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The 25 Greatest Sixth Men Of All Time

By Carter Johnson

Oct 28, 2014; San Antonio, TX, USA; San Antonio Spurs shooting guard Manu Ginobili (20) reacts after a shot against the Dallas Mavericks during the second half at AT&T Center. The Spurs won 101-100. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 28, 2014; San Antonio, TX, USA; San Antonio Spurs shooting guard Manu Ginobili (20) reacts after a shot against the Dallas Mavericks during the second half at AT&T Center. The Spurs won 101-100. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports /
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18. Ricky Pierce, Milwaukee Bucks

17.5 PPG, .521/.295/.863 shooting split in 7 seasons as 6th Man

Accolades: 2X Sixth Man of the Year (1986-87, 1989-90), 1X All-Star (1991)

Most people who read this list have never heard of the player known as “Big Paper Daddy” — and reasonably so.

Ricky Pierce starred on one of the more unheralded teams of the 1980s in the Sidney Moncrief and Terry Cummings-led Milwaukee Bucks.

Pierce and Cummings were traded to the Bucks from the Clippers at the beginning of the 1984-85 season, a move that would better both players’ respective careers. Cummings would become the team’s dominant offensive anchor while Pierce would come off of the bench and pair with Moncrief to form a scoring backcourt that rivaled any in the NBA at the time.

Pierce earned many awards during his tenure as the Bucks sixth man due to his stellar scoring ability. He first won the Sixth Man award in 1986-87 after averaging 19.6 points per game on 53 percent shooting from the field. His second one came three years later when he had a career year, posting 23 points a game on a shooting split of .510/.346/.839.

Unfortunately, this Bucks team wasn’t good enough to overcome the number of historic teams they had to face on a routine basis in the Eastern Conference playoffs and were a frequent first- and second-round exit.

Even more tragic was the fact that Pierce was traded to the Seattle SuperSonics after earning his first All-Star nod with the Bucks in the midst of another great season (22.5 PPG on a .499/.398/.907 split through 46 games).

Pierce would be a solid contributor on some pretty good Sonics squads in the early 1990s, but it was the ridiculous scoring numbers that he put up in Milwaukee that earned Big Paper Daddy a spot on this list.

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