1) Larry Bird

It’s a point (pun intended) of contention as to who was the original “point forward.” It’s also debatable as to which coach or system truly unleashed the prototype, and even as to who coined the phrase itself. But there’s no doubting that when Bird used the term to describe himself early in the ’89-’90 season, he didn’t mean it in a positive way. Though his status as one of the all-time greatest play making forwards is undeniable, Bird’s self-description as such came when the Celtics were floundering. Under new coach Jimmy Rodgers, who had replaced franchise legend K.C. Jones, the Celtics had slogged through the ’88-’89 season, finishing just above .500 and getting swept in the first round of the playoffs as Bird missed most of the year following foot surgery. Bird came back relatively healthy in ’89-’90 but unhappy, as the team sputtered out of the gate and held a 6-5 record when Bird derisively referred to himself as a point forward, adding “I just do what the coaches tell me.” This stretch had notably included a 50-point performance from Bird in a win over the Hawks, followed by coaches and teammates calling him out to the media for supposed selfish play. Bird responded impetuously, refusing to shoot for large swaths of the next several games, instead focusing on his passing. Though he was reluctant to embrace a point forward role late in his career, his ability to run the offense from the small forward position was a large of part of his and Boston’s success, leading to three championships. Making the most of his uncanny instincts and opponent’s selling out to stop his eagle eye long range shooting, Bird finished his career with 6.3 assists per game in the regular season and 6.5 in the playoffs.

2) Paul Pressey
3) Marques Johnson

Though Larry Bird is regarded as the greatest pure point forward of all time, Pressey and Johnson have to receive credit as the origins of the species. Similar to Bird, Pressey and Johnson both adopted the role mainly out of necessity, as the Mavericks teams in the ’80s lacked play making skills in the back court. The team’s star guard was Sidney Moncrief, who was almost a polar opposite of a point forward, something akin to a “power guard,” while the other guard position was a rotation of shooting specialists Ricky Pierce and Craig Hodges. Thus, coach Don Nelson turned to his skilled forwards as the fulcrum of his burgeoning run-and-gun offense, freeing up his guards to lead the scoring and his centers, like Randy Breuer, to act as virtual offensive decoys while protecting the rim defensively. Though the Mavericks never reached the NBA Finals in the Nellie Ball era, they did overachieve annually thanks to the unconventional system, reaching the Conference Finals in 1983, 1984, and 1986.

4) Wes Unseld

One of the great things about Kevin Love’s rise to stardom with the Timberwolves is that his comparisons to Unseld created a rejuvenated interest in the former Bullets star’s otherworldly outlet passing. It’s one thing to just be a great outlet passer, and that skill doesn’t necessarily make you a play maker, as the term has never been applied to fellow outlet passing experts like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Tim Duncan. It was Unseld’s ability to turn the outlet pass into a true art form that transcended the play. His passes were not just an occasional offensive starter on fast breaks, but an absolute catalyst for an entire offensive system that carried the Bullets to four NBA Finals in Unseld’s 12-year career. Just looking at Unseld’s career stats you’d rightfully assume that rebounding was his major forte, but all you have to do is read quotes from the legends who played with him, against him, and after him to understand how much his passing ability changed the game. Probably the most telling came from Red Auerbach, who called Unseld the greatest outlet passer he’d ever seen. This is especially high praise from a guy who coached Bill Russell for so many years.

5) Ralph Sampson

Like a giant dog that jumps into your lap thinking it’s just a puppy, the lanky, gargantuan Sampson always seemed to play like a point guard trapped in a center’s body. Though this trait still makes him endearing and intriguing to fans to this day, it tended to frustrate Sampson’s coaches at every level. Considered the best prospect in the country when he matriculated at Virginia, the 7″4′ Sampson was a revelation, mixing his interior dominance with an ability to hit from long range and dribble in the open court. But the Cavaliers struggled to string together wins with Sampson manning the middle, and famously were upset by Chaminade in a 1982 game. He still seemed like a sure thing when the Rockets drafted him first overall in 1983, but tended to clash with coach Bill Fitch. Those Rockets teams should have been a perfect situation for Sampson as a play maker. He was playing as an oversized power forward due to the presence of Hakeem Olajuwon, and the aging John Lucas was no longer an elite point guard. An open-minded coach could have let Sampson loose as a play maker while maintaining the paint thanks to Olajuwon. Instead, the conservative Fitch was unwilling to open up the offense, preferring to rely on swing men Lewis Lloyd and Robert Reid to make plays. By the time Sampson was allowed to more fully embrace his play making side, knee injuries had sapped most of his athleticism, forcing him into traditional plodding center roles with the Warriors and Kings.

6) John Havlicek
7) Bill Russell

After Bob Cousy’s retirement in 1963, the Celtics managed to win seven more championships in the ensuing 13 seasons despite never having a great play maker at point guard. This was thanks in large part to Russell, with his incredible dribbling, court vision, and passing skills for a center, and Havlicek, with his ball handling and play making jump-starting the offense that continued at an elite pace even without Cousy. Though Russell is mainly remembered for his rebounding and defense, he also finished second on the Celtics in assists per game in every season during the ’60s, except for ’66-’67, when he actually led the team in the category. Meanwhile, Havlicek, whose rookie year coincided with Cousy’s final campaign, led Boston in assists for five straight seasons starting in ’67-’68, as the team transitioned from the defensive specialist K.C. Jones as the starting point guard to the score-first Jo Jo White. This peaked in ’70-’71, when Havlicek put up 7.5 assists per game to add to his 28.9 points and 9.0 rebounds.

8) Jeff Hornacek

For most, the default imagery of Hornacek is of a pure shooting guard in his later years with Utah, nimbly navigating his way around screens to find space for open jump shots. But early in his career Hornacek was an accomplished play maker, often trading off ball-handling duties with Kevin Johnson in the Phoenix back court. In fact, when Hornacek was dealt to Philadelphia in 1992 as part of the Charles Barkley trade, Sixers coach Doug Moe tried to convert him into a full-time point guard to implement his up-tempo offense. The experiment didn’t last long as Moe was quickly fired and Hornacek was then traded to Utah. Always a thoughtful player who knew how to adapt to systems (a necessary trait for a guy who was overlooked by everyone coming out of high school and college), Hornacek sensed that his long-range shooting would be his most usable asset in the back court with John Stockton, and enjoyed a late-career renaissance even as his assist stats sharply declined. It was no surprise that as soon as Hornacek took over as head coach of the Suns in 2013, he installed a successful double play maker back court with Goran Dragic and Eric Bledsoe.

9) Maurice Stokes

It’s unfortunate that so much of his tragically brief career will never be witnessed on video, because by all accounts Stokes was so ahead of his time as a play making big man that his influence is still being felt today. Like a burlier version of Magic Johnson, Stokes would often grab a rebound on one end, deftly dribble up the court on the fast break, and either finish on his own or use his superior court vision to find an open teammate. In Stokes’ three NBA seasons, all played with the Royals, he finished eighth, third, and third respectively in assists per game in the league, peaking with 6.4 per game in ’57-’58. During that same time, the 6’7″ center/power forward won a rebounding title and generally dominated opponents in the paint on both ends of the floor. Stokes was likely to continue improving in all facets of his game, but suffered permanent brain damage due to hitting his head on the court during the game, causing him to be paralyzed from the neck down. He was forced to retire after just three seasons, and eventually passed away at the age of 36. Since the Royals struggled to contend throughout his short career, Stokes’ finest moment in the NBA may have come in the 1957 All-Star Game, when he finished with a near triple-double with 19 points, 12 rebounds, and seven assists.

“It’s arguable that if [Arvydas] Sabonis had come to the U.S. in the late ’80s he would have gone down as the greatest passing center of all time.”

10) Boris Diaw

Some players just have to be seen to be believed, and that’s why we should all thank our personal deities that we were alive to witness Diaw. Historians will point to his generation as the era where LeBron James inevitably inherited the mantle of league’s best point forward, but a special place in our hearts and history books always has to be set aside for Diaw. Officially listed at 6’9″ and a laugh-stifling 250 pounds, Diaw had the physique of a walrus, the grace of a ballerina and the court vision of a savant. After coming over from his French professional league in 2003 (where he won a slam dunk contest!), Diaw had two quiet years with the Hawks before he was traded to the Suns in 2005. While Atlanta tried to pigeonhole him into a shooting guard spot, Diaw was unleashed in Phoenix, essentially playing all five positions but settling in mostly as a point forward who also occasionally backed up Steve Nash at point guard in the precipitous seven-seconds-or-less offense. After eventually joining the Spurs to reunite with his good friend and countryman, Tony Parker, Diaw became a linchpin of the Spurs’ creative motion offense under coach Gregg Popovich, spurring the team with his deceptively athletic drives to the basket freeing up long range shooters, especially during their ’13-’14 championship season.

11) Chris Webber
12) Vlade Divac

Though they came from completely different cultural backgrounds, Webber from inner city Detroit and Divac from war-torn Yugoslavia, they had strikingly similar styles of play: big men with a deft jump shooting touch and ability to run the offense with a preternatural passing ability. One more thing that both players had in common was being saddled early in their career by the traditional post-playing big man archetype. Divac joined a Lakers team in 1989 that was more interested in replacing the newly retired Kareem in the low post than they were in adding another play maker to supplement Magic Johnson. As for Webber, he was stuck first with a coach too stubborn to let him play offensively at the top of the key (Don Nelson in Golden State) and later with a coach too incompetent to even consider the possibility (Jim Lynam in Washington). Though Divac did eventually realize more of a play making role once Magic retired, it wasn’t until both he and Webber joined Sacramento when they really thrived in Rick Adelman’s European-influenced system. The fact that they were able to not only co-exist but thrive in the same offense with Sacramento from 1998 to 2004 is a real testament to that system, and the main reason the Kings spent that era as the league’s most entertaining offense. Sacramento became the first NBA team to run a variation of the Princeton offense, which relied on back-door cuts, screens, and quick reads, and was perfectly suited to a roster that included two intelligent and skilled passers at center. As both players aged past their primes and lost their athleticism, Webber and Divac each reverted to camping out more in the interior, but still retained their incredible passing faculty.

13) Rick Barry

Barry as selfish gunner is a narrative most people associate with the prickly star’s career (in addition to his awful hairpieces and his underhanded free throw shooting style), but he was also praised considerably and regularly by teammates and coaches for his play making. After winning the scoring title with the Warriors in ’66-’67, then spending five years on sabbatical in the ABA, Barry came back to San Francisco with a renewed passion for sharing the ball. As those Warriors teams struggled to find a consistent option at point guard, Barry led the team in both scoring and assists for six straight seasons, peaking at 6.2 assists per game in ’74-’75 as he carried the squad to an NBA title. Though his ball handling and passing in San Francisco was sublime, it was in Barry’s career twilight with the Rockets when he arguably became patient zero for the point forward concept. Joining a Houston team that was highly talented but featured a score-first point guard in Calvin Murphy, Barry was actually willing to lessen his shooting to concentrate mainly on his play making. Barry’s coach Tom Nissalke passed on the point forward philosophy to his replacement in Houston, Del Harris, who later refined and perfected it as an assistant to Don Nelson on the ’80s Mavericks.

14) Cliff Hagan

Two decades before Rick Barry was revolutionizing the play making forward concept, Hagan was tinkering with the idea as a member of the St. Louis Hawks. Just as the first generation of play making dominant point guards like Bob Cousy and Slater Martin (Hagan’s teammate) were taking over the league, Hagan was consistently amongst the league leaders in assists per game. He finished in the top ten in assists for four straight seasons in his prime, while also regularly placing in the top ten in scoring and rebounding. Combining with Bob Pettit as arguably the greatest pre-merger forward combination, Hagan was freed from having to carry the scoring or rebounding load and could concentrate on a role as the team’s secondary ball handler and passer. This became even more important as Martin aged in the early ’60s and was replaced by the lesser Johnny McCarthy. Hagan actually led St. Louis in assists in ’61-’62, before Lenny Wilkens entered the starting lineup full time the next year. After spending 10 years with the Hawks and playing in four Finals, Hagan found a second act with the Dallas Chaparrals of the ABA in ’67-’68. The then 36-year-old player-coach led his team in assists that season, and was named to the nascent league’s first All-Star Game.

15) Scottie Pippen
16) LeBron James

As the concept of a point forward has developed over the last 30 years, certain traits have become undeniable. The player can’t just be a good ball handler and passer in general, they must have the ability to bring the ball up court and start the offense, and to create their own offense off the dribble or post-up. While Paul Pressey and Boris Diaw might be the epitome of a point forward who didn’t need to be the focal point of the offense, and Larry Bird and Rick Barry proved one can center both the scoring and play making around one forward, Pippen and James are the evolutionary apotheosis of those two strategic concepts. While James always has been and always will be relied upon as the top scoring threat for his team, Pippen was free to thrive at the point forward spot, and in many ways perfect it to a level that no one other than James has come close to matching since. Tex Winter’s triangle offense called for guards who could cut and shoot, while Phil Jackson’s defensive strategy leaned towards bigger guards who could pressure the ball. This opened up an opportunity for Pippen, whose ball handling and court vision were exemplar for any player – let alone a forward – to act as the offensive catalyst to free up John Paxson, B.J. Armstrong, and Craig Hodges to concentrate on three-point shooting. Though Pippen’s play making role waned after he inherited the scoring bulk in the wake of Michael Jordan’s first retirement, it became even more important during the second Bulls title streak, as new starting point guard Ron Harper was essentially a defensive specialist. Pippen wound up leading the Bulls in assists in all six of their title seasons, and continued the point forward role in subsequent stops with Houston and Portland. As for James, he’s never been able to fulfill a point forward role in total, as aside from his first season in Miami he has always been required to bear the bulk of the scoring load. But LeBron’s court vision and passing sixth sense have always engendered sentiment that he is the heir apparent the modern point forward project that Pippen elevated.

17) Arvydas Sabonis

There are so many “what ifs” associated with Sabonis’ career, but it’s perhaps his incredible play making ability from the center position that induces the most lamentation of possibilities. Sabonis was first drafted by the Blazers in 1986 but didn’t reach the NBA until almost a decade later due in part to U.S.-Soviet relations and in part to major injuries. There’s no doubt Sabonis was still a fine player when he finally started with Portland in 1995, but one can only imagine how well his high-post style could have meshed with the early ’90s Portland teams that featured a pair of athletic wings in Clyde Drexler and Jerome Kersey. While Sabonis had lost most of his athleticism by the mid ’90s thanks to overuse by the Soviet national team, his innate passing skills were still a thing of beauty (his wraparound pass became a signature of the Blazers offense) and his outside shooting touch forced defenders to respect his play making skills. It’s arguable that if Sabonis had come to the U.S. in the late ’80s he would have gone down as the greatest passing center of all time. This praise was echoed by another candidate for that title, Bill Walton, who once referred to Sabonis in his prime as the equivalent of a 7″4′ Larry Bird.

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