Top 50 Resumes, Part II (Point One)

I didn't have time to do the next ten, so let's just look at a few and see how far we get.

Dave Cowens:

13,516 points, 10,444 rebounds, 2,910 assists

17.6 PPG, 13.6 RPG, 3.8 APG

2 Championships (Boston Celtics - 1974, 1976)

0 Finals Losses

1 MVP (1973)

7 All-Star Selections

0 All-NBA 1st Team Selections

3 All-NBA 2nd/3rd Team Selections

Rookie of the Year (1971), 3 All-Defensive Selections

1.338 MVP Award Shares (4 Top 10 finishes)

Amazingly consistent from 1972-76. PPG for each season was between 18.8 and 20.5 and RPG was 14.7 and 16.2 for those five seasons. And his rookie year before that, and the two seasons after were almost as good. Although I don't understand how he won the MVP in 1973 but was on the All-NBA 2nd team. Does that make sense to anyone?

Billy Cunningham:

13,626 points, 6,638 rebounds, 2,625 assists

20.8 PPG, 10.1 RPG, 4.0 APG

1 Championship (Philadelphia 76ers - 1967)

0 Finals Losses

0 MVP's {1 ABA (1973)}

4 All-Star Selections {1 ABA}

3 All-NBA 1st Team Selections {1 ABA}

1 All-NBA 2nd/3rd Team Selection

0.288 MVP Award Shares (2 Top 10 finishes)

Our second ABA player, although I always forget he played in the ABA since it was just for two years, and he went right back to the 76ers after that. I wonder how the Sixers felt about that? It's also weird how similar Cowens and Cunningham are, and they're back-to-back here on the list. They both played, and peaked (Cunningham slightly earlier) right around the same time. They put up similar numbers (Cunningham was a better scorer, Cowens a better rebounder). Both won the 1973 MVP (One NBA, the other ABA). And both had incredible five year stretches which I think are primarily responsible for them being on this list. Cunningham's was from 1969-73. (The last was in the ABA, but I think he probably would've put up close to the same numbers as the year before for the Sixers had he kept playing the NBA.)

Dave DeBusschere:

14,053 points, 9,618 rebounds, 2,497 assists

16.1 PPG, 11.0 RPG, 2.9 APG

2 Championships (New York Knicks - 1970, 1973)

1 Finals Loss (New York Knicks - 1972)

0 MVP's

8 All-Star Selections

0 All-NBA 1st Team Selections

1 All-NBA 2nd/3rd Team Selections

6 All-Defensive Selections

0.014 MVP Award Shares (0 Top 10 finishes)

Shouldn't one of the 50 greatest players of all time have at least one All-NBA 1st Team selection? He's another guy who probably wouldn't be on my list if I made it from scratch. I think a lot of those guys from the early 70's Knicks teams are a bit overrated. And there's about 6 on this list overall, so we'll see if that hunch holds up. (I mean, Bill Bradley's in the Hall of Fame. Career stats: 12.4 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 3.4 APG, 1 All-Star Game... Come on. Seriously? At least HE isn't on the list.)