The Drubbing

In the latest edition of ESPN The Magazine, a great Boston sports hero wrote about a specialized fantasy basketball league that pays homage to an even greater Boston sports hero.

After being struck by the simplicity and elegance of a league focused on Points, Rebounds and Assists, I decided to run the numbers to see if it would be filled with the usual suspects, or if there would be some surprises.

With that in mind, we’ll be keeping a tally of the would-be weekly leaders for the Larry Legend Fantasy Basketball League. We’ll call them, the Basketball Jesus Rankings.

So here they are, the preseason rankings, based upon the totals from the 2007-2008 season.

1. LeBron James [3381]
2. Kobe Bryant [3281]
3. Allen Iverson [2993]
4. Dwight Howard [2966]
5. Chris Paul [2930]
6. Amare Stoudemire [2826]
7. Carmelo Anthony [2808]
8. Baron Davis [2799]
9. Carlos Boozer [2785]
10. Al Jefferson [2754]
11. Dirk Nowitzki [2742]
12. Deron Williams [2650]
13. Joe Johnson [2620]
14. Antawn Jamison [2615]
15. Tim Duncan [2607]

Note: Point, rebound and assist total listed next to the player.

The list contains many of the usual characters, with perhaps a few small surprises. They’re all players you’d expect to see drafted in the first 40 picks of any draft. You probably won’t see Allen Iverson taken in the top five, or Carmelo Anthony taken in the top ten picks of your draft, but in the Larry Legend Fantasy Basketball League, their prolific turnovers don’t warp their value. The same goes for Dwight Howard and Tim Duncan, who are normally penalized by their exceptionally low free throw percentage (although Duncan did have a much improved FT% in 2007-2008).

So there they are, the best all-around players in the NBA. The only one that came close to Larry Bird’s legendary average of a combined 45 points, rebounds and assists is The King, LeBron James, averaging a combined 45.08 points, rebounds and assists in 75 games played.

Check back after the first week of the season for the 2008-2009 Basketball Jesus Rankings.