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I love the fact that lowlevel and P47 took the time to actually write their posts on this thread and didn't even make a suggestion to the discussion.
Minor annoyance: Can you actually add to the discussion when you decide to click on the thread? .
Well, I opened the thread having mistaken it for being in the baseball forum. I don't know enough about basketball players to make a valid comment about "under the radar" players. I saw the punctuation comment and just wanted to add to the ridiculousness. You're certainly welcome to ignore it if desired.
I think Pippen gets his dues from most fans. I do see some people questioning his greatness some times, but overall I think he is recognized as a great player. I certainly think he was.
For some reason, I feel like Mitch Richmond never got his props. He played most of his career in Sacramento, so he had little exposure. He did make the HOF, so his greatness was recognized. But amongst fans, you never hear people talk about The Rock!! Mitch Richmond gave everybody the business when he played. Other than MJ, Mitch was probably the best SG in the league, and he did it all with absolutely no help around him (not counting his brief years in GS).
Another one was Mitch Richmond's team mate Sarunas Marciulionus. He was yet another guy who had an abbreviated career due to injuries. He was wiry strong and people seemed to just bounce off of him. His best year was 1991. As a guard his FG% was .538. He shot .788 from the free throw line, averaged 3.4 assists and 18.9 points.
Another one was Mitch Richmond's team mate Sarunas Marciulionus. He was yet another guy who had an abbreviated career due to injuries. He was wiry strong and people seemed to just bounce off of him. His best year was 1991. As a guard his FG% was .538. He shot .788 from the free throw line, averaged 3.4 assists and 18.9 points.
Buck Williams, who I've said in a different thread in this forum belongs in the Hall of Fame, comes to mind immediately.
Buck was a little ahead of my time, but by the looks of his stats, he looks like he was a solid player.
Another player that I was only able to catch the tail-end of his career when he was mostly a roll player/enforcer, but was apparently awesome early in his career is Terry Cummings. Wish I'd seen him play early on...
Buck was a little ahead of my time, but by the looks of his stats, he looks like he was a solid player.
Another player that I was only able to catch the tail-end of his career when he was mostly a roll player/enforcer, but was apparently awesome early in his career is Terry Cummings. Wish I'd seen him play early on...
I remember watching Terry Cummings at DePaul. He was probably the best of a series of forwards to come out of DePaul U under Ray Meyer. Mark Aguirre might argue with that. Cummings averaged 23.7 pts/game and 10.4 rebounds his rookie year...not too shabby.
He had a knee injury at age 30, and dropped off the table after that. Excellent example of OP's point.
I think I might even put Otis Thorpe and Kevin Willis in this conversation. Maybe they were closer to very good than great, though. They played in a physical era with great forwards, though and that's why they might have the tendency to get overlooked. Willis consistently finished second to Rodman in rebounding for years. Thorpe helped protect the paint for the back to back Rockets championship runs and complemented Hakeem quite well.
I think Michael Finley fits well in this category. 1st team all rookie team. Led the team in scoring, assists, and steals on a team that had Dirk AND Kidd. Set a record (at that time) for playoff 3 pointers (8 for 9) for the team. Tied an NBA record one time by recording 8 steals in one half. averaged a shade under 20 ppg for the first 10 years of his career and was a great defensive player as well. Just a solid solid player who I never hear anything about. I am glad he got his ring with the Spurs as that has to be the ultimate comfort after which nothing else mattered.
Buck was a little ahead of my time, but by the looks of his stats, he looks like he was a solid player.
Williams' contributions are best measured by his team's statistics. Check the Nets' and Trail Blazers' win-loss records immediately before and after he joined each team. He was very highly regarded in basketball preview publications released in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Otis Thorpe and Kevin Willis weren't quite as good (or as highly regarded by analysts of that time) as Williams, but both were considered to be good to very good players (Thorpe in particular).
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