Jamaal Wilkes
Jamaal Wilkes came into the NBA in 1974 as the 11th pick in the draft by the Golden State Warriors, after a collegiate career with UCLA that included two championships and overlapped the famous 88-game winning streak by the Bruins. When he arrived in the pros, he had an immediate impact, earning the Rookie of the Year award with averages of 14.2 points and 8.2 rebounds per game.
The Warriors finished with the top record in the West that season, and he also had a big impact in the playoffs, helping Rick Barry and the Warriors win the championship in a huge upset over the Washington Bullets, and he was already the #2 player on the title team as a rookie.
Wilkes took on a bigger role over the next couple of years, but the Warriors were unable to duplicate their championship run, with an upset loss to Phoenix in the conference finals in 1976 and an even earlier exit the next season. After his third season, he walked away as a free agent to join the Los Angeles Lakers, which turned out to be a great career move.
In his third season with the Lakers, Magic Johnson joined the team as a rookie, and with Kareem also playing a large role, Los Angeles won their first title in 8 years. His two teammates were obviously the stars of the team, but Wilkes averaged 20.0 points per game for the first time in his career, and when Kareem missed the clinching game 6 of the Finals, Wilkes stepped up in a big way, picking up 37 points and 10 rebounds, although his performance is often overlooked due to Magic's 42 points and 15 rebounds in the same game.
Magic went down with a knee injury early the next season, and Wilkes compensated with a career-high 22.6 points per game, which earned him a spot on the All-Star team, but without Magic the team was unable to win a playoff series. When he returned the following year, the Lakers returned to the top, earning the top seed in the West and making it back to the Finals, where they won another title, though Wilkes' role was slightly diminished due to the emergence of Norm Nixon, who led the team in scoring during the playoffs.
He had two more good seasons left in the tank at that point, maintaining a decent scoring average while holding down a starting role in LA, and the Lakers reached the Finals in each of those seasons, where they lost each time, but by the 1984 playoffs he was no longer playing a major role on the team.
Overall, he earned 3 NBA titles during his career, all as a big contributor but not a superstar, and was also a big part of another team that lost in the Finals. He averaged double figures in scoring for an entire decade, and was over 17 points per game for the 8 of those seasons. He was never the best player on his team, but he knew his role and played it well, leading to a lot of playoff success, and a spot among the top players of all time.
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