The NBA's Underappreciated: Breaking Down the Top Sixth Men

Greg Haefner by Columnist Written on August 30, 2009
Previous Next

Slide 1 of 8

Display_image

It happens at every level of basketball: the starting five receive their due amount of spotlight, while the role players and sixth men of the teams receive little or no publicity.

The NBA has done a nice job getting these players some well-deserved attention by instituting the Sixth Man of the Year Award in 1982, but the league's top backups still don't receive as much attention as they are due.

A good bench player can have just as much of an impact, if not more, than some starters have on a good team.

I decided that it would be a good idea to shed some light on the players who typically aren't put in the limelight as often as they should be, by ranking the league's top backups.

Since I am ranking the top sixth men in the league, I figured it would be appropriate to stray from the conventional "Top Five" or "Top Ten" and instead list the "Top Six" sixth men.

*Note: for those of you who don't recognize the picture, it is Bobby Jones of the Philadelphia 76ers, the first ever recipient of the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year Award*

And now, I present some of the league's most underappreciated players:

(0)
...
Share This  
Crop_45x45
or to post this comment

16 Comments

There are no comments yet. Get the conversation started by leaving the first comment

Loading more comments...
posted just now
  • Loading...
  • Nobody has liked this comment yet
Cancel

This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete

1,041
reads

16
comments

written on August 30, 2009 Rankings/List

The best newsletter on the web

Subscribe Now

We will never share your email address


CBS Sports Official Partner
Certain photos copyright © 2009 by Getty Images.
Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Getty Images is strictly prohibited.