I was gonna launch into a big huge tirade about how I hate these lists, but before I did that I wanted to read the criteria for it.
I actually like the way the list was comprised.
via wiki:
The 50 Greatest Players in National Basketball Association History (also referred to as the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team or NBA's Top 50) were chosen in 1996 on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The list comprises the fifty best and most influential players of the first half-century of the NBA, with respect not only to performance at the professional level but in consideration of sportsmanship, team leadership, and contributions to the growth of basketball.
Thats a good way to accomplish this list. The part in bold nicely side steps all the "If Kwame Brown was playing professional basketball in 1950 he'd be an allstar" rhetoric.