(CLICK HERE if you missed Section A.)

Section B: Who are the Best Players on Championship and Contending Teams?

The first section established a list of the 117 best players in the NBA since 1955-56. This was done based upon regular season performances. Now we want to make a list of the very best players on the 58 NBA champions since 1955-56. To fill out the analysis and to see what patterns emerge we will also determine the best players on the teams that lost in the Finals and the best player on each of the two teams that lost in the conference finals every year. (In other words, the best players on each of the NBA’s “final four” teams every season.)

Finally, we will also determine the 2nd best player on the championship team every year, and the 2nd best player on the team that lost in the finals every year, to see what patterns emerge. So altogether, I am making six selections for every season since 1955-56.

I use the MVP vote standings and All-NBA team status, rather than my own opinion, to pick a winner in every case where possible. In most cases it was a no-brainer without even relying upon the MVP or All-NBA data. A few times data was not helpful and I had to use my own judgment, using team statistics for the season. There was one truly difficult decision: who was the best player on the 1990 Pistons? Isiah Thomas or Joe Dumars? In every respect they were almost identical. After consulting a few Pistons aficionados, I went with Isiah, but it was basically a coin toss. It has no bearing on the overall findings.

Now that we have determined who the best players have been on the NBA’s “final four” teams for the past 52 years we get to the fun part: seeing how many of these players rank on the super-elite list of superstars complied in part one. I hope you are sitting down.

Platinum Medal Superstars

Gold Medal Superstars

Silver Medal Superstars

Bronze Medal Superstars

Now ponder this above chart for a few moments. The implications are so striking, they approach being self-evident. Even if one quibbles with the precise accuracy of the superstar list I have complied, this is nowhere near the gray area; the results are striking, overwhelming, and undeniable. 

For starters: every single NBA champion has been led by a player on this list. So if your team does not have as its best player one of these guys, or someone likely to get on the list, your chances are virtually nil.

It gets worse, or better, depending if your team has one of these guys. It is not just about winning titles; it is about getting within sniffing distance of winning titles.  All but one of the losers in the NBA Finals since 1955-56 have featured one of these superstars. (The 1970 Bullets, who lost in the Finals, had superstar Wes Unseld as their 2^nd best player, and non-superstar Earl Monroe as their best player.) The exception? The 2000 Pacers. So dig this: only one of the 116 teams that have played in the NBA Finals did not have a player from the superstar list in his functional prime. There is more: Eighty percent of the 116 teams that lost in the conference finals over the past 57 years – the first two losers in the NBA’s “final four” so to speak – were led by players from this list.

And that barely begins to capture was a gated community NBA championships live in. The closer to the top of the superstar 95 list, the more likely a player is to being the best player on a championship team. The closer to the bottom of this list of superstars, the more likely the player is on the outside looking in. Fully 107 of the 116 Finals teams had at least a qualifying silver medal superstar as their best player; i.e. basically an all-time top 60 player. And if a team does not have a player is his prime from this list, or soon to be on this list, they have but a slim chance to even make the conference finals, let alone dream about playing in the finals or winning a title.

It is a merciless system weighted toward the superstar.

CLICK HERE to read Section C.