I'm not going to link them all; you can find them here. But I'll go through and pull out what I consider to be the best team from each era and compare them.
1962:
Oscar Robertson
Jerry West
Elgin Baylor
Bob Pettit
Wilt Chamberlain
This is as good as it gets in the 60s. We're taking this team over the '67 team (which had Barry over Pettit) by a nose. Barry is probably a better player than Pettit, but Pettit's a true 4 who fits better, possibly, alongside our scoring backcourt. I don't really know though. I've obviously never watched him play.
1988:
Magic Johnson
Michael Jordan
Larry Bird
Charles Barkley
Hakeem Olajuwon
That's right, we just skipped 25 years into the future. That's because most of the teams in the middle had clear weak points (to name a few guys I've literally never heard of: Gus Williams, Marques Johnson, Truck Robinson, David Thompson, Dave Bing). This team does not. It basically outclasses every team that came before it, including, unfortunately, our '62 heroes. It's genuinely pretty hard for me to imagine any team beating this one, either. The offense is fantastic, the defense isn't amazing but Hakeem, Jordan, and Bird should do okay, and any team with Magic, Jordan, Bird, and Hakeem is going to outclass just about anyone else on pure talent. Slight edge over the '87 team, which had McHale over Barkley.
2006:
Steve Nash
Kobe BEAN Bryant
LeBron James
Dirk Nowitzki
Shaquille O'Neal
I think this is as good a team as we're getting for Kobe. Past here the lack of a center is gonna bite us. This team is obviously insane -- the shooting is there, the defense is sort of there. Passing. Offensively, this team's probably as good as anyone.
2008:
Chris Paul
Kobe Bryant
LeBron James
Kevin Garnett
Dwight Howard
If you like defense, this is about the best team in history. I like defense, and it is possible this team beats all others for that reason alone.
All other teams are trash.
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