The next player on my list Dave Cowens; an undersized center at 6'9", 230, with the ability to take bigger centers out away from the paint, Cowens was a left-handed nightmare because of his energy.  He was a bit?

I want to say ridiculous, actually.  There?s a story around about how he busted his foot in an exhibition game slamming into the basket support after swatting someone?s shot (courtesy of NBA.com), but that really typifies Dave Cowens.  Much in the same fashion as Jerry West or his own teammate John Havlicek, he had two modes: on and not-on-the-court.  ?On? mode meant he was running everywhere, hustling after everything and basically working as hard as was humanly possible to win.  And it worked; Cowens shared the ROY with Geoff Petrie (yes, 2-time EOY Geoff Petrie of the Kings; he was a two-time All-Star, had a couple of 50+-point games, a season where he averaged about 25 ppg, etc).

He won the MVP in 72-73 (the year before he won his second title), and he was top-4 in the MVP voting 4 times including the win: 1st,  4th, 2nd and 3rd in four consecutive seasons starting with his win.  Defensive stalwart, nasty offensive rebounder, and for a guy who sho so many jumpers, he was very efficient.  He was also an excellent passer and someone who never shied away from the physical work of his position, such as setting screens.

Statistically speaking, Cowens doesn?t share a lot of the first-pass dominance exhibited by many of the other players on this list but he still put some up.  On his 11-year career, he averaged 17.6 ppg, 13.6 rpg (3.0 orpg, but his first 3 years weren?t recorded), 3.8 apg and about a steal and a block per game (again, his first three years weren?t recorded but there wasn?t much variance in these two stats), with career efficiency numbers of 46% FG, 78.3% FT and 49.6% TS (but noting that three-pointers didn?t exist until his last two years).

So who was Dave Cowens?  He was a lot like the bigger version of Havlicek; get on the court, hit the gas and don?t stop until the final tip.  He was a bit loopy; he?s rumored to have slept on a park bench after spending the night celebrating a Celtics title with the fans and he did once retire for 30 games or so to drive a cab because he was ?burnt out.?  He left the game of basketball for a few years after Boston traded his friend Paul Silas away and only game back to play 40 games for Don Nelson?s Bucks (and 9 postseason games, including 4 against Boston).  It?s too bad, too; his last year in the league was Bird?s first and a year later, they won the title.  In his last year (82-83, at 34), he still put up 8/7/2 on 44.4% FG in about 25 mpg.  In his last year with the Celtics (at 31), he put down 14/8/3 on 45% FG.

Dave Cowens was a red-headed tornado on the court, a player who helped to change the way people looked at the center position.  His Celtics beat a giant center (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) in ?74 for his first title, helping to show that an undersized center can still help win a title (and this in a year where he was 4th in the MVP vote.  For his encore performance in ?76 (a year when he was 3rd in the MVP race), the Celtics won a classic series against the Suns, including the (in)famous triple-overtime game with great shots by John Havlicek and Gar Heard.

For all that and more, Dave Cowens is #24.