Old skool: Magic, Bird, Maravich, Dr. J, Darryl Dawkins, Jordan, Olajuwon
Now skool: uh, I dunno. Steve Nash? Gilbert Arenas?
I am a hoopadummy and only really followed the NBA in high school because of Michael Jordan and NBA Jam and so forth. Even then I only got the vaguest notion of what made players great and kept all my dorky analytical stat/performance obsessions aimed towards baseball. That said, I'm going to try and follow the NBA more closely starting this year because if I want to keep track of a professional sport during the unrelenting hellscape of winter up here it is not going to be the crap-butt Vikings and their dopey sport of fuht-bawl. Also I do not care for hockey, despite my Franco-Canadian heritage. Unfortunately I have the debilitating handicap of having the Timberwolves represent my home metropolitan region and therefore the most I can look forward to is that new guy on our team who is related by blood to the Beach Boys.