Legacy Score is a method of determining a player's impact left upon professional basketball whether he played in the BAA, ABA, or NBA.
Legacy score consists of three components: Win Share Points, Award Points, and Playoff Points. These points are then added together to create a legacy score
Legacy Score Legacy Score = Win Share Points + Award Points + Playoff Points
Win Share Points
Basketball Reference has calculated win shares, an all in one metric, which attempts to measure the value of a player versus the rest of the league. There are other all in one metrics such as VORP and PER that attempt to do similar things but I have chosen Win Shares in part because every BAA, ABA, and NBA player has win shares for every season whereas the other metrics only go back so far.
One problem that emerged for simply taking raw win shares is that for about a decade there were two leagues, one of which, the ABA, was inferior to the NBA. To account for this I have adjusted win shares into win share points accordingly
All Win Shares that were accumulated in the BAA or NBA are counted as twice as many points compared to ABA Win Shares.
BAA/NBA Win Shares Win Share Points = Win Shares * 2
ABA Win Shares Win Share Points = Win Shares * 1
Award Points
Award Points are given to players who finished all league in a respective season with a bonus for winning that season's MVP award.
BAA/NBA Award Points Award Points = Times First Team All League * 20 + Times Second Team All League * 10 + Times Third Team All League * 5 + League MVPs * 20
ABA Award Points Award Points = Times First Team All League * 10 + Times Second Team All League * 5 + League MVPs * 10
So, if an NBA player finishes first team All NBA and wins the MVP he earns 40 award points. Consequently, an ABA player would earn 20 points for that season.
The NBA MVP award was first given out in the 1955-56 season, meaning there are eight BAA/NBA seasons where there are no MVP points being awarded. This likely hurts George Mikan's total the most as he would have likely won multiple of those awards. Still, I have decided to not award MVP points for those seasons.
Playoff Points
Playoff points are earned by players who make substantial contributions to teams that make long playoff runs. In order for a player to be eligible for playoff points his team must at least make the semifinals of the respective leagues. I have gone through each of these teams and awarded Playoff Designations to players I have deemed to make a substantial enough contribution to earn one. The points follow the below alotment.
| Champions | Finalists | Semi-Finalists | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Designation | BAA/NBA | ABA | BAA/NBA | ABA | BAA/NBA | ABA |
| Best Player | 50 | 25 | 25 | 12 | 12 | 7 |
| Option 1a | 40 | 20 | 20 | 10 | 10 | 6 |
| Co-Best Player | 35 | 17 | 17 | 9 | 8 | 5 |
| Option 1b | 30 | 15 | 15 | 7 | 7 | 4 |
| Second Option | 20 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 3 |
| Major Contributor | 10 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Minor Contributor | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
This exercise began with me trying to determine how much being the best player on a championship team is worth. During that process, it became clear that teams are built differently and that some teams don't have a clear best player while other teams do. Some teams, like the '90s Bulls, have a clear best player in Michael Jordan and a clear second option in Scottie Pippen, but not every team fits that mold cleanly. For some teams it is hard to choose one player as the best like the 2001 Lakers with Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant or the 2017 Warriors with Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry. Other teams still have more of a 1a/1b model where one player is relied upon more than the other but it is extremely close.
It also became clear that there can be multiple second options on a team. Much like determining the best player, I originally set out to only give second option designations to one player per team. This became untenable however when trying to give out designations to teams like the 2021 Milwaukee Bucks. Giannis Antetokounmpo was the clear best player but it became impossible to choose whether Jrue Holiday or Khris Middleton was the second best player on the team. It became clear that I didn't need to be so stingy giving out points and that it was worth recognizing the contributions of some players are worth more than simply being considered major contributors. One other point that is important to make is that "Second Option" does not simply mean on offense. I have chosen the moniker "Second Option" for its simplicity but really all it means is second best player. A good example of this is the 2004 Pistons. Ben Wallace was clearly not the team's second option offensively but he was the team's second most important player behind Chauncey Billups and as such earns the "Second Option" designation.
Another important point is that playoff designations are earned based on play in the post season only. If a player is the best player on a team during the regular season but he was not during the playoffs then he does not by default get the best player designation. For example, Elvin Hayes may have been the best player during the regular season for the 1978-79 Washington Bullets but he was not during their 1979 run to the finals, so he does not get the best player on an NBA Finals team designation.
Finally, there are no hard and fast rules for major and minor contributor designations. Generally, players receive the major contributor designation if they played significant minutes and provided average or above-average value to the team. Players that either played major minutes but were inefficient or played a smaller number of minutes but were efficient receive the minor contributor designation.
Peak Score Peak Score = Season Points for highest season + the six next highest cumulative consecutive seasons adjcent to the top season
Peak Score is calculated by taking the largest amount of legacy points over a consecutive seven year span.
Weighted Score Weighted Score = (Legacy Score + Peak Score) / 2
Weighted score is a simple average of a player's raw legacy score and his peak score.
Levels are based on percentiles. There are nine levels of Legacy Scores. The middle seven correspond with colors of the rainbow. Level 1 is represented as red and Level 7 is represented as violet. There are two other levels that have special designations. Players that played in the NBA, ABA, or BAA but accrued zero or fewer legacy points are considered Level 0. On the other side of the spectrum, the players with highest legacy scores fall in Level 8 or what can be considered the GOAT tier. Currently, this level is limited to the players with the five highest scores. Those players are LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, and Wilt Chamberlain.
The levels breakdown is as seen in the table below.
| Level | Percentile | # of Players | Minimum | Average | Maximum | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 8 | 99.99th | 5 | 974.4 | 1103.8 | 1263.6 | ||
| Level 7 | 99th | 52 | 368.6 | 549.9 | 972.6 | ||
| Level 6 | 95th | 260 | 150.4 | 365.4 | 219.2 | ||
| Level 5 | 90th | 520 | 92.8 | 116.8 | 150 | ||
| Level 4 | 80th | 1040 | 45 | 64.9 | 92.4 | ||
| Level 3 | 70th | 1560 | 21.4 | 32.2 | 45 | ||
| Level 2 | 60th | 2080 | 9.2 | 14.6 | 21.2 | ||
| Level 1 | ~25th | 3896 | 0.1 | 2.5 | 9.1 | ||
| Level 0 | 0th | 5205 | -15.8 | -0.4 | 0 |