Top 100 NBA Players: #47

Dave Cowens

(Kalb: #32, Simmons: #31, BBR: #67)

Dave Cowens was just one in a long line of star players to wear Celtic green, and though he won two championships with the team, that is actually quite low to be considered an all-time Celtic legend. That's not to say that Cowens wasn't a great player, because he was definitely one of the best players in the NBA for a few years.

For four seasons, from 1972 to 1976, Cowens was one of the very best players in the entire league, ranking as one of the top 5 players in the league three times and in the top 10 the other year. During those years, he took the Celtics to two Eastern Conference Finals and two NBA championships. His average stats over that period were very impressive, and they are listed below.

Cowens - 19.7 pts, 15.7 reb, 4.3 ast, 1.2 stl, 1.1 blk

He finished among the top 3 rebounders in each of those seasons, with three straight seasons as the runner-up. He even won an MVP award in 1973, but he wasn't even the best player on his own team that season. John Havlicek, even though he was nearing the end of his career, was still better that season. Here is a statistical comparison:

Cowens - 20.5 pts, 16.2 reb, 4.1 ast, .452 FG%, .779 FT%
Havlicek - 23.8 pts, 7.1 reb, 6.6 ast, .450 FG%, .858 FT%

Cowens had a large lead in rebounding, and Havlicek had the big edge in free throw shooting, so Havlicek's edge in scoring and passing show that he was a better player that year. However, the basketball gods made up for the mistake by giving JoJo White the Finals MVP Award over Cowens, despite Cowens' overall playoff edge. Here are their postseason stats from 1976:

Cowens - 21.0 pts, 16.4 reb, 4.6 ast, .457 FG%, .759 FT%
White - 22.7 pts, 3.9 reb, 5.4 ast, .445 FG%, .821 FT%

White may have scored a few more points than Cowens, but their assist numbers were even closer, and Cowens led all postseason players in rebounding that year. Cowens was the top player on that championship team, and the second-best player on the previous championship team, and was the best player on two Conference Finalists as well. For those few seasons, he was one of the top players in the game.

That's when things got weird. After the Finals win, he spent the night sleeping on a park bench in Boston. When the following season began, Cowens didn't show up, instead spending a couple of months as a cab driver and saying that he felt burnt out. He eventually returned, but was never quite as good as he was before. He ended up retiring at age 31, which is usually the time when most superstars are riding the back end of their peak years.

Wilkins may have been flashier and had a longer career peak, but Cowens was a winner, making it to the Conference Finals in 5 straight seasons, and he was a top-2 player on four of those teams. If Cowens hadn't burnt out, he could have been just as good as Wilkins overall, but the fact that he made a difference in the playoffs gives him an edge over Wilkins, who could never clear the second round.