HoF 2010: Malone, Pippen, Johnson Among Biggest Winners Ever
Posted by Neil Paine on August 13, 2010
When Scottie Pippen, Dennis Johnson, Karl Malone, & Gus Johnson get enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame this evening, it will represent not only the culmination of a lifetime's hard work and dedication by four great players -- it will also establish the greatest collection of winners to ever enter the HoF at once.
Or at least, according to my calculations it will. Recall that in posts like this, I estimated the W-L record of a player's team when he played thusly:
"...take the team's winning percentage in all games ... and multiply by the player's games played for wins, then subtract that from his games for losses."
It's a kludge, I admit, but in the absence of pre-1991 playoff gamelogs, it's the best we can do -- and it's not too inaccurate for such a simple solution. Anyway, according to that method (and combining regular-season + postseason wins), Malone, Pippen, & D.J. are all among the 20 winningest NBA players to ever lace up a pair of sneakers:
| Player | Wins | Losses | WPct |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | 1223 | 574 | 0.681 |
| Robert Parish | 1113 | 682 | 0.620 |
| Karl Malone | 1043 | 626 | 0.625 |
| John Stockton | 1038 | 648 | 0.616 |
| Scottie Pippen | 939 | 447 | 0.677 |
| John Havlicek | 926 | 516 | 0.642 |
| Robert Horry | 912 | 439 | 0.675 |
| Gary Payton | 904 | 585 | 0.607 |
| Sam Perkins | 903 | 550 | 0.621 |
| Clifford Robinson | 895 | 626 | 0.588 |
| Shaquille O'Neal | 891 | 494 | 0.643 |
| A.C. Green | 881 | 550 | 0.616 |
| Paul Silas | 865 | 552 | 0.610 |
| Horace Grant | 864 | 471 | 0.647 |
| Reggie Miller | 847 | 687 | 0.552 |
| Dennis Johnson | 827 | 453 | 0.646 |
| Danny Ainge | 824 | 411 | 0.667 |
| Kevin Willis | 823 | 701 | 0.540 |
| Terry Porter | 820 | 578 | 0.587 |
| Michael Jordan | 812 | 439 | 0.649 |
Not only that, but the Class of 2010 boasts the most combined playing wins of any group of enshrinees ever:
| Class | Player | Wins | Class | Player | Wins | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Karl Malone | 1043 | 2008 | Hakeem Olajuwon | 791 | |
| 2010 | Scottie Pippen | 939 | 2008 | Patrick Ewing | 743 | |
| 2010 | Dennis Johnson | 827 | 2008 | Adrian Dantley | 503 | |
| 2010 | Gus Johnson | 288 | Total | 2037 | ||
| Total | 3097 | 2006 | Charles Barkley | 699 | ||
| 1993 | Julius Erving | 647 | 2006 | Joe Dumars | 644 | |
| 1993 | Calvin Murphy | 483 | 2006 | Dominique Wilkins | 587 | |
| 1993 | Walt Bellamy | 462 | Total | 1930 | ||
| 1993 | Dick McGuire | 414 | 1990 | Elvin Hayes | 699 | |
| 1993 | Dan Issel | 404 | 1990 | Earl Monroe | 534 | |
| 1993 | Bill Walton | 287 | 1990 | Dave Bing | 443 | |
| Total | 2697 | 1990 | Neil Johnston | 244 | ||
| 2009 | John Stockton | 1038 | Total | 1920 | ||
| 2009 | Michael Jordan | 812 | 1980 | Oscar Robertson | 658 | |
| 2009 | David Robinson | 742 | 1980 | Jerry West | 653 | |
| Total | 2592 | 1980 | Jerry Lucas | 491 | ||
| 2003 | Robert Parish | 1113 | Total | 1802 | ||
| 2003 | James Worthy | 713 | 1987 | Walt Frazier | 533 | |
| 2003 | Earl Lloyd | 314 | 1987 | Rick Barry | 481 | |
| Total | 2140 | 1987 | Bobby Wanzer | 306 | ||
| 1982 | Hal Greer | 670 | 1987 | Pete Maravich | 297 | |
| 1982 | Slater Martin | 512 | 1987 | Bob Houbregs | 82 | |
| 1982 | Frank Ramsey | 499 | Total | 1699 | ||
| 1982 | Willis Reed | 405 | 1995 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | 1223 | |
| Total | 2086 | 1995 | Vern Mikkelsen | 436 | ||
| Total | 1659 |
I typically don't advocate blindly assigning wins & losses to players just because they happened to be on a team that won or lost, but in this case you really have to give props for the sheer amount of winning that went on under these guys' watch. I mean, in 36 combined seasons by Pippen and Malone, their teams only missed the playoffs once (Pippen's Bulls sat out in 2004, his final season)... How insane is that?
So when you watch the proceedings tonight, keep in mind the ridiculous win totals this class racked up. If winning is truly the only thing we should be concerned about, then this is the greatest HoF class of all time.
August 13th, 2010 at 10:30 am
Am I seeing this correctly? 12 of 16 guys of the list played a majority of their careers in the 90s?
August 13th, 2010 at 11:13 am
Not surprising. Modern players play longer. Also, this list seems to include combine postseason and reg season games. Teams play alot more games in the playoffs now than they used to; in the 60's you could win a title in 8 games; starting in the 80's it was up to 15 wins (now it's 16)
August 13th, 2010 at 12:50 pm
Pippen's legacy seems to be improving among NBA fans. To call him a "second banana" just doesn't do him justice. The guy was an amazing all-around player. Sure he had that infamous moment when he wouldn't go into the game, but that doesn't detract from fact he was a helluva player. MJ acknowledged his greatness in his HOF speech and is doing so again by speaking for him. That's the ultimate seal of approval.
August 13th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
Sorry Middy, I put 20 on the list instead of 16, so it's 12 of the top 20. Still, it's impressive, although pretty much explained by what AYC said in #2. Players are healthier and stay productive longer now than they used to (many of the guys on the top 20 list are downright notorious for hanging around into their dotage), and the extra regular season (since 1968) and playoff (since 1984) games don't hurt, either.
August 13th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
Just for the heck of it can we get the top 20 losingest players?
August 13th, 2010 at 2:04 pm
How crappy was the 1995 class other than Kareem? I mean, Kareem alone was 476 wins short of making the second list by himself.
Also, Shaq is the only active player on the entire first list, and should be #5 by the end of the next season, yet has virtually no chance of getting above #3.
August 13th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Here are the 20 losingest players:
Here are the players with the most games below .500:
August 13th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Not taking anything away from this year's inductees, but looking at this by average wins per inductee, we get this:
2010 - 774.25
2009 - 864
2008 - 679
2006 - 482.5
2003 - 1070
1993 - 449.5
1990 - 480
1987 - 339.8
1982 - 521.5
1980 - 600.66
Still impressive comparatively speaking.
August 13th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
This is officially one of the best images ever:
"Remember, Karl... The Mailman don't deliver on Sundays."
August 13th, 2010 at 9:26 pm
Can we get a list of winningest and losingest players based on win percentage? It's bugging me that Kevin Willis is on both lists.
August 14th, 2010 at 2:47 am
To say nothing of John Stockton and Robert Parish
August 14th, 2010 at 3:29 am
I'm a bit perplexed as how Tim Duncan and Kobe aren't on the winningest list.
Lakers winning % since he came aboard is 70% during the season (wow, didn't realize it was this high). 717 won games. Add in the playoff games which you calculated in the other post adds in 110 for Kobe + 16 wins this playoff run. That's 243.
Interesting looking back at that post, Neil. Fisher is now the all-time leader in playoff wins for guards. Horry, Kareem, Scottie, Fisher, Magic, Shaq, Kobe, Michael, Rodman, Scott are the top 10.
After next season, it's very likely 6 of the top 7 spots played a significant portion of their winning careers as a Laker, with the top 4 being all Lakers! Throw in the top 2 coaches lead everyone were the 2 best Laker coaches, Rodman played a short stint with LA as well as Horace Grant, that only Danny Ainge, Pippen, and MJ are in the top 17 people and never played/coached for the Lakers (though I expect Timmy to crack that next year).
Still, an impressive note for the Lakeshow :-D
August 14th, 2010 at 3:33 am
I ran through Duncan's numbers. I see he is still short by quite a bit. Surprised by this.
Anyway, not shocking to see some of those players on the wins/losses lists. malone, Stockton, Parish, Green etc were workhorses. Malone I don't think missed more than 8 games due to injury until his final season with L.A.
And Green just might have the unbreakable record. I don't know how he played that many games in a row. To go that long playing basketball without getting too hurt to play even once is quite amazing. Cal Ripken got nothing on A.C.
August 14th, 2010 at 9:52 am
If Scottie Pippen deserves to be in the hall of fame, I'm Cindy Crawford.
August 14th, 2010 at 11:37 am
Well hello there Cindy. Can I take you out for a drink?
August 14th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Dave D, you and skip bayless agree; congratulations on that... I propose we rename it the "Hall of Scoring", and kick Pippen out... also, Bill Russell and John Stockton
August 14th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
2003 doesn't foot - 1826 not 2140.
August 14th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Thanks, Downpuppy, I fixed it -- for some reason, Earl Lloyd had disappeared in the copy-and-paste process.
August 14th, 2010 at 7:13 pm
#15/16 are right. Clowns nowadays just think that scoring is the only way to measure a player's greatness. You can affect the game by playing defensive, rebounding, and passing than someone who just goes out there focusing on scoring. Pippen is the greatest perimeter defender of all-time; that should be more than enough to get him into the Hall
August 14th, 2010 at 9:59 pm
?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!??! @ Dave D.
August 15th, 2010 at 8:24 am
Anon X. Word to AC Green. He even played 83 games when he got traded mid season, though technically I think he just hopped in and out of that extra game to keep the record in tact. Never-the-less, he didn't so much as pack his stuff up. He just hopped on the next flight to Dallas and slapped on a jersey.
Plus, he had a HOF Jheri Curl.
August 15th, 2010 at 4:56 pm
Congratulations to one of the top 5 SFs ever and the 2nd best PF ever.
And just to add to the controversy from #14, Malone is a top 10 player in NBA history. (**Puts flame suit on for "rings argument" crowd**)
August 15th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
^^^And btw, I can make a great case for him. :)
August 15th, 2010 at 7:38 pm
Thanks for the tip, it will help alot!
August 15th, 2010 at 8:11 pm
Can we get a list of the worst winning percentage of players?!?!
August 16th, 2010 at 12:12 am
Funny that Pippen has gotten most of the publicity, when Malone was clearly the better player... but then I remember Ewing got top billing over Hakeem. The benefits of playing in a big market....
August 16th, 2010 at 7:20 pm
I think part of the reason Pip got more ink than Karl was because there's apparently some controversy about his induction - can't figure that out at all - while Karl is inarguable.
August 17th, 2010 at 9:46 pm
How about Bill Russell's wins and winning %?
August 18th, 2010 at 12:42 pm
Does Dennis Rodman still have the highest winning percentage of all-time? I'm pretty sure he did, at least... according to his career splits, his teams were 636-275 (.698) in regular season games he played, and 102-50* (.671) in the playoffs. In total, 738-325* (.694).
* - He missed one playoff game in 1989-90, and with no playoff game logs, I don't know whether it was a game they won or lost. So, the real totals would actually have one fewer win or loss, but it's a minuscule difference.
August 23rd, 2010 at 11:01 pm
Regular Season
KC Jones .737
Heinsohn .725
Sam Jones .713
Russell .705