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Add Steve Nash in there. He was great at going baseline, weaving in and out of traffic to make a play. As the classic line goes, he "made his teammates better".
1. Pistol Pete Maravich
2. Larry Bird
3. John Stockton
4. LeBron James
5. Magic Johnson
A pretty good list. I would have Magic at #2 though. Don't know if LeBron would be considered a top 5. Kind of doubt it. I like how you recognized Pistol Pete. Most people just remember his scoring prowess. Someone to also consider even though it's from your grandparent's days is Bob Cousy. Granted the skill sets from then to today have greatly improved, but in his day he was without equal.
Magic Johnson
John Stockton
Lebron James (leads the league in assists this season!)
Isaiah Thomas (Pistons)
Mugsy Bogues
Tim Hardaway Arvydas Sabonis
If Sabonis is mentioned (and he was one of the best passing centers of all time), then Bill Walton needs to be mentioned too in the same breath. Bill Russell often finished second on his Celtics teams in assists; he was a very good passer at the center position as well.
Add Steve Nash in there. He was great at going baseline, weaving in and out of traffic to make a play. As the classic line goes, he "made his teammates better".
He was also one of the best ever at making the guy he was guarding better.
Otherwise, looking at the list of seasonal assist leaders you come away with:
Stockton 9
Cousy 8
Big O 6
Kidd\Nash 5
Magic 4 (2 other guys had that)
I'd go with those 6 guys and tie Magic and Nash at 5th.
It's such a tough pick because assists hurts the guys that were beastly scorers or more hybrid types while Stockton was more of your classic floor general.
Like imagine the assist numbers someone like Lebron, Jordan, Kobe etc. would put up if that was their focus instead of putting up 30 points.
You guys need to youtube both Pistol Pete and Larry Bird because for my money, I'm taking them # 1 and # 2 over everyone else. And that's not to take away from Magic, Kidd, Nash or any of these other great passers....
This is a hard list to compile since "great passing" is a lot more subjective than great scoring. Assists aren't necessarily indicative of great passing the way points per game are indicative of great scoring. The fact that no one has even mentioned Russell Westbrook (despite having almost an identical # of career APG as Nash and back to back triple double seasons) underscores this point.
The best passers I've seen, in real-time or on YouTube, are (in no particular order):
Magic Johnson
Lebron James
Ben Simmons
Those are my top three. I think they are cut above the rest (Kidd and Stockton, included).
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