100 Players Ranked: What Execs Say About NBA Rank 2026

What is NBA Rank and how is the countdown built?

NBA Rank is an annual exercise that sorts all 100 rostered NBA players from No. 100 to No. 1 ahead of the 2026-27 season, according to a story posted Sept. 25 by senior writer Ben Golliver, "NBA Rank 2026: League execs examine top 100 countdown, race for No. 1". This year's edition paired the public countdown with an informal survey of roughly a dozen NBA executives, asked to weigh in on the list's most contested calls -- chief among them a three-player race for the top spot named in the piece's own web address: Nikola Jokić, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Victor Wembanyama.

Which player pushed back publicly, and what did he say?

New York Knicks guard Josh Hart, whose club ended a championship drought this year and recently opened single-game ticket sales, landed at No. 89. Hart responded on social media with a jab at the process: "They [are] always wrong," he wrote. "I should be at least No. 88."

What do league executives say about the No. 1 race?

The report does not declare a single runaway winner. It frames 2026 as a year "that lacked consensus," with the polled executives split on how to weigh the top tier. A companion piece in the same coverage package describes the new top 10 as featuring "a razor-thin race for No. 1," without settling on a final order among the contenders.

Where does Zion Williamson land, and why is that number contested?

Williamson checks in at No. 51, a placement the coverage's own video segment frames as an open question -- "too high, too low or just right." That slot sits near the midpoint of the 100-player field, a placement the surrounding commentary ties to the countdown's emphasis on two-way play and availability this cycle rather than name recognition alone.

By the numbers

• 100 -- total players ranked in the countdown
• 89 -- Hart's slot, the one he publicly disputed
• 51 -- Williamson's ranking, flagged as debatable in the accompanying video
• "a dozen" -- the informal count of league executives polled for reaction

Where can readers see the full list?

The complete countdown, including the order among Jokić, Gilgeous-Alexander and Wembanyama at the top of the field, along with a separate "audit" piece checking the rankings against statistical models, runs on the originating site linked above. No single figure in the reporting resolves the No. 1 debate outright -- the executives surveyed, like fans reacting online, remain split on how to rank a top tier this close.

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