each player’s candidacy and serve as a real-time reflection of the development, evolution, and final prediction of the players I expect to be selected in the future. Instead of a single, static prediction in the months leading up to the 100th anniversary announcement, these rankings aim to be more dynamic and to capture and reflect the relevance of players who may ultimately fall short.

These are not my personal picks for who should be included, but my predictions as to who will be included. As such, several retired players who I feel are qualified for inclusion are not listed. This is because modern players have a significant advantage amongst contemporary voters, so I’ve weighted their candidacies accordingly. Basically, the longer ago a player’s career ended, the less likely it is that future voters will acknowledge them. This ranking also assumes that the 76 players selected for the 75th anniversary edition will also be selected for the 100th anniversary edition. Given that, the rankings reflect 24 players instead of 25.

This is one of my favorite pieces to write each year and I find it fascinating to consider how drastically things can change over the course of a year. For reference, here’s a link to the previous versions of the list, now let’s jump into this year’s list!

Note — Instead of listing how a player’s rank has changed since last year’s ranking, I’ve instead listed a player’s rank over the course of the past four rankings prior to this year. The numbers in parentheses reflect where I had ranked each player in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025, with NR standing for Not Ranked.

The Locks

1. Nikola Jokić (5, 1, 1, 1, 1)
2. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (NR, NR, NR, 22, 2)
3. Jalen Brunson (NR, NR, NR, NR, 19)
4. Joel Embiid (NR, 14, 2, 2, 3)
5. Jayson Tatum (NR, 21, 5, 3, 4)
6. Luka Dončić (NR, 20, 4, 4, 5)

Jalen Brunson crashes this category with the most ironclad case of anyone who doesn’t have multiple NBA MVP awards. He’s essentially been deified in New York and will go down in NBA history as the quintessential heroic underdog who hoisted a proud but downtrodden franchise to a long-awaited title. Even if he never wins another title, his legacy remains secure. The 50th Anniversary Team vote in 1996 was notoriously tilted in favor of the 70s championship Knicks and that bias may repeat itself with the 100th Anniversary Team, though I feel that Brunson is worthy regardless.

Jokić and SGA still sit atop this category due to their multiple MVP wins though, with Jokić gets the tie-breaker over SGA due to having three total MVPs to SGA’s two. Still, two years ago, I felt that no active player had a realistic chance of usurping Jokić’s top spot, but now it feels likely that SGA will bump him.

And I’m still riding with Embiid, Tatum, and Luka in the lock category for now, but their cases are in a tier slightly below that of Jokić’s, SGA’s, and Brunson’s. Still, voters have historically loved MVP winners, best players on championship teams, and multi-time First Team All-NBA players. Embiid has the MVP, Tatum has the ring, and Luka has six First Team All-NBA appearances.

Recent Retirees with Overwhelming Accolades

7. Dwight Howard (1, 2, 3, 5, 6)

As a result of being out of the league, Dwight continues his slow fall down the rankings, but his accolades remain pristine and I still feel that they’ll be overwhelming to voters in the future, thus making him still the most likely case of a retired player to make the 100th Anniversary Team: 1 championship, 3 Defensive Player of the Year wins, 8 All-NBA selections, 8 All-Star selections, 5 All-Defensive Team selections, 5 rebounding titles, 2 block titles, and likely to still be in the top twenty of most career rebounds and top twenty of most career blocks by the time the 100th Anniversary vote comes along.

Veterans/Retirees with Championships and Multiple All-NBA Selections

8. Draymond Green (8, 4, 7, 6, 7)

9. Klay Thompson (13, 5, 8, 7, 8)

10. Kyrie Irving (6, 9, 14, 11, 9)

11. Tony Parker (4, 3, 6, 8, 10)

12. Manu Ginobili (14, 6, 9, 9, 11)

13. Pau Gasol (7, 10, 10, 10, 12)

14. Karl-Anthony Towns (NR, NR, NR, NR, 22)

15. Jaylen Brown (NR, NR, 23, 21, 18)

Towns and Brown are the big addition in this category. Towns’ championship win in the biggest media market and Brown’s Second Team All-NBA appearance significantly bolstered their standing. Whereas Brunson is in good shape with or without the sizable support of Big Apple media members, Towns will be a huge beneficiary. In a vacuum, his case for selection is good, but not amazing. However, unless he burns bridges or boosts his occasionally boneheaded behavior (which is very possible), I’m sure the New York media machine will elevate his candidacy to a degree that similarly qualified candidates cannot compete with. As it stands, he’s only 30-years-old, he’s on pace for some hefty career counting stats, he has a championship, an adoring fan base, six All-Star selections and three All-NBA selections with a strong chance for more. Altogether, he’s sitting pretty.

And Brown’s turn as the star man in green this season helped him to shed the shadow of teammate Tatum, whether that shadow was real or manufactured. His Finals MVP is tremendously helpful to his cause, but prior to this season I was reluctant to boost him up to this category due to his comparatively low tally of individual accolades. But the Second Team All-NBA selection is enough for me to give him a significant nudge up the rankings.

As much as Towns and Brown helped themselves, I still can’t place them ahead of Green, Klay, Kyrie, Parker, Manu, and Pau yet. Kyrie easily remains the most popular player of this group and is the most mythologized, and the others each have at least two championships. Towns and Brown could certainly crack that group, but they aren’t there yet.

Active Stars with Deep Playoff Runs

16. Victor Wembanyama — NEW

17. Anthony Edwards (NR, NR, NR, NR, 20)

18. Jimmy Butler (NR, NR, 13, 15, 16)

19. Tyrese Haliburton — (NR, NR, NR, NR, 17)

The big question here: Is this too high and/or too early for Wemby? The big Frenchman has only three years of experience. He’s packed a lot in to those three years, but his CV still consists of just two All-Star selections, one top-five MVP appearance, one First Team All-NBA, one Defensive Player of the Year win, and one Finals appearance. That’s a great list of accomplishments, no doubt, but it’s also unquestionably the smallest haul of anyone on this list with the possible exception of Tyrese Haliburton. However, he’s already arguably the most well-known player on the planet other than LeBron James and Stephen Curry, his Finals run was undeniably impressive, and he has some precedent on his side. Shaquille O’Neal had just finished his fourth season in the NBA at the time of his selection to the 50th Anniversary Team in 1996. His résumé at the time was stronger than Wemby’s is now, but his popularity was enough to get him over the top. Given that similar trajectory, I feel that Wemby’s spot on this list is warranted. Appearing all the way up at 16 may be a result of recency bias though, so perhaps he falls down a bit next year. Conversely, it also wouldn’t surprise me if a shot way up next year either.

I’m also conflicted on Haliburton. His situation last offseason was much like Wemby’s. He had an electric run to the Finals, collected just enough individual accolades to bolster his cause, and achieved a significant degree of notoriety. However, being totally off the radar for a whole year is tough. Out of sight, out of mind. I kept him in this group for now, but it felt like a bit of a stretch. I’m hopeful that he reaffirms his case in the 26–27 season.

Retirees with Lingering Popularity

20. Vince Carter (2, 7, 12, 12, 13)

21. Tracy McGrady (3, 8, 19, 13, 14)

22. Derrick Rose (17, 15, 11, 14, 15)

This group remains the biggest wild card. I expect them to eventually be squeezed out, but it also wouldn’t surprise me if they lingered in the conversation over the ensuing years. I still expect that many voters will struggle with including every MVP ever except for Rose and, thus, perhaps give him a slight benefit.

Modern Stars with Something Lacking

23. Paul George (NR, NR, 21, 16, 21)

24. Donovan Mitchell — NEW

Both players have admirable accolades that are similar or even superior to those listed above them on this list. Each has a First Team All-NBA selection and an appearance in the top five of an MVP vote. Each has at least seven All-Star selections. Each has a track record of successful regular seasons and deep playoff runs… though each also has a mixed record of playoff performances and has never made a Finals appearance. And each has never achieved a degree of broader popularity to match their on-court success. Simply put, something just feels off about their candidacies. They both have the prerequisites necessary on paper to appear in these power rankings, but they don’t feel beloved enough to gain the needed support of fans or media voters to climb the rankings. As such, I’m keeping them on the rankings for now, but at the bottom.

It’s also important to note that I had Towns in this category last year and he vaulted himself out of it, so George and Mitchell could very easily change their fortunes off the back of one fortuitous season.

Fell Out of Rankings

• Rudy Gobert — For someone with four Defensive Player of the Year wins and four All-NBA selections, I’m not sure what else Gobert needs to do to remain in these rankings. A hot topic over the past few years has been whether or not Gobert will be a Hall of Famer. I feel that there’s no question that he’ll ultimately make the Hall, but the fact that fans and media feel so conflicted about him is reflective of the uphill battle he’ll have to make the 100th Anniversary Team. People simply seem to have a difficult time reconciling his value… and they seem to simply not like him either. Perhaps the next generation of fans and media will view his accolades in a vacuum without the baggage and reassess his standing, but, until then, it’s tough to keep him in these rankings.
• Dikembe Mutombo — I hate to remove the big man from the rankings, though ever since the initial 2021 rankings I’ve always expected that he’d fall out sooner or later. He still has a great case for inclusion and he still remains a popular figure in NBA lore, though more and more players are compiling superior cases and the further away we get from Mutombo’s playing days, the more difficult it will be for him to reenter this conversation.

Close to Cracking Next Year’s Rankings

• Devin Booker — This is two years in a row for Booker as the first man out! Booker remains in basketball purgatory in Phoenix. He’s a good player, but he can’t seem to scrape together the individual accolades or team success to pierce the top 24 again. I expect that he’ll linger in this range either at the bottom of the rankings or just outside of them for the foreseeable future.
• Rudy Gobert — Despite the comments above, Gobert is much like Towns in that one memorable run to the Finals or even just one more Defensive Player of the Year wins will put him right back in the thick of the discussion.
• Cade Cunningham — Cade is the player I feel most likely to crack next year’s list. If he can come close to replicating his success this season, even if it comes in the form of a Second Team All-NBA selection and a top-ten MVP finish instead of a First Team All-NBA selection and a top-five MVP finish, then that might be enough to gain entry. However, another disappointing playoff run will hurt his cause. Regardless, I’m bullish that he gets into the rankings in the next year or two.

In the Mix

There are a few active players whom I felt were in the discussion for a spot in these rankings, or who have firmly established themselves as being on course to make the list, but ultimately weren’t close to making this year’s version. Nevertheless, they warrant mention:

• Bam Adebayo — I’m surprised I’ve never mentioned him in these articles before, but the 83-point game etches his name in history and will likely keep him lingering in this discussion. I’m not sure if the recent Giannis trade to the Heat will help or hurt his cause.
• Scottie Barnes — Scottie killed it in the playoffs despite a first round exit and just barely missed out on the All-NBA Teams. He’s established himself as someone who could be a perennial All-Star. If he can add either some playoff success or some All-NBA recognition, then he can make the rankings in the future.
• Tyrese Maxey — Maxey is a step above Barnes in that he DID make an All-NBA Team and he advanced further in the playoffs while producing some memorable performances. I’m excited to track his trajectory.
• Jamal Murray — Murray has been in the orbit of these rankings ever since his incredible performance in the 2023 championship run with the Nuggets, but this year he finally collected the individual accolades he needed to firmly establish himself as a contender for these rankings.
• Jalen Williams — Although he didn’t play much this year, his absence bizarrely may have helped his cause, as the Thunder’s playoff shortcomings showed just how important Williams is to their success. He’s young, he has a championship, he has an All-NBA selection, and he’s a key part of a team that appears poised to challenge for championships for years to come, so he’s squarely in the mix to challenge for a spot in these rankings in the future.

Then there’s the likes of Jalen Duren, Chet Holmgren, and Jalen Johnson, all of whom just made an All-NBA Team but don’t have much else to rely on, particualrly Duren and Holmgren, who had ugly playoff exits. All three could easily improve their cases in the next few years though. There’s also Deni Avdija and Alperen Sengun, who just missed out on All-NBA recognition, and Jaren Jackson Jr. and Evan Mobley who are former DPOYs and still young. I feel like they could concievably make a leap in the coming years too. Lastly, a few veterans and recent All-Stars like Pascal Siakam and Trae Young could reenter the conversation in the future.

That’ll do it for this year, I can’t wait to see how this list shifts over the next 365 days!