Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Top 100 NBA Players: #93 - Hal Greer



Hal Greer

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, and he was named to 10 consecutive All-Star teams. 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, 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.

Just like most of the players in this region of the list, Greer only owns one championship ring, and he was never the star of a team that made a deep playoff run, but without his contributions Wilt would have never won a title in his hometown, so he has to be included among the list of the best players of all time.

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