I have a request for blog post: Ranking the 10 (or so) best white NBA players of all time. 

I’m not gonna pretend that a lot of my opinions about basketball are HEAVILY informed by Bill Simmons’ bible basketball, The Book of Basketball (which by the way is probably the most entertaining book a basketball fan could ever read).  So I’m gonna give you his top 10, then tweak it based on the seasons that have past since the paperback’s publication and my own differing opinions - which may or may not be justifiable. 

10. Kevin McHale (#35 overall) (13 years, 10 qualit, 7 All-Stars… Top 5 (‘87)… All-Defense (6x, three 1st… season leader: FG% (2x)… 2nd-best player on one champ and 2 runners-up; 6th man for 2 other champs… 2-year peak 24-9-3 60% FG… 3-year Playoffs peak 24-9, 59% FG… 3rd-best Playoff FG ever, 100+ games (56.6%)… career: 55% FG (12th) 80% FT)

9. Dave Cowens (#31 overall) (11 years, 8 quality, 7 All-Stars.. ‘73 MVP… ‘75 MVP runner-up… ‘71 Rookie of the Year… Top 10 (‘73, ‘75, ‘76)… All-Defense (2x)… Playoffs 14.4 RPG (5th all-time)… 4-year peak: 20-16-4, 46% FG… 4-year Playoffs peak: 21-16-4 (50 g’s)… best or 2nd-best player on 2 champs, 21-15-4 (36 g’s)… starter for 68-win team)

8. Bill Walton (#27 overall) (10 years, 4 quality, 2 All-Stars… ‘77 Finals MVP… ‘78 MVP, ‘77 runner-up… Top 5 (‘78), Top 10 (‘77)… All-Defense (2x)… leader: rebounds (1x), blocks (1x)… best player on 1 champ, 6th man on 1 champ… ‘77 Playoffs: 18.2 PPG, 15.5 RPG, 5.5 APG, 3.4 BPG

7. Rick Barry (#26 overall) (14 years, 10 quality, 12 All-Stars… ‘75 Finals MVP… Simmons MVP (‘75)… Top 5 NBA (‘66, ‘67, ‘74, ‘75, ‘76), Top 5 ABA (‘69, ‘70, ‘71, ‘72), Top 10 (‘73)… ‘67 All-Star MVP… season leader points (1x), FT% (9x), steals (1x)… best player on 1 champ and runner-up… ‘67 Playoffs: 35-8-4 (15 G); ‘75 Playoffs: 28-6-6, 44% FG, 92% FT (17 G)… 3-Year ABA Playoffs peak: 34-8-4, 49% FG (31 G)… 3-year NBA Playoffs peak: 27-7-6, 45% FG, 91% FT (40 G)… career: 24.8 PPG (13th), 89.3 FT (3rd), 5.1 APG… 25K Point Club

6. John Stockton (#25 overall) (19 years, 10 quality, 10 All-Stars… Top 5 (‘94, ‘95), Top 10 (‘88, 89, ‘90, ‘92, ‘93, ‘96), Top 15 (‘91, ‘97, ‘99)… Playoffs record: most assists (24)… 5-year peak: 16-3-14… leader: assists (9x), steals (2x)… ‘88 Playoffs: 19-4-15 (11 G)… 2nd-best player on 2 runner-ups… Playoffs: 13-10.4, 80% FT (182 G)… missed 22 games total, played 82 games in 17 of 19 seasons… career: assists (1st), games (3rd), steals (1st)

5. Bob Cousy (#21 overall) (13 years, 13 quality, 13 All-Stars… ‘57 MVP… Top 5 (‘52-‘61), Top 10 (‘62, ‘63)… two All-Star MVPs… records: most assists in one half (19), most playoffs FTs made (30)… leader: assists (8x)… 2nd-best player on 6 champs… 3-year Playoffs peak: 20-6-9 (32 G)… career: 18-8-5, 38% FG, 80% FT

4. Bob Pettit (#17 overall) (11 years, 10 quality, 11 All-stars… MVP: ‘56, ‘59… Runner-up” ‘57, ‘61… Top 5 (‘55-‘64), Top 10 (‘65)… ‘55 Rookie of the Year… 4 All-Star MVPs… 3-year peak: 28-18-3… leader: scoring (2x), rebounds (1x)… career: 26.4 PPG (6th), 16.2 RPG (3rd)… Playoffs: 26-15-3 (88 G)… best player on one champ and 3 runners-up… first member of 20K-10K club)

3. John Havlicek (#14 overall) (16 seasons, 13 quality, 13 All-Stars… ‘74 Finals MVP… Top 5 (‘71-‘74), Top 10 (‘64, ‘66, ‘68, ‘69, ‘70, ‘75, ‘76)… All-Defense (8x, five 1st)… 3-year peak: 27-9-8… 4-year Playoffs peak: 27-9-6 (57 G)… leaer: minutes (2x)… most career assists for a nonguard (6,114).. best or 2nd-best player on 4 champs, played for 8 champs (8-0 in Finals)… Playoffs: 22-7-5 (172 G)… career: minutes (10th), points (14th)… 25K Points Club

2. Jerry West (#9 overall) (14 years, 12 quality, 14 All-Stars… ‘69 Finals MVP… Simmons MVP (‘70)… MVP runner-up: ‘66, ‘70, ‘71, ‘72… Top 5 (‘62, ‘63, ‘64, ‘65, ‘66, ‘67, ‘70, ‘71, ‘72, ‘73), Top 10 (‘68, ‘69)… All-Defense (4x)… records: Fts, season; points, Plaoff series… leader: scoring, assists (1x)… career: 27 PPG (5th), 27-7-6, 47% FG, 81% FT… 4-year peak 30-6-6… Playoffs (153 G): 29.3 PPG (3rd)… Finals 30.5 PPG (55 G)… best player on 1 champ, best or 2nd-best player on 8 runner-ups… averaged a 26-5-10 during LA’s 33-game winning streak… 25K Point Club)

1. Larry Bird (#5 overall) (13 years, 10 quality, 12 All-Stars… Finals MVP: ‘84, ‘86… MVP: ‘84-‘86… Simmons MVP (‘81)… runner-up: ‘81, ‘82, ‘83, ‘88… ‘80 Rookie of the Year… Top 5 (‘80-‘88), Top 10 (‘90)… All-Defense (2x)… leader: threes (2x), FT% (4x)… 5-year peak: 28-10-7, 51% FG, 90% FT… 4-year Playoffs peak: 27-10-7, 50% FG, 90% FT (84 G)… ‘84 Finals: 27-14-3… ‘86 Finals: 24-10-10…. ‘87 Playoffs: 27-10-9, 43.9 MGP (23 G)… career: 24-10-6, 50% FG, 88.6 FT% (9th)… highest career APG, forwards (6.1)… Playoffs: 24-10-6.5, 89% FT… best player on 3 champs and 2 runner-ups… member of ‘92 Dream Team… 20K Point Club

Solid list for 2010, but if you wanna get riled up about 5 of those guys playing all or most of their primes for the Celtics (Bird, Havlicek, Cousy, Cowens and McHale) and a 6th contributing significantly for them multiple seasons (Walton), fair enough.  The other white guys in the top 50 are Steve Nash (#36, 1 slot below McHale), George Mikan (#38), Dirk Nowitzki (#39), Dave DeBusschere (#46), and Billy Cunningham (#49).  If you wanna count half of Jason Kidd, he’s #42.  

Now, after the 2011 NBA Finals, Simmons went on the record calling Dirk Nowitzki one of the top 20 players of all time (LeBron James is #20 in the book.  LOL!).  I agree - Dirk’s performance throughout the 2011 NBA Playoffs was unbelievable and as time goes on it’ll become more and more legendary.  

I do have beef with Bob Pettit so high, though.  Sure, he was dominant in his time, but for most of the time BLACK PEOPLE DIDN’T PLAY IN THE NBA.  This pisses me off for a number of reasons; yeah, he still played well as more and more black guys joined, but he was a horrible racist.  Why does this matter?  For one, racism of players obviously did nothing to speed up the integration process; and two, HIS TEAM DRAFTED BILL RUSSELL AND TRADED HIM TO THE CELTICS FOR WHITE GUYS.  How much of this was due to the racism of the team, led by Pettit?  I don’t know.  But they spent most of the following decade (and the rest of Pettit’s career) getting their brains bashed in by Russell and the Celtics, in their good years.  He only won one title, which is especially hurtful considering he had his chance in the all-white era.  Oh yeah, that was the one year between ‘57 and ‘66 that Russell’s Celtics didn’t win it all.  Cause Russell was hurt.  In what now seems like the most obvious benefit of not being racist ever, the Celtics became the greatest sports dynasty of the past 60 years because they were the first to fully embrace African-Americans on the team.  See kids?  Racism is bad even if you’re a totally selfish prick. 

There’s also some minor things that need addressing: McHale over Cowens doesn’t make sense to me given how much better the NBA was during McHale’s time (there was no ABA), his extra ring, his better stats, and his status as maybe the best post player of all time.  He also cut short his own career by playing on a BROKEN FOOT in the ‘87 playoffs, while Cowens cut his own career short temporarily by retiring and becoming a cab driver for a little while.  McHale also gets bonus points for basically inventing the modern concept of the 6th man.  So yeah… still don’t get what was going on here in Simmons’ head.  

The question of Walton is big.  Walton was basically one of the most dominant players of all time for about two years, but then he got hurt and never was the same.  How does that compare to someone like John Stockton, who was never close to being the best player in the league at any time but was very very good for an amazingly long period?  Simmons kind of equivocates here… he puts Walton higher than guys like David Robinson because he’d rather have the peak, but then he puts him lower than Stockton. My feeling is this: when we judge a player’s greatness, we need to focus on his peak, rewarding players with greater longevity only when the respective peaks are similar in quality.  For example, Magic over Bird.  In Simmons’ words, Walton at his peak “guaranteed you a championship,” while Stockton, despite his consistency never even won one.  As for Rick Barry, he never lost his talent but made stupid ass decisions that hurt his team, while Walton proved to be one of the greatest teammates of all time on the ‘86 Celtics.  If Barry suffers a crippling injury in his 4th year, this discussion never even happens.  So without further ado… 

THE TOP 10 GREATEST WHITE GUYS IN NBA HISTORY:

10. Kevin McHale - Maybe I’m a bit biased because he traded the C’s KG for a giant pile of dog shit

9. John Stockton - I remember watching him play, but I also remember rooting against him very hard because he was going against Michael Jordan and I was 7 and that’s who you rooted for when you were 7

8. Rick Barry - Even if he was a prick, he still had the numbers and a ring

7. Bill Walton - Even if it was for less time, I’d rather this guy on my team than the last two

6. Bob Pettit - Still think he’s a dirty racist, but how much can you penalize one of the Top 5 Players of an era?

5. Bob Cousy - Invented the fast break, one of the NBA’s first superstars, and oh yeah, won a shitload of titles for the Celtics

4. Dirk Nowitzki - Doesn’t have as many rings as some of the other guys, but he also didn’t have Bill Russell or Larry Bird on his squad.  Plus, HE BEAT THE HEAT. 

3. John Havlicek - 8 rings, great teammate, and his numbers are nucking futs.  Still the C’s all-time leader in points.

2. Jerry West - It’s usually pointless to play what-if’s because there’s so many outside factors, but Bill Russell denied this guy like 7 more rings.  If Russell never came into the league, it’s possible that West would be remember as the consummate winner instead.  He also had baller numbers.  AND… he’s the NBA logo!

1. Brian Scalabrine - The greatest teammate in the history of sports, and the one and only factor driving the C’s ‘08 title run and Derrick Rose’s MVP Award.

Just Kidding.

1. Larry Bird - Is anyone in the world going to argue this?  

Deuces