Top 100 NBA Players: #96 - Cliff Hagan

Cliff Hagan

Many people today are probably not even aware of who Cliff Hagan is. This is probably due to the fact that he retired from the NBA in 1966, long before many of today's fans were around. Hagan's career didn't start until the age of 25, because the served 2 years in the Air Force before finally making his way to the NBA, and before he had even played a single game, he was traded, along with Ed Macauley, from the Boston Celtics to the Saint Louis Hawks for the draft rights to Bill Russell. That was only the start of his connection to Russell.

During his first 5 seasons in the league, Hagan and the Hawks made it to the NBA Finals 4 times, each of those times facing off with the man he was traded for and the team that traded him, Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics. Even though they won only one championship in those 4 tries, the fact remains that they were the only team to defeat Bill Russell in the NBA Finals. Much of the credit for that championship has always been given to Hagan's more famous teammate, Bob Pettit, but I believe that Hagan was the true catalyst behind their title. To prove my point, let's compare the two players' statistics for the 1958 playoffs.

Hagan - 27.7 pts, 10.5 reb, 3.4 ast, .502 FG%, .838 FT%
Pettit - 24.2 pts, 16.5 reb, 1.8 ast, .391 FG%, .729 FT%

These categories, along with personal fouls, were the only statistics recorded back then, and they tell the story very well. Pettit outperformed his teammate in only one category in the playoffs, while Hagan dominated Pettit in most of the others. Pettit may have been a better player for longer, but in the 1958 playoffs, it was Hagan who reigned supreme.

Hagan's career peak came in 1960, his 4th in the NBA, when he averaged 24.8 pts, 10.7 reb, 4.0 ast, .464 FG%, and .803 FT%. While those averages are all very good, they still don't compare to what he did during the Hawks' title run. Today a player with those averages in a single season would be considered a superstar, so there is no reason that Hagan should not also be added to that group.

Hagan's late start contributed to his early peak and quick dropoff, and starting his career at the same time as Bill Russell also prevented him from winning more titles, but the fact remains that he was the best player on the only team to beat Russell in the Finals, and that, along with 4 other All-Star seasons, was enough to make Hagan one of the top 100 players of all time.