Top 100 NBA Players: #39 - Bob Pettit

Bob Pettit

Teams

Milwaukee/Saint Louis Hawks - 1954-65

Playoffs

Appearances - 9 (1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961,1963,1964,1965)

Conference Finals - 8 (1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961,1963,1964)

NBA Finals - 4 (1957,1958,1960,1961)

Championships - 1 (1958)

Awards and Honors

Rookie of the Year - 1955

MVP - 2 (1956,1957,1958,1959)

All-NBA First Team - 10 (1955,1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1964)

All-NBA Second Team - 1 (1965)

Hall of Fame - 1971

*(actual in bold, deserved in italics)

All-Time Ranks

Rebounds Per Game - #3

Points Per Game - #8

Total Rebounds - #19

Total Points - #45

League Leads

Total Rebounds (#1-1956, #2-1957,1958,1959, #3-1955,1960,1961, #4-1962,1963, #5-1964)

Total Points (#1-1956,1959, #2-1957, #3-1958,1964, #4-1955,1960,1961,1962,1963)

Points Per Game (#1-1956,1959, #2-1957, #3-1958,1962,1963, #4-1955,1960,1961,1964)

Rebounds Per Game (#2-1956,1959, #3-1955,1957,1958,1960,1961, #4-1962,1963, #5-1964)

Bob Pettit was a superstar throughout his entire career at LSU, and after averaging 31.4 points and 17.3 rebounds per game as a senior, he was drafted by the Milwaukee Hawks with the #2 overall pick in the draft.

He was already one of the best players in the league as a rookie. He averaged 20.4 points and 13.8 rebounds, which earned him the Rookie of the Year award and a spot on the All-NBA First Team, and he was just getting started. He would never average fewer points, and only averaged fewer rebounds in his final season. The team, however, missed the playoffs, and they moved to Saint Louis after the season.

He led the league in scoring during his second season, putting up 25.7 per game, and he also led the league in total rebounds with 1164, which averaged out to 16.2 per game. His dominance earned him the NBA's first-ever MVP award at only 23 years old.

Before the next season, the team drafted Bill Russell, then traded him to Boston in exchange for Ed Macauley and Cliff Hagan. Pettit was still the best player in the league that year, but didn't win the MVP after his numbers dropped to 24.7 points and 14.6 rebounds. He led the Hawks to the NBA Finals that year, where they faced Russell and the Celtics, and even though Pettit averaged 30.1 points and 18.3 rebounds for the series, they fell to Boston in overtime in Game 7.

The next year, the Hawks got their revenge, becoming the only team to ever defeat Bill Russell in the Finals. Pettit scored 50 points in the deciding Game 6, which was the playoff scoring record at the time, and it still the record for most points in a championship-clinching game, a record that was tied by Giannis Antetokounmpo in 2021.

The next season was probably Pettit's best overall. He led the league in scoring for the second time, this time with 29.2 per game, and he also grabbed 16.4 rebounds per game, which also earned him his second MVP award. The Hawks lost to the Lakers in the Conference Finals, which kept them from repeating as champions.

Pettit was able to lead the Hawks back to the Finals in each of the next 2 seasons, both of which ended in defeat to the Celtics. His 1960-61 season is another historic one, as he averaged 27.9 points and 20.3 rebounds, one of only 3 players to ever average 20/20 in a full season, joining Wilt and Jerry Lucas. 

He set his career high in scoring in 1962 at 31.1 per game, but the Hawks missed the playoffs for the first time since his rookie season. He continued to play at the same high level for the next couple of years, but the Hawks couldn't get back to the NBA Finals. Finally, in 1964-65, he missed 30 games due to injury, and he decided to retire even though he was still one of the top players in the game.

Pettit was one of the top 5 players in the NBA in each of his first 10 seasons, finishing in the top 5 in both scoring and rebounding in each of those seasons. He was a 2-time MVP, 2-time scoring champ, a rebounding champ, and won a championship, but his career was short for a superstar, with only 1 player ahead of him in this countdown playing for fewer years. Even with his short career, there is no denying that Pettit was one of the greatest to ever play the game.

Top 100 NBA Players: #24 - Elgin Baylor

Elgin Baylor

If you don't know who Elgin Baylor is, you're not alone. He is easily the least recognizable or remembered player remaining, and a big part of that is the era in which he played. Games were not televised, so the only chance fans got to see him was live at the game. Baylor is also one of only four players remaining on this list that never won a championship, but it isn't for lack of trying.

Elgin played 12 full seasons in the NBA, with 8 of those seasons ending in the NBA Finals, 7 against the Boston Celtics. Baylor was the best player on 4 of those teams, #2 on two others, and still the third best player on the team in his 12th season in the NBA. The players who ranked ahead of him on those teams were Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain, so it's not like he was taking a back seat to a flash in the pan. There was one other season in which the Lakers lost to Boston in the Finals with Baylor sitting on the bench with a knee injury.

Baylor was not only a good player on a good team for all those years, he was one of the top 10 players in the league for 10 of his 12 full seasons. As a rookie, he was already the second-best player in the NBA, behind only Bob Pettit, and he only got better from there. Even though he was only 6-5, he averaged 24.9 points, 15.0 rebounds, and 4.1 assists that season, and he was known as the first player to play above the rim, showing hang time that had never been seen before.

His fourth season was 1961-62, the season of incomprehensible stats, and Baylor's numbers that season were yet another example. He had been called to active military duty during the season, so he was only able to play on weekends, but he still managed to participate in 48 games and average 38.3 points, 18.6 rebounds, and 4.6 assists, all during his weekend breaks from the military.

Baylor averaged over 24 points and 10 rebounds for 11 seasons, making him one of the greatest scorer/rebounders under 6-6 in league history, along with Charles Barkley, another player who was never able to win a title. Baylor, however, may have allowed the Lakers to win a title. In 1971-72, he was returning from a major knee injury that had cost him almost a full season, and after nine games he felt that he was holding back a team that could be historically good, so he retired, and the very next game was the beginning of Los Angeles' record 33-game winning streak, and the Lakers also went on to win the title that season. There are not many players who would step aside in order to allow their team to reach their full potential, let alone one as great as Baylor, so that gesture was huge.

Top 100 NBA Players: #25 - Bob Pettit

Bob Pettit

Of the top 25 players of all time, Bob Pettit is probably the least remembered. Part of that has to do with him retiring in 1965, long before most of today's sports fans were following the sport. It also has a lot to do with the fact that he played the majority of his career in Saint Louis, a city that no longer has an NBA team, and with no fan base left to celebrate him, he has been largely forgotten.

Here are some good reason to remember Pettit. For the 4 seasons before Wilt Chamberlain came into the league, Pettit was the best player in the league, winning 2 MVP's and playing in 2 NBA Finals. The MVP award was created in 1956, and Pettit was the first to ever win the award, in just his second year as a pro. Here are his stats from that season, compared with those of Bob Cousy, his nearest competitor:

Pettit - 25.7 pts, 16.2 reb, 2.6 ast, .429 FG%, .736 FT%
Cousy - 18.8 pts, 6.8 reb, 8.9 ast, .360 FG%, .844 FT%

Pettit was the league's leading scorer that year, while Cousy led the league in assists. Cousy was better at the guard stats, and Pettit at the big man stats, so the scoring title made him the better player. In 1957 and 1958, the MVP's were won by Cousy and Russell, but Pettit had a legitimate argument for both. Here are their statistical comparisons from those seasons:

Pettit (1957) - 24.7 pts, 14.6 reb, 1.9 ast, .415 FG%, .773 FT%
Cousy (1957) - 20.6 pts, 4.8 reb, 7.5 ast, .378 FG%, .821 FT%

Pettit (1958) - 24.6 pts, 17.4 reb, 2.2 ast, .410 FG%, .749 FT%
Russell (1958) - 16.6 pts, 22.7 reb, 2.9 ast, .442 FG%, .519 FT%

Pettit and Cousy were both slightly down in 1957, but since Pettit was already the better player before, I believe he was still the better player. The following season it was a little easier to make the comparison, since he and Russell were both big men, and while Russell was a little better from the field and on the boards, Pettit was much better from the line and at scoring in general.

There are only two retired players in NBA history to play at least 3 seasons and score at least 20 points per game in every season they played. Michael Jordan is one of them. The other is Bob Pettit. Pettit led the league in scoring twice, but after Wilt arrived he never led the league again. That didn't prevent him from becoming the first player ever to reach 20,000 points, and he was also the league's all-time leading scorer when he retired.

Another thing that sets Pettit apart and makes him memorable is that he played one of the greatest games in NBA Finals history, and it happened to come in the game in which Bill Russell lost his only NBA Finals. Pettit scored what was then a playoff record 50 points in Game 6, and they needed every one of them to beat Boston 110-109.

Besides that Finals victory, Pettit and the Hawks also made three other appearances in the Finals, losing to the Celtics each time. Pettit was easily the best player on each of those teams, and also on two other teams that lost in the Conference Finals. He was ranked among the top 5 players in the entire league for each of his first 10 season, falling out in season 11 due to an injury that caused him to retire.

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.

Top 100 NBA Players: #13

Elgin Baylor

(Kalb: #13, Simmons: #14, BBR: #20)

If you don't know who Elgin Baylor is, you're not alone. He is easily the least recognizable or remembered player among the top 20, and a big part of that is the era in which he played. Games were not televised, so the only chance fans got to see him was live at the game. Baylor is also one of only three players remaining on this list that never won a championship, but it isn't for lack of trying.

Elgin played 12 full seasons in the NBA, with 8 of those seasons ending in the NBA Finals, 7 against the Boston Celtics. Baylor was the best player on 4 of those teams, #2 on two others, and still the third best player on the team in his 12th season in the NBA. The players who ranked ahead of him on those teams were Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain, so it's not like he was taking a back seat to a flash in the pan. There was one other season in which the Lakers lost to Boston in the Finals with Baylor sitting on the bench with a knee injury.

Baylor was not only a good player on a good team for all those years, he was one of the top 10 players in the league for 10 of his 12 full seasons. As a rookie, he was already the second-best player in the NBA, behind only Bob Pettit, and he only got better from there. Even though he was only 6-5, he averaged 24.9 points, 15.0 rebounds, and 4.1 assists that season, and he was known as the first player to play above the rim, showing hang time that had never been seen before.

His fourth season was 1961-62, the season of incomprehensible stats, and Baylor's numbers that season were yet another example. He had been called to active military duty during the season, so he was only able to play on weekends, but he still managed to participate in 48 games and average 38.3 points, 18.6 rebounds, and 4.6 assists, all during his weekend breaks from the military.

Baylor averaged over 24 points and 10 rebounds for 11 seasons, making him the greatest scorer/rebounder under 6-6 in league history, narrowly edging out Charles Barkley, another player who was never able to win a title. Baylor, however, may have allowed the Lakers to win a title. In 1971-72, he was returning from a major knee injury that had cost him almost a full season, and after nine games he felt that he was holding back a team that could be historically good, so he retired, and the very next game was the beginning of Los Angeles' record 33-game winning streak, and the Lakers also went on to win the title that season. There are not many players who would step aside in order to allow their team to reach their full potential, let alone one as great as Baylor, so that gesture was huge.

While Baylor did not win the championships that Russell did, mostly because of Russell, he did make it to the Finals 8 times, not far behind Russell's 12, and their careers covered almost the exactly same timeframe. Russell was a slightly better rebounder, but he was also at least 6 inches taller, so that's to be expected, but Baylor's worst scoring season was still 6 points per game better than Russell's best. What really puts Baylor ahead here is that he did more with less, since he took the Lakers to all those Finals with only one other star for the majority of his career, while Russell always had at least two, whether it was Cousy, Jones, or Havlicek helping him out.

Top 100 NBA Players: #20

Charles Barkley

(Kalb: #21, Simmons: #19, BBR: #13)

No player in the top 20 did more with less than Charles Barkley, who earned the nickname "The Round Mound of Rebound" because of his short, pudgy stature that didn't seem to lend itself to being a great rebounder, but Barkley didn't let that stop his, and he ended his career as the greatest rebounder under 6-6 in league history.

In his third season in the NBA, Barkley, generously listed at 6-6, led the entire league in rebounding, the shortest player ever to do so, with an average of 14.6 per game. But that wasn't all he did. He was also scoring 23 points per game and handing out nearly 5 assists while shooting nearly 60% from the field on a team that already featured a superstar by the name of Julius Erving.

In 1990, there was a bit of controversy when Barkley came in second in the MVP voting to Magic Johnson despite getting more first-place votes than the Lakers star. Even though those two were the ones that finished at the top of the voting the true MVP that year should have been Michael Jordan, with Barkley placed correctly at #2. Here are those three players' stats for that season:

Jordan - 33.6 pts, 6.9 reb, 6.3 ast, 2.8 stl, .526 FG%, .848 FT%
Barkley - 25.2 pts, 11.5 reb, 3.9 ast, 1.9 stl, .600 FG%, .749 FT%
Johnson - 22.3 pts, 6.6 reb, 11.5 ast, 1.7 stl, .480 FG%, .890 FT%

Looking at these three great players, it's tough to say which is best. Magic was among the league leaders in free throw percentage and assists, and Barkley was among the leaders in field goal percentage and rebounds. The difference is that Jordan was the league leader in both scoring and steals, and finished second among these three in the other four categories.

Three years later Barkley moved to the Phoenix Suns and became the third player ever to win the MVP in his first season after being traded as he led the Suns to the league's best record and their second trip ever to the NBA Finals. Once again that season, Barkley was really the second-best player, because Michael Jordan was still on the court. Here are those two player's stats from 1993:

Jordan - 32.6 pts, 6.7 reb, 5.5 ast, 2.8 stl, .495 FG%, .352 3P%, .837 FT%
Barkley - 25.6 pts, 12.2 reb, 5.1 ast, 1.6 stl, 1.0 blk, .520 FG%, .765 FT%

Once again, Jordan led the league in both scoring and steals, and by this time he had developed a reliable 3-point shot as well. The kicker was when the Bulls defeated the top-seeded Suns in the Finals as Jordan took home his 3rd straight Finals MVP award, while Barkley would never return to the penultimate series.

Two events that happened while Barkley was with his final team, the Houston Rockets, helped cement his legacy of always giving a little more than most would have normally expect of him. In his first game in Houston, he grabbed a career-high 33 rebounds, acknowledging the fact that he was no longer his team's primary scoring option and settling into a role as the guy who had to do the dirty work.

The other memorable happening was the way he ended his career. Early in the 1999-00 season, he suffered a major injury that most assumed would end his career, but Barkley worked very hard on rehabbing his injured quadriceps and returned for one final game in April, in which he was put into the game long enough to grab an offensive rebound and put it back in, after which he walked off the court to a standing ovation and retired immediately, ending his career on a positive rather than a negative note.

The biggest thing that prevented Barkley from progressing farther into the top 20 was that he is one of only 4 players remaining that never won an NBA championship, and he is the only member of the top 20 that played in the Finals only once. Despite his best efforts, which included a triple-double in the Finals against Chicago and 56 points in a first-round game against Golden State, he was never able to become a champion.

Barkley and Pettit had very similar career trajectories, so it is not easy to separate the two. Pettit won a championship, something that eluded Barkley, and led his team to a few other Finals, but Barkley's peak season was superior to Pettit's, and he remained a star-level player for several years after Pettit had called it quits.

Top 100 NBA Players: #21

Bob Pettit

(Kalb: #11, Simmons: #17, BBR: #21)

Of the top 25 players of all time, Bob Pettit is probably the least remembered. Part of that has to do with him retiring in 1965, long before most of today's sports fans were following the sport. It also has a lot to do with the fact that he played the majority of his career in Saint Louis, a city that no longer has an NBA team, and with no fan base left to celebrate him, he has been largely forgotten.

Here are some good reason to remember Pettit. For the 4 seasons before Wilt Chamberlain came into the league, Pettit was the best player in the league, winning 2 MVP's and playing in 2 NBA Finals. The MVP award was created in 1956, and Pettit was the first to ever win the award, in just his second year as a pro. Here are his stats from that season, compared with those of Bob Cousy, his nearest competitor:

Pettit - 25.7 pts, 16.2 reb, 2.6 ast, .429 FG%, .736 FT%
Cousy - 18.8 pts, 6.8 reb, 8.9 ast, .360 FG%, .844 FT%

Pettit was the league's leading scorer that year, while Cousy led the league in assists. Cousy was better at the guard stats, and Pettit at the big man stats, so the scoring title made him the better player. In 1957 and 1958, the MVP's were won by Cousy and Russell, but Pettit had a legitimate argument for both. Here are their statistical comparisons from those seasons:

Pettit (1957) - 24.7 pts, 14.6 reb, 1.9 ast, .415 FG%, .773 FT%
Cousy (1957) - 20.6 pts, 4.8 reb, 7.5 ast, .378 FG%, .821 FT%

Pettit (1958) - 24.6 pts, 17.4 reb, 2.2 ast, .410 FG%, .749 FT%
Russell (1958) - 16.6 pts, 22.7 reb, 2.9 ast, .442 FG%, .519 FT%

Pettit and Cousy were both slightly down in 1957, but since Pettit was already the better player before, I believe he was still the better player. The following season it was a little easier to make the comparison, since he and Russell were both big men, and while Russell was a little better from the field and on the boards, Pettit was much better from the line and at scoring in general.

There are only two retired players in NBA history to play at least 3 seasons and score at least 20 points per game in every season they played. Michael Jordan is one of them. The other is Bob Pettit. Pettit led the league in scoring twice, but after Wilt arrived he never led the league again. That didn't prevent him from becoming the first player ever to reach 20,000 points, and he was also the league's all-time leading scorer when he retired.

Another thing that sets Pettit apart and makes him memorable is that he played one of the greatest games in NBA Finals history, and it happened to come in the game in which Bill Russell lost his only NBA Finals. Pettit scored what was then a playoff record 50 points in Game 6, and they needed every one of them to beat Boston 110-109.

Besides that Finals victory, Pettit and the Hawks also made three other appearances in the Finals, losing to the Celtics each time. Pettit was easily the best player on each of those teams, and also on two other teams that lost in the Conference Finals. He was ranked among the top 5 players in the entire league for each of his first 10 season, falling out in season 11 due to an injury that caused him to retire.

David Robinson started off playing at a higher level than Pettit, and he also hung around longer and won one more championship than him, but he was never the best player in the NBA, which Pettit was for four seasons, and Pettit remained a superstar for much longer than Robinson. The four trips to the Finals were the final piece that pushed Pettit ahead of Robinson to a spot just outside the top 20 players of all time.

Top 100 NBA Players: Intro, Snubs, and #100

I have finally finished analyzing all of the data available from all 65 NBA seasons, and have compiled my listing of the 100 greatest NBA players of all time. As I mentioned in my previous post, players are awarded points based on their performance in each season of their career, as long as they are in the top 10 percent of players in that season. The factors that define these players are most often domination, longevity, all-around skill, and playoff success. Missing games for any reason counts against a player, meaning that several players whose careers were cut short by injuries are either ranked lower than you might expect or may have missed the top 100 altogether.

There are several players you would expect to find on this kind of list that did not have enough impact during their NBA careers to make an appearance here. I am highlighting a few of them here, along with some of the reasons each one is not in my all-time top 100.

Snubs

Dennis Rodman
Rodman misses out on this honor due to the lack of an all-around game. He led the league in rebounding 7 times during his career and won 5 championships, but he was lacking in most other areas. For example, his career averages of 1.8 assists, 0.7 steals, 0.6 blocks, and 58.4% free throw shooting show that rebounding was his only area of strength. Early in his career he led the league in field goal percentage once, but in what should have been the prime of his career, he was so focused on grabbing all the rebounds he could that he only hit over 50% of his shots twice in his final 8 seasons, which includes his 3 years with the Chicago Bulls. If this were a list of the greatest rebounders of all time, he would definitely make the list, but he doesn't make the cut as one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

Bill Walton
Bill Walton is an example of a great player who never reached his full potential due to multiple injuries derailing his career. He missed 3 complete seasons during his prime, and missed at least half of 4 others. In fact, the only time that he missed fewer than 15 games in a single season was 1986, when he was way past his prime and coming off the bench for the Boston Celtics. When he was healthy briefly in 1977 and 1978, he was a dominant player, winning an MVP award and a championship with the Portland Trail Blazers, but two seasons aren't enough to define a player as one of the all-time greats.

Willis Reed
Willis Reed is another former MVP who failed to make my top 100, and with good reason. When he was given the 1970 MVP award, there were several players more deserving of it, most notably Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who missed out on several MVP's for the same reason Michael Jordan did: because they were tired of giving the award to him. Reed also won the Finals MVP award that year and again in 1973, but in both cases the most dominant Knick was not the big man but was in fact their point guard, Walt Frazier. He may have provided the emotional charge the team needed to win in 1970, but Frazier led them to victory.

Tiny Archibald
In 1973 Tiny became the first and probably only player ever to lead the league in scoring and assists during the same season, but his accomplishment is overshadowed by the fact that the Kansas City Kings failed to make the playoffs that season. In fact, they only made the playoffs once with Tiny on the roster, so his big numbers don't really mean that much, do they?

Pete Maravich
Pistol Pete is kind of a combination of Dennis Rodman and Bill Walton as far as this list is concerned. Pete was a great scorer with great shooting range, but that was about it. His career lasted only 10 seasons, and the majority of those years saw numerous games missed due to injury. His teams only reached the playoffs 4 times, and never advanced very far, and his career shooting percentage was only 44%, which is kind of strange for a person whom many consider to be one of the greatest shooters ever.

Wes Unseld
The third and final MVP to miss my top 100, Unseld suffered from extreme overrated-ness. He led the Bullets to a huge turnaround as a rookie, for which he was named Rookie of the Year, but for some reason he was also named the MVP of the entire league that year also. I don't have an argument with him being awarded ROY that season, but there were at least 20 other players in the league that outplayed him that season, including immortals such as Don Kojis and Zelmo Beaty. His popularity earned him another award late in his career, the Finals MVP he was given in 1978, but he was probably only the 3rd-best player on that team, behind Elvin Hayes and Bob Dandridge. For some reason the voters loved the undersized and overrated center.

Robert Horry
I mentioned earlier that playoff success was an important piece of my formula, but it's more than just winning championships. Leading teams to the championship, or at least being a significant contributor to it, means much more than just getting a ring. Horry may have more rings than anyone who didn't play for the Celtics in the 60's, but he was never one of the top 2 players on a championship team, and he only made solid contributions to 5 of those 7 winners. In addition, he was never once among the top 10% of NBA players during a single regular season in his career. I guess that the number of championships won is not the only argument you need for greatness.

Now that I've run through several of the players who failed to make the cut, I'm now ready to unveil the final player who did reach the exclusive club consisting of the 100 greatest NBA Players of all time. I realize that several others have compiled similar lists in the past, and I have included rankings from 3 other sources for comparison's sake. Those 3 rankings come from Who's Better, Who's Best in Basketball by Elliot Kalb (top 50), The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons (top 96), and the Elo-Player Rater at www.basketball-reference.com (top 500).

Without further ado, let's begin the fun with today's featured player, ranked at #100......

Cliff Hagan

(Simmons: #84, BBR: #189)

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 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. His total value is summarized in the graph below.

The value assigned in this chart refers to an adjusted version of all of a player's bad contributions subtracted from all of his good ones. It is adjusted for the player's position, and also for his shooting percentages and games missed. A value of 30 or more is generally enough to place a player among the top 10% for a season. Hagan reached this value for 5 straight regular seasons as well as 3 playoffs during his career, which is more than any of the snubs can say, which is why he is here at #100 instead of them.