Top 100 NBA Players: #70

Kevin Johnson

(Simmons: #93, BBR: #90)

Kevin Johnson may be remembered most for the injury-plagued seasons that filled the latter half of his career, but many may have forgotten that, once upon a time, he was one of the greatest point guards to ever take the court. Don't believe me? Let's look at a few of the things KJ did that few others have ever done.

Kevin Johnson is one of only three players ever to average over 20 points and 10 assists in three straight seasons. The other two players are guys you've probably heard of: Oscar Robertson and Isiah Thomas. He is one of only two players to average over 20 points and 12 assists while shooting over 50% from the field in a season. The other is Magic Johnson (no relation).

There are all sorts of variations of these stats that you can come up with that only those four players had ever accomplished, and the only player in the past 20 years to come close to those numbers is Chris Paul. During just his second season in the NBA, he was named the league's Most Improved Player and made the All-NBA Second Team because of these numbers:

Johnson - 20.4 pts, 4.2 reb, 12.2 ast, 1.7 stl, .505 FG%, .882 FT%

You have to remember that KJ was not a big man, only 6-1 and 190 pounds, but he was still grabbing 4 rebounds and shooting over 50% from the field. But if KJ was so great, why is he ranked this low? The problem started in the 1992-93 season, when he missed 33 games with various injuries, mostly to his hamstrings. From then on, he never played more than 70 games in a season, and he only reached the 20-ppg plateau two more times.

Johnson saw his teams make it at least to the Conference Finals three times during his career, including two trips to the Western Conference Finals in his second and third seasons, when he was either the best or second-best Sun. In 1993 the Suns made it to the NBA Finals, and he was probably the #3 player on that team, behind Dan Majerle and Charles Barkley. He did set a Finals record during game 3, when he played 62 minutes (out of 63 possible) in the triple overtime victory over Chicago.

What KJ accomplished early in his career was truly historic, and that alone would be enough for me to put him in this top 100, but it's sad that it didn't continue for longer. If he had just had the durability of Steve Nash, we might be talking about him as one of the top 3 point guards of all time, but instead he has to settle for a spot closer to the bottom of the top 100.

Johnson had almost exactly the same playoff career as Latrell Sprewell, but he had a couple of seasons early in his career that Sprewell could only have dreamed of. KJ's career ended a little bit sooner, but what he did early on was enough to put him ahead of Latrell.