PHOTO: Best NBA players to wear every number

Perhaps more than any other team sport, basketball's superstar dependency reinforces debates about greatness, legacies and all-time ranks.

With the NBA Finals only days away, Mitchell and Ness gave fans another topic to debate: Who are the best players to ever wear each respective jersey number in league history?

For the record, 14 numbers have never been worn, and Mitchell and Ness considered players for the honor so long as they played one game in a number - hence His Airness at both 23 and 45.

It looks like DeShawn Stevenson (92) finally found a way to gain an upper hand in his feud with LeBron James, who had to contend with Bill Russell (6) and Michael Jordan (23) in his fruitless quest for a place on this graphic.

- With h/t to Pro Basketball Talk