Over the last 25 years, the NBA has given us countless highlights and memories from some of the best players in league history.

In honor of this quarter-century of hoops, Bleacher Report’s NBA staff voted to determine which of those players were the very best. Points were awarded for first-, second- and third-team votes, and the totals gave us the squads here.

We also voted on the best dunker, shooter, playmaker, defender and coaches from this stretch of NBA history. And to cap it off, we crowned the best individual player.

Voters were told only to consider numbers, accolades and accomplishments from the start of the 2000-01 campaign through the end of 2024-25. That takes some things off the board for players whose careers began in the 1990s, but several of them were good enough to make the cut anyway.

We didn’t vote on traditional positional designations like point guard, power forward, etc. Instead, each panelist picked two guards, two forwards and a center for each of the three teams.

With the housekeeping out of the way, let’s dive right into our All-Quarter-Century Teams.

1st-Team Guard: Stephen Curry

Quarter-Century Stats: 24.7 points, 6.4 assists, 4.7 rebounds, 4.0 threes, 1.5 steals, 42.3 three-point percentage, 6.5 box plus/minus

Quarter-Century Accolades: 2x MVP, 4x 1st-Team All-NBA, 5x 2nd-Team All-NBA, 2x 3rd-Team All-NBA, 11x All-Star, 2x scoring champion, 2015-16 steal champion, 4x champion, 2022 Finals MVP

There aren’t many players in NBA history who hold inarguable best-ever titles.

There’s a healthy debate between Michael Jordan and LeBron James for the best overall player of all time. Best centers is a fun one with some recent momentum generated by Nikola Jokić. Good luck even narrowing a “best defender of all time” discussion to a manageable number.

But on the subject of the greatest shooter in the history of the NBA, it’d be hard to volunteer anyone but Stephen Curry with a straight face.

It’s not just the fact that Curry is the all-time leader in both career threes and career threes per game. So many of his triples were on the move, with defenders in his face or otherwise under duress. There really is no argument on this front. But we’ll talk more about that later. (Spoiler alert!)

Here, we can spend a little time on Curry’s playmaking (6.3 assists per game for his career), rebounding (his 4.7 boards per game ranks first among three-point-era players his height and shorter) and defense (he led the league in steals per game in 2015-16).

Curry is a far more well-rounded player than he’s typically gotten credit for. Focusing on the shooting is understandable, but all of those other contributions were a huge part of his overall impact.

The stuff that isn’t in the conventional box score is, too. Off-ball movement, a willingness to play in a team-first system (as opposed to heliocentrism) and malleability alongside other high-usage stars have to be a part of Curry’s legacy.

That entire package is why, over the course of his career, the Golden State Warriors are plus-7.4 points per 100 possessions with Curry on the floor in the playoffs and minus-4.6 without him.

Add that to the four titles and two MVPs (one of which was unanimous), and Curry has a better-than-you-might-think argument to be considered the single best player of this quarter-century.

1st-Team Guard: Kobe Bryant

Quarter-Century Stats: 27.2 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5.1 assists, 1.5 steals, 4.9 box plus/minus

Quarter-Century Accolades: 2007-08 MVP, 11x 1st-Team All-NBA, 1x 2nd-Team All-NBA, 1x 3rd-Team All-NBA, 8x 1st-Team All-Defense, 3x 2nd-Team All-Defense, 16x All-Star, 2x scoring champion, 4x champion, 2x Finals MVP

Kobe Bryant was one of this quarter-century’s best scorers. His footwork, Michael Jordan-esque jumper and competitiveness drove him to 12 different seasons with an average of at least 25 points per game, a total that trails only LeBron James’ 20 and Kevin Durant’s 16.

That combination also made him one of this era’s best Robins (next to Shaquille O’Neal) and Batmen (next to Pau Gasol). Because winning always seemed to be his primary motivation, Kobe was nearly as impactful in the lesser role as he was as an alpha.

Those last two titles really solidified his legacy, though. Had he not reached the mountaintop again post-Shaq, there always would’ve been vocal detractors ready to point out the hierarchy of those early 2000s Los Angeles Lakers teams.

But Kobe averaged 29.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.5 assists in the 2009 and 2010 postseasons, secured two Finals MVPs and all but locked up this spot on the All-Quarter-Century squad.

1st-Team Forward: LeBron James

Quarter-Century Stats: 27.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, 7.4 assists, 1.6 threes, 1.5 steals, 55.6 two-point percentage, 8.5 box plus/minus

Quarter-Century Accolades: 4x MVP, 2003-04 ROY, 13x 1st-Team All-NBA, 4x 2nd-Team All-NBA, 4x 3rd-Team All-NBA, 5x 1st-Team All-Defense, 1x 2nd-Team All-Defense, 21x All-Star, 2007-08 scoring champion, 2019-20 assist champion, 4x champion, 4x Finals MVP

Along with Stephen Curry, LeBron James was one of two unanimous selections for the first team. It’s easy to see why. Just look at those numbers and accolades. They give James a very real greatest-of-all-time case.

LeBron not only leads the quarter-century in these categories, he’s first all-time in career wins over replacement player (by a mile), games played, field goals and points. He’s also third all-time in career assists, fifth in steals, 16th in rebounds and 53rd in blocks.

Perhaps more than any other player we’ve ever seen, LeBron touched just about every aspect of every game he played. He was a savant-level playmaker who also became the all-time scoring champion. At his peak, he was a ferocious, multi-positional defender.

And he engineered multiple different superteams on his way to four NBA championships.

1st-Team Forward: Kevin Durant

Quarter-Century Stats: 27.2 points, 7.0 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 2.0 threes, 1.1 blocks, 1.0 steals, 39.0 three-point percentage, 6.4 box plus/minus

Quarter-Century Accolades: 2013-14 MVP, 2007-08 ROY, 6x 1st-Team All-NBA, 5x 2nd-Team All-NBA, 15x All-Star, 4x scoring champion, 2x champion, 2x Finals MVP

When you look at Kevin Durant’s career and the fact that he’s on his fifth different team, there’s a temptation to label him as a journeyman, but that obviously doesn’t fit. That title feels more appropriate for a role player, and KD is one of the 15 best players in NBA history.

Maybe the more fitting description is “mercenary.”

Durant established himself as one of the best and most efficient scorers in league histor with the Oklahoma City Thunder, where he led the league in points per game four times and won his lone MVP. He then joined Stephen Curry on the Golden State Warriors and became the 1B (or 1A, depending on where you fall in that debate) on a genuine juggernaut that might’ve been the best team ever assembled.

After injuries and a touch of pride derailed that partnership, and after missing an entire season with a ruptured Achilles, a post-prime Durant resurfaced for the Brooklyn Nets and was clearly still one of the best scorers in the game. That label applied with the Phoenix Suns, too.

Although his first campaign with the Houston Rockets doesn’t fall into the timeframe we’re analyzing here, it’s more evidence that no matter where Durant goes or who he’s playing with, you’re almost guaranteed to get 25-30 points per game on ridiculous efficiency.

His metronome-like production, particularly as a scorer, is the result of a beautiful, high-release jumper that he can seemingly get to against any defender. Over the course of this quarter-century, it made him one of the most nightmarish individual matchups in the sport.

1st-Team Center: Tim Duncan

Quarter-Century Stats: 18.5 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 2.1 blocks, 5.8 box plus/minus

Quarter-Century Accolades: 2x MVP, 7x 1st-Team All-NBA, 3x 2nd-Team All-NBA, 2x 3rd-Team All-NBA, 6x 1st-Team All-Defense, 6x 2nd-Team All-Defense, 13x All-Star, 4x champion, 2x Finals MVP

Your first (and hopefully only) gripe with this one could be “Tim Duncan was a power forward!,” but most of his time alongside David Robinson was in the 1990s. Basketball Reference estimates that almost two-thirds of his minutes came at center, and former Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich once famously told the media that Duncan had started at the 5 for 15 years.

Regardless of how you classify him, Duncan was a virtual lock to make the first team as either a power forward or center. He won four titles this quarter-century, and the first and fourth were 11 years apart.

Duncan was the anchor of one of the best and most consistent defenses of this era (more on that later), won both of his MVPs post-2000-01 and won two of his Finals MVPs in that span. His old-school post game and unselfishness made him a clear plus on offense, too.

Over his 16 seasons played during this span, the Spurs were plus-9.8 points per 100 possessions when he was on the floor and only plus-2.1 when he was off.

Source: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/25331693-brs-nba-all-quarter-century-teams