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Welcome into another special edition of the What Dry with Nick Right podcast and YouTube show the fifty greatest players of the last fifty years in the NBA. If you haven't caught up yet, we've already done players fifty through thirty five. Today we will finish out the thirties and above give you players thirty four through thirty And I didn't intentionally do this, but this all of these players
kind of pair well together. You have two of the best second options on dynasties, you have two of the best perimeter defensive players ever, and you have one of the most underrated and forgotten players of NBA history paired with someone some would argue is one of the most overrated and far too relevant in the contemporary pop culture and NBA history. So that those are five guys, we will start with number thirty four.
Number thirty four Kevin McHale.
So Kevin mcchale's All NBA and MVP finishes, that part of his resume is not great. He's only first team All NBA one time, he only has one top five MVP finish, is two times six Man of the Year, but six Men of the Year typically aren't top fifty.
All time guys.
And he has six time All Defense And whenever you mentioned Kevin McHale, you have to mention his legendary footwork, a guy that Charles Barkley said was the hardest player he ever had to defend. So when your resume is that light on individual accomplishments, how do you get not only make this list, but make the top thirty five
of this list. Well, he's a three time champion, five time finalist, and he was the second best player on I would argue two of those championship runs, the title in eighty one, he wasn't their second best player yet, but he was Birds robin to Birds batman for the majority of the Celtics dynasty, and he showed up in the biggest moments nineteen eighty five when the Celtics lost
in six to the Lakers. He had thirty two and sixteen in the final game of that series and averaged twenty six and eleven for that series, leading the Celtics in points and rebounds for the eighty five finals. In nineteen eighty six games five and six against Sampson and the Keen.
Again, the two big men.
For Houston in the eighty six finals are Ralph Sampson and Akeem Olajan. What does Kevin McHale do in Games five and six thirty three and eight followed by twenty nine to ten once again in that finals, he leads the Celtics in points per game, So back to back finals he scores more points than Larry Bird. So again, this isn't a situation where it was just Larry Bird carrying the Celtics dynasty. And I understand Parish is a player a lot of historians, and he's on the NBA
Top fifty, in the top seventy five list. I think Parish is a touch overrated and McHale's a touch underrated.
Eighty five and eighty six finals.
McHale leads the Celtics in points per game in both finals, and he's doing it against having to guard Kareem in the eighty five finals, having to guard Sampson or a Keem in the eighty six finals, or at least being a part of it. Obviously Robert Parrish had to deal with the big men on the opposing team as well. Then you go to you move on, and Kevin McHale breaks his foot, and this is kind of the fork in the road moment for him, because today's NBA he'd
have sat down for probably a year. He plays through it, averages twenty one to nine that postseason, which ends in a finals loss to the Lakers. With a broken foot nineteen eighty eight. What happens, He's twenty five and eight on sixty percent shooting in the eighty eight postseason. Again, this is post foot injury, twenty five and eight on sixty percent shooting for the postseason. They lose to Detroit in Eastern Conference Finals. He and in round two, which
was the famous Dominique Larry Bird duel. Kevin McHale quietly goes thirty three and thirteen in a game Boston wins by two, and then after that Bird's back is gone, McHale's foot is gone, and they're done. But if we're going to try to reward winning, if we're going to try to reward real postseason success, we have to acknowledge that Kevin McHale was not just a supporting actor in the se Celtics mini dynasty of the eighties. That's why he comes in number thirty four on the all time list.
Let's go to one of our callers that has a Kevin mcchale question.
Hey, Nick, I know a little bit about Kevin McHale, and you know how important he was these Celtics teams, whether it.
Was the scoring or the rebounding.
You know, he was an enforcer who could also really score the ball. But realistically, what do you think the score of a one on one game would be between Lebron James and Kevin McHale eleven?
Nothing.
I mean, at a certain point, don't you have to be a more competent all round player than just a guy who can, you know, rebound and have good footwork in the post.
Let me know what you think.
Yeah, listen.
Of course McHale would get roasted in a one on one game against many guys, and comparing him to Lebron who's going to show up on the spoiler alert in the top three of this list is unfair. But his contributions to winning basketball cannot be overstated.
And on top of that, what.
I want people to unders and again not to restate my own points, but there's a guy that averaged twenty six and eleven in the eighty five finals average, led the team in scoring in the eighty six finals.
He wasn't just he wasn't a role player.
Now, would a team with Kevin McHale is their best guy have been a champion? Probably not, but would he have undoubtedly had multiple top five MVP finishes instead of just the one. I think so I'm very comfortable with him as the second best supporting actor, if you will, in NBA history, being number thirty four, and that leads us seamlessly to number thirty three.
Number thirty three, Scottie Pippen.
So Scotty Pippins's resume is he's got a lot of things going for me. He is three times first Team All NBA, two times second team All NBA, two time third Team All NBA, ten time All Defense, Top five MVP voting twice, one third place finish, and the first year without Michael Jordan, the Bulls.
Won fifty five games.
And this is where I'm contractually obligated to remind you the Bulls won. Michael Jordan in his career won zero playoff series and only one playoff game before Scotty Pippen was with him, and once he once, Jordan didn't have Pippen anymore. Those Wizard years never saw the playoffs. So let's not act like Scotty Pippen was just writing Jordan's coat tails. So what postseason accomplishment is a big part of this. Obviously second best player on a six time champion his.
Rookie year, Game five, first.
Round elimination game, He's twenty four to six and five against Cleveland for the first Michael Jordan and Chicago Bulls playoff series win.
Now, the next few years are tough for him.
Eighty nine and ninety against the Pistons. Eighty nine in the final game of the.
Series, he only plays one minute.
Ninety in Game seven is the Migraine game. They talked a ton about that in the last dance obviously, but he rallied after that ninety one, the close out game to win the Bulls first title. What did Scotty Pippen do thirty two, thirteen seven and five thirty two points, thirteen rebounds, seven assists, five steals to win their first title the next year ninety two against the Knicks. Now this is important because the Knicks were one of only two teams ever take the Bulls seven games on their
six title runs. Right Game seven against the Knicks seventeen, eleven, eleven and three. By the way, also in that series against the Knicks, in the last dance, they talked about Michael Jordan catching all that flak for going to Atlantic City between games two and three, and then they talked about how in Game four he dropped the double nickel. What they left out of that is Game three. The Bulls are down two. This is the year they win
their second title. Michael goes three for eighteen after gambling all night in ac What does Scotty do? Scotty had twenty nine points on twelve shots to help them stave off going down oh three. They end up winning, obviously, four of the next five, and they end up going to the NBA Finals. That, by the way, in the closeout game to go to the NBA Finals in ninety two.
Twenty nine twelve five, four and four.
Twenty nine points, twelve rebounds, five says, four steals, four blocks.
And then, and this is important, guys.
We already talked about what he did the year without Jordan, but then when there when Jordan is back ninety five, the famous Nick Anderson game, not the miss free throws, but where Jordan gets ripped when they lose to the Magic Scotty was twenty six, twelve and six in that game six loss.
He showed up in that game.
During the playoffs the second three Pat This is when Scotty was a little past his prime. He's eighteen seven and five for the three pat his playoff career high. He actually did his first year without Michael when he was with the Rockets, he scored thirty seven and he's played two hundred and six career playoff games, so two and a half seasons worth of playoff games. He was eighteen eight and five, so one of the greatest defenders ever. He showed up in the postseason after the Migraine moment
in the nineteen ninety and he won six titles. He, without a doubt, deserves to be on this list. Let's go to a caller who is a Scottie Pippen comment.
Hey, Nick, you know why you're overrating Scottie Pippen. Let me remind you who he played with. His name was Michael Jordan, the greatest player to ever play the game. How long did it take Scotty Pippen to get good enough so Jordan could have one damn all star perennial to play with to win championships? It took him four years. The dude came in as an eight points per game scorer.
He had a bad back, He didn't know what he was doing on the court, and day after day and practice after practice, Mike continually lifted him up.
Michael leaves. What does Scotty do?
They lose to the next Tony Kuk coach bails him out in Game three, he doesn't do anything in the fourth quarter. In Game seven against New York, he leaves the Bulls.
What happens in Portland?
They melt down against the Lakers in the fourth quarter, blow a Game seven. He's one chance to go back to the finals. Whenever Michael left. Scotty did nothing. You love to talk about. Oh, they won fifty five games, Yeah, they won fifty five games. They lost in the second damn round. Scotty Pippin without Mike is a very good basketball player period. If Dominique Wilkins had been on the Bulls when Scotty was in eighty eight eighty nine, you know what happens.
They beat the dam Detroit Pistons.
Scotty was killing Michael waiting for him to get good.
Okay, listen, full disclosure.
That's my buddy Mark Carmon, who does a great job on the radio and on.
Television in Chicago.
He is also a Michael Jordan superfan, and like most Michael Jordan's super fans, they try to twist history to make Jordan this deified character as opposed to a three dimensional human being. And here's what I don't do. As you know, some would call me a Lebron guy. I don't try to tear down Dwayne Wade. You're gonna see him in high on this list. I don't try to tear down Anthony Davis. You already saw him on this list.
Jordan fans like to act like Scotty Pippen was a glorified Orlando Woolridge who just Jordan just pulled to the finals. Flatly untrue. So while I love and respect carm he's dead wrong on Pippin. He's the thirty third greatest player ever. We'll be right back.
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All Right, Welcome back in What's Right with Nick Wright's special edition the fifty greatest Players of last fifty years in NBA history. Number thirty four was Kevin McHale. Number thirty three was Scottie Pippen. Number thirty two Kawhi Leonard, three time First Team All NBA, two time second Team All NBA, two time Defensive Player of the Year, three top five MVP finishes, including a second place finish, seven time All Defensive Team.
So that's the individual accomplishment.
The team accomplishments are a little more complicated in the beginning than not complicated at all at the end. He's a two time Finals MVP with a bit of an asterisk. That first Finals MVP, the one he got with the Spurs, is other than Andrea Guidalas and wes Unselds, probably the most curious head scratching Finals MVP ever awarded. He did
have twenty nine to four in game three of those finals. However, he also had consecutive nine point finals games in a finals he won Finals MVP for averaging eighteen points and six rebounds. So that's that's a Finals MVP, but only kind of. However, the next Finals MVP he won, it was a no doubter, and that's what I want to talk about, because he was the best player without a doubt on a champion. And let's talk about the runs
where he was the best player on a team. Twenty seventeen, his last healthy year with the Spurs, Kawhi was twenty eight eight and five, and his shooting splits for that playoff run were fifty three from the field, forty six percent from three, and ninety three percent from the free throw line. That all ended when Zaza Pachulia put his foot underneath them on that corner three pointer in Game one of the Western Garmends Finals, and that essentially also
ended his Spurs run. But then the very next year, the year with Toronto, he had one of the greatest postseason runs ever twenty nineteen Eastern Conference Semifinals. Here's what Kui does Game one, forty five and eleven, Game four thirty nine, fourteen and five, Game seven forty one, eight and three, and oh yeah, by the way, a buzzer beater in Game seven over Joe LMB to move on to the Eastern Gonmerence Finals. What happened in the Eastern
Conference Finals? That was supposed to be the year Yannis broke through. I thought that was gonna be the year Yannis broke through. Remember going on TV saying this is Yanna is gonna win MVP, gonna be the gonna win the championship. The Bucks are rolling, They're up to nothing in that series on Toronto. Game three, goes to I think triple overtime, certainly at least double overtime, and Kauhia is thirty six nine and five down two zho to avoid going down oh three, and they end up winning
four in a row. In Game five of those Eastern Armens Finals, he's thirty five to seven and nine, and for the playoff run, thirty points nine rebounds per game, carrying a good but far from great Raptors team to a championship. Now is that different if Katie doesn't pop his achilles, if play doesn't blow his knee. Maybe, but
Kawhi was there for all of it. Then the twenty twenty one playoff run, So just last year, he's thirty points and eight rebounds a game on fifty seven percent shooting, including forty five and six and a critical Game five against my guy Luca in the MAVs in Round one. But then he tore his ACL and we haven't seen
him since. And thus is the rub with Kawhi. Leonard Kawhi showed us in the twenty seventeen postseason that I mean, this is arguably a top three player, top two player, top one player in the league.
Then he got hurt twenty.
Nineteen posts season, he stays healthy his twenty eighteen base and missal whole year, and they win the title. Twenty twenty, they blow the three one lead twenty twenty one. Oh Man, here comes Kawhi looking like the best player in the league again, and then he gets hurt. So he's the best player on a champion. He's been to three finals, He's won two finals MVPs. But it also feels like we almost haven't seen enough of Kawhi Leonard. That's how
he sits there at number thirty two. One of the greatest perimeter defenders ever and one of the greatest individual single season playoff runs ever.
Kawhi, here's my buddy. Kevin Wilds with a Kawhi Leonard question.
Called me old fashioned. You know what I like? Finals MVPs.
Kawhi, He's got two finals MVPs. Here's a list of guys with two finals MVPs or more. Jordan Lebron, Tim Duncan, Jack Magic, Kawhi has two, kd Kobe, Keem Bird, Kareem Willis Reed, that's it.
That's the list.
Everybody else has.
Got one or none. I didn't name thirty three guys there are thirty two guys. Kawhi's got to be moved up on finals MVPs alone.
It's got to be moved up, all right.
My guy Wilde's his Finals MVP obsession is purely because he's mad that Paul Pierce is not on this list and Paul Pierce as the finals MVP and again on finals MVPs alone. Maybe I would move him up if I valued that first finals MVP as much as other finals MVPs.
I don't. I just flatly don't.
Like guy averaged eighteen and six for that play for that those finals games one. In Games two he had nine points, So I understand you have to give it to someone. I'd have given it to Duncan, but the that was Kawhi's biggest issue. The other issue is this just quickly before I move on, because his top level play has been unbelievable. Kawhi has not played six hundred games. Kawhi does not have how many career assists does he have sixteen hundred career less than four thousand career rebounds.
He's not in the top two hundred and fifty all time in scoring. He's eleven thousand points, And I mean he's thirty. So it's a weird spot where Kawhi. When he's been at his best, he's been unbelievable, but he just hasn't played enough. He's oddly in a similar spot Walton is in. He obviously played more than Walton, but not that much more so that's why I have him where he is. He is number thirty two. And then we get to a guy who playing a lot was
not his issue. The fact that young people don't respect history is his issue.
Number thirty one Elvin Hayes.
Elvin Hayes's numbers are mind blowing. Let me go through one three time first team All NBA, three time second Team All NBA, one time scoring champ, two time rebounding champ, three top five MVP finishes. But here's where it gets crazy. He is fourth on the all time rebounding list. The people ahead of him Wilt Russell and Kareem He is eleventh on the all time scoring list. For his career, he averaged twenty one and thirteen and he played eighty
plus games all sixteen years. By the way, his average, his average for the first twelve years of his career was twenty four points fourteen rebounds, forty two minutes per game, eighty one games per year. That was his average his first twelve years of his career. He missed a total of six games. What are his playoffs accomplishments? A nineteen seventy eight champion and the best player on three finalists.
He doesn't have a finals MVP. More on that in a moment.
Career playoff averages twenty three to thirteen and ninety six career playoff games. Game five of the Eastern Conference Semis nineteen seventy five against Bob mcadoin that really great Buffalo Braves team forty six twelve, five, three and three. They go to the finals in nineteen seventy five, they lose
to Rick Berry. He averages twenty one and eleven. Then to get to the seventy eight finals, he averages twenty three and sixteen to beat Doctor J Who's gonna show up very high on this list, to get to the finals. When they finally break through and win the championship in seventy eight, and this is one of the most egregious voting results in not sports.
History, but in voting history politics.
Student Council Finals MVP in the nineteen seventy eight NBA Finals, Elvin Hayes averaged twenty one and twelve wes Unseld got Finals MVP wes Unseld average for the finals nine and twelve.
That's the true story.
Elvin Hayes twenty one and twelve teammate wes Unseld nine and twelve wes Unseld one Finals MVP. By the way, as a defending CHAMPI in his first playoff game thirty one and fifteen in the first game as defending champ, thirty nine and fifteen in a game seven as a defending champ down while he was down three to one to Gervin in the Spurs twenty five and seventeen averages over the final three games, and then in seventy nine
is the defending champ, he averaged twenty to twelve. In a rematch of the finals, they of course lost to Seattle, who they had beaten the previous year. So Elvin Hayes fourth on the all time rebounding list, eleventh on the all time scoring list, three top five MVPs, but never won at best player on three finalists, won a championship, should have a finals MVP, and was an absolute iron Man. He's got to be somewhere on anybody's top forty at the very least the last fifty years he gets forgotten.
Let's go to our power, Rick Buker, who has an Elvin Hayes question.
Elvin Hayes is one of those guys that often falls through the cracks. So good on you, Nick for acknowledging him. But I have the same question that I had with Clyde Drexler. If Elvin hadn't won a championship in Washington with the Bullets, would we still look at him the same way.
Yeah, no, we wouldn't have. But he was the best player on that team. He was amazing.
Yeah, a lot of these guys, I love Rick Buker, but a lot of these guys, if they hadn't had the crowning achievement of their career, they would be looked at differently. But he did have the crowning achievement of his career. He should have won that finals MVP. He carried that team to the finals, so we look at him the way we do. Went to three finals, the best player on all three teams. It should have won finals.
MVP is unbelievable. Longevity unbelievable production. The number thirty one player of the last fifty years, Elvin Hayes, and now he might be like my god, Nick he did six minutes on Elvin Hayes. Okay, number thirty and what we wrapped the show. One of the most famous players in NBA history and one of the most polarizing players in NBA history.
He's next. All right, I can't believe it.
We are already to number thirty on the fifty greatest players the last fifty years. And listen, this is like eating. You know, you gotta eat your vegetables to get the dessert. The vegetables were the six minutes on Elvin Hayes, who I think gets forgotten. The nice you know, banana cream pie you're getting for dessert or whatever you want is number thirty. A guy everyone has an opinion on. Why did I say banana cream pie.
I'm not sure. I don't even know if I've ever had that.
Number of thirty.
Alan Ivers all right, so iverson three time first team All NBA, three times second Team All NBA, one All.
NBA Third Team. He won League.
MVP obviously, three top five finishes, four time scoring champ three times steals.
Champ career points per.
Game twenty seven that is seventh all time and of the last fifty years, behind only MJ. Lebron and Kevin Durant. What are his postseason accomplishments. He's the best player on a finalist hands down. Three career fifty point game playoff games three times. Only Wilton and Michael Jordan have done that more. Ten career forty point playoff games. That's tenth most all time, the seventh most in the last fifty years.
Thirty points per.
Game in the playoffs second all time, behind only Jordan. Forty five minutes per game in the playoffs third all time, behind only Wilt and Russell. So no player in the last fifty years has played more minutes per game in the playoffs than now. Alan iverson his first career playoff appearance twenty nine points per game in forty five minutes per game his first year in the postseason. But then, what he's all remembered for the most not just the stepover of Tylu, but the.
One finals run. On that finals run.
He was thirty three, five and six on four and forty six minutes per game. He had two fifty point playoff games versus Vince in the Eastern Conference semifinals. This is something and Demonsy's gonna ask me an Iverson question a moment. Not yet, but I almost want to make you go back on YouTube and watch one Eastern Conference semifinals because it's Apex Vince Carter, it's Apex Allen Iverson and they are just trading fifty point games.
It's so good. Ended up ending.
Vince missed a shot Game seven at the buzzer to move on. Iverson then went to play Ray Allen when ray Allen was with the Bucks in the conference finals. But so he has two fifty point games against Vince in the Eastern Conference semis and then against ray Allen in those Bucks He's forty four, six and seven in the elimination game to move on to the finals.
And then in.
That same series, he had forty six in game five when they were trying to move on to the finals against the Bucks, but they lost first NBA Finals, the game of his career forty eight, five and six, the stepover of Tylou. And it should be noted that Lakers team that he beat that was their only loss of that postseason. That Lakers team was running through the playoffs, Iverson beat and that's their only loss of that entire postseason, and they had no business beating them, even that one game.
I mean that Lakers. That was the Apex Shock. Kobe was not Apex Kobe, but he was absolutely amazing and the sixer Steel game one. For those finals, he averaged thirty six, six and four. A couple of years later, gave starts off the playoffs by scoring fifty five against New Orleans, Baron Davis and New Orleans. A lot of people compare him to Russell Westbrook because a lot of volume and not a lot of efficiency.
What I don't think people understand what AI is.
Those teams he was on is certainly early in his career demanded that type of volume. You wanted Aaron McKee taking those shots. You wanted to Kimba taking those shots. You wanted Todd McCullough taking those shots, of course, not Eric snow. Iverson had to be the guy to score. He had to be the guy taking those shots, and he.
Was able to do it.
And he was able to do it despite I've stood next to him shorter than I am. I'm a touch over six feet tall, and he is my height at best. He's the thirtieth greatest player of the last fifty years. He's one of the most iconic and legendary players ever. Alan Iverson demons, what's your Iverson question?
He averaged twenty six points per game in his career.
Yeah, you could draw a straight line from him to Iverson, not Iverson, Curry and Kyrie.
Do you think anybody could have stopped him in any era? Oh no, I think he's getting buckets in any era.
No, no, no, I think Alan Iverson is going to score the II who was too physical in the eighties. No, too, he's too fast. He was an elite athlete. He was an All state quarterback in high school. No, he's one of the greatest athletes ever. His game just didn't age great, and there is an element of the fact that he was not able to readily as to a lesser role, which kind of deprived him of a final act of his career. But he got the absolute most out of
his talent. Some people, listen, there are gonna be some names that are in the twenties, particularly point guards, that people are gonna say Iverson was better than them, And maybe at his apex he was, but those guys were able to play far longer.
But again.
He is tenth all time in career forty point playoff games, third all time in career fifty point playoff games. His playoff average is thirty points per game in forty five minutes per game. The guy was an indefatigable warrior. He is one of the most important players in modern NBA history. He's number thirty on my fifty Greatest Players of Last
fifty years. One Alan iverson. We'll be right back next week where we get into players inside the top thirty, including the most stylish player in NBA history, who also had one of the greatest game sevens in NBA history. That's next week because we can continue the fifty Greatest Players of the Last fifty years and What's Right with Nick Right podcast