Q&A with the author of “The All-Time Greatest NBA Book” & the next Bill Simmons, Christian Meyers.

What is the book about?

It’s a book that is counting down the 50 greatest teams, the 50 greatest playoff runs by a player, the 50 greatest playoff moments, and the 100 greatest players ever. However, I would like to say that this isn’t like a grocery list where it just lists the greatest teams and players. The book is pretty thick. I try to get as detailed as possible, but without giving irrelevant information or stuff that we already know as avid basketball fans. I really want the people to learn something new. So I did a lot of research about the teams and players so I can give them a basis on why they should be ranked in a certain spot on the all-time list. 

Although my book is very opinionated, because I’m giving my take on where a team or a player should land, I try to steer away from giving my perspective on the players and teams. I give everyone the facts, and let them decide whether they agree with the rankings or not. I know this is all subjective. I don’t think my rankings are superior to others. So there’s no condescending tone. I understand why someone would think LeBron is the greatest player or that Kyrie’s shot is the greatest playoff moment ever. I don’t attack anyone’s point of view, and I think everyone should embrace the debate, but without being disrespectful. And I try to take the lead. 

What do you base your rankings on?

I think this is an important question because every person has their own standard of greatness. We all value certain things from a player’s legacy over another. Some people value the player’s accomplishments and accolades, some people pay more attention to their advanced metrics, and some people are more inclined to use the eye test. For me, I try to look at the whole picture. I don’t favor one thing over the other really. But one thing I do care about personally is the way a player performs in the postseason. If they were capable of elevating their play and others as well when their team needed a victory. I think that’s the reason why they play the game. It’s to get your team to the promised land and win a championship.

With that said, it’s not reasonable to expect every great player to win the title. It’s important to consider the context of each particular season. If there were injuries or a lack of talent that the player had to compensate for. So we shouldn’t penalize some of the great players that didn’t win a title. But if they were able to perform at a high level, then that should help their case. We can take a look for example LeBron’s 2018 postseason run, or Oscar Robertson’s 1963 postseason run. They lost to superior teams, but they played incredibly well in defeat.  And it speaks to their greatness, the fact that LeBron went to the Finals without any help, or that Oscar Robertson nearly beat a championship team by himself. So that’s going to get highlighted a lot when talking about their greatness.

Why did you include the greatest playoff runs by a player and the greatest playoff moments?

So all these lists that I have in my book have a purpose. They’re not just random chapters from the book. The whole purpose of this book is to determine the greatest players of all time. But there are so many layers to it that we have to dissect. If they were a part of a team that had an all-time great season, how did they affect winning for their team? Whether it was in the regular season that allowed their team to reach a certain number of victories, or in the postseason where they were able to carry their team to the title. And what if they were a part of a game-winning play in the playoffs that allowed their team to move on to the next round, or make the Finals, or better yet, win the championship. Those are all factors that have to be considered.

However, I can’t just say something simple like, “Michael Jordan helped the Bulls win 72 games in 1996 and were a part of one of the greatest teams of all time”. That’s too vague and it’s too simplistic. So instead of going on and on about these things in just one chapter, let’s categorize them so we can really go in-depth about these different factors. So once we get to their player profiles in the final chapters, we can talk about the nitty-gritty of their legacies, while also considering what was mentioned about them in the previous chapters. So we can say specifically that this player was a part of this many historic seasons, this many historic playoff runs, and this many all-time great playoff moments. And that will allow us to really get the whole picture of their legacies and give the most accurate rankings possible.

Are there any additional chapters in the book?

So there are two additional chapters, and they’re fun chapters in my opinion. So after I rank the top 50 teams of all time, I decided to do a playoff-style tournament to determine the official greatest team in NBA history. I decided to follow the blueprint of the college football playoffs. So the college football playoffs consist of the top 6 ranked teams playing for the national championship. I didn’t do a march madness type of tournament because it would get way too complicated and unrealistic. I didn’t feel like writing about if the 1967 Philadelphia 76ers would beat the 2014 San Antonio Spurs in a 7 game series. I would end up disrespecting these legendary teams that would just get crushed by the more modern teams. And if we get to the part of the tournament where the 1991 Chicago Bulls play the 1992 Chicago Bulls, then it’s like, what am I supposed to do about that?

So I just got the top 6 teams playing the playoffs, and I have a few “bowl games” where I talk about a few intriguing matchups. One of them is the 2013 Miami Heat against the 1992 Chicago Bulls. So we got a cool hypothetical series between Michael Jordan vs LeBron James that I think would be fun for the people to read.

The last one is a chapter I called, “The Ultimate NBA Endgame”. It’s inspired by the movie, Avengers: Endgame. I’m a big fan of the MCU movies, and I referenced a lot of their movies throughout this book. So I decided to dedicate a whole chapter to the premise of their biggest movie. While doing my research for this book, I read a few times where Bob Ryan would say something like this, “If Planet Earth were involved in a winner-take-all one-game basketball playoff against an alien invader, my first pick world would be (blank)”. And Bill Simmons wrote something similar in his Book of Basketball, where he did a chapter about vintage wine bottles and he picked certain seasons from a player to fill his 10-man roster.

So that was my inspiration to write this chapter. If Thanos and his black order army came to wipe off half the universe and challenged us to a winner-take-all game, and we had the GPS time travel watch to go back in time, which players would we choose? We want Michael Jordan, but are we going back to 1996 or are we going back to 1993 to bring him to the future to help us. So it’s a conversation that isn’t really a determining factor on where a player should land, but it should matter if there’s a certain player that you wouldn’t trust with your life. So it’s a fun, but yet important conversation to have.

It’s interesting that you mentioned Bill Simmons. Is it safe to say that the “Book of Basketball” was an inspiration for you?

For sure. It’s one of my favorite books, and it’s one of those books that are timeless. Even though it’s been over a decade since the book was released, it’s still something that you can go back to even though so many things have happened since then. I also wanted to write a book that people can go back to years from now and still enjoy it. I’ve had a few people who have compared my book to the “Book of Basketball”. That’s definitely a huge compliment for me. It’s a lot to live up to, but hopefully, I can reach that kind of success down the line. 

So are you saying that you’re the next Bill Simmons? 

I don’t know about that! But I will say this, imagine an alternate universe where Bill Simmons is a Lakers fan and his favorite player is Kobe Bryant? You don’t have to go to a galaxy far far away for that, because he’s right here. 

Tell a little bit about yourself so we can know what your background is

I’m 29 years old, and I’m originally from San Diego, California. Chula Vista to be exact. My dad transferred a lot from state to state, and we went wherever the money went. So I also lived in upstate South Carolina for about 8 years. I lived in a town called Seneca, which is about 15 minutes from Clemson. I lived in El Paso, Texas for about a year and a half. I lived in a little city called Socorro, which is in the El Paso district. We then lived in Pine Bluff, Arkansas for another year and a half. That’s a small city about 45 minutes south of Little Rock. Then we moved to Lexington, Kentucky. And I lived there for about 11 years. That’s where I met my wife, and we moved to a town in Indiana called Jeffersonville. It’s right across the border from Louisville. So I’ve been around.

As I mentioned, my favorite team is the Los Angeles Lakers, and it’s been my team since I could remember watching basketball, which was in the glorious 1999 lockout season. Kobe Bryant is my favorite player, and he’s the reason why I love the NBA. I was fortunate enough to have a dad that had tapes of NBA games from the 80s that he recorded on VHS, and he showed them to me and my brother, and I think that’s what helped me have such a love for the NBA and its history. He was a Celtics fan, and he had plenty of games that were televised on CBS that he recorded and he kept them. So I remember watching games where the Celtics played the Sixers, the Hawks, the Pistons, the Milwaukee Bucks, the Lakers of course, and the Chicago Bulls.

So that allowed me to have a deep respect for the legends of the past, and I’ve been studying the history of the league ever since. I feel like I have a pretty good knowledge of the history of the game, and I felt like I got to the point where I was qualified to write a book about a subject that requires that you know you’re history. But most importantly, that you have a love for it. A deep respect for it. So that allows me to give the most accurate rankings that I could possibly give without dismissing the greats of the past.

What are your top 10 greatest teams and players?

So my top 10 greatest teams are, 10) 1972 Lakers (9) 1971 Milwaukee Bucks (8) 2014 San Antonio Spurs (7) 1997 Chicago Bulls (6) 2001 Lakers (5) 1989 Detroit Pistons (4) 1987 Lakers (3) 1986 Boston Celtics (2) 1996 Chicago Bulls (1) 2017 Golden State Warriors. 

As I mentioned earlier, the top 6 ranked teams duke it out in a hypothetical playoff tournament to crown the champion. So I certainly won’t give away who I think would go away with the crown.

My top 10 greatest players of all-time: 10) Tim Duncan (9) Shaquille O’Neal (8) Larry Bird (7) Kobe Bryant (6) Wilt Chamberlain (5) Magic Johnson (4) Bill Russell (3) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (2) LeBron James (1) Michael Jordan

Do you think Steph Curry will make the top 10 now with the title that he won?

I had him at the 13th spot when the book was released. I haven’t thought that hard about it yet to be honest with you, but my gut is telling me to put him at the 11th spot. To oversimplify this, he just doesn’t have the longevity that everyone in the top 10 had. Everyone from my top 10 has had at least 10 all-star appearances and 10 All-NBA selections. They’ve all gone a whole decade where they were one of the best players in the league. At this point, Curry has 8 all-star appearances and 8 All-NBA selections. I believe it’s only a matter of time before he will be a top 10 player ever, but I don’t think that time is right now. 

Where can people follow the work that you’re currently doing? 

I am the creator of a YouTube channel called “Basketball Universe”. It’s essentially an extension of the book that I wrote. I love talking about the legacies of the players and linking the current events to the past. I make a video once a week from that platform. My YouTube channel is not about hot takes or starting debates. It’s very light-hearted and there are a lot of fun topics that are entertaining but informative.

I also have an NBA blog where I write mostly about current NBA topics that most media platforms aren’t discussing. I feel like their objective is to generate clicks and to create some kind of strong reaction from the readers. My goal is to create a unique perspective on the things that are happening in the league while also informing the readers about some well-researched statistics that might be overlooked by some fans of the game. This article will also be posted on my blog so people can follow my work.

Here are the links to purchase the book and view the Basketball Universe on YouTube:

The All-Time Greatest NBA Book on Amazon –

The All-Time Greatest NBA Book on Apple – https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-all-time-greatest-nba-book/id1621409453

Basketball Universe on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqoZXczlhiNiYaMDHvZo5AQ