Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Top 100 NBA Players: #76


Hal Greer

(Simmons: #46, BBR: #69)

Hal Greer was a great player during the entire decade of the 60's, but he was never quite as successful being the alpha dog as he was being the second banana. The best years his team enjoyed during his tenure were the years where either Dolph Schayes or Wilt Chamberlain had taken over as the star of the team. The presence of another star didn't diminish Greer's stats, it just added to his playoff success.

From 1960 to 1970, Greer's scoring average was always between 19.5 and 24.1, his rebound average between 4.7 and 7.4, and his assist average between 3.4 and 5.1. He was known as a player you could always count on to be there and to do his job, but he never fully stood out as a superstar, he was always just a very good All-Star.

Greer's most productive years came alongside Wilt Chamberlain with the Philadelphia 76ers, where they made it at least to the Eastern Conference Finals 3 times in 4 years, winning the championship in 1967, which broke Boston's 8-season championship streak. It's obvious that Wilt was the star of those teams, but Greer was his #2, the guy with the outside shot who could hit his free throws.

Greer's best playoff run came during that championship season, when he averaged 27.7 points to lead the team, while Wilt averaged 21.7 points, 29.1 rebounds, and 9.0 assists. His next two best playoff scoring averages came during the two years that they lost in the Eastern Conference Finals, which shows that the team made it farther in the playoffs when Greer was on top of his game.


You can see from the chart that White had a slightly higher career plateau than Greer, but Greer maintained his longer. White has one more title than Greer, but Greer was the undisputed #2 player on his title team, while White was probably just third best. Greer sets himself apart because of the length of time that he was able to maintain such a high level of play.

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