The Cleveland Cavaliers have been around for a long time. Not since the very beginning, but as the NBA celebrates its 75th anniversary the Cavs celebrate their 51st. That means more than five decades of stars and scrubs, wins and losses, draft picks and one glorious championship trophy.
The NBA is releasing a list of the 75 greatest players in NBA history to correspond with their anniversary. The list is sure to contain players from all 30 teams around today, including the Cavs. We all know which former player will be near the top of the list, but he shouldn’t be the only one.
The Cavs will have one franchise icon at the top of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Top 75 list. What other former player will be on the list?
The list will span the entirety of NBA history, from when Joe Fulks led the league in scoring in 1946-47 to the present day. The NBA has not released any sort of criteria for its list, but it will likely lean into impact on the story of the NBA more so than certain objective metrics. The list will be revealed in portions over the first three days of the season.
Let’s look at every player with a chance to make the list who played at least 50 career games for the Cavs. We’ll start with The King and other locks, and from there look at players with an outside chance to slip onto the list.