Official #71 NBA Player Of All Time According To ISH
#70 - Lenny Wilkens. Lenny was one of the greatest point guards of his day. Drafted in the guard heavy 1960 draft that included West and Robertson, Wilkens made his own mark in the league. He made 9 All-Star appearances in his 15 season career. He played with the St. Louis Hawks and helped them to the NBA Finals in his rookie season. Two seasons later (a season after being oin the Military) he was an all-star. He came in 2nd to Wilt Chamberlain for the 1968 MVP and had his career high in points the next season. He was tops on assist in 1970 and the next, he won All-Star game MVP.
| PPG 16.5 | RPG 4.7 | APG 6.7 | SPG 1.3 | 9 NBA All-Star Games
All-Star Game MVP
Assist Leader
1 NBA Finals Appearance
ISH 100 Greatest NBA Players of All-Time
1. Michael Jordan
2. Wilt Chamberlain
3. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
4. Earvin 'Magic' Johnson
5. Larry Bird
6. Bill Russell
7. Shaquille O'Neal
8. Oscar Robertson
9. Hakeem Olajuwon
10. Tim Duncan
11. Jerry West
12. Julius Erving
13. Moses Malone
14. Elgin Baylor
15. Bob Pettit
16. John Havlicek
17. Karl Malone
18. George Mikan
19. David Robinson
20. Isiah Thomas
21. Charles Barkley
22. John Stockton
23. Bob Cousy
24. Kobe Bryant
25. Rick Barry
26. Scottie Pippen
27. Clyde Drexler
28. Gary Payton
29. Willis Reed
30. Patrick Ewing
31. Allen Iverson
32. Walt Frazier
33. Elvin Hayes
34. George Gervin
35. Jason Kidd
36. Dave Cowens
37. Kevin Garnett
38. Bob McAdoo
39. Nate Thurmond
40. Wes Unseld
41. Kevin McHale
42. Dolph Schayes
43. Dominique Wilkins
44. Bill Walton
45. Sam Jones
46. Kevin Johnson
47. Dennis Rodman
48. Dirk Nowitzki
49. Steve Nash
50. Billy Cunningham
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51. Nate 'Tiny' Archibald
52. 'Pistol' Pete Maravich
53. Tracy McGrady
54. Hal Greer
55. Jerry Lucas
56. Robert Parish
57. Earl 'the Pearl' Monroe
58. Bernard King
59. Artis Gilmore
60. Alex English
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61. James Worthy
62. Joe Dumars
63. Bill Sharman
64. Reggie Miller
65. Paul Arizin
66. Sidney Moncrief
67. Dave DeBusschere
68. Dave Bing
69. David Thompson
70. Lenny Wilkens
Players to consider: Walt Bellamy
Adrian Dantley
Connie Hawkins
Spencer Haywood
Grant Hill
Dennis Johnson
Bob Lanier
Alonzo Mourning
Dikembe Mutombo
Chris Webber
#70 Greatest Player Voting Lenny Wilkens = 4 votes Vince Carter = 4 votes
Connie Hawkins = 2 votes
Bob Lanier = 1 vote
Grant Hill = 1 vote
Chris Webber = 1 vote
Dennis Johnson = 1 vote
Neil Johnston = 1 vote
----- :: As you can see both Lenny Wilkens and Vince Carter had four votes each. But since I couldn't get anyone else to vote last round, I went back 3 rounds and added up the totals from each player ::
#69 Greatest Player Voting
Lenny Wilkens = 2 votes // Vince Carter = 0 votes
#68 Greatest Player Voting
Lenny Wilkens = 2 votes // Vince Carter = 1 vote
#67 Greatest Player Voting
Vince Carter = 1 vote // Lenny Wilkens = 0 votes
Lenny Wilkens came out on top with four votes compared to Vince Carter's two votes.
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Re: Official #71 NBA Player Of All Time According To ISH
Quote:
Originally Posted by otmtheshank
I've decided to vote for Dennis Johnson.
Dennis has a great combination of accolades that should get him on this list in the near future....
5 Time All-Star
6 All-NBA Defensive First Team
3 All-NBA Defensive Second Team
3 Time NBA Champion
1 Finals MVP
2 Top Ten Finishes in MVP voting(5th, 8th)
2 Other Seasons with MVP votes(21st, 18th)
Dennis Johnson's career stats are modest(14 ppg, 5apg, 4rpg), but he had all the intangibles a player should have. His greatest skill was arguably his defense. Dennis was one of the few players who could control the legendary Magic Johnson. Dennis shut Magic down as well as anybody could in the 1984 NBA Finals, allowing the Celtics to defeat their archrivals. Another example of Dennis's outstanding defense was against Philadelphia and Andrew Toney. Toney torched the Celtics the year before DJ's arrival. Next year, Dennis took him Toney completely out of the game, and allowed the Celtics to advance past the 76ers.
Dennis could do a lot more than just defense though, he could do practically whatever his team needed him to do. During his early days in Seattle he was mainly counted on to score and defend. His versatility reached another level during his Phoenix tenure. During his first year, he had to adjust to the Sun's fast-paced style. He adjusted well, and put up a career high PER, along with being an integral part in the Sun's 57 win season. His role with the Boston Celtic's changed dramatically. Instead of the athletic, highlight reel scorer Dennis was in his earlier days, he played played point guard for the Celtics, and continued to develop a solid mid-range game.
His separate Season career high's show some of his versatility....
Top Scoring Seasons
19.5, 19, 18.8
Top Rebounding Seasons
5.1, 5.1, 4.7
Top Passing Seasons
7.8, 7.5, 6.8
Dennis played great in the regular season, but played even better in the play-offs. He won a finals MVP with the Sonics after putting up 20ppg, 6rpg, and 4 apg in the play-offs, while playing smothering defense on Grevey/Dandridge.
In other play-off years....he put up
-22ppg, 4.4 rpg, 4.6 apg
-18ppg, 7.7 rpg, 5.7 apg
-19ppg, 9 apg
Individual play aside, Dennis Johnson was considered one of the greatest team players to ever play the game. Every team he played on was successful. Every team Dennis played on won atleast 40 games, including numerous seasons where his team won over 50/60 games. Dennis was also as durable as a player can come, playing in at least 70 games for his team each season.
Larry Bird himself named Dennis Johnson the greatest teammate he's ever had. Larry's played with quite a few great players.... McHale, Parish, Tiny, Pete, and yet he thought of DJ as a greater teammate than all of them.
I think what I wrote gives you a a good feeling of DJ's greatness, and I barely even got into DJ's clutch play's and amazing basketball IQ.
Achievements:
DJ: 5-time all star, Finals MVP, 6 all-defense first teams, 3 all-defense 2nd teams, 1 all-nba 1st team, 1 all-nba 2nd team
Bellamy: Rookie of the year, 4 time all star, field goal % leader,
Lanier: 8-time all star, All star game MVP.
Johnston: 6-time all star, 4 all-nba 1st team, 1 all-nba 2nd team, field goal % leader 3 times, rebound leader, 3 time scoring champ,
Dantley: 6-time all star, rookie of the year, 2 all-nba 2nd teams, 2 time scoring champ.
Putting all those factors in, I believe each and every one of the players I mentioned should be on the list before Dennis Johnson.
Re: Official #71 NBA Player Of All Time According To ISH
Walt Bellamy
Honors: Elected to Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (1993); NBA Rookie of the Year (1962); Four-time NBA All-Star; Olympic gold medalist
(1960)
James Worthy Honors: Elected to Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (2003); NBA champion (1985, '87, '88); NBA Finals MVP (1988); All-NBA Third Team (1990, '91); All-Rookie Team (1983); Seven-time NBA All-Star (1986-92); One of 50 Greatest Players in NBA History (1996).
I'm voting for James Worthy over Walt Bellamy, Chris Webber, Mitch Richmond, Neil Johnston, Vince Carter and Dennis Johnson
Last edited by haji_d_robertas : 09-03-2007 at 06:37 PM.
Official #71 NBA Player Of All Time According To ISH
