When you think of the greatest players to ever touch a basketball, names such as LeBron James, Steph Curry, Tim Duncan, Nikola Jokic, Shaquille O\u2019Neal and Kobe Bryant make up some of the most popular and inarguable names. For what they did or continue to do in their respective eras, their value to the sport is immeasurable, racking up countless individual and team accolades as the faces of franchises.<\/p>\n
But what if I told you that a list of those names also included two former Kentucky Wildcats? <\/p>\n
That\u2019s right, Anthony Davis<\/a><\/strong> and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a><\/strong> are among the best to ever play. CBS Sports named both players in the outlet\u2019s ranking of the top 25 NBA players of the 21st century, joining a list of MVPs and world champions.<\/p>\n Davis actually sits ahead of some all-time names such as Allen Iverson and Tracy McGrady while SGA \u2014 who may end up near the top of this list when it\u2019s all said and done \u2014 is already ahead of 2017 MVP Russell Westbrook.<\/p>\n 19. Anthony Davis<\/p>\n \u201cWhenever Davis has been healthy, he has been one of the best players in the league, equally dominant on both ends and impossibly skilled for a man of his size,\u201d CBS Sports\u2019 Brad Botkin said of the 10-time All-Star and five-time All-NBA member, who helped lead Kentucky to a national championship in 2012. \u201cPeak Davis was 2016-18 in New Orleans before he forced his way out, when he was a 28 and 11 guy and probably the best defender on the planet. He had some huge years with the Lakers, too, highlighted by the 2020 championship run in which he turned into Kevin Durant inside the bubble, making an absurd 55% of his mid-range jumpers beyond 16 feet. That was one of the craziest outlier shooting performances in history, but it happened, and it largely led the Lakers to their only championship in the LeBron era.\u201d<\/p>\n So you\u2019re saying LeBron is nothing without AD? The Kentucky effect.<\/p>\n Up next, you have the \u201cvirtually unguardable\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander, who sneaks in at the very end (but won\u2019t be staying there for long). He just put together one of the NBA\u2019s greatest all-time individual seasons and he hasn\u2019t even hit his prime, only turning 27 in July.<\/p>\n The best is yet to come for SGA.<\/p>\n 24. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/p>\n \u201cThe man with the longest last name in NBA history also had some of the longest odds to superstardom of anyone on this list,\u201d CBS Sports\u2019 Colin Ward-Henninger wrote. \u201cDrafted 11th overall in 2018, Gilgeous-Alexander showed promise as a rookie with the Clippers, who reluctantly included him in a trade to the Thunder in order to land Paul George and Kawhi Leonard in the same summer \u2014 but you can\u2019t find a single person outside of the Gilgeous-Alexander household who expected him to blossom into an MVP, the league\u2019s leading scorer and an NBA champion before his 27th birthday. <\/p>\n \u201cHis positional size and unique basketball cadence make him virtually unguardable, and he\u2019s an anomaly in the modern game as a guard who does most of his scoring damage inside the 3-point line.\u201d<\/p>\n Couldn\u2019t have said it better myself.<\/p>\n The full list from CBS Sports:<\/p>\n\n