#dan issel

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Flashback: A Night in Long Island

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Dan Issel Autograph Card

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Denver Nuggets' legend Bryant Stith interview: Part 2

Denver Nuggets’ legend Bryant Stith interview: Part 2

By Daniel Paiz

In Part 1 of our interview with Denver Nuggets’ legend Bryant Stith, you learned about his early playing days, his college career at Virginia, and how things started out in Denver. That last thing discussed was that historic series with the Seattle Supersonics in 1992. Let’s jump right back into that part, where Stith describes how things started against Seattle.

“Game 1 was a…

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Interviewing Denver Nuggets' legend Bryant Stith Part 1

Interviewing Denver Nuggets’ legend Bryant Stith Part 1

By Daniel Paiz

It’s not everyday you to interview a professional athlete, current or retired, let alone a Denver legend. Thanks to the connectivity of social media, I was able to reach out and have a brief interview with one of the Denver Nuggets’ key members during the 1990s, Bryant Stith. The following two-part interview is a brief glimpse into life before, during, and after basketball for the…

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Smallthoughts: Old School Tuesday ...Kentucky Colonels

Smallthoughts: Old School Tuesday …Kentucky Colonels

For you old school Knick fans look closely at the ABA ball….Yes that is former Knick Dave DeBusshere’s signature. He was the ABA’s Commissioner at one point. I never understood the NBA’s reluctance to include the St Louis Spirits and the Kentucky Colonels in the NBA instead they had a ABA dispersal  draft to break up those two teams and spread the players around the NBA. I always believed if left…

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#44 - Dan Issel - C/F - Kentucky Colonels (1970-1975)

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Charles Bennett's 100 Greatest NBA Players: 60-56

Click here for Methodology, Also-Rans, 100-96, 95-86, 85-76, 75-71, 70-66 and 65-61  

60. Dan Issel, F/C, 1970-85 (119.34)

NBA Stats: 14659 PTS, 5707 REB, 1804 AST, 20.4 PPG, 7.9 RPG, 2.5 APG, 82.3 WS, 21.0 PER

ABA Stats: 12823 PTS, 5426 REB, 1103 AST, 25.6 PPG, 10.9 RPG, 2.2 APG, 75.5 WS, 21.8 PER

Hardware: 1 ABA Champion, ABA ROY, 5 All-ABA, 6 ABA ASG, 1 ASG MVP, 1 NBA ASG

Undersized, flat-footed center Dan Issel, one of the first bigs to get it done as a perimeter player, is another one of the people on this list that gets in on the strength of his ABA career.

Originally a member of the Kentucky Colonels, Issel was traded to the Denver Nuggets in 1975 and remained with them through their high-scoring days of the 1980s.  Issel is the Nuggets’ all-time rebounding leader, and is second all-time in scoring for the Denver club.

Only Louie Dampier put up more points in ABA history than Issel; Issel’s 27,482 career points are good enough for 9th all-time on the ABA/NBA list.  Issel posted 25 or more points a contest during his first four ABA seasons and holds the ABA record for most points in a season (2,538).  Issel ranks in the top 25 on the career ABA/NBA win shares list, and in the top 30 on the career ABA/NBA rebounds list.

  59. Hal Greer, SG, 1958-73 (121.06)

Stats: 21586 PTS, 5665 REB, 4540 AST, 19.2 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 4.0 APG, 102.7 WS, 15.7 PER

Hardware: 1 Championship, 10 ASG, 1 ASG MVP, 7 All-NBA, 50th Anniversary Team

Midrange specialist and perennial innovator Hal Greer was the first player to play in 1,000 NBA games.

Greer has scored more points in a Sixers uniform than anybody else (and that includes AI, Barkley, Wilt and Erving).  Only Mo Cheeks has more assists in a Sixers uniform than Greer.   Greer won a championship alongside Wilt Chamberlain in 1967.   

He made seven straight All-NBA Second Teams between 1963 and 1969, and ten straight All-Star Games between 1961 and 1970.  In his ten All-Star years, he never averaged less than 19 points a contest.

Greer’s best season was arguably 1967-68, where he was fifth in scoring and was named the MVP of the All-Star Game.  Greer finished in the top ten in points scored in six different seasons, in the top ten in field goal percentage thrice, and currently sets at 32nd on the all-time scoring list.

  58. Bill Sharman, SG, 1950-61 (122.23)

Stats: 12665 PTS, 2779 REB, 2101 AST, 17.8 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 3.0 APG, 82.8 WS, 18.2 PER

Hardware: 4 Championships, 8 ASG, 1 ASG MVP, 7 All-NBA, 25th Anniversary Team, 50th Anniversary Team

Bob Cousy is the darling of the Boston Celtics, but he had a partner in one of the most dangerous backcourts in NBA history: Bill Sharman.  Sharman teamed with Cousy, Tom Heinsohn and Bill Russell for the Celtics’ first four NBA championships.

Sharman was the first shooting guard to be what we would today call an accurate shooter (no player in the first 14 years of the NBA shot better than 50 percent from the field).  Sharman’s career true percentage was 49.7 percent, bolstered by a career 88.3 percent from behind the charity stripe (Sharman led in the NBA in free-throw percentage in seven different seasons).

The tenacious Sharman made the All-NBA First Team in four straight seasons between 1956 and 1959. He is in the Celtics’ top 10 in a number of statistical categories, including made free throws, points per game and player efficiency rating.  

  57. Neil Johnston, C, 1951-59 (122.35)

Stats: 10023 PTS, 5856 REB, 1269 AST, 19.4 PPG, 11.3 RPG, 2.5 APG, 92.0 WS, 24.7 PER

Hardware: 1 Championship, 6 ASG, 5 All-NBA

Right now, I bet you’re wondering, “who is Neil Johnston?”  Well, he was one of the big scoring big men in the NBA’s early history, though a knee injury limited him to just eight seasons in the NBA.

Johnston is one of eight players to lead the NBA in scoring in three consecutive seasons (1953-55), one of eight players to score more than 10,000 points in a Warrior uniform, and one of three players (Kareem and Wilt) to lead the league in single-season points, rebounds, and field goal percentage.

Johnston and frontcourt teammate Paul Arizin led Philadelphia to the 1956 NBA Championship. Johnston led the league in win shares for five seasons straight between 1953 and 1957, and has the sixth-best win shares per 48 minutes total of all time.

  56. Tom Heinsohn, PF, 1956-65 (122.99)

Stats: 12194 PTS, 5749 REB, 1318 AST, 18.6 PPG, 8.8 RPG, 2.0 APG, 60.0 WS, 17.8 PER

Hardware: 8 Championships, ROY, 6 ASG, 4 All-NBA

Tom Heinsohn played in the NBA for just nine seasons.  The Boston Celtics made the NBA Finals in every single one of them.

Heinsohn averaged 15 or more points a night in every season but his last (and better than 20 points thrice), and nine or more rebounds a night in his first six seasons.  He was the Celtics’ leading scorer on three championship teams, played in six All-Star Games, and made four straight All-NBA Second Teams in the 1950s.  Had the All-Defensive Team existed during his tenure, he likely would’ve made several of them. 

He is 50th all-time in playoff points with just a hair over 2,000, and is one of a handful of players to score over 1,000 career points in the NBA Finals.

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