Five greatest Sixers all-time, Sixer career only

[Laimbeer]

Who are the five greatest Sixers of all-time, based on their Sixer careers only?

[tk76]

Cheeks
Iverson
Dr. J.
Barkley
Wilt

Although Greer, Moses and Toney deserve special mention. Shayes would be close, but he mostly was on the team one year after their move from Syracuse.

[Dipper 13]

I would place Greer in the top 5.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoSm-dnfFTY#t=6m30s


Hartford Courant - Apr 1, 1967

Greer pumped in 39 points, mostly on long jump shots, while Chamberlain grabbed 32 rebounds, handed out 12 assists, scored 24 points and blocked a dozen shots.



Hal Greer: Productive, Consistent and Durable

This article originally appeared in the January 2006 issue of Hoop.

Star Guard on a Team for the Ages

Hal Greer made the All-NBA Second Team seven straight years but never was selected to the All-NBA First Team. That’s what happens when you play during the same era as Oscar Robertson and Jerry West, but Greer--a 10-time All-Star who was honored as one of the NBA’s 50 Greatest Players--accomplished something that neither Robertson nor West did: being the leading playoff scorer on a team that defeated Bill Russell’s Boston Celtics in the playoffs and went on to win an NBA championship.

Russell’s Celtics won eight straight titles and 11 in 13 seasons, but many observers still maintain that the greatest single season team in NBA history is the 1966-67 Philadelphia 76ers. The Sixers beat Boston 4-1 in the Eastern Division finals and then defeated the Rick Barry-Nate Thurmond San Francisco Warriors in the NBA Finals. Greer produced 27.7 ppg, 5.9 rpg and 5.3 apg in the playoffs, while his teammate Wilt Chamberlain posted these mind-boggling numbers: 21.7 ppg, 29.1 rpg and 9.0 apg. Hall of Famer and Top 50 selection Billy Cunningham, the sixth man on the 1967 championship team, says, “Hal Greer was such a smart player. In his mind he had a book about every player he played against and what he had to do to make sure that he got free to get shots. He was probably as fine a screener as a guard as anybody. The thing about it was he knew that if he set a good screen then he would be open because he would force a switch and he would end up being matched up with a bigger, slower player that he knew he could easily beat to get whatever shot he wanted.”

Remember the old shoe commercial with playground legend Lamar Mundane? The voiceover said that Mundane would shoot as soon as he crossed midcourt and the fans would yell, “Layup!” That would be a good way to describe Hal Greer’s top of the key jump shot; Sixers coach Alex Hannum said that Greer made that shot at a 70% clip and gave Greer the green light to launch from that range whenever he was open. Greer’s jump shot was so fluid and so deadly that he shot his free throws that way, connecting on better than 80% of his career attempts. Cunningham offers high praise for Greer’s jump shot: “It was as good as anybody’s who ever played the game. I think the beauty of Hal Greer’s game is that he knew where he was most effective and he never shot the ball from an area where he was not completely confident and comfortable. He never went outside of 18-20 feet maximum, but he was deadly and he had the ability to get to that spot.”



The Palm Beach Post - Apr 2, 1967

"Greer plays the complete game,' said Hannum, "He's an offensive threat every minute he's in there. He has the perfect disposition, is well liked by everybody. We wouldn't have near the record this team has without Hal. You hear about our powerful front line of Wilt, Luke Jackson, Chet Walker and Billy Cunningham, but Greer's outside shooting helps make this possible."

Greer admits that the toughest guard in the league against him is Boston's K.C. Jones, but denies the rap placed on him by some writers that he gets "K.C.-itus"

"The three best games of my career have been against Boston," he notes. "I scored 50 points against them my first year in the league, 45 against them here, and 38 this season in Boston."

While he is recognized generally as one of the top offensive players in the game, few people are aware that Greer can play defense with the best. Often, Hannum will send Greer after Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Rick Barry, or Sam Jones, at least until the 76ers' guard gets into foul difficulty.



Dynasty's End: Bill Russell And the 1968-69 World Champion Boston Celtics - Thomas J. Whalen

'Entering his eleventh NBA season in 1968-69, Greer had already established himself as one of the deadliest middle-distance shooters in the league, averaging over 20 points a game and climbing to number six on the all-time scoring list with 15,244 points. In 1967-68, he had even managed to overtake the offensively explosive Wilt Chamberlain for the Philadelphia team lead in scoring with a gaudy 24.1 average. "He was one of the finest open-court shooters I ever saw, for he could race down court, stop on a dime twenty feet out on the dead run and bury the shot," teammate Chet Walker later admiringly wrote.

Greer accomplished these feats despite having to endure an array of nagging injuries that might have sidelined a lesser player. "Harold would have his ankles taped," Billy Cunningham later remembered. "Then he'd have a knee brace on and a thigh pad and another pad on his elbow. He never got the attention he deserved, and maybe that was because he was a quiet man who wouldn't sit in the locker room and tell the press how he performed. He let his performance speak for itself." Sometimes, however, his performance was so spectacular that even his unalluring personality could not diminish his on-court achievements. A case in point was the 1968 NBA All-Star Game when Greer went 8 for 8 from the field while scoring a record 19 points in the third quarter. He came away with the Most Valuable Player honors along with the deep respect of his peers. "Hal needs a certain amount of recognition to show people that he's on par with Robertson and West," All-Star teammate Wilt Chamberlain said afterward.

Greer needed no convincing himself. He knew he was the equal of any elite guard in the league, and that included Sam Jones of the Celtics. "He's on a team where they work for him," Greer said. "Our team is balanced. We're a team all the way. We don't work for one guy. Sam doesn't really have to work for his shots. They work for him. He's strictly offense, I'm offense plus I move the ball, too. I move on the fast break." Always intense and demanding of himself as a player, Greer strove for nothing short of basketball perfection in every contest. "After a game," he once revealed, "I think about the mistakes I made on defense that night. Sometimes I stay up all night thinking about defense, like after I've been chasing Oscar all over the court. That's enough to keep any man awake."'

[FJS]

Julius Erving:
Sixer from 76-77 to 86-87, 11 seasons.
11 time allstar (2 time allstar mvp)
81' MVP
In 1st or 2nd allnba team from 76-77 to 83-84
1 ring

All around player, score, rebound, assist

Moses Malone
Sixer from 82-83 to 85-86, 4 seasons
4 times allstar
1 time MVP
1 time finals MVP
3 times 1st or 2nd allnba team
1 ring

Great scorer, defender, rebounder and blocker.

Allen Iverson
Sixer from 96-97 to 2006-2007
All star from 2000 to 2007
1 time MVP
ROY
2 time all star MVP
1 Scoring tittle

A scoring machine.

Charles Barkley
Sixer from 84-85 to 91-92
Allstar from 87 to 92
Allrookie team or nba 1st or 2nd team every year in philly
91 MVP all star game

Rebounding and scoring machine.

Wilt Chamberlain
As sixers (not Warriors) he played 3 seasons and a half (mid 64-65 to 67-68)
4 allstar games
3 MVP
1st or second nba team every season
2 scoring titlles
1 ring

Wilt... enough said.

[DocHoops]

Erving
Schayes
Iverson
Wilt
Greer
-----------

Moses
Barkley
Cunningham
Cheeks

[tk76]

Dolph only played one season as a "Sixer." Are we supposed to count Syracuse National play?

[Sixersftw]

A.I. has 4 scoring titles FJS

[DocHoops]

Dolph only played one season as a "Sixer." Are we supposed to count Syracuse National play?

Same franchise, I'd say so.

[ahonui06]

Iverson
Greer
Barkley
Erving
Chamberlain

[Warspite]

IMHO you have to include the franchises alltime scorer, rebounder and assist leader.