MVPs: 1. Finals MVPs: (1). All-NBA 1st Team: 10. 2nd Team: 2. All Star: 13. MVP: 2.
Defensive POY: 0. All-Defense Teams: 0.
Assists Champ: 8.
Career Averages: 18 PPG/ 5 RPG/ 7 APG/ .375 eFG%/ .803 FT%.
Best Season: 21/ 5/ 7/ .3780/ .821 (1956-57).
Postseason Averages: 18 PPG/ 5 RPG/ 9 APG/ .342 eFG%/ .801 FT%.
Best Postseason: 19/ 7/ 11/ .326/ .745 (1959).
Championships: 6 (#1 player on 1, #2 player on 2, #3 player on 1, #5 player on 2). Runner-ups: 1 (#3 player).
Why he's below Charles Barkley: Cousy wasn't able to dominate and put a team on his back the way Barkley or anyone in my top 20 could at times. His team never made the Finals until he had Bill Russell as a teammate. He was also a below-average shooter. With his ballhandling and passing skills, his teams could have been even better if he'd taken fewer shots.
Why he's above the rest: I realize I have Cousy higher than almost anyone, so let me try to defend his rank.
He finished top-4 in both PPG and APG in the same season 4 times, finishing 2nd in points and 1st in assists twice.
I gave him credit for Finals MVP in the Celtics' first championship. Only 20 other players have won both an MVP and Finals MVP (or would have won Finals MVP in the years before the award existed). Only 4 of those are ranked below Cousy and played in a later era than Cousy.
He led the league in assists and APG 8 times, which is behind only Stockton's 9 times.
He was a top-2 player on 3 championship teams. Only 3 players ranked below him can match or top that (and one of those is Stephen Curry, who will pass Cousy before his career is finished).
He was selected to the 1st Team All-NBA 10 times, which is higher than everyone ranked below him.
But the most important reason why I have him ranked higher than any list I've seen is he changed the way the game is played. Watch any footage of him you can find. Even at the end of his career his play style is 15 years ahead of everyone else on the court. He could make the fancy behind-the-back passes, but even his simple bounce passes lead his teammate to an open spot instead of just going to where he is standing. He was playing in the early 50s in a way that no one else was playing in the late 60s.
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