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Passing the Torch: From Dolph to Duncan
Jason posted 6/13/2007 from ballhype.com
Like it or not, the Spurs are about to capture their 4th title in the past 9 years, and Tim Duncan is a huge part of it. In The Magazine last month, Bill Simmons made the case for The Big Fundamental being the best NBA player of the past 10 years. It got me to thinking ... if Duncan's the best player from the past 10 years, what about prior 10-year periods? '87-'97 seems pretty obvious, but what about '77-'87? Or '90-'00? And, is Duncan really the best of '97-'07?
To answer these questions, I looked to John Hollinger's Player Efficiency Rating (PER)--a pretty good overall measure of individual ability that happens to be available for every player dating back to 1951-52, thanks to the fantastic Basketball-Reference.com site. For each 10-year period, I first identified all players who played at least 23,616 minutes (which equates to 36 minutes a game in 80% of a team's regular season contests). In a nod to a certain former White Sox minor leaguer, players who reached the minutes threshold but didn't play in all 10 seasons were included. I then calculated which player had the highest average PER across the period. Because PER is a per-minute statistic, I weighted the season ratings according to minutes played.
Not surprisingly, calculating the results for every 10-year period beginning with '51-'61 resulted in a nifty passing-the-torch sequence--like the new Jones on the NBA header graphic, but not as Laker-rific. And, according to this calculation, Duncan is indeed the best player from the past 10 years (and the only 10-year leader who wasn't selected as one of the 50 Greatest NBA players of all-time in 1996).
Here are all of the 10-year leaders, listed in chronological order. Decade(s) led appear just below each name. For example, '51-'61 refers to the period beginning with the '51-'52 season and ending with the '60-'61 season.
 | Dolph Schayes'51-61, '52-626'7" forward-center ... league's all-time leading scorer at time of retirement ... didn't miss a game between '52 and '61 ... broke his right arm and played almost an entire season in a cast ... member of both the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame ... son Danny played for 7 NBA teams. |
 | Bob Pettit'53-63, '54-64, '55-656'9" power forward ... league's all-time leading scorer at time of retirement ... averaged 16.2 rebounds a game for his career ... full name: Robert E. Lee Pettit ... 1st team All-NBA for first 10 seasons, 2nd team in 11th ... cut from high school basketball team as a freshman and sophomore ... the original power forward. |
 | Wilt Chamberlain'56-66, '57-67, '58-68, '59-69, '60-70, '61-71, '62-72, '63-73, '65-757'1" center ... league's all-time leading scorer at time of retirement ... logged enough minutes to qualify for '56-'66 decade even though he didn't join the league until '59 ... averaged 50.4 points and 25.7 rebounds in 48.5 minutes per game in '61-62 ... led league in assists in '66-67 (7.8 per game) and shooting (.683) ... only 4,124 saw his 100-point game (that's 15,876 less than his 2nd-most notable number). |
 | Jerry West'64-746'2" guard-forward ... nicknames: Mr. Clutch, Mr. Consistency, The Logo, Zeke from Cabin Creek ... averaged 27.0 points per game for career ... reached NBA Finals in 9 of 13 seasons with Lakers ... playoffs scoring average (29.1) second only to MJ ... broke his nose 9 times ... son Jonnie redshirted the 2006-07 season at West Virginia University. |
 | Walt "Clyde" Frazier'66-'766'4" point guard ... nickname stems from (Bonnie and) Clyde-like hat he used to sport ... the real hero of the Willis Reed game: 36 points, 19 assists and five steals ... so cool off the court and on, he would barely even sweat ... signed one of the first athlete-shoe deals for the Puma Clyde ... "swishing and dishing," "out-hustling, out-muscling," "moving and grooving," "shaking and baking," "posting and toasting." |
 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar'67-77, '68-78, '69-79, '70-80, '71-81, '72-82, '73-83, '74-84, '75-85, '76-86, '77-877'2" center ... league's all-time leading scorer ... figured prominently in worst chat in Internet history and best jacket seen in a game ... "has heard that crap since UCLA" ... once sued former Dolphins running back Karim Abdul-Jabbar ... "busts his buns every night" ... owned Larry King, Alexandra Paul, Martina Navratilova and Reggie Jackson in Celebrity Jeopardy. |
 | Larry Bird'78-88, '79-'896'9" forward ... scored 49 points in his last triple-double in '92 ... three-peat MVP awards in 83-84, 84-85, and 85-86 ... legendary trash-talker, baited Dr. J in famous '84 fight ... when it was signed in 1979, $650k/year rookie contract was richest ever ... dubious homage: 2005 Oklahoma City convict asked that his sentence be changed from 30 years to 33 years ... absolutely will not pay $1 for a glass of lemonade. |
 | Magic Johnson'80-90, '81-'91, '82-'926'8" point guard ... league's all-time assists leader at time of retirement ... as a rookie, played every position on the court in 42-point, 15-rebound, 7-assist championship-clinching performance ... "Buck has come to play his way and his way is to thwart" ... "The Magic Hour" lasted 3 weeks longer than "The Chevy Chase Show." |
 | Charles Barkley'85-'956'4" power forward ... 11-time All-Star, 13-time all-interview teamer ... once mistakenly spit on a little girl instead of a racist heckler because he "didn't get enough foam" in the package ... traded to Suns for Hornacek, Perry, and Lang in one of the most lopsided deals ever ... one-time Republican who counted Dan Quayle as a golfing buddy ... Leading scorer for original dream team: "I don't know anything about Angola, but I know they're in trouble." |
 | Michael Jordan'83-93, '84-'94, '86-'96, '87-'97, '88-'986'6" shooting guard ... The Man ... unlike most players, "love-of-the-game clause" in Bulls contracts allowed him to play in the offseason ... named greatest athlete of the 20th century by ESPN ... NBA career records: most scoring titles (10), highest career scoring average (30.12) most times robbed of MVP award (5) ... drafted Kwame Brown and Adam Morrison. |
 | David Robinson'89-'99, '90-'00, '91-'017'1" center ... chose jersey number 50 after his idol--Ralph Sampson ... as an incoming Naval Academy plebe, posted top overall gymnastics score ... poured in 71 points in the last game of the 1994 season to overtake Shaq for the scoring title ... nice guy ... notched a rare quadruple double in 1994 as well. |
 | Shaquille O'Neal'92-'02, '93-'03, '94-'04, '95-'05, '96-'067'1" center ... 4 championships in the past 8 years ... nicknames include: Superman, Diesel, The Big Aristotle, The Big Baryshnikov, M.D.E (Most Dominant Ever), L.C.L. (Last Center Left) ... "I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok." ... picked up an online MBA through the University of Phoenix in 2005. |
 | Tim Duncan'97-'077'0" forward-center ... as a teenager, was a star swimmer before Hugo wiped out island's only Olympic pool ... suffers from Selachophobia ... 2nd to Adonal Foyle in career NCAA blocked shots ... at 16, rumored to have played Alonzo Mourning to a tie in a 1-on-1 game ... rarely-discussed fact: Celtics actually had the inside track in the Duncan lottery. |
There you have it--by one measure, the biggest NBA stars of the past 55 years. The most notable omission is probably Bill Russell, who anchored a Celtics team that won 11 titles in 13 years. The problem is, Russell was always more of a "wins" guy than a "stats" guy, and he played at the same time as the greatest stats guy the league has seen to date.
Questions from here: how long does Duncan carry the torch, and who's up next?
