Bill Sharman
Bill Sharman was probably the first great shooting guard in NBA history. During his era, guards never shot over 40% from the field, but Sharman did it 9 straight times. He was also the first great free throw shooter, never shooting worse than .844 from the line, which included 7 seasons leading the league, and his .932 in 1959 stood as the best in history for nearly 20 years.
Sharman also won 4 NBA titles as a starter for the Boston Celtics at the end of his career. He was never the best player on those title teams, but he was the second-best player on the 1957 champs, then third or 4th best on the other 3 winners as Bill Russell and Tom Heinsohn emerged as stars. Here are his, Russell's, and Cousy's stats from that 1957 title run:
Sharman - 21.1 pts, 3.5 reb, 2.9 ast, .381 FG%, .953 FT%
Russell - 13.9 pts, 24.4 reb, 3.2 ast, .365 FG%, .508 FT%
Cousy - 20.2 pts, 6.1 reb, 9.3 ast, .324 FG%, .747 FT%
You can see that Sharman provided the scoring and shooting while Russell had the muscle and Cousy distributed the ball. What's most interesting is that Sharman had a better field goal percentage than his center, and he was only 6-1. He was one of the 5 best regular season players 3 times, including his peak years of 1956-57 and 1957-58, where he and Bob Cousy were the best duo in the league. Look at their overall stats from those two years:
Sharman - 21.7 pts, 4.5 reb, 3.1 ast, .420 FG%, .900 FT%
Cousy - 19.3 pts, 4.9 reb, 7.3 ast, .365 FG%, .833 FT%
Both were great scorers and rebounders for their position and era, both got a lot of assists in a time in which they were tougher to get, and both could hit free throws with the best of them. Putting these two together in the backcourt at that time would be similar to putting Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson together in the late 1980's. Can you imagine losing with that combination. It's no wonder they won 4 titles in 5 years.
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