There are so many great unselfish players who brought success while retaining such an offensive advantage. I'm surprised only KJ mentioned Bird, he was just as good as anybody, amongst the tier and likes of his best friend, Magic Johnson. Both had incredible basketball intelligence due to great court vision as well as lightning quick while still obtaining such an amazing sense of pinpoint accuracy, hence they're my choice. Their passes could be the difference between loss and victory.
Only a few people mentioned Kidd? He's still young, but he's up there with the best of them. When the thread starter visualized a player on the break who'd give up a shot to throw the ball in the backboard for someone else to dunk it, Kidd came into mind at once. Come on guys, this guy wouldn't shoot if he can dish it. Unless they're counting on him to take the shot.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Waneko:</div><div class="quote_post">You beat me to it. Can't have this conversation without mentioning Mark. He clearly had an instinct to get guys the ball at the right time and was never a shoot first guy. He never got enough credit for it though. Now if you ever saw him pay pro-am ball in the summer, you wouldn't believe it's the same guy.</div> He did world's for the Pacers during Larry Brown's run and the Knicks before that..he doesn't get any credit at all as far as I can see..he was a true point guard. BTW I saw him play at Rucker and he schoolin' them cats left and right. And this was when he was 36 or so,still did his little shimmy too. lol
The Pistol was indeed a great passer,just scope his turnover stats to see that. But I still rate some cats above him.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Trail_Blazer76:</div><div class="quote_post">It's a true shame that only one person thus far has shown love to Maravich.</div> No doubt man. Pistol Pete is the gold standard. These others (Magic, Bird, J. Williams, Hardaway, Jackson, Stockton, Kidd, Payton) all learned from this man. The Big O gets honorable mention based on stats, but not on artistry.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Trail_Blazer76:</div><div class="quote_post">It's a true shame that only one person thus far has shown love to Maravich.</div> He was the guy I was going to say. I would say Stockton over Magic, but by a hair.
Magic Johnson was the best. He could pass the ball to someone that no one else on the court even knew was there. There are a lot of names that come to mind when thinking of the great passers in the game, but Magic was the greatest.
