NBA All-Time Mock Draft: Which NBA legends would get picked by teams right now?

4. Phoenix — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Fun fact: the Phoenix Suns almost had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar way back in the day. There are about 20 fun Kareem draft stories, but one of the most fun is that Phoenix was a coin flip away from landing the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.

The Suns actually had a much worse record than the Milwaukee Bucks did, but the NBA didn’t make sense back then so the worst teams in each division (before they were called conferences) flipped a coin to determine who drafted first.

The Bucks won the flip and got Kareem. The Suns lost and got Neal Walk, who played five years with the Suns and scored a respectable 14.7 points per game in that time. Kareem, on the other hand, scored 30.4 points per game in his time with the Bucks, gifting Milwaukee their only title before heading to Los Angeles to win a few more with the Lakers.

After losing out last time, and with a really fun guard on the roster in Devin Booker, Phoenix can’t help but snag Kareem to man the middle. Sorry Alex Len and Dragan Bender, but the 19-time All-Star is probably going to suck up a lot of those minutes at the five.

For his career, Abdul-Jabbar averaged 24.6 points, 11.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.6 blocks per game. He played a full 20 seasons, scored more points than anybody ever and won six rings. His game wasn’t as exciting as Jordan’s, but there’s a real argument that Kareem has the greatest resume ever.