Photo Credit: Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE/Getty Images
Before anybody goes apeshit on how ridiculous this is, let me start off by asking you to name the starting point guards for the last five NBA champions. If your answer comprises of Rajon Rondo, Tony Parker, Jason Williams, and Chauncey Billups, you’re right. Impressive list? Not at all.
The point guard is often referred to as the floor general, the quarterback of basketball. He’s supposed to be the coach on the floor. Nobody will argue that in football, the most important player in the game is the QB. The QB touches the ball on nearly every possession and the very outcome of the game is based on the decisions that he makes. If you name the last five QB’s to win the Super Bowl, you get names such as Tom Brady (twice), Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, and Ben Roethlisberger (twice) – some of them sure-fire Hall of Famers.
My argument is this: the point guard position is the most overrated position in sports. The top point guards in the league today are Chris Paul, Deron Williams, and Steve Nash – who have a combined ZERO NBA titles among them. The top three assist leaders of all-time? John Stockton, Mark Jackson, and Jason Kidd. Again, ZERO championships among them. Look at even this year’s Finals matchup. Who are the starting point guards? Rafer Alston? Derek Fisher? (You can even count Jameer Nelson). No offense to them, but I wouldn’t exactly call these guys great point guards and one of them (Fisher) will win a title. So how does superior play in the “most important position in basketball” amount to ZERO championships? The ultimate goal of any professional athlete is to win a championship. The positional value of a PG is along the lines of a great tight end in football (which is the second most overrated position in sports. Argument will follow at a later time).
People will rebut with Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas, and yes they did win championships. But they were once-in-a-generation athletes who were more scorers than traditional point men. Okay, Magic loved sharing the ball but at 6-9 he was a giant for a point guard and could play five different positions while Thomas was the Pistons’ first scoring option.
You don’t need great point guard play to be a champion. You need a player who can handle the ball, play some defense, hit some shots, and most importantly, not get in the way of the scoring stars of the team. Michael Jordan’s Bulls had the likes of Ron Harper and B.J. Armstrong at the 1. Hakeem Olajuwon’s Rockets had Kenny Smith and Sam Cassell. Yet, they have more championship rings than many of the “elite” point guards in NBA history (Harper alone has five!)
America has fallen in love with the assist. It’s unselfish, it helps others out – it’s an under-the-radar stat, the underdog of statistics if you will. To that I say bullshit. I honestly could care less how the guy scores. If he scores, he scores. The pass might look nice, all pretty and shit, but nobody remembers the pass.
If you ask me to be a general manager and build a team, I’ll take a scorer any day of the week and twice on Sundays over an assist-man. You don’t win championships by sharing. You win them by taking control of the game and dominating.
(Editor’s Note: This article was written by our score-first PG from our college intramural basketball team. We did not win a championship.)
June 9th, 2009 at 1:31 am
Good one HH.
Although, it should be noted that our shoot-first point guard system led to zero intramural championships.
I'm just saying. =D
June 9th, 2009 at 3:23 am
How Dare You Sir.
June 9th, 2009 at 3:39 am
o-ver-rated. o-ver-rated
June 9th, 2009 at 3:42 am
good points.. sadly, i dont see CP3, D-Will, or Nash ever winning championships either, but D-Will might have a chance to break Stockton's assist record.
June 9th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
honestly, i think hometownhero's are overrated
June 10th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
if you increase the sample size it only strengthens the author's argument imo
June 10th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
well, i meant increase the number of potential point guards that fit this mold of irrelevancy.
the only player that i would really agree with in this overrated-pointguard-position argument is steve nash, but its the most easily explainable. great pg, great team, 2 time mvp, but no ring. why? d'antoni offense (most exciting basketball to watch, and thus easily overhyped), no defense. not overrated as a player, but his value to the team was definitely considered too high. 2 time mvp my ass… and i love nash.
June 10th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
the point guard position is overly glorified because of the aesthetics of great passing, but definitely not overrated.
the examples you named of point guards that won and did not win championships can all be considered anomalies, just as you consider magic and isiah to be. it didn't matter who the hell ran the point on the 90s bulls, all they really needed to do was fit the build and hit a three now and then. stockton and malone had a little obstacle named michael jordan. and the rockets had 2 players that made 1 great point guard, as both cassell and smith had huge moments in the rocket's two year run.
mark jackson and kidd were phenomenal players, who ran the floor and got their teams going. but lets be honest, its a well known fact basketball is a team game. they were on good teams, but not good enough to win the larry o'brien (a la 2009 cavaliers).
sure, you don't need a good point guard to win a championship, but that's taken with a grain of salt. in the past 20 years, the teams that took a ring home without a bonafied pointguard had players named michael & kobe (moreso shaq). the 2004 pistons were the most modest team to win a trophy in this timespan, but that credit goes to chauncey as a floor general as much as it goes to the team's defense. look what he did in denver.
last is your shortlist of champs: rajon, parker, billups, williams. minus williams, those pgs were essential to the victory of the team, whether they are hall of famers or not. parker and billups won the finals MVPs. and in the 2006 finals? two words: bennet salvatore. two more: dwyane wade.
your sample size is too small.
June 10th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
AK22. i agree.
Taking a further look at point guards in the NBA, to give guys like Chris Paul some credit, Paul does what he does without any help really and still keeps that hornets team competitive and playoff worthy.
It isn't a coincidence that the teams in teh cellar this year – sacramento, new york, clippers, washington, oklahoma – all lack PGs to the effect of your Paul, Nash, Kidds.
July 4th, 2011 at 2:56 pm
It depends on the context of the team, as I agree somewhat with the author of this article. Some teams, best go-to player, just happens to be their point guard, you can get opportunities for lesser players by being unselfish, but when crunch times come and defenses start to hunker down. Some teams need a guy who can score, a bit easier than other teammates in the same situation.
Others do much better with a player who will pass first and utilize the talents of other players, a little. While, some offenses in the case of Phil Jackson or Rick Adelman, simply needs a point guard who is unselfish and can hit open shots. There some teams in that paradigm that simply just need a guy to be role player that does not score alot or even get alot of assist.
Besides, everyone knows a great center rules at the end of the day in basketball. I'll even say a great scorer is more prominent in the grand scheme of things than a great, high assist point guard. Think … Dwayne Wade, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, and etc. Those type of players are going to want their hands on the ball more so than their team's point guard. It's not always fathomable to have someone who can get 8 – 10+ assist.