Career Winning Percentages (updated)

[sabar]

Bill Russell '57-'69

75.77% regular season win percentage
64.7% playoffs win percentage
11 championships

Two of those years he was a player-coach! The league was much less diluted because of its size, so his teams would, for example, play against Wilt 11 or more times a year. The opposition wasn't dumbed-down either with a very large number of game 6s, game 7s, close games, and lucky breaks in the playoffs.

I believe he was the only constant from his first team to his last (full turnover of team mates and coach).

He also somehow averaged 42 minutes a game and regularly played all 48 minutes, even as an old man in an NBA where there was no conditioning or weight training, so his win percentage doesn't skew since he's always in the game.

I wish it was easier to find pre-ABA merger stats.

[TampaDude]

Bill Russell '57-'69

75.77% regular season win percentage
64.7% playoffs win percentage
11 championships

Two of those years he was a player-coach! The league was much less diluted because of its size, so his teams would, for example, play against Wilt 11 or more times a year. The opposition wasn't dumbed-down either with a very large number of game 6s, game 7s, close games, and lucky breaks in the playoffs.

I believe he was the only constant from his first team to his last (full turnover of team mates and coach).

He also somehow averaged 42 minutes a game and regularly played all 48 minutes, even as an old man in an NBA where there was no conditioning or weight training, so his win percentage doesn't skew since he's always in the game.

I wish it was easier to find pre-ABA merger stats.

Thanks for posting this. Bill Russell is the man.

[Phenomanul]

I think this long break makes for a perfect bump... (plus the fact that Nowitzki and Bryant have exited the playoff fray)...

[Agloco]

Not surprising that the GOAT has the highest playoff win percent (including the Russell comparison above).

This is something that GOATs do tbh.

[urunobili]

Derek Fisher is not part of this list? Robert Horry?

[Phenomanul]

Correction: Dirk's Regular Season Stats weren't updated... now they are, and he slipped behind MJ)...

[E-RockWill]

Great work, Spursfanfromafar and FromWayDowntown.

Combined with the work done by Phenomanul, this is one of the best threads in a while.

Seconded...

[Phenomanul]

I guess I should add Garnett to the mix just to show how silly it is when folks suggest he is Duncan's equal...

[Phenomanul]

Additional Players for comparison...

Kevin Garnett
LeBron James
Dwyane Wade

[Galileo]

Thank you sir. Obviously some funny ones in there for "certain human victory cigar" players, but Michael Jordan's playoff % is just ridiculous

Jordan playoff record is 119-60. That is .665. The chart is wrong.

[Phenomanul]

Jordan playoff record is 119-60. That is .665. The chart is wrong.

I knew I had seen that 0.665 number elsewhere but couldn't figure out why my table didn't produce that result... You found the lone error in my exercise... I have Jordan's 1987-1988 playoff numbers reversed... should be 4 wins and 6 losses. That's a 4 game swing!!!

I'm going to try and add Magic and Larry Bird into the table at the conclusion of these playoffs...

[Phenomanul]

Interesting notes:

1) If the Spurs end up winning their 5th Larry O'Brien trophy... Parker has a chance to move ahead of both Kobe Bryant and Lebron James in the playoff rankings...

2) If by any chance the Spurs sweep their way to another 'chip that would give Ginobili such a nefarious playoff winning percentage 92 / 138 = 0.666666666 This was Manu's evil plot all along to pass-up Michael Jordan and land on that beastly mark ... now some of those injuries in his past don't seem all that "freakish" or inopportune anymore... Manu was simply playing the numbers...

3) Only 4 players in the Regular Season table above can claim never to have had a losing season... They all claim "Silver and Black"... that's pretty remarkable...

[Danny.Zhu]

Cool stats.

[Seventyniner]

If by any chance the Spurs sweep their way to another 'chip that would give Ginobili such a nefarious playoff winning percentage 92 / 138 = 0.666666666 This was Manu's evil plot all along to pass-up Michael Jordan and land on that beastly mark ...

Except that an older translation of the book of Revelation says that the number of the beast is 616, not 666.

[TDMVPDPOY]

funny how you mention kg in the comparison, padding his wins in the pathetic east playoffs, the celtics 2 runs into the finals clearly avg out his 7 first roune exits in the west

[Galileo]

Except that an older translation of the book of Revelation says that the number of the beast is 616, not 666.

I thought it was 606?

[Galileo]

Bill Russell '57-'69

75.77% regular season win percentage
64.7% playoffs win percentage
11 championships

Two of those years he was a player-coach! The league was much less diluted because of its size, so his teams would, for example, play against Wilt 11 or more times a year. The opposition wasn't dumbed-down either with a very large number of game 6s, game 7s, close games, and lucky breaks in the playoffs.

I believe he was the only constant from his first team to his last (full turnover of team mates and coach).

He also somehow averaged 42 minutes a game and regularly played all 48 minutes, even as an old man in an NBA where there was no conditioning or weight training, so his win percentage doesn't skew since he's always in the game.

I wish it was easier to find pre-ABA merger stats.

Russell was great, but he had help:

Hall-of-Fame teammates each season

1968-69 (3)
1. John Havlicek
2. Bailey Howell
3. Sam Jones

1967-68 (3)
1. John Havlicek
2. Bailey Howell
3. Sam Jones

1966-67 (4)
1. John Havlicek
2. Bailey Howell
3. K.C. Jones
4. Sam Jones

1965-66 (3)
1. John Havlicek
2. K.C. Jones
3. Sam Jones

1964-65 (4)
1. John Havlicek
2. Tom Heinsohn
3. K.C. Jones
4. Sam Jones

1963-64 (6)
1. John Havlicek
2. Tom Heinsohn
3. K.C. Jones
4. Sam Jones
5. Clyde Lovellette
6. Frank Ramsey

1962-63 (7)
1. Bob Cousy
2. John Havlicek
3. Tom Heinsohn
4. K.C. Jones
5. Sam Jones
6. Clyde Lovellette
7. Frank Ramsey

1961-62 (5)
1. Bob Cousy
2. Tom Heinsohn
3. K.C. Jones
4. Sam Jones
5. Frank Ramsey

1960-61 (6)
1. Bob Cousy
2. Tom Heinsohn
3. K.C. Jones
4. Sam Jones
5. Frank Ramsey

7. Bill Sharman


1959-60 (6)
1. Bob Cousy
2. Tom Heinsohn
3. K.C. Jones
4. Sam Jones
5. Frank Ramsey

7. Bill Sharman

1958-59 (6)
1. Bob Cousy
2. Tom Heinsohn
3. K.C. Jones
4. Sam Jones
5. Frank Ramsey

7. Bill Sharman


1957-58 (7)
1. Bob Cousy
2. Tom Heinsohn
3. Sam Jones
4. Andy Phillip
5. Frank Ramsey
6. Arnie Risen

8. Bill Sharman


1956-57 (6)
1. Bob Cousy
2. Tom Heinsohn
3. Andy Phillip
4. Frank Ramsey
5. Arnie Risen

7. Bill Sharman

Average per season: 5.1

[Wild Cobra Kai]

^^ Russell made ALL of those players HOFers. Russell's arrival was as cataclysmic for Boston as Duncan's was for us. Just like SA, Boston was a good team that could never seem to get over the hump and no one was afraid of. Russ turned them all into legends.

[Galileo]

^^ Russell made ALL of those players HOFers. Russell's arrival was as cataclysmic for Boston as Duncan's was for us. Just like SA, Boston was a good team that could never seem to get over the hump and no one was afraid of. Russ turned them all into legends.

that's a load. Cousy, Havlicek, Sam Jones, and Bill Sharman were all named to the top 50 team, a step up from a routine hall-of-famer.

Baily Howell was a great player for years before he ended his prime with 3 seasons with Russell.

Frank Ramsey was an all-American at Kentucky back when it meant something.

Heinsohn won rookie of the year OVER Bill Russell.

Lovelette was already a hall-of-famer before he joined the Celtics, he was a 20-10 man the season prior to coming over.

Risen and Phillips were old role players who already had hallof fame credential.

KC Jones. You got me, he won the national championship in college and then won again in the pros with Russell. Russell made Jones a hall-of-famer.

And I'll give you Tom Sanders who I left off my list.

[TJastal]

cobra been hittin' dat crack pipe again

[tesseractive]

Russell was great, but he had help

Didn't other teams pretty routinely have multiple HoFers back in those day?

Totally agree that Russell had help -- Red Auerbach was a man among boys as a GM in those days.

But Russell was just a force that willed his teams to win. Sort of like a certain Spur whose talents aren't as flashy as those of some of his notable compe ors.