Nothing in the NBA world inspires heated debate like ESPN's annual ranking of the 100 players for the upcoming season.
After NBA Rank 2026 came out earlier this week, New York Knicks guard Josh Hart unleashed a little sarcasm in response to landing at No. 89.
"They [are] always wrong," Hart wrote on social media. "I should be at least No. 88."
The newly minted champion was hardly the only person in the league to raise objections with the results during a year that lacked consensus.
With help from an informal survey of a dozen NBA executives and league personnel, let's run through some of the biggest ranking arguments and critiques that emerged this week to set the table for the 2026-27 season and clear up misconceptions.
NBA Rank 2026: Top 10 players | Nos. 11-50 | Nos. 51-100 Roundtable: Was LeBron ranked too low? Top 100 audit: What NBA Rank got wrong 10 players already on the radar for 2027
The battle for No. 1
ESPN's seven-person voting panel was split between three players for the No. 1 spot: Nikola Jokic prevailed with 694 points in the vote, narrowly topping Victor Wembanyama (693) and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (691).
Similarly, the survey of front office executives returned passionate arguments for all three players to be considered the best in the world.