Long Research Project

I believe that too much focus is placed on championships when evaluating individual players. Certainly great players elevate their games in clutch moments, but championships are won by teams. For the sake of narrative simplicity, championships often get personified by an individual or small group. No matter what the causes of the Patriots three Super Bowls, Brady and Belichick will be the figures who leap out as the symbolic faces of those championships. As a result, Brady will get credit for winning the championships. In fact, the Patriots team won the championships (though I am firmly convinced that Brady and Belichick are the primary reasons they won the championships).

I thought I'd go back to 1957 (Bill Russell's rookie season, and in my mind the start of the NBA as we know it) and look at each season's champion. I would pick out the team's best player, then pick out the second best player, and see if there are other notable greats on the team. I can make arguments about why I'd choose a player as the best or second best on the team, but I'll save them for now. Choosing comes from statistical and non-statistical reasoning. The point here is to look at the individual players who personify their teams' championships, and then see what help there was.

I'm collecting the data from basketball-reference.com. For the second best players, I'll list their ppg, rpg, and apg to illustrate their contributions. I'm giving regular season stats, but I'm looking at playoff stats too to determine importance to team.

I'm doing this for two reasons. First, I want to show that most great players that win championships do so because they have other great players around them. Second, I want to see which players we could say really did carry teams to championships; in other words, who won titles with the worst #2? That's hard to say in the cases of teams that are legendary for their team play, but I'll still take Rick Barry in '75 and Hakeem Olajuwon in '94 for winning titles without a great #2 at the time.

1957: Boston Celtics
Best Player: Bill Russell
#2: Bob Cousy (20.6-4.8-7.5)
Others: Bill Sharman

1958: St. Louis Hawks
Best Player: Bob Pettitt
#2: Cliff Hagen (19.9-10.1-2.5)

1959: Boston Celtics
Best Player: Bill Russell
#2: Bob Cousy (20.0-5.5-8.6)
Others: Bill Sharman, Sam Jones

1960: Boston Celtics
Best Player: Bill Russell
#2: Tom Heinsohn (21.7-10.6-2.5)
Others: Bill Sharman, Bob Cousy, Sam Jones

1961: Boston Celtics
Best Player: Bill Russell
#2: Tom Heinsohn (21.3-9.9-1.9)
Others: Bill Sharman, Bob Cousy, Sam Jones

1962: Boston Celtics
Best Player: Bill Russell
#2: Tom Heinsohn (22.1-9.5-2.1)
Others: Bob Cousy, Sam Jones

1963: Boston Celtics
Best Player: Bill Russell
#2: Sam Jones (19.7-5.2-3.2)
Others: Bob Cousy, John Havlicek

1964: Boston Celtics
Best Player: Bill Russell
#2: Sam Jones (19.4-4.6-2.7)
Others: John Havlicek

1965: Boston Celtics
Best Player: Bill Russell
#2: Sam Jones (25.9-5.1-2.8)
Others: John Havlicek

1966: Boston Celtics
Best Player: Bill Russell
#2: Sam Jones (23.2-5.1-3.2)
Others: John Havlicek

1967: Philadelphia 76ers
Best Player: Wilt Chamberlain
#2: Hal Greer (22.1-5.3-3.8)
Others: Chet Walker, Billy Cunningham

1968: Boston Celtics
Best Player: Bill Russell
#2: John Havlicek (20.7-6.7-4.7)
Others: Sam Jones

1969: Boston Celtics
Best Player: Bill Russell
#2: John Havlicek (21.6-7.0-5.4)
Others: Sam Jones

1970: New York Knicks
Best Player: Willis Reed
#2: Walt Frazier (20.9-6.0-8.2)
Others: Dave DeBusschere

1971: Milwaukee Bucks
Best Player: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#2: Oscar Robertson (19.4-5.7-8.2)

1972: Los Angeles Lakers
Best Player: Wilt Chamberlain
#2: Jerry West (25.8-4.2-9.7)
Others: Gail Goodrich

1973: New York Knicks
Best Player: Walt Frazier
#2: Earl Monroe (15.5-3.3-3.8)
Others: Dave DeBusschere, Willis Reed, Jerry Lucas

1974: Boston Celtics
Best Player: Dave Cowens
#2: John Havlicek (22.6-6.4-5.9)
Others: Jo Jo White

1975: Golden State Warriors
Best Player: Rick Barry
#2: Jamaal Wilkes (14.2-8.2-2.2)

1976: Boston Celtics
Best Player: Dave Cowens
#2: Jo Jo White (18.9-3.8-5.4)
Others: John Havlicek

1977: Portland Trailblazers
Best Player: Bill Walton
#2: Maurice Lucas (20.6-11.4-2.9)

1978: Washington Bullets
Best Player: Elvin Hayes
#2: Wes Unseld (7.6-11.9-4.1)
Others: Bob Dandridge

1979: Seattle Supersonics
Best Player: Gus Williams
#2: Dennis Johnson (15.9-4.7-3.5)
Others: Jack Sikma

1980: LA Lakers
Best Player: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#2: Magic Johnson (18.0-7.7-7.3)
Others: Jamaal Wilkes, Norm Nixon

1981: Boston Celtics
Best Player: Larry Bird
#2: Robert Parish (18.9-9.5-1.8)
Others: Cedric Maxwell, Tiny Archibald, Kevin McHale

1982: LA Lakers
Best Player: Magic Johnson
#2: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (23.9-8.7-3.0)
Others: Jamaal Wilkes, Norm Nixon

1983: Philadelphia 76ers
Best Player: Moses Malone
#2: Julius Erving (21.4-6.8-3.7)
Others: Andrew Toney

1984: Boston Celtics
Best Player: Larry Bird
#2: Robert Parish (19.0-10.7-1.7)
Others: Kevin McHale, Dennis Johnson

1985: LA Lakers
Best Player: Magic Johnson
#2: Kareem Abdul Jabbar (22.0-7.9-3.2)
Others: James Worthy, Byron Scott

1986: Boston Celtics
Best Player: Larry Bird
#2: Kevin McHale (21.3-8.1-2.7)
Others: Robert Parish, Dennis Johnson, Bill Walton)

1987: LA Lakers
Best Player: Magic Johnson
#2: James Worthy (19.4-5.7-2.8)
Others: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Byron Scott

1988: LA Lakers
Best Player: Magic Johnson
#2: James Worthy (19.7-5.0-3.9)
Others: Byron Scott, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

1989: Detroit Pistons
Best Player: Isiah Thomas
#2: Joe Dumars (17.2-2.5-5.7)
Others: Dennis Rodman

1990: Detroit Pistons
Best Player: Isiah Thomas
#2: Joe Dumars (17.8-2.8-4.9)
Others: Dennis Rodman

1991: Chicago Bulls
Best Player: Michael Jordan
#2: Scottie Pippen (17.8-7.3-6.2)

1992: Chicago Bulls
Best Player: Michael Jordan
#2: Scottie Pippen (21.0-7.7-7.0)

1993: Chicago Bulls
Best Player: Michael Jordan
#2: Scottie Pippen (18.6-7.7-6.3)

1994: Houston Rockets
Best Player: Hakeem Olajuwon
#2: Otis Thorpe (14.0-10.6-3.6)

1995: Houston Rockets
Best Player: Hakeem Olajuwon
#2: Clyde Drexler (21.4-7.0-4.4)

1996: Chicago Bulls
Best Player: Michael Jordan
#2: Scottie Pippen (19.4-6.4-5.9)
Others: Dennis Rodman

1997: Chicago Bulls
Best Player: Michael Jordan
#2: Scottie Pippen (20.2-6.5-5.7)
Others: Dennis Rodman

1998: Chicago Bulls
Best Player: Michael Jordan
#2: Scottie Pippen (19.1-5.2-5.8)
Others: Dennis Rodman

1999: San Antonio Spurs
Best Player: Tim Duncan
#2: David Robinson (15.8-10.0-2.1)

2000: LA Lakers
Best Player: Shaquille O'Neal
#2: Kobe Bryant (22.5-6.3-4.9)
Others: Glen Rice

2001: LA Lakers
Best Player: Shaquille O'Neal
#2: Kobe Bryant (28.5-5.9-5.0)

2002: LA Lakers
Best Player: Shaquille O'Neal
#2: Kobe Bryant (25.2-5.5-5.5)

2003: San Antonio Spurs
Best Player: Tim Duncan
#2: Tony Parker (15.5-2.6-5.3)
Others: David Robinson

2004: Detroit Pistons
Best Player: Ben Wallace
#2: Chauncey Billups (16.9-3.5-5.7)
Others: Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace

2005: San Antonio Spurs
Best Player: Tim Duncan
#2: Manu Ginobli (16.0-3.4-4.4)
Others: Tony Parker

2006: Miami Heat
Best Player: Dwyane Wade
#2: Shaquille O'Neal (20.0-9.2-1.9)