during the 2024 NBA Finals Stan Van Gundy said that Luca donic and Kyrie Irving are the best offensive back court ever donic and Irving combined for 51 points and 13 assists per game during their playoff run which certainly adds some legitimacy to Van gundy's statement but spoiler alert they aren't among the 10 best back courts ever to crack that list you have to have longevity and championships not just pure offensive Talent so here are the 10 best back courts in NBA history after they lost to Michael Jordan and then didn't shake the Bulls hands in
the 1991 Conference Finals well we just wanted to play clean basketball even though they were going to try to you maybe dirty it up but we were going to keep our composure and play the game of basketball the Detroit Pistons didn't win a playoff series for more than a decade but then in 2000 the franchise Legend Joe Dumars took over as the president of basketball operations and the Pistons started to Blossom Dumars brought in Ben Wallace in 2000 in 2002 he drafted taan Prince and in that same off season he traded for point guard chony
bips and shooting guard Rip Hamilton the back court of B and Hamilton soon proved to be one of the best in the NBA with a perfect balance of shooting and playmaking complimentary to the great Pistons defense up front in their six years together Detroit averaged 55 wins per season and had the number one seed in their conference five times the Pistons made the Conference Finals in each of those six seasons including two trips to the finals in 2004 and 2005 and while they lost in seven games to the Spurs in 05 Detroit's 2004 title against
the Lakers remains one of the best Underdog stories in NBA history bips who also won the finals MVP averaged 17 points and six assists during his Detroit tenure while Hamilton averaged 19 and four assists and they each made three all-star teams and if you think that 36 points between them isn't much bear in mind that the Pistons averaged 93 points per game in those six years which means their back court produced around 40% of all the team's points while there were some back courts with better numbers than rip and chony very few matched their defensive
output clutch baskets and playoff success another back court that played for six years together with two finals appearances and one title played in New York and their nicknames were Clyde and pearl in 1970 the Knicks miraculously won their first NBA championship led by point guard Walt Clyde Frasier and Center Willis Reed whose unbelievable comeback after injury LED them to a game seven victory over Wilt Chamberlain and the Lakers Midway through the 1972 season the Knicks made a deal that would send two bench players Mike reardan and Dave stalworth to the Baltimore Bullets in exchange for
Earl The Pearl Monroe Monroe was one of the best shooting guards in the NBA at the time averaging 23 points with the bullets and leading them to a 1971 NBA Finals but the Pearl grew unhappy in Baltimore so he requested a trade upon his arrival in the Big Apple there was a question whether he could coexist with another ball dominant guard in Frasier and the first season wasn't easy on Monroe because the Knicks made him come off the bench in limited minutes which resulted in his scoring average dipping to 11 points per game however the
Knicks did make the finals in 1972 but they would lose to the Lakers in five games then the next season Monroe finally moved to the starting lineup and he meshed extremely well with Frasier with the media soon dubbing them the Rolls-Royce backcourt Clyde and pearl led the nicker boers to their second and last NBA championship as the two leading scorers the Rolls-Royce backourt played six years together and they averaged 40 points and 10 assists per game combined together with five All-Star appearances for Frasier and two for Monroe and while two finals and one Championship is
a great accomplishment those are rookie numbers compared to the 1960s Celtics the winningest team of all time and even though most of the praise for Boston's titles goes to Bill Russell and rightfully so the Celtics also had the best backourt in the NBA at the time with Bob Koozie and Sam Jones Koozie was the first NBA point guard Superstar named Houdini of the hardwood because of his phenomenal ball handling and a deep bag of tricks Tim Jones's best NBA years didn't come until Koozie was already retired I would like to say it has been an
honor and a privilege for me to compete against their team but even though Koozie was slowing down as Jones was ascending their record speaks for itself in six years as teammates Koozie and Jones won five NBA championships and adding in that they had the best record in the NBA in each of those six years they have the best winning percentage of any backourt ever but there is another backcourt Duo that also won five championships together even though it took them 12 Seasons to do it Kobe Bryant and Derek fiser both started their NBA careers with
the lak ERS in 1996 while Kobe was certainly the star and fish was the sidekick it's worth noting that Bryant was never successful without Fisher on the team we spent a lot of time working out after practice before practice just trying to push each other and that's where the relationship really formed during Fischer's first 8-year tenure with the Lakers this backcourt Duo won three titles between 2000 and 2002 with another finals appearance in 2004 and while fish only averaged eight points per game his timely shots and his passing ability were the perfect compliment to Kobe's
shoot first ask questions later mentality sha and fiser left after the 04 season and Kobe and the Lakers struggled not winning a single playoff series I've been so used to having him sit you know behind me on the bus I turned around and he ain't there I'm like oh that's weird however when fish returned for the 2008 season along with Pal Gasol he helped Kobe reach three straight NBA finals and win two more NBA titles after Derek left the team in 2011 Kobe won just one more playoff series which was the only series he ever
won without fer in their 12 Seasons together they won 32 out of 39 playoff series which is an 82% success rate and is the NBA record for most Series wins by a pair of teammates with 847 games played together they hold the Lakers record for most games played between teammates in fact there's only one back court in NBA history who played more games together than Kobe and fish and when they first arrived in the NBA almost nobody knew who they were man you Gino Emmanuel jinil Tony Parker of racing Club Parris R then 16 years
and 933 games later when the skinny French point guard in the Argentine whose name was hard to pronounce left San Antonio they left with four championships and plenty of Records Tony Parker and Mano Joby only have eight All-Star appearances between them and they averaged 15 and 13 points per game which doesn't sound like much but the numbers don't tell the whole story of how good they were as a Duo Parker was one of the fastest point guards with one of the best floaters in NBA history and was the first European player to win the finals
MVP Joby is arguably the best sixth man in NBA history a guy who popularized the Euro Step in the NBA a Fearless scorer and a genius passer manu's career regular season record of 762 and 295 translated to a winning percentage of 71.2% the highest ever for any player who has played a minimum of 1,000 regular season games Tony and menu won 132 playoff games together which is the most ever by a pair of teammates and if we had to choose who are the most clutch backcourt teammates ever Parker and janoby would get the vote even
though some other players have better stats and our next back court had much better stats and while they were also very clutch they were extremely unlucky we're talking about Jerry West and Gail Goodrich West went to nine NBA Finals but won just one Championship that was hardly his fault though at the time of his retirement Jerry West was was the best shooting guard of all time averaging 27 points per game before the three-point era even though he was a deadly outside shooter Jerry Was An Allstar in each of his 14 NBA Seasons with 12 all
NBA selections and five all defensive selections with 30 points per game in the finals he's the third all-time final scorer behind Rick Barry and Michael Jordan and with 1,679 total points in the finals West is the all-time finals leader in points scored ahead of LeBron James Jerry's Court partner for Seven Seasons Gail Goodrich was another Hall of Famer who made Five NBA Finals with the logo Stumpy as they called him due to his small frame was a five-time All-Star averaging 19 points and five assists as a Laker with 25 points per game Goodrich was the
leading scorer in the 1972 finals helping Jerry West to finally become an NBA champion together they averaged 47 points in the playoffs and that's why they rank so high in our list and while West and Goodrich scored at will this next back court is largely known for their defense Isaiah Thomas and Joe Dumars were the leaders of the bad boy Pistons and the best players in the franchise's history Thomas and Dumars played together for nine years with a combined 35 points and 13 assists per game in addition to 12 All-Star appearances their three consecutive finals
appearances resulted in two titles solidifying this back court as one of the best ever even though their individual numbers don't jump off the page their leadership and overall game puts them ahead of some other back courts and both players won the finals MVP but she can't talk talk about the bad boys without mentioning Michael Jordan who would form one of the best backcourts no matter who he played with but during his second three- Pat run with the bulls MJ's backcourt partner was arguably the most underrated player on the Bulls Ron Harper in the eight seasons
before he came to Chicago Harper was a stud he averaged 19 points five rebounds five assists and two steals for the Cavs and the Clippers Harper was as versatile as they come a tenacious Defender Great Floor General and a capable scorer however when he joined the Bulls Harper willingly took a backseat on offense to put all his focus on defense and turned into one of the best perimeter defenders in the game even though they were both past the age of 30 during their four-year stint together Harper and Jordan formed the best defensive back court in
the NBA resulting in three NBA championships similar to Jordan and Harper this next back court also featured an all-time great and a defensive specialist Michael Cooper came to the NBA in 1978 and Magic Johnson got drafted a year later and they both played for the Lakers their entire careers Coupe wasn't a starter for much of his career but due to his defensive prowess he was always on the court in crunch time with eight selections to all defensive teams and a defensive player of the year award in 1987 Coupe was the perfect backcourt partner to Magic
who was of course an offensive genius but an average Defender at best together they won five championships and made eight NBA finals which makes them one of the most successful back courts of all time Byron Scott who was also drafted by the Lakers in 1983 could also be mentioned here especially because he was a star starter and a much better offensive player than Cooper but because Scott won only three championships with magic it's CP who gets the nod and before we get to the number one back court of all time let's name some honorable mentions
who didn't make the cut John Stockton and Jeff hornek played together for seven years in Utah and they were easily the best shooting backourt of the 90s highlighted by two trips to the NBA finals similarly Clyde Drexler and Terry Porter played together for 10 years and led the Blazers to two NBA finals and even though they didn't like each other that much Rajan Rondo and Ray all had plenty of highlights during their six years together including two finals runs and the iconic 2008 NBA championship Damen Lillard and CJ McCullum only made it to the Conference
Finals once but during their nine-year career as teammates they averaged 45 points per game which definitely deserves a mention lastly James Harden and Chris Paul who only played two seasons together and even though they didn't even make the finals they got awfully close in 2018 where an injury to Chris Paul likely denied them the chance to win the title and the guys who stopped them from winning that title are none other than the best backcourt in NBA history of course we're talking about the Splash Brothers Steph Curry and Klay Thompson the best shooter of all
time and the best catch and shoot player ever were a nightmare to guard and they changed the game of basketball forever in their 11 Seasons when both players were healthy the Splash Brothers shot below 40% for three only three times and their combined scoring average in the playoffs was a whopping 46 points per game they have six finals appearances and four championships together with 15 All-Star appearances between them the Splash Brothers were the primary driver behind the three-point revolution in the NBA and with over 6,000 three-pointers made Steph and Clay are easily the best backcourt
duo of all time thanks for watching nonstop and if you like this video check out the next one and keep watching
