Ranking the 50 Greatest PBA Players of All Time (30-21)

To commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), The GAME editor-in-chief Sid Ventura and noted PBA historian Jay P. Mercado took a stab at naming and ranking who they think are the 50 greatest PBA players of all time.

These rankings are independent of the league’s own top 25, top 40, and top 50 lists, meaning players on these lists did not automatically make our own rankings (i.e., PBA 25 Greatest members Lim Eng Beng and Manny Paner and 40 Greatest members Marlou Aquino, Chito Loyzaga and Kerby Raymundo did not crack our top 50).

So again, these are our own 50 greatest rankings, and they are not meant to undermine the PBA’s selection.

A word on our methodology

Measuring a player’s greatness is always a tricky proposition. Comparing players across different generations is even trickier. How many Best Player of the Conference (BPC) awards would Ramon Fernandez, Bogs Adornado, Atoy Co, Sonny Jaworski, Abet Guidaben, or Ricky Brown have won if the award had been there earlier than 1994? And surely the likes of Guidaben, Abe King, Bernie Fabios, and Freddie Hubalde would have earned more Mythical Team selections if only the Mythical Second Team had already been in place from the start.

Would James Yap, Mark Caguioa, Willie Mille, and Eric Menk have won more titles or BPCs if the league hadn’t gone to the two-conference format from 2004 to 2010? Are All-Star appearances worth anything, considering that All-Star Games were virtually non-existent in the 1970s and 80s?

In the face of these challenges, we focused on five items that were universal to all players regardless of era: longevity, championships won, impact on the game, statistical achievements, and individual awards like Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year, All-Defensive Team and Mythical Team selections. In comparing players from the same eras or adjacent eras, we factored in Finals MVPs and BPCs.

Also, all player evaluations are based solely on their PBA careers. Their achievements in the MICAA, collegiate level, or in the international arena were not taken into consideration.

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Ranking the 50 Greatest PBA Players of All Time (50-41)

Ranking the 50 Greatest PBA Players of All Time (40-31).

30-21:

30. Danny Seigle

One wonders how much higher “Dynamite” Danny would have placed on this list had he not torn his Achilles’ tendon in late 2002, an injury that forced him to sit out the entire 2003 campaign. Widely regarded as one of the best PBA players to never have won an MVP, Seigle took the league by storm when he first burst onto the scene in 1999. He won Rookie of the Year that year after putting up averages of 19.2 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. Teaming up with Danny Ildefonso, Seigle led the San Miguel Beermen to five championships over seven conferences. Even after his Achilles injury, he still lit up the scoreboard, averaging 17.3, 20.1, and 22.2 points per game from 2004 to 2007. In 2005, he broke Alvin Patrimonio’s record of most consecutive 20-point games when he did it for 19 straight.

29. Abe King

In the PBA’s early years, no one grabbed a rebound more authoritatively than The Chairman of the Boards, Abe King. He was an early practitioner of the kalawit rebound, a move that best captured his essence as a player: tough, rugged, and never backing down from anybody. But King was more than just a bruising rebounder down low. He once scored 60 points in a single game, and he was often assigned to guard the opposing team’s import. King was also a winner almost everywhere he went. He won 13 championships – tied for seventh-most all-time – and by all accounts was beloved by his teammates at every stop. King was often overshadowed by more illustrious teammates on the Toyota and Great Taste franchises. But in the one season where he was the team’s best player, he showed he could score as well as he averaged a career-high 19 points per game in 1984 with Gold Eagle.

28. Nelson Asaytono

Like Seigle, Asaytono is on that very short list of best players to never win an MVP. In fact, some consider him THE best player to never win an MVP. He came close twice, though, losing out to Ato Agustin in 1992 and Alvin Patrimonio in 1993. Yet even without the MVP trophy, The Bull had a playing résumé worthy of emulation. He is one of only seven players to have scored more than 12,000 points, and currently sits at fifth in the all-time PBA scoring list. He did most of his scoring through his patented lowpost moves, and when he got a full head of steam barreling towards the basket, he was virtually unstoppable. Add his seven titles and numerous other individual awards, and it’s little wonder why his recent inclusion in the PBA’s 50 greatest players was considered a long-overdue recognition.

27. Scottie Thompson

Becoming the face of the league’s most popular franchise is an honor bestowed on just a handful of players – from Jaworski to David to Menk to Caguioa and now to Earl Scottie Thompson. It’s a responsibility he doesn’t take lightly, especially since he recently joined Menk and Caguioa as the only Ginebra players to have won an MVP. But more than just representing Barangay Ginebra, Thompson has become one of the most dynamic players in the PBA today. His career average of 7.7 rebounds per game is the highest for any guard in league history, and is actually higher than the averages of Alvin Patrimonio and Benjie Paras, while his 5.1 assists per game tops Jayson Castro and Francis Arnaiz and is at par with Johnny Abarrientos and Hector Calma.

26. Kenneth Duremdes

Kenneth Duremdes won championships in his first two conferences in the PBA as a rookie with Sunkist in 1995, but it was with the Alaska Milkmen where his star shone the brightest. Duremdes was an excellent one-on-one player, yet he blended seamlessly into Tim Cone’s triangle offense, helping the Milkmen win four titles from 1997 to 2000. Two of those titles came in 1998, when Duremdes bagged the MVP, and it could have been three and another grand slam for the franchise if only Duremdes and other Milkmen had not skipped the season-ending Governors’ Cup for national team duties. Captain Marbel eventually made his way to Sta. Lucia, where he averaged career-highs of 19.8 points and 7.3 rebounds in 2003.

25. Willie Miller

A PBA assistant coach from the 2000s once said to this writer: hindi pa pinapanganak ang player na makakahinto kay Willie Miller. One of just eight players in PBA history to have won at least two MVP awards, Miller had virtually unstoppable one-on-one moves and could pretty much score on anyone. He won his first MVP as a sophomore with the Red Bull Thunder, and six years later won his second with the Alaska Aces. Perhaps his finest performance came in the 2007 Fiesta Conference Finals, where he helped the Aces overcome a 3-2 deficit with 37 points in Game 6 and 22 in Game 7, earning Finals MVP in the process after averaging 23 points over the seven games.

24. Ato Agustin

Ato Agustin was underappreciated early in his PBA career. He slid down to the second round of the loaded 1989 draft class, and hardly saw action as a rookie on a loaded San Miguel Beermen grand slam-winning team. But once he got going, there was no stopping the Atom Bomb. Agustin stepped up in the 1991 season, averaging 19.2 points per game and winning the Most Improved Player award. The following year, he upped his scoring output to 20.7 and was named MVP, becoming the first and thus far only second-round pick to win the award. He transferred to the rival league MBA in the late 1990s before returning to the PBA with the Red Bull Thunder, where he won his seventh and last title as a part-time starter.

23. Jayson Castro

If it weren’t for an unfortunate injury in the semifinals of the 2025 Commissioner’s Cup, Jayson Castro would likely have already joined the PBA’s exclusive 10,000-point club. Still, as it stands his body of work is already very impressive. Ten championships, five Mythical First Team mentions, five BPC wins, three Finals MVPs, and a scoring title all make the Blur one of the best PBA players over the last 15 years. He’s another player on the short list of best ones never to win an MVP. But what doesn’t show up in the record books is his clutch play. With the game on the line, there might be no other player in the league better at making a winning play than Castro.

22. Jimmy Alapag

Beyond his tangible achievements, there are two things that defined Jimmy Alapag’s PBA legacy: his leadership and his ability to make clutch plays. Little was known about The Mighty Mouse when he first arrived in 2002, which was probably why he slipped all the way to 10^th in the rookie draft. But he repaid Talk ‘N Text’s faith in him by winning Rookie of the Year and leading the franchise to six championships. Alapag was the undisputed leader of that ultra-talented Talk ‘N Text squad that won five titles over 11 conferences from 2008 to 2012. It was during this run that he was named MVP in 2011, when the Tropang Texters won two titles and came within a game of completing a grand slam. Alapag retired in 2016 after leading the Meralco Bolts to their first PBA finals, proving he was a winner wherever he went.

21. Kelly Williams

When it comes to falling down and getting back up, Kelly Williams is in a class by himself. He thought his young PBA career was over after just two seasons – during which he won ROY, MVP and a championship – after he was diagnosed with a rare blood disease. But he bounced back and became a key member of that Talk ‘N Text team that dominated the late 2000s and early 2010s. Machine Gun Kelly then faced his second health issue after tearing his ACL in 2015, forcing him to sit out the 2015-16 campaign. Again, he made a triumphant return, in the process becoming the second PBA player to be named Comeback Player of the Year twice. At 42, Williams is still busy helping the TNT franchise collect more championships; his personal count is now up to 10.

Banner Images courtesy of Sid Ventura, Excel Panlaque, and Instagram accounts of Mark Caguioa, Alvin Patrimonio, and James Yap.