Previous posts:

Introduction/Methodology

236-250

221-235

206-220

191-205

176-190

164-175

155-163

140-154

131-139

121-130

Master List

All stats/info through 2023 season

We’re at the point where I think, with the Hall of Fame standards being what they are these days, everyone from here going forward should be in. That puts the bar at about 160 according to my algorithm. Personally, I think I’d set the bar closer to 200 (with exceptions of course), but I’ll let you guys decide that for yourselves.

​

  • 120. Jimmy Butler - 158.6
    • Career - 134.3
      • 2012-2023
      • CHI, MIN, PHI, MIA
      • 105.9 Win Shares
      • 0.017 Adjusted MVP Award Shares
      • 1x All-NBA Second Team Selection (2023)
      • 4x All-NBA Third Team Selection (2017, 2018, 2020, 2021)
      • 6x All-Star Selection (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022)
      • 6.9 Finals Win Shares (2 Finals losses - 2020 MIA, 2023 MIA)
      • 3.8 Conference Finals Win Shares (1 Conf. Finals loss - 2022 MIA)
    • Peak - 182.9
      • 2019-2023
    • Other achievements
      • 5x All-Defensive Second Team Selection (2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2021)
      • Most Improved Player (2015)
      • Eastern Conference Finals MVP (2023)
      • 1x Olympic Gold Medalist (2016)
    • Butler has kind of quietly put together a really strong Hall of Fame-caliber career. It’d be nice if some of his Third Team selections were Second Team selections, or if he’d made a First Team at any point, but that’s hardly disqualifying. If you’d asked me as recently as his stint in Philadelphia if he was Hall of Fame bound, I would have said “definitely not,” but now I think I’m 50/50 on the prospect.
    • One interesting thing to watch going forward is how much the new attendance policy, excuse me, “Player Participation Policy” affects guys like Butler. With the 65 game threshold for awards, Butler would’ve missed out on All-NBA nods in 2018, 2021, and 2023. (I’m assuming they would’ve prorated for games played in 2020 and 2021.) Are the playoff heroics enough to think about Hall of Fame status with only three Third Team selections?

​

  • 119. Jo Jo White - 158.6
    • Career - 114.9
      • 1970-1981
      • BOS, GSW, KCK
      • 54.0 Win Shares
      • 0.015 Adjusted MVP Award Shares
      • 2x All-NBA Second Team Selection (1975, 1977)
      • 7x All-Star Selection (1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977)
      • 3.3 Championship Win Shares (2 titles - 1974 BOS, 1976 BOS)
      • 3.2 Conference Finals Win Shares (3 Conf. Finals losses - 1972 BOS, 1973 BOS, 1975 BOS)
      • 1x Finals MVP (1976)
    • Peak - 202.3
      • 1973-1977
    • Other achievements
      • 1x Olympic Gold Medalist (1968)
      • #10 retired by the Boston Celtics
    • White was a college star at Kansas. As a freshman in 1966, he faced off against Texas Western (later renamed University of Texas-El Paso) in the Elite Eight. The game went to overtime, where White made a buzzer-beater that would’ve won the game, but he was ruled out of bounds (dubious call at best). Texas Western went on to win 81-80 in double overtime, and then went on to win the national championship, becoming the first team with an all-black starting five to win the title.
    • White was also on a super weird Olympic team in 1968. At the time, the Olympic committee delegated roster spots to different organizations, so four players would be chosen from the NCAA, two from the AAU (this is also different than what you’re thinking AAU is today), three from the Armed Forces, one from Junior College, and two from NAIA. Lew Alcindor and Elvin Hayes both said “no, thanks,” and the committee didn’t even try to go after Pete Maravich or Dan Issel. So the only guys you would’ve even heard of on this team were White, Spencer Haywood, and (maybe) Charlie Scott. They still went undefeated and won by an average score of 82-56.
    • He was the leading scorer (33 points) in the “greatest game ever played,” Game 5 of the 1976 Finals where the Celtics beat the Suns 128-126 in triple overtime. He won Finals MVP following the series.
    • White also played five games in the Continental Basketball Association for the Topeka Sizzlers in 1987 at age 41. He later said it was one of the biggest regrets of his career because of how much he hurt his knees in that one month.

​

  • 118. Dave Bing - 159.0
    • Career - 128.3
      • 1967-1978
      • DET, WSB, BOS
      • 68.8 Win Shares
      • 0.600 Adjusted MVP Award Shares (2 top five finishes: 1968 - 4th, 1971 - 3rd)
      • 2x All-NBA First Team Selection (1968, 1971)
      • 1x All-NBA Second Team Selection (1974)
      • 7x All-Star Selection (1968, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976)
    • Peak - 189.8
      • 1967-1971
    • Other achievements
      • Rookie of the Year (1967)
      • All-Star Game MVP (1976)
      • Citizenship Award (1977)
      • 5,000 Assist Club (5,397; 57th all-time)
      • #21 retired by the Detroit Pistons
      • College Basketball Hall of Fame Inductee (2006)
    • Bing has actually stated that baseball was his sport of choice growing up, but he decided that he had a better chance of getting scholarships as a basketball player. So there you go, kids: pick an up-and-coming, weird, niche sport over the super popular one, and you could go down as one of the greatest to ever do it.
    • “Score-first point guard” seems a little derogatory. Bing also averaged 6.0 assists per game. But he was definitely one of the earliest examples of a “shooting is also an option” point guard. He averaged 20.6 points per game for his career, peaking at 27.1 in 1968.
    • Bing would definitely be the starting point guard on my “All-Never-Made-the-Conference-Finals Team.” (I think that full lineup would be Bing, Bernard King, Dominique Wilkins, Elton Brand, and Joel Embiid. And before you say anything, Tracy McGrady did play in the Finals. No, it wasn’t much. Yes, it still counts.)
    • Bing was also Mayor of Detroit from 2009-2014, but at one time had an approval rating of 14%, so politics wasn’t really his forte.

​

  • 117. Alex English - 159.8
    • Career - 135.7
      • 1977-1991
      • MIL, IND, DET, DAL
      • 100.7 Win Shares
      • 0.167 Adjusted MVP Award Shares
      • 3x All-NBA Second Team Selection (1982, 1983, 1986)
      • 8x All-Star Selection (1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989)
      • 2.4 Conference Finals Win Shares (1 Conf. Finals loss - 1985 DEN)
    • Peak - 183.9
      • 1982-1986
    • Other achievements
      • Citizenship Award (1988)
      • 20,000 Point Club (25,613; 21st all-time)
      • #2 retired by the Denver Nuggets
      • College Basketball Hall of Fame Inductee (2006)
    • English owns one of the weirder trivia answers of all-time: which player scored the most points in the 1980s? It’s not particularly close either. English totaled 21,018 points in the decade, while second place belongs to Moses Malone with 19,082. (Adrian Dantley, Larry Bird, and Kareem round out the top five.)
    • The only players to score over 20,000 points in a decade? (And I’m talking “calendar” decade here, not just ten consecutive years.) We have Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson (60s), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (70s), English (80s), Karl Malone (90s), and Kobe Bryant (00s). (LeBron was 450 points shy of hitting the mark in the 10s. That bum.)

​

  • 116. Tim Hardaway - 161.4
    • Career - 129.3
      • 1990-1993, 1995-2003
      • GSW, MIA, DAL, DEN, IND
      • 85.0 Win Shares
      • 0.336 Adjusted MVP Award Shares (1 top five finish: 1997 - 4th)
      • 1x All-NBA First Team Selection (1997)
      • 3x All-NBA Second Team Selection (1992, 1998, 1999)
      • 1x All-NBA Third Team Selection (1993)
      • 5x All-Star Selection (1991, 1992, 1993, 1997, 1998)
      • 1.7 Conference Finals Win Shares (1 Conf. Finals loss - 1997 MIA)
    • Peak - 193.6
      • 1995-1999
    • Other achievements
      • WAC Player of the Year (1989)
      • 5,000 Assist Club (7,095; 18th all-time)
      • 1x Olympic Gold Medalist (2000)
      • #10 retired by the Miami Heat
    • This is as good a place as any to bring this up, but it has always bothered me that there are no 1999 All-Stars. One project that I want to do at some point is figure out who the most likely candidates for that season would’ve been, but it’s a difficult task as the season was so short and trying to figure out who would’ve been All-Stars from like a 25ish game sample size is less than ideal. I wouldn’t give any points for it, but it would still be fun.
    • I bring it up for Hardaway because I feel like anyone who made the 1997 and 1998 teams, or the 1998 and 2000 teams, or the 2000 and 2001 teams, should automatically get a free 1999 All-Star stamp on his Basketball Reference page (unless said player wasn’t in the league in 1999 for whatever reason). You could probably talk me out of the “2000 and 2001” selections being guaranteed, but it feels like momentum/inertia would’ve carried the other players to a 1999 nod.
    • Anyway, here’s all the players this would have affected: Ray Allen, Vin Baker, Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter, Tim Duncan, Michael Finley, Kevin Garnett, Eddie Jones, Anfernee Hardaway, Tim Hardaway, Grant Hill, Allan Houston, Allen Iverson, Shawn Kemp, Jason Kidd, Karl Malone, Reggie Miller, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo, Shaquille O’Neal, Gary Payton, Glen Rice, Mitch Richmond, David Robinson, Glenn Robinson, Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace, and Chris Webber. That’s 28 players right there. Carter, Houston, Stackhouse, and Wallace are fairly easy cross-offs, so there you go. Your 1999 All-Stars.

​

    1. Gus Williams - 161.5
    • Career - 116.4
      • 1976-1980, 1982-1987
      • GSW, SEA, WSB, ATL
      • 67.9 Win Shares
      • 0.190 Adjusted MVP Award Shares (1 top five finish: 1982 - 5th)
      • 1x All-NBA First Team Selection (1982)
      • 1x All-NBA Second Team Selection (1980)
      • 2x All-Star Selection (1982, 1983)
      • 2.7 Championship Win Shares (1 title - 1979 SEA)
      • 2.3 Finals Win Shares (1 Finals loss - 1978 SEA)
      • 1.9 Conference Finals Win Shares (2 Conf. Finals losses - 1976 GSW, 1980 SEA)
    • Peak - 206.5
      • 1978-1982
    • Other achievements
      • Comeback Player of the Year (1982)
      • #1 retired by the Seattle SuperSonics
    • Williams very well could have been Finals MVP in 1979. He led the Sonics in scoring, and averaged 29.0/3.6/3.6. Dennis Johnson, who did win FMVP, averaged 22.6/6.0/6.0/1.8/2.2, so really just an all-around performance from him. Jack Sikma was also in the mix with 15.8/14.8/2.0 and 3.2 blocks per game.
    • Williams is also one of the few players who has a “peak” that includes a season he didn’t play. He sat out all of 1981 due to a contract dispute. And even still, he managed a peak of 206.5 (which is impressive), with a title, Finals loss, All-NBA First Team, All-NBA Second Team, and an All-Star Selection.

​

  • 114. Spencer Haywood - 161.9
    • Career - 118.3
      • 1970 (ABA), 1971-1980, 1982-1983
      • DNR, SEA, NYK, NOJ, LAL, WSB
      • 61.4 Win Shares
      • 0.157 Adjusted MVP Award Shares (1 top five finish: 1972 - 5th)
      • 2x All-NBA First Team Selection (1972, 1973)
      • 2x All-NBA Second Team Selection (1974, 1975)
      • 4x All-Star Selection (1972, 1973, 1974, 1975)
      • 0.0 Championship Win Shares (1 title - 1980 LAL)
      • 17.1 ABA Win Shares
      • 0.838 Adjusted ABA MVP Award Shares (1 top five finish, 1 win: 1970 - 1st)
      • 1x All-ABA First Team Selection (1970)
      • 1x ABA All-Star Selection (1970)
      • 2.6 ABA Conference Finals Win Shares (1 Conf. Finals loss - 1970 DNR)
    • Peak - 205.4
      • 1972-1976
    • Other achievements
      • ABA All-Star Game MVP (1970)
      • ABA Rookie of the Year (1970)
      • 1x Olympic Gold Medalist (1968)
      • #24 retired by the Seattle SuperSonics
    • Ah, Spencer Haywood, incredibly skilled, incredibly troubled.
    • The most famous Haywood story is that during the 1980 Finals with the Lakers, he was so coked out of his mind that coach Paul Westhead, sent him away from the team in the middle of the Finals. In a cocaine-fueled rage, Haywood hired a guy he knew from Detroit to come to Los Angeles and kill Westhead. I believe the plan was to cut the brake line’s on Westhead’s car. Luckily cooler heads prevailed, and nobody got assassinated, but damn, what a story.

​

  • 113. David Thompson - 162.6
    • Career - 111.5
      • 1976 (ABA), 1977-1984
      • DNA/DEN, SEA
      • 50.8 Win Shares
      • 0.401 Adjusted MVP Award Shares (1 top five finish: 1978 - 3rd)
      • 2x All-NBA First Team Selection (1977, 1978)
      • 4x All-Star Selection (1977, 1978, 1979, 1983)
      • 1.0 Conference Finals Win Shares (1 Conf. Finals loss - 1978 DEN)
      • 12.4 ABA Win Shares
      • 0.075 Adjusted ABA MVP Award Shares (1 top five finish: 1976 - 2nd)
      • 1x All-ABA Second Team Selection (1976)
      • 1x ABA All-Star Selection (1976)
      • 1.6 ABA Finals Win Shares (1 Finals loss - 1976 DNA)
    • Peak - 213.7
      • 1976-1980
    • Other achievements
      • 3x ACC Player of the Year (1973, 1974, 1975)
      • NCAA Champion (1974)
      • NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player (1974)
      • Consensus National College Player of the Year (1975)
      • ABA All-Star Game MVP (1976)
      • ABA Rookie of the Year (1976)
      • All-Star Game MVP (1979)
      • #33 retired by the Denver Nuggets
      • College Basketball Hall of Fame Inductee (2006)
    • Thompson was one of the first “high-flying” stars in either the NBA or the ABA. Everything he did was above the rim and no one really knew how to handle it. Here are just few examples. They look fairly run-of-the-mill now, but trust me, nobody was dunking like this at the time.
    • Thompson also held the non-Wilt single game scoring record from April 9, 1978, when he scored 73 in a game (without the three pointer, no less) until January 22, 2006, when Kobe Bryant scored 81.
    • Thompson also would have injury and substance abuse problems which would derail his career in 1980 and permanently end it in 1984.

​

  • 112. Bob Dandridge - 163.2
    • Career - 134.0
      • 1970-1982
      • MIL, WSB, MIL
      • 80.3 Win Shares
      • 0.086 Adjusted MVP Award Shares (1 top five finish: 1979 - 5th)
      • 1x All-NBA Second Team Selection (1979)
      • 4x All-Star Selection (1973, 1975, 1976, 1979)
      • 1x All-Defensive First Team Selection (1979)
      • 3.7 Championship Win Shares (2 titles - 1971 MIL, 1978 WSB)
      • 4.4 Finals Win Shares (2 Finals losses - 1974 MIL, 1979 WSB)
      • 2.5 Conference Finals Win Shares (2 Conf. Finals losses - 1970 MIL, 1972 MIL)
    • Peak - 192.3
      • 1975-1979
    • Other achievements
      • #10 retired by the Milwaukee Bucks
    • Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe Bobby D and Wes Unseld have the most Finals appearances in the very parity-heavy decade of the 70s, with four each. (1971 and 1974 with Milwaukee, 1978 and 1979 with Washington for Dandridge. All Bullets appearances for Unseld: 1971, 1975, 1978, 1979). A bunch of guys had three: Bill Bradley, Wilt Chamberlain, Dave DeBusschere, Walt Frazier, Earl Monroe, Willis Reed, Wes Unseld, Jerry West.
    • He gets overshadowed by bigger names on each of those teams, but he was probably the second-best player on three of them, and you could make an argument for all four if you wanted.

​

  • 111. Bobby Wanzer - 163.2
    • Career - 114.9
      • 1949-1957
      • ROC
      • 63.9 Win Shares
      • 3x All-NBA Second Team Selection (1952, 1953, 1954)
      • 5x All-Star Selection (1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956)
      • 2.7 Championship Win Shares (1 title - 1951 ROC)
      • 2.2 Conference Finals Win Shares (3 Conf. Finals losses - 1949 ROC, 1952 ROC, 1954 ROC)
    • Peak - 211.5
      • 1950-1954
    • Other achievements
      • College Basketball Hall of Fame Inductee (2006)
    • I don’t have a ton of information about Wanzer, sadly. But I can tell you he was the first player to ever shoot 90%+ from the free throw line, when he shot 90.4% for the 1952 season.
    • Wanzer also wore the number “09” on his jersey from 1949-1955. League rules forced him to change to just “9” in 1956. This was a Rochester Royals thing that I haven’t been able to get to the bottom of yet. They had three guys were “03” from 1950-1955, and one guy wear “07” in 1951. The team did not have any “single digit” jersey numbers until 1956.