#50: James Worthy
Resume
NBA Finals MVP: 1x (’88)
NBA All-3rd Team: 2x (’90, ’91)
All-NBA Rookie 1st Team: ‘83
NBA All-Star: 7x (’86, ’87, ’88, ’89, ’90, ’91, ‘92)
NBA Top 10 FG%: 5x (’83,’85, ’86, ’89, ’90)
NBA Top 10 Offensive Rating: 1x (’86)
NBA Top 10 WS/48: 1x (’86)
2nd Best Player on Two Champions: ’87 Lakers, ’88 Lakers
3rd Best Player on One Champion: ’85 Lakers
2nd Best Player on Two Runner-Ups: ’89 Lakers, ’91 Lakers
3rd Best Player on One Runner-Up: ’84 Lakers
Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 50th
Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 58th
A really tough career to project since he was Magic’s wingman for virtually his whole career. Simmons compares Worthy to Tom Chambers, and Chambers barely made the top 100 without the help of a Magic Johnson, so there’s that. Reason why he couldn’t drop lower than the Top 50? He was “Big Game” James. In the 1984 Finals, Worthy put up games of 29 PTS on 11/12 shooting, 30 points on 14/17 and three other 50%+ FG 20 point games in a tough loss to the Celtics. He made up for that by putting up 29 on 12/22, 33 on 13/17 and 28 on 11/15 in Boston, all wins for LA, in the 1985 Finals. He opened the 1987 Finals with a 33-10-9. He finished off the Bad Boy Pistons in 1988 with a 36-16-10 in Game 7…and even dropped 40 in the deciding game when they lost the next year (with no Magic). More evidence points to Worthy being great than not.
#49: Dennis Johnson
Resume
NBA Finals MVP: 1x (’79)
NBA All-1st Team: 1x (’81)
NBA All-2nd Team: 1x (‘80)
NBA All-Defensive 1st Team: 6x (’79, ’80, ’81, ’82, ’83, ’87)
NBA All-Defensive 2nd Team: 3x (’84, ’85, ’86)
NBA All-Star: 5x (’79, ’80, ’81, ’82, ’85)
NBA Top 10 Defensive Win Shares: 1x (’80)
NBA Career Assists: 45th
NBA Career Steals: 43rd
3rd Best Player on One Champion: ’79 Sonics
Starter on Two Champions: ’84 Celtics, ’86 Celtics
2nd Best Player on One Runner-Up: ’78 Sonics
Starter on Two Runner-Ups: ’85 Celtics, ’87 Celtics
Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 54th
Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 53rd
DJ gets the nod over Worthy for a few reasons. For one, we don’t know how Worthy’s career projects without Magic Johnson…but we do know Johnson could thrive without Bird since he did in Seattle. Also, Worthy’s main attribute was big game scoring. DJ’s was big game defense and he could score as well. Big difference. In an All-Time defensive team, DJ fits right in there with Jordan, Payton, Moncreif in the greatest defensive guards before 2000 conversation (and maybe of all time as well). He hounded Magic in the ’84 Finals and also shut down Andrew Toney (Toney gave Boston tons of trouble in the early 80s and was a big reason the Sixers made the Finals in ’83). DJ was the best guard on teams that won 47, 52, 56, 57, 46, 53, 62, 63, 67 games.
#48: Bill Walton
Resume
NBA MVP: 1x (’78)
NBA Finals MVP: 1x (’77)
NBA All-1st Team: 1x (’78)
NBA All-2nd Team: 1x (‘77)
NBA All-Defensive 1st Team: 2x (’77, ‘78)
NBA All-Star: 2x (’77, ‘78)
NBA Defensive Rating Leader: 2x (’78, ’86)
NBA Top 5 Rebounds: 1x (’77)
NBA Top 10 Blocks: 2x (’77, ’78)
NBA Top 3 WS/48: 2x (’77, ’78)
NBA Top 10 Defensive Rating: 5x (’76, ’77, ’78, ’85, ’86)
Best Player on One Champion: ’77 Blazers
Sixth Man on One Champion: ’86 Celtics
Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 27th
Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 74th
Bill Simmons’ asks whether or not you would want two and a half transcendent years and twelve other years full of injuries or fourteen quality years. He took the two and a half, a big reason why he had Walton so high up (he compared him to David Robinson) in his pyramid. At one time I agreed, but looking at it now Walton’s peak came in the messy late seventies. Theoretically the league was full of talent, but teams still weren’t able to figure out styles and such after the merger. When Walton went down in 1978 (he was so good that year he rightly won MVP after playing only 58 of 60 games anyway…Portland was 50-10 at the time) Portland went down with him, failing to even win one playoff series.
An idea of how good Walton was? He averaged 19-19-5-4 in the ’77 Finals where Portland won, including a 20-23-8-7 in the deciding game. He had pretty much no supporting cast (Mo Lucas, Bobby Gross, Lionel Hollins?) and it didn’t matter. As a bonus, he was an iconic sixth man on the ’86 Celtics. If he doesn’t get hurt, Walton probably gets into the Top 15.
#47: Stephen Curry
Resume
NBA MVP: 1x (’15)
NBA All-1st Team: 1x (’15)
NBA All-2nd Team: 1x (‘14)
NBA Rookie 1st Team: 1x (‘10)
NBA All-Star: 2x (’14, ‘15)
NBA Steals Leader: 1x (’15)
NBA 3 PT FG Leader: 3x (’13, ’14, ’15)
NBA FT% Leader: 2x (’11, ’15)
NBA WS/48 Leader: 1x (’15)
NBA Top 10 Points: 3x (’13, ’14, ’15)
NBA Top 5 Assists: 4x (’10, ’13, ’14, ‘15)
NBA Top 2 Steals: 2x (’14, ’15)
NBA Top 5 WS/48: 2x (’14, ‘15)
NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 3x (’13, ’14, ’15)
NBA Top 10 PER: 2x (’14, ’15)
NBA Career Offensive Rating: 50th
Best Player on One Champion: ’15 Warriors
Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): Not Ranked
Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): Not Ranked
Obviously not ranked on Simmons or Slam due to the fact that Curry began peaking in 2014. Gets the nod over Walton because his peak took place in an extremely talented time in the NBA (won MVP over LeBron for example). It’s absolutely terrifying to watch Curry if he’s playing against your team. A League MVP, a great WS/48 season and best player on a title team status? That’s good enough for top 50.
The difference between Curry and Derrick Rose is that Curry’s MVP doesn’t really have any doubt attached to it. Yeah, you can consider James Harden, but no one actually thinks Harden was robbed. In 2011, Rose was probably the third best player in the league that year, behind LeBron and Dwight Howard. And LeBron destroyed him in the Eastern Conference Finals. Curry had so such issues (although he did luck out as opposing PGs got hurt).
#46: Ray Allen
Resume
NBA All-2nd Team: 1x (’05)
NBA All-3rd Team: 1x (‘01)
NBA Rookie 2nd Team: 1x (‘97)
NBA All-Star: 10x (’00, ’01, ’02, ’04, ’05, ’06, ’07, ’08, ’09, ‘11)
NBA 3 PT FG Leader: 1x (‘06)
NBA Offensive Win Share Leader: 1x (’01)
NBA Top 10 Points: 2x (’05, ‘06)
NBA Top 10 3 PT FG: 11x (’98, ’00, ’01, ’02, ’03, ’05, ’06, ’07, ’08, ’09, ’11)
NBA Top 10 FT%: 14x (’98, ’99, ’00, ’01, ’03, ’04, ’05, ’06, ’07, ’08, ’09, ’10, ’11, ’12, ’13)
NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 2x (’01, ’09)
NBA Top 10 WS/48: 1x (‘01)
NBA Top 10 Offensive Rating: 4x (’00, ’01, ’06, ’09)
NBA Career 3 PT FG: 1st
NBA Career FT%: 7th
Third Best Player on One Champion: ’08 Celtics
Role Player on One Champion: ’13 Heat
Third Best Player on One Runner-Up: ’10 Celtics
Role Player on One Runner-Up: ’14 Heat
Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 62nd
Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 79th
Pretty much Reggie Miller with a better post-season resume. Allen was very close (and probably deserved to be) the best player on a runner-up with the 2001 Bucks. He was clutch in the 2008 Finals against the Lakers. Everyone remembers the big comeback in Game 4…but somehow Allen playing all 48 minutes and closing the game out by driving past Sasha Vujacic in crunch time is forgotten. He was kinda robbed of Finals MVP in that series as well (50-50-90% shooting, 20 PPG). He hit a game winning three with no time left against Chicago in Round 1 in 2009, and also had a 51 point game later in the series. He also set a record with 8 threes in Game 2 against the Lakers in the Finals…although he fell apart later in that series. Of course he cemented his legacy as a clutch three point shooter, possibly surpassing Reggie as the best ever with his dagger of a three that saved LeBron’s legacy and the 2013 Miami Heat season. Most of that is just the late stage of his career. He was the top guy for a very good Bucks and a very good Sonics team (a Sonics team that gave the 2005 Champ Spurs a nice six game scare).
#45: Chauncey Billups
Resume
NBA Finals MVP: 1x (’04)
NBA All-2nd Team: 1x (’06)
NBA All-3rd Team: 2x (’07, ‘09)
NBA All-Defensive 2nd Team: 2x (’05, ‘06)
NBA All-Star: 5x (’06, ’07, ’08, ’09, ‘10)
NBA Offensive Rating Leader: 1x (’06)
NBA Top 10 Assists: 2x (’06, ’07)
NBA Top 10 FT%: 11x (’99, ’02, ’03, ’04, ’05, ’06, ’07, ’08, ’09, ’10, ‘11)
NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 5x (’04, ’05, ’06, ’07, ’08)
NBA Top 10 WS/48: 6x (’03, ’04, ’05, ’06, ’07, ‘08)
NBA Top 10 Offensive Rating: 5x (’05, ’06, ’07, ’08, ‘09)
NBA Career FT%: 5th
NBA Career 3P FG: 7th
NBA Career Offensive Rating: 18th
Best Player on One Champion: ’04 Pistons
Best Player on One Runner-Up: ’05 Pistons
Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): Not Ranked
Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 124th
Easily the most underrated player of all time and it’s all due to perception. So let’s get to those perceptions and debunk them.
Number 1: The starting five for the 2004 Pistons were all equal…they were a real team and that’s why they won the title. Now defensively, I give Ben Wallace all the credit in the world and he did receive some consideration for my Top 100 due to his performance on the defensive end for the 2004 and 2005 Pistons. But offensively? Rasheed Wallace was a nice mid-season addition for a Pistons team that had already made a Conference Finals the year before with Billups. All I know is in Phil Jackson’s book The Last Season, he thinks about the Finals and starts off by thinking they are a team of equals…only to come to the conclusion that Billups was the key all along. That and when Chauncey left in 2008 the entire team fell apart. Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince have done nothing of note since Chauncey left them. Not true for Chauncey…leading us too…
Number 2: Carmelo Anthony led the Nuggets to the 2009 Conference Finals. Let the record show that Carmelo had the worst season of his early career in 2009 (.105 WS/48, 45% FG, 23 PPG, didn’t make the All-Star team), although he played great in the playoffs) and the Nuggets didn’t fall off at all. The Nuggets with Carmelo also made it past the first round for the first time…Chauncey had a 135 offensive rating in the playoffs. Detroit meanwhile fell out in Round 1. The difference was Chauncey.
Number 3: Chauncey was only good because of the slow it down style of the Pistons. Of course, this makes no sense as he succeeded with the Nuggets too.
Number 4: The Pistons era was overrated because the East was bad all those years. Of course, this isn’t fair to Chauncey as others have gotten this benefit too (and he got to the Conference Finals in the West anyway). Being the best player on a team that made seven straight Conference Finals is impressive no matter what the situation. His Pistons ended the Kidd era Nets, ended the Shaq-Kobe Lakers, nearly upset Duncan at his peak and even knocked LeBron down once. Sounds good enough for me.
In addition to all of that, Chauncey has great advanced numbers and a few All-NBA teams. He’s a great player.
#44: George Gervin
Resume
NBA All-1st Team: 5x (’78, ’79, ’80, ’81, ’82)
NBA All-2nd Team: 2x (’77, ‘83)
ABA All-2nd Team: 2x (’75, ’76)
ABA All-Rookie 1st Team: 1x (’73)
NBA All-Star: 9x (’78, ’79, ’80, ’81, ’82, ’83, ’84, ‘85)
ABA All-Star: 3x (’74, ’75, ’76)
NBA Points Leader: 4x (’78, ’79, ’80, ’82)
NBA Top 6 Points: 8x (’77, ’78, ’79, ’80, ’81, ’82, ’83, ’84)
ABA Top 7 Points: 3x (’74, ’75, ’76)
ABA Top 10 Blocks: 3x (’74, ’75, ’76)
NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 6x (’77, ’78, ’79, ’80, ’81, ’82)
ABA Top 10 Win Shares: 3x (’74, ’75, ’76)
NBA Top 10 WS/48: 3x (’77, ’78, ’79)
ABA Top 10 WS/48: 1x (76)
NBA Top 10 PER: 6x ( ’77, ’78, ’79, ’80, ’81, ’82)
ABA Top 10 PER: 3x (’74, ’75, ’76)
NBA+ABA Career Points: 15th
ABA Career Blocks: 9th
Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 34th
Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 45th
The Iceman was one of the all-time great scorers…and that’s about it. Horrible defensive player and seemingly only cared about scoring points. But he was great at it, and in the late 70s where everything was screwed up roster wise, that was good enough to be one of the best players in the league. It never got him to the Finals though as he failed to get past those Unseld-Hayes Bullets teams. And once Magic and Bird came along, Gervin was never seeing the Finals.
Recently, his record of 33 points in a quarter was broken, but it tells you just what kind of scorer he was. His peak was too good to leave out of the Top 50.
#43: Sam Jones
Resume
NBA All-2nd Team: 3x (’65, ’66, ‘67)
NBA All-Star: 5x (’62, ’64, ’65, ’66, ‘68)
NBA Top 10 Points: 2x (’65, ‘66)
NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 5x (’62, ’63, ’64, ’65, ‘66)
NBA Top 10 WS/48: 10x (’59, ’60, ’61, ’62, ’63, ’64, ’65, ’66, ’67, ‘68)
2nd or 3rd Best Player on Six Champions, Won Ten Championships Overall (’59 Celtics, ’60 Celtics, ’61 Celtics, ’62 Celtics, ’63 Celtics, ’64 Celtics, ’65 Celtics, ’66 Celtics, ’68 Celtics, ’69 Celtics)
Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 33rd
Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 65th
Simmons gave the nod to Jones over Gervin because of the teammate aspect, the fact that Bill Russell praises Jones as his crunch time scorer. While I can’t say I’ve seen much of Sam Jones other than some Youtube highlights, but I have seen Gervin and I know he’s a me-first guy and probably the biggest reason the Spurs didn’t win a title. So I’ll take Simmons word on this.
I’ll also provide the list of great playoff games Jones had that Simmons provided, which was more than enough to sway me.
Hit a game winner in the Eastern Conference Finals vs. ’62 Sixers in Game 7, scored 27…Scored 35 against the ’62 Lakers in the Finals…scored 27 in Game 7 of the ’62 Finals vs. the Lakers…scored 47 against Oscar and the Royals in another Game 7…37 in Game 7 of the ’65 Sixers series…34 Points in Game 5 of the ’65 Royals series…hit a game winner in Game 4 of the ’69 Lakers series. That’s not all of them…but you get the point.
#42: Clyde Drexler
Resume
NBA All-1st Team: 1x (‘92)
NBA All-2nd Team: 2x (’88, ‘91)
NBA All-3rd Team: 2x (’88, ‘95)
NBA All-Star: 10x (’86, ’88, ’89, ’90, ’91, ’92, ’93, ’94, ’96, ‘97)
NBA Top 10 Points: 3x (’88, ’89, ‘92)
NBA Top 10 Assists: 1x (’86)
NBA Top 10 Steals: 6x (’85, ’86, ’87, ’88, ’89, ’95)
NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 6x (’88, ’89, ’90, ’91, ’92, ‘95)
NBA Top 10 WS/48: 6x (’88, ’89, ’90, ’91, ’92, ‘95)
NBA Top 10 PER: 4x (’88, ’89, ’92, ‘95)
NBA Career Points: 29th
NBA Career Steals: 7th
2nd Best Player on one Champion: ’95 Rockets
Best Player on Two Runner-Ups: ’90 Blazers, ’92 Blazers
Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 44th
Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 42nd
I’ll just start off with saying I agree with Michael Jordan…that Drexler was a poor man’s Michael Jordan.
It may not seem completely fair, but that’s what he was. Primarily an inside drive guy with a shaky outside shot…only Drexler wasn’t remotely a good three point shooter either. His peak in the late 80s and early 90s was impressive…he got to the Finals before Jordan did…but he failed at that level and then was destroyed by Jordan in ’92. Amazingly, he begins to decline at age 30 in 1993 in what only could be described as a player who’s confidence was destroyed.
There’s not much else to say about Drexler. He was a really good player, sometimes great, that couldn’t get his teams to the finish line. His career was swallowed up by Jordan. It goes farther than the ’92 Finals. Remember, Portland didn’t pick Jordan because they had Drexler. And of course, Drexler’s ring came in the 2nd of Jordan’s baseball years.
And of course…there was the 1992 Finals. Poor Drexler.
#41: George Mikan
Resume
NBA All-1st Team: 6x (’49, ’50, ’51, ’52, ’53, ’54)
NBA All-Star: 4x (’51, ’52, ’53, ’54)
NBA Points Leader: 3x (’49, ’50, ’51)
NBA Rebounds Leader: 1x (’53)
NBA PER Leader: 3x (’52, ’53, ’54)
NBA Offensive Win Share Leader: 2x (’49, ’51)
NBA Defensive Win Share Leader: 5x (’50, ’51, ’52, ’53, ’54)
NBA Win Share Leader: 3x (’49, ’50, ’51)
NBA WS/48 Leader: 1x (’53)
NBA Top 4 Points: 6x (’49, ’50, ’51, ’52, ’53, ’54)
NBA Top 10 Assists: 1x (’49)
NBA Top 3 Rebounds: 4x (’51, ’52, ’53, ‘54)
NBA Top 4 Win Shares: 6x (’49, ’50, ’51, ’52, ’53, ’54)
NBA Top 10 WS/48: 3x (’52, ’53, ‘54)
Best Player on Five Champions: ’49 Lakers, ’50 Lakers, ’52 Lakers, ’53 Lakers, ’54 Lakers
Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 38th
Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 29th
Obviously a product of his era. Once the shot clock and bigger lane came into play, Mikan was done. He absolutely dominated the early NBA and even the NBL. He was basketball’s first great player and dominated the league. That has to count for something.