5 Most Overrated Stars from Each Decade in NBA History

It's a debate we love to have in sports.  Who is better than who, who is rated too high and who is rated too low.  We can't seem to survive if there is a discrepancy in where a player sits compared to the rest of the guys in his respective league throughout history, and it's no different in the NBA.

Some of the names that get thrown around a lot are outlandish.  Kobe Bryant and Bill Russell, Shaq and Wilt Chamberlain, LeBron James and...Michael Jordan?

I've heard arguments for all of these guys and them being placed wrong in the ranks in history, and for the most part the arguments are nit-picky and pointless.  And those people that argue that Michael Jordan isn't the greatest of all-time just drive me up a wall.

What interests me more is the players throughout time that are so out of whack when we look at them that it seems like we completely overlooked them.  Players that became more well known through their kooky personalities, relationships with a superstar or just their involvement in a great moment in basketball history that makes everyone remember them as better than they were.

So I've combed the past and picked out five players from each decade who need to be dragged down a notch, if for nothing more than argument's sake.

1950s: 5. Slater Martin

Slater Martin gets most of the love that he does because he was a member of five championship teams with the Minneapolis Lakers and St. Louis Hawks.

However, he never topped more then 14 points a game and came away with 9.8 points and 4.2 assists a game for his entire career, which many saw as enough to put him in the Hall of Fame.

I'm aware that netting assists was harder back in the day, and for a little guy to score he had to be pretty good, but Martin had the luxury of playing with George Mikan and Vern Mikkelson and then later Bob Pettit and Cliff Hagan.

4. George Mikan

George Mikan gets all the love for being the first "superstar" in the game of basketball.  He absolutely dominated the low-post, but that's because the lane was so narrow when he played.

They ended up widening the lane so he wasn't able to camp down low and wait to block shots or tip in an errant shot.

Sure, having the rules changed for you is pretty impressive, but it would have happened eventually with any long-legged tall guy that came around.

3. Tom Gola

Tom Gola ended up winning one championship with the Philadelphia Warriors, and cracked the top five in any category only twice in his career, nabbing fourth place in assists per game in 1956 and '58, yet he ended up in the Hall of Fame as a player.

Gola finished his career averaging just over 11 points, seven rebounds and four assists per game.  Not exactly setting the world on fire there.

2. Ed Macauley

The Celtics starting center before Bill Russell came to town and won every championship that he saw fit, Ed Macauley was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1960, but I'm not sure he deserved it.

Back in the 50s and 60s, a center had two things to do, score the ball and get rebounds, and do it a lot.

Macauley could score pretty well, averaging 17.5 points a game, but he wasn't a good rebounder by any era's standards, pulling down 7.5 boards a game, never cracking the top ten in the league in that particular category.

1. Dick McGuire

Dick McGuire's case is one of a player getting too much credit because of where he played basketball, and we'll see that all throughout history with guys from the Knicks.

Dick the Knick, as he was called, was usually in the top ten in assists throughout most of his career with New York, but he never ended up leading the league, and he certainly never did much in terms of scoring the ball.

1960s: 5. KC Jones

I have all the love in the world for the 60s Celtics and their dominant ways, but many of their players end up with a legendary reputation that is helped out a ton by playing with BIll Russell, Bill Sharman, Bob Cousy, John Havilcek and Tommy Heinsohn.

K.C. Jones was an amazing defender for the Celtics and fit in well with the team, but he gets the reputation as being one of the legends of the 60s, but he couldn't do much more than defend.

He ended up cracking the top ten in any category just four times, eighth and third three times in assists.

4. Clyde Lovellette

He played beside George Mikan, Bob Pettit and Bill Russell.  I think it's safe to say that this is the luckiest man of the decade in the NBA.

Clyde Lovellette was a decent scorer, but as a rebounder for that era he was sub-par, finishing his career with just 9.5 rebounds a game in an era when 15 was considered an acceptable number. 

He was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a player in 1988.

3. Sam Jones

I know I'm going to get some angry Celtics fans on this one, because they love Sam Jones, and with good reason.  He was a huge part of their dynasty.

However, he gets the credit of a man that set the world on fire.  Jones was the Celtics sixth man for most of his career, and when he did get a starting gig, he did fine, but I don't think he deserves the legendary aura that he gets.

Jones was an amazing scorer for a guy his size in the time period in which he played, but at least some of that came from having great teammates.

2. Al Attles

Al Attles is looked at as a Warriors legened, even netting him a job as the Warriors head coach in the 70s, but he was nowhere near a legend on the court.

Attles topped 11 points a game just once in his career and peaked at six assists and ended up cracking the top ten just once in assists during his 14-year career.

1. Walt Bellamy

Walt Bellamy put up great numbers in the decade, but he never ended up winning a championship and only made the playoffs seven times in his 14 seasons.

There is a reason that this guy got traded three times in his career and then was left unprotected so the Jazz could draft him in the expansion draft.  He wasn't a winner.

This was an era when a team would latch on to a great player's contract for his entire career, but Bellamy switched teams four times despite averaging 20 points and 13 rebounds for his career.

1970s: 5. Spencer Haywood

A good rebounder and a decent scorer, Spencer Haywood is looked at as a kind of icon from the 70s, but he really only deserved that title in his one year in the ABA.

He led the ABA in points and rebounds in 1970 and won their MVP Award that season, but he never even came close to that production in the NBA, although he is talked about like he did.

4. Bill Bradley

Man, I feel like I'm really piling on on the Knicks having now called out both Dick the Knick and Dollar Bill Bradley, but it had to be done.

Bill Bradley gets tons of credit for being an integral part of the 1970 and '73 Championship Knicks teams, and he was.  However he had Dick Barnett, Dave DeBusschere, Willis Reed and Clyde Frazier ahead of him at one point or another.

3. Connie Hawkins

He's got a woman's first name and a cool nickname, but The Hawk wasn't great for a center in the fast-paced 1970s.

Connie Hawkins averaged 16.5 points and eight rebounds a game in the NBA, only cracking the top ten once in points per game and never in rebounds.

2. Gail Goodrich

Gail Goodrich was a very fine scoring guard in the 1970s, but he is a guy whose legend grows because he played for the Lakers for so long, something that will happen to a player who spent copious amounts of time with Los Angeles, Boston or New York.

Goodrich, however, was a poor passer and a worse rebounder, but he could definitely shoot and play some defense.

1. Pistol Pete

Pistol Pete was like bacon.  

Delicious, meat of the gods, but ultimately bad for you, but the average NBA fan had the same opinion of him as this kid had of bacon.

He was flashy, exciting to watch and a great draw for people to come see, but ultimately he never played for a good team.

The Pistol made the playoffs just four times in his career, and never in his prime, going three times in his first three years with the Hawks and once in his final season in the league with the Celtics.

1980s: 5. James Worthy

Big Game James is his name and his reputation, and that's completely legitimate.  He was good in important games, but he wasn't as legendary as it is made seem throughout his career.

When it came down to it, Worthy was a good number two or three option for the Lakers (depending on what year we are talking about), but if he would have ended up on any other team it's hard to say if he would have had a hall of fame caliber career.

4. Julius Erving

I included Dr. J as a part of the 80s because he straddles two decades, but for most of the 70s he was lighting up the ABA.

Julius Erving deserves all the credit he's gotten for his effect on the popularity of basketball as a whole, but for a superstar he was definitely overrated.

He was a bad defender and a decent shooter, and while his teams usually ended up in the playoffs and making runs deep into them, they never could get over the hump until Moses Malone was the number one option.  That has to say something.

3. Darryl Dawkins

Darryl Dawkins was immensely entertaining and will be remembered for years because of his antics on and off the court, and because he could shatter a backboard at will, but was he a legendary player?

Chocolate Thunder could score when asked, but he peaked at just under 17 points a game.  On top of that, he wasn't a good defender and could barely rebound, averaging just six a game throughout his career while standing at 6'11".

I'm not trying to directly compare the two, but those are Andrea Bargnani numbers right there.

2. World B. Free

Boy the 80s were full of players getting attention for something other than playing great basketball weren't they.

To this day I'm not sure why he is held in such high regard by people who watched him in Cleveland late in his career when it was obviously his last gasp in the league.

The man could score, that's without question as he averaged 20 points a game and topped out at 30 a game in 1980, but he couldn't do much more.

Free was a bad rebounder, mediocre defender and he had at most just over five assists a game at his peak.

1. Spud Webb

A gimmick can get you everywhere in the NBA.

Go ask a casual basketball fan who the most important players were on the Hawks throughout the 80s and the most likely answer you will get is going to be Dominique Wilkins and Spud Webb.

No mention of Kevin Willis, Eddie Johnson, Doc Rivers or even Moses Malone.

Spud gets the love because of his epic battles with Michael Jordan in the dunk contest throughout the decade and just for the fact that he could get up and dunk while standing 5'6".

He peaked at 16 points and 7.1 assists, and only averaged more than ten points a game five times in his career.

1990s: 5. Reggie Miller

It hurts me to say it, really it does, but maybe Reggie Miller wasn't as great as we remember him.

I'm not going to go as far as to call him a one-trick pony, because he could play defense, but his greatness as a three-point shooter got him a long way.

Eight out of the 15 times that his teams made the playoffs they were eliminated in the first round, and while he may have been victimized by straddling three dynasties (Jordan's Bulls, the Shaqobe Lakers and Duncan's Spurs), he still only sniffed the Finals once.

4. Penny Hardaway

Penny Hardaway's career went down the tubes because he got hurt, but people talk about him like he was great, got hurt and then reinvented himself like Grant Hill.

The fact is that Hardaway was injured and missed big playing time three times in four seasons and his abilities completely changed, but the way he played didn't.

He continued to try to play like he did when he was hanging out with Shaq, but his body just couldn't do it anymore and his numbers and his impact on the floor suffered.

Hardaway never worked to improve his defense so he could help his team out more, he just assumed that his offensive game would come back, but it never did.

3. Dan Majerle

The only thing not overrated about Dan Majerle is the fact that he was nicknamed "Thunder" Dan.  He could have retired and become a professional wrestler with that nickname.

From 1990 to 1992 Thunder Dan was a great bench player, then for the next three years he was a good enough starter.  He was then traded to the Cavs and his numbers went down the drain.

2. Glenn Rice

Must...not...make...Sarah Palin joke.

At best, Glen Rice was a volume shooter who played very little defense.  He could put up good scoring numbers and average 20 points a game, but it would take him 17 shots to do it.

For a guy as tall as he was he was a bad rebounder, and for a guy who was as bad a rebounder as he was he was a bad passer, then on defense he couldn't keep anyone from scoring...even Sarah Palin.

Damn! So close.

1. Craig Ehlo

Quite honestly, the best thing that could have ever happened to Craig Ehlo's legacy was that shot that Michael Jordan drained over him in the 1989 playoffs, otherwise nobody outside of Cleveland would remember him.

Ehlo was never a good scorer, but he did play solid defense and he was a confident, poised player on the court, he was just never as good as many remember him.

2000s: 5. Tracy McGrady

I think we all know the argument with Tracy McGrady.

McGrady was an amazing scorer, arguably the best in the league at one point, a decent defender and one of the best dunkers of the decade, but he just couldn't help his team close the deal when the weather got warmer.

He never played for a team that made it out of the first round of the playoffs, and regardless of the fact that he played with injury-prone players, that's inexcusable. 

4. Kenyon Martin

Two things are true about Kenyon Martin.  He was a great defender and he was the second most important player on the early 2000s Nets teams that was the best team in the Eastern Conference for three years.

However, his defense has deteriorated over the past five or six years and he was never a player on offense to earn the reputation that he has throughout the league.

3. Latrell Sprewell

At one point people saw Latrell Sprewell in nearly the same light that Latrell Sprewell saw himself in.

He was the best player that Kevin Garnett played with for a time, but that's more depressing for Kevin Garnett than it is a compliment to Spree.

He was a volume scorer and a guy who slowed down the offense every time he touched the ball.

2. Steve Francis

If you're going to have people call you Stevie Franchise you'd better do something to make yourself look like a franchise player.

Francis only topped 20 points a game three times (we'll go ahead and count 2001 when he averaged 19.9), but he was never a good defender and his passing skills were average at best.

The only thing he did like a franchise player was get paid, picking up a cool $103 million throughout his career (this is why we're having a lockout).

1. Stephon Marbury

I seriously don't mean to pile this all on the Knicks, but their legends getting too much love and their overspending in the 90s and 00s really has my hands tied.

Besides, I don't think there are many people out there who are going to defend Stephon Marbury.

Marbury played on teams that fed him the ball relentlessly, shooting at least 15 times a game for eight straight seasons.

He got big contract after big contract and ended up getting traded away by every team that could trade him (New York couldn't pay a team to take him off their hands).

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