ESPNTheMag.Com Presents: All-World Power Rankings

Who's the best men's ACC Basketball Player of All-Time?

by Ted Bauer

BEST MEN'S ACC BASKETBALL PLAYER OF ALL-TIME? TIGHT ONE, BUT WE'LL GO DAVID THOMPSON

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Lots of talk this NCAA Tournament about conferences: when 'Cuse was hot, people though they might knock off Oklahoma then UNC and send four Big East teams to Detroit. Instead, MSU stepped up big and UNC rode its talent and depth, and now we're talking 2 Big East, 1 Big 10, 1 ACC. Ah, the ACC. The best conference ever for hoops, right? (Maybe. That can be argued.) Since this is Tyler Hansbrough's last shot at the big ol' brass ring (Sean May went out and got one, so Tyler should too), we've been doing a lot of thinking about him: where does he rank on a list of the best ACC players of all-time? Well, why not endeavor to compose such a list and see! Here goes nothing (hardest issue: what do you do with Jordan? Do you put him No. 1 just because he's Michael Jordan, or do you evaluate his college game as his college game?) Anyway, sidebar: for a good Rick Reilly column on Psycho T, go right here.

TOP 5
RANK (YESTERDAY)		WHAT	WHY
	1 (4)	DAVID THOMPSON (NC STATE)	The guy was a three-time ACC Basketball Player of the Year. (Here's some clips of him.) Important to this discussion: he has a ring ('74), which came in a season in which he played in one of the best games ever (ACC Championship vs. Maryland) and ended UCLA's run of dominance with a 80-77 win over 'em in the Final Four, including this play. Bonus: you ever see MJ speak at a hoops camp? We have. He frequently says Thompson was one of his influences.
	2 (6)	MICHAEL JORDAN (UNC)	"Who's the only guy who can hold Jordan under 30?" (Wait for it.) "Derek Harper." Man, we screwed the pooch with that joke. He won a title as a frosh on a shot he buried. Shouldn't we have seen it all coming then?
	3 (7)	CHRISTIAN LAETTNER (DUKE)	Started in four straight Final Fours. In order to break his record for NCAA Tournament games played, you'd basically need to stay in school four years and reach Monday night every year. He was involved in this, maybe the biggest Final Four upset ever and this, probably the best buzzer beater in college basketball history.
	4 (9)	RALPH SAMPSON (UVA)	Now we're getting into some guys without rings, so the haters might come out in full. Sampson won the ACC Player of the Year Award three times. We realize he's quite tall ("Everyone needs an automobile!") but he was a beast in college. Side note: did you know Tom Brokaw once did a piece on UVA hoops?
	5 (11)	PHIL FORD (UNC)	Again, dude lacks a ring. He played four years and was a three-time consensus All-American. Until the wholly underrated Travis Best came along, he was the only ACC player with 2,000 points and 600 assists. We could be wrong about this, but we think we once groggily heard a MJ courtside interview at some Bobcats game (Ford is an assistant there) where he claimed Ford was one of the best players ever. Odd.

HONORABLE MENTION
RANK (YESTERDAY)		WHAT	WHY
	19 (180)	TIM DUNCAN (WAKE FOREST)	Interesting: one of our boys went to Wake, and when we asked him this question, his first response was "No rings." Then we asked a girl from UNC, and she goes, "Best ACC all-time? It might be Duncan." Life is weird. We put him on here for this main reason: he was an awesome ACC player, albeit the lack of rings. He's also essentially the poster boy for "stay in school, develop your game, and the right opportunity will arise for you."
	138 (1,651)	LEN BIAS (MARYLAND)	On sheer talent alone, he might be No. 2 or No. 3 on this list. Check out this battle with David Robinson from 1985. Never won it all in College Park, and obviously a tragic end, but a ridiculous talent.

RISING AND FALLING
MOVEMENT		WHAT
		TYLER HANSBROUGH (He basically has to get to Monday night this season.)
		J.J. REDICK (We know: really easy to hate on this guy, but how did they lose that game to LSU?)

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