How the NBA Players bracket works
Rank NBA players without dragging anything into rows. You get one matchup at a time — LeBron James or Michael Jordan? Stephen Curry or Kobe Bryant? — and after 31 picks the bracket has a champion, with everything else placed by how far it got. A straight list invites you to hedge. A matchup does not, and that is what makes the final 32-deep order worth screenshotting.
This bracket runs 5 rounds at the default 32-slot size (Round of 32, Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final Four, Championship), with every one of the 32 contenders in the field. Because the draw is shuffled, two people playing the same bracket rarely face the same matchups. You can also play it at 8 or 16 slots for a shorter or longer run.
31 picks, 5 rounds
- Round of 3216 matchups
- Sweet 168 matchups
- Elite 84 matchups
- Final Four2 matchups
- Championship1 matchup
Roughly 2-4 minutes start to finish.
All 32 entrants
All 32 entrants are listed below, including LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Stephen Curry and Kobe Bryant.
LeBron James
Lakers / Cavaliers / Heat
Michael Jordan
Bulls / Wizards
Stephen Curry
Warriors
Kobe Bryant
Lakers
Magic Johnson
Lakers
Larry Bird
Celtics
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Lakers / Bucks
Shaquille O'Neal
Lakers / Magic / Heat
Tim Duncan
Spurs
Kevin Durant
Suns / Nets / Warriors / Thunder
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Bucks
Wilt Chamberlain
Warriors / 76ers / Lakers
Bill Russell
Celtics
Hakeem Olajuwon
Rockets
Allen Iverson
76ers
Dirk Nowitzki
Mavericks
Dwyane Wade
Heat
Kevin Garnett
Timberwolves / Celtics
Nikola Jokic
Nuggets
Luka Doncic
Lakers / Mavericks
Julius Erving
76ers / Nets
Charles Barkley
76ers / Suns / Rockets
Karl Malone
Jazz
Oscar Robertson
Royals / Bucks
Jerry West
Lakers
Isiah Thomas
Pistons
Kawhi Leonard
Clippers / Raptors / Spurs
James Harden
Clippers / 76ers / Rockets
Russell Westbrook
Thunder / Lakers
Chris Paul
Hornets / Clippers / Rockets / Suns
Anthony Davis
Lakers / Pelicans
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Thunder
Would rather group them than rank them? Open all 32 in the tier list maker and sort them into S, A, B, C, D and F tiers instead — same entrants, no matchups.
How everyone else ranked them
Aggregated from 6 completed NBA Players brackets. Win rate is the share of head-to-head matchups each entrant has won across every play.
- 1
Michael Jordan
21W - 2L · won 3 brackets
91%
win rate
- 2
LeBron James
23W - 3L · won 3 brackets
88%
win rate
- 3
Stephen Curry
15W - 6L
71%
win rate
- 4
Kevin Durant
10W - 5L
67%
win rate
- 5
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
9W - 5L
64%
win rate
- 6
Kobe Bryant
8W - 5L
62%
win rate
- 7
Tim Duncan
7W - 5L
58%
win rate
- 8
Magic Johnson
6W - 5L
55%
win rate
- 9
Shaquille O'Neal
6W - 5L
55%
win rate
- 10
Giannis Antetokounmpo
6W - 5L
55%
win rate
Getting a ranking you actually agree with
- 1Decide your criteria before you start — peak, longevity or trophies — and hold to it all the way through.
- 2The default run puts all 32 contenders in the draw. Short on time? Drop to 16 slots — a quicker run over a random 16 of them.
- 3Use undo the moment you regret a pick. One reflex answer in an early round can knock out a favourite before it gets going.
NBA Players bracket FAQ
How many contenders are in the NBA Players bracket?
The pool holds 32 contenders. A default run puts all of them in the draw and takes 31 picks across 5 rounds: Round of 32, Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final Four, Championship. Other field sizes are available too — 8, 16, 32 slots.
Which contenders are included?
LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Stephen Curry, Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan, Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Wilt Chamberlain, plus 20 more. Every entrant is listed further down this page with its artwork.
How long does the rank NBA players take?
About 2-4 minutes — 31 choices at the default size, or 7 if you drop to a 8-slot bracket. There is no sign-up and nothing is stored until you reach the final.
Is this a nba players tier list or a ranking?
Both are here, and the bracket is closer to a tier list than it looks. It ends with a champion, a runner-up and then every other contender grouped by the round it went out in — which is exactly a set of tiers, decided by 31 direct comparisons rather than by your first guess at a layout. What it deliberately does not do is claim a precise gap between two contenders that never met. If you would rather place the contenders into S through F rows yourself, the tier list maker loads all 32 of them at bracketranker.com/tier-list-maker.
Is there a community nba players ranking?
Every completed bracket feeds the NBA Players community results page, which aggregates win rates across all plays and tracks how often each of the 32 entrants takes the title. It updates continuously, so it moves as more people play.
Can I change which contenders are included?
Use the bracket maker: add your own contenders, name it, and share the link so other people play the same field. That is the route to take when this pool of 32 is missing something you would have picked, or when you want a version scoped to one era, label or franchise.