I listed my all-time NFL defense last week, and there was some confusion about the criteria. It was neither a career achievement list, nor was it a best single season ever one relative to one's league, nor was it a best single season stats list. It was simply who I'd pick right now in his prime to fill out a team, i.e., if I had a million dollars riding on this team against a correspondingly good opponent today, which players I would choose at their peak to populate it. For the NBA one, imagine they had to play someone else's all-time team from the players I left off. Here's my squad:

PG: Gary Payton, Magic Johnson, Steve Nash
SG Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Reggie Miller
SF LeBron James, Larry Bird, Scottie Pippen
PF Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Dennis Rodman
C Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal, Wilt Chamberlain

First off, besides LeBron, the starters could be the top all-defense team in history which is why I chose Payton over Magic, Garnett over Duncan and Olajuwon over Shaq. I added in some specialists - notably Rodman, for defense and rebounding, Nash/Miller for long-distance shooting, Pippen for defense, all-around versatility.

If you wanted to run, you could put Nash or Magic at the point and leave the four other starters in. If you wanted to play half court - feed the ball into Shaq, and have him kick out to Jordan, Nash, Miller and Bird.

I thought about putting Dwight Howard in, but I'd have had to move him to PF as I still think Wilt at 7-1, 275 and a sick athlete would hold up fine today. David Robinson could be there, too. I suppose Kareem could have gotten a spot, but I went with physical dominance and defense instead. I actually wanted to include Ray Allen for shooting (but Miller and Nash were enough), Tracy McGrady for all around offense at his peak, Dirk Nowitzki, Chris Paul, Julius Erving and Karl Malone.

Any glaring omissions?