Gus Williams
(BBR: #170)
Gus Williams played like a superstar for several years in Seattle, yet then and now he is underappreciated for what he accomplished. Most fans today haven't even heard of him, and the professionals who have ranked the all-time greats like I'm doing also ignored him completely, but there are some good reasons to put him on this list.
Williams was the best player on the 1979 NBA Champion Seattle SuperSonics, but even then he was overlooked for a more recognizable teammate, Dennis Johnson, when it came to the voting for Finals MVP. The truth is that Johnson was awarded the MVP because of the way he had bounced back after going 0 for 14 in the deciding game of the Finals the previous season, but Williams was still the better overall player. Here are their stats from the playoffs:
Johnson - 20.9 pts, 6.1 reb, 4.1 ast, 1.6 stl, .450 FG%, .771 FT%
Williams - 26.6 pts, 4.1 reb, 3.7 ast, 2.0 stl, .476 FG%, .709 FT%
There was some pretty good balance between the two guards among these five categories during that postseason, but Williams outscored Johnson by more than 5 points per game, and in my opinion was the real reason that Seattle won the series and the championship.
Williams had been the second-best player on the Sonics during their run to the Finals the previous season, and he was once again the best player for Seattle as they advanced to the Western Conference Finals in 1980. That's 3 straight seasons of making at least the Conference Finals as the star of the team or his top sidekick. He was obviously feeling unappreciated at this point, so he sat out the following season in a contract dispute, a season that most likely would have been his best, judging by his career trajectory, which you can see in the chart below.
When he returned after a one-season hiatus, he picked up right where he left off statistically, actually improving in many categories, but he was never able to see the same playoff success as he had before. He never made it past the second round again in his career, but he was still enough of a star to be worthy of some recognition. Here are his stats for the 3 years before and after the holdout season.
Williams (1977-1980) - 19.8 pts, 3.3 reb, 4.2 ast, 2.3 stl
Williams (1981-1984) - 20.7 pts, 2.7 reb, 7.8 ast, 2.3 stl
He may not have received the recognition he deserved back when he was starring for Seattle or today, but he hasn't been forgotten here, and there is no way I can leave a player this talented off of my top 100.
Williams and Stoudemire both took an entire season off after their peak seasons, Stoudemire for knee surgery and Williams for a contract dispute. Their regular season success is pretty similar, with Williams holding a slight edge because we've been able to see his entire career already, and the slight edge in playoff success due to leading Seattle to the title puts him above Stoudemire any way you look at it.
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