Dwight Howard is biggest snub from 75 greatest players

Now that the NBA has unveiled its complete 75th Anniversary Team list of the greatest players in league history, it’s time to debate over who was left off — even if we got a bonus player because of a tie in voting. 

Yahoo Sports’ Ben Rohrbach put together a formula, The Bill Russell Scale, based on data driven from Russell’s career. Here are the details on the 100-point Russell Scale.

19.1: Russell’s average PER and playoff PER. The max score for any candidate.

16.4: Russell’s regular-season win shares divided by 10. The max score for any candidate.

14.5: Russell’s career scoring total divided by 1,000. The max score for any candidate.

12: Russell’s number of All-Star appearances. The max score for any candidate.

11: Russell’s number of All-NBA appearances. The max score for any candidate.

11: Russell’s number of top-5 MVP finishes. The max score for any candidate.

11: Russell’s combined championships and Finals MVP awards. The max score for any candidate.

5: Russell’s number of regular-season MVP awards. The max score for any candidate.

Based on that scale, there are 11 players who could be considered a snub from the official list (ranking listed first and total Russell Scale points in parenthesis). 

Biggest snubs, per The Russell Scale

34. Dwight Howard (68.4)
53. Pau Gasol (60)
55. Tracy McGrady (59.3)
56. Tony Parker (58.8)
58. Chris Bosh (58.2)
63. LaMarcus Aldridge (56.8)
69. Chauncey Billups (55.4)
T71. Vince Carter, Bob Lanier (55.3)
74. Adrian Dantley (55)
75. Paul George (54.9)

Willis Reed (ranked No. 58 and tied with Bosh), Dave Cowens (No. 63, tied with Aldridge), Jerry Lucas (No. 69, tied with Billups) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (No. 74, tied with George) all made the NBA’s official list. 

In the case of Aldridge, Rohrbach had this assessment in the initial Russell Scale:

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