The 25 Greatest Sixth Men Of All Time
In this list, we’ll take a look at the 25 most dynamic, talented and accomplished sixth men in the history of the NBA.
With all the glory that NBA starters tend to receive, it’s easy for casual basketball fans to completely dismiss a team’s bench.
The bench has been around since the league’s inception, yet is consistently underrated — so much so that statisticians didn’t start logging starts until 1981. This is unfortunate seeing as their task is one of utter importance.
They are responsible for continuing any positive momentum the starting unit produces while they get rest or creating positive momentum for the team should the starters fail to generate any in their minutes on the floor.
For this reason the bench proves crucial and if a team has a good, even legendary one, it can be the difference between a good team, a contender or a champion.
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Among this unit, one player tends to rise above the rest as an especially essential contributor and the leader of the bench. The best of them can singlehandedly carry the load for a team while the starters rest and provide the spark a team needs to give them an extra push past the competition.
Even so, these players are often some of the most underrated in the NBA.
This ever essential yet somewhat dismissed position is that of the sixth man.
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Since the legendary Red Auerbach made Frank Ramsey the first official sixth man, many revolutionary players have graced the role. From scorers like Fred Brown and Jamal Crawford to staunch defenders like Bobby Jones and Michael Cooper to players that could do it all like Lamar Odom and John Havlicek, the position has seen many different kinds of players add different interpretations of how it can effectively be played.
But who did it the best?
It’s a question that has yet to be asked publicly as the position is severely underrated. However, what little discussions that have been had have thus far has been one dominated by generational bias since there are so many unheralded sixth men that people simply don’t know about.
On this list, we’ll attempt to compare multiple sixth men from different generations and find out who the best of the best was amongst some of the most criminally underrated players the game has ever seen.
Players with less than two years of experience at the spot were left off of the list (we’re looking at you, Kobe Bryant). The rankings were decided based on a combination of a player’s overall talent, the measure of the impact he had on his team and the level of championship pedigree.
Of course, we here at Hoops Habit are interested in who you the readers think are the best of all time and which players of note you think should be higher, lower, left off the list or included in the list. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
Without further ado, here are the 25 greatest sixth men in NBA history.
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