The NBA has seen some players that have done a lot of good things during their career but haven’t played for good teams all the time. Others, instead, have been part of winning teams for most of their career. Those players ended their careers with very good numbers, especially with their winning percentage.
We’ve seen teams having plenty of seasons full of wins and players benefiting from that. The top 25 list of players with the highest winning percentage is full of talented players who left a mark on the league and those who are still active and trying to improve their numbers every single season. Redditor “ArchyMumbles” did the research and found the 25 players with the highest winning percentage in NBA history (min. 500 games played), which includes some really big names.
Via StatMuse:
1. Kawhi Leonard (0.745 W%)
2. Magic Johnson (0.740 W%)
3. Larry Bird (0.736 W%)
4. K.C. Jones (0.731 W%)
5. Michael Cooper (0.729 W%)
6. Tom Heinsohn (0.726 W%)
7. Manu Ginobili (0.721 W%)
8. Danny Green (0.720 W%)
9. Tim Duncan (0.719 W%)
10. Sam Jones (0.718 W%)
11. Bill Russell (0.717 W%)
12. Tony Parker (0.711 W%)
13. Frank Ramsey (0.705 W%)
14. Klay Thompson (0.702 W%)
15. Jim Loscutoff (0.701 W%)
16. Dennis Rodman (0.698 W%)
17. Tom Sanders (0.698 W%)
18. Kevin McHale (0.694 W%)
19. Danny Ainge (0.690 W%)
20. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (0.688 W%)
21. Scottie Pippen (0.688 W%)
22. David Robinson (0.682 W%)
23. Draymond Green (0.681 W%)
24. Ronnie Brewer (0.679 W%)
25. Shaquille O’Neal (0.679 W%)
Kawhi Leonard is the leader of this list and it doesn’t seem like he’s leaving the top spot in the near future. He was part of the San Antonio Spurs dynasty that played in the postseason for 20 straight years and Kawhi went to two NBA Finals with that squad in the 2010s.
He’s followed by two legends like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, who also recorded very good seasons as soon as they landed in the NBA, with Magic even winning the championship during his rookie season. More Celtics and Lakers legends like K.C. Jones and Michael Cooper close the top 5. Kawhi finds four of his former Spurs teammate on the list, too, with Manu Ginobili, Danny Green, and Tim Duncan ranking 7th, 8th, and 9th, respectively. Tony Parker ranks 12th on the ranking, right behind Bill Russell.
Players like Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are part of the list, too, and it’s fair to assume Draymond has fallen a couple of spots on this list after the Golden State Warriors’ last two seasons. The Splash Brother is 14th on the list, while Draymond is 23rd, behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Scottie Pippen and David Robinson, three incredible players.
Shaquille O’Neal finished his career with 0.679 W%, ranking 25th on this list. It’s interesting to see that LeBron James and Michael Jordan aren’t part of this list, even though their careers are nothing but incredible. Well, they struggled during their career and that certainly affected their W percentage. We have very good players here but not the two best players to ever do it and that says a lot about how competitive the association is.
