Editor’s note (Feb. 15, 3:19 p.m.): A previous version of this article incorrectly said siblings Pau and Marc Gasol did not play high school basketball in the United States. Marc played high school basketball in Tennessee. This changed one of the article’s main conclusions, that Spain is the top exporter of NBA talent when tallying total career wins above replacement (WAR) among players who were not born in the U.S. and who did not attend a U.S. high school. Instead, Germany is the top source of foreign NBA talent. The text and headline of the article have been changed to reflect this, and the international data has been excised from the piece.
Pau and Marc Gasol will make history Sunday night as the first brothers to start against each other in an NBA All-Star game, thusly cementing their status as the greatest sibling pair in men’s basketball.
As brothers in the NBA, the Gasols stand out. Their combined wins above replacement (WAR), as calculated by my colleague Neil Paine, is over 160. That’s far above the WAR of the next-closest brothers — Dominique and Gerald Wilkins (combined WAR of 112).12
Gerald who? ‘Nique is a Hall-of-Famer; Gerald racked up less than 10 WAR. So, taking an average of the brothers’ careers will better reflect the typical performance but correct for when one sibling was much, much better. If we take the arithmetic and harmonic means — basically, two different ways of averaging — the Gasols are still clearly the greatest brothers ever. A simple average of their WAR (the arithmetic mean, shown in the table below) is the highest. But the harmonic mean also has the Gasols on top — their 73.2 crushes all other pairs; the Wilkins brothers total only 17 by this measure. In second place are Gus and Ray Williams, with a harmonic mean of 45.9.13
| BEST BROTHER | CAREER WAR | BROTHER(S) | CAREER WAR | TOTAL CAREER WAR | AVG. WAR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pau Gasol | 104.5 | Marc Gasol | 56.3 | 160.8 | 80.4 | |
| Dominique Wilkins | 102.5 | Gerald Wilkins | 9.3 | 111.8 | 55.9 | |
| Horace Grant | 93.7 | Harvey Grant | 14.1 | 107.8 | 53.9 | |
| Gus Williams | 54.7 | Ray Williams | 39.6 | 94.3 | 47.2 | |
| Bernard King | 55.9 | Albert King | 4.1 | 60.0 | 30.0 | |
| Brent Barry | 62.7 | Jon Barry, Drew Barry | 25.0 | 87.7 | 29.2 | |
| Mark Price | 51.2 | Brent Price | 7.2 | 58.4 | 29.2 | |
| George Gervin | 56.4 | Derrick Gervin | -0.5 | 55.9 | 28.0 | |
| Chuck Person | 26.9 | Wesley Person | 26.5 | 53.4 | 26.7 | |
| Blake Griffin | 51.0 | Taylor Griffin | -0.1 | 50.9 | 25.5 | |
| Stephen Curry | 49.1 | Seth Curry | 0.0 | 49.1 | 24.6 | |
| Rodney McCray | 47.7 | Scooter McCray | -0.5 | 47.2 | 23.6 | |
| Calvin Natt | 33.9 | Kenny Natt | -1.0 | 32.9 | 16.5 | |
| Vinnie Johnson | 32.8 | Eric Johnson | -0.6 | 32.2 | 16.1 | |
| Caldwell Jones | 28.7 | Charles Jones, Major Jones, Wil Jones | 30.3 | 59.0 | 14.8 | |
| Brad Davis | 29.2 | Mickey Davis | 0.0 | 29.2 | 14.6 | |
| Derek Fisher | 28.5 | Duane Washington | 0.2 | 28.7 | 14.4 | |
| Willie Anderson | 19.1 | Shandon Anderson | 9.3 | 28.4 | 14.2 | |
| Brook Lopez | 18.7 | Robin Lopez | 8.1 | 26.8 | 13.4 | |
| Goran Dragic | 24.4 | Zoran Dragic | 0.0 | 24.4 | 12.2 | |
| Jim Paxson | 20.5 | John Paxson | 2.3 | 22.8 | 11.4 | |
| Campy Russell | 20.4 | Walker Russell | -4.4 | 16.0 | 8.0 | |
| Dudley Bradley | 15.0 | Charles Bradley | -0.7 | 14.3 | 7.2 | |
| Jeff Teague | 16.1 | Marquis Teague | -2.3 | 13.8 | 6.9 | |
| Klay Thompson | 13.1 | Mychel Thompson | -0.3 | 12.8 | 6.4 | |
| Markieff Morris | 8.5 | Marcus Morris | 4.0 | 12.5 | 6.3 | |
| Glen Gondrezick | 13.0 | Grant Gondrezick | -0.8 | 12.2 | 6.1 | |
| Jay Vincent | 9.4 | Sam Vincent | 1.6 | 11.0 | 5.5 | |
| Jason Collins | 4.1 | Jarron Collins | 4.0 | 8.1 | 4.1 | |
| Carl Landry | 7.5 | Marcus Landry | -0.6 | 6.9 | 3.5 | |
| Mason Plumlee | 5.6 | Miles Plumlee | 0.6 | 6.2 | 3.1 | |
| Cody Zeller | 2.7 | Tyler Zeller | 2.4 | 5.1 | 2.6 | |
| Leon Douglas | 3.8 | John Douglas | -0.6 | 3.2 | 1.6 | |
| Tyler Hansbrough | 1.6 | Ben Hansbrough | -0.2 | 1.4 | 0.7 | |
| Audie Norris | 0.7 | Sylvester Norris | -0.4 | 0.3 | 0.2 | |
| Michael Wiley | 0.4 | Morlon Wiley | -0.2 | 0.2 | 0.1 | |
| Steve Scheffler | 0.2 | Tom Scheffler | -0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
| Carl Thomas | -0.2 | Charles Thomas | -0.3 | -0.5 | -0.3 | |
| Dick Van Arsdale | -0.1 | Tom Van Arsdale | -1.1 | -1.2 | -0.6 | |
| Charles O’Bannon | -0.2 | Ed O’Bannon | -2.0 | -2.2 | -1.1 | |
| Jannero Pargo | -2.8 | Jeremy Pargo | -2.9 | -5.7 | -2.9 | |
| Brandon Rush | -0.2 | Kareem Rush | -7.3 | -7.5 | -3.8 | |
| Stephen Graham | -4.4 | Joey Graham | -4.9 | -9.3 | -4.7 |
So, when the Gasols take the floor Sunday night, they are indisputably the best brothers in NBA history.
Neil Paine contributed to this article.