The shooting guard is perhaps the NBA's most flashy spot. We have seen some of the NBA's most impressive scorers start at a double-guard stage and Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant are obviously leading the way.
Countless individual achievements and team rewards were won by the best shooting guards in NBA history. After all, MJ and Kobe have certainly made the place incredibly popular for the two best perimeter scores of all times.
But also stars like Jerry West and Dwyane Wade won many awards and NBA titles, which brings fans all over the world a lot of excitement. The changing essence of the NBA will certainly make it even more difficult to rank players in the future. For now, let's take a look at the Top 13 Shooting Guards of All-Time.
13. Pete Maravich
One of the most skillful and efficient NBA types in history may have been the play style of Maravich. The unorthodox style of Maravich contributed to five full-star picks, four-team contributions, and a total of 31.1 points per game in 1976. Maravich never won the NBA, but after his outstanding career, he was named to the NBA Hall of Fame.
12. Allen Iverson
Allen Iverson is one of the most famous shooting guards of all time. While he didn't win an NBA championship, he took a rather non-top team to the NBA Finals and triumphed in his first match with Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant in favor of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Iverson is one of the greatest scorers ever to play and perhaps the best man ever to play. Iverson's one thing as a player was that he never had a fantastic team behind him to propel him into an NBA championship.
11. Klay Thompson
Klay Thompson is one of the Splash Brothers and one of the finest shooters in the history of the NBA. Thompson has hit the leaderboard with three points in just eight seasons and is 18th in his career (1,798). In 2015 he earned 37 points in one quarter, as against the Sacramento Kings Thompson has also one of the most spectacular records for NBA.
Also one of the best winners in the league, the five-time All-Star made the all-defensive team for the 2018 season. Thompson transformed the atmosphere of the Warriors' franchise along with Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, helping the team capture three championships over the last five years.
10. Reggie Miller
The shooting skills were Reggie Miller's tag line. Miller ended his career with the second most effective career, shot just under 40% of the three for his career (39.5 percent). He was an excellent free-throw shooter, in addition to his 3-point score ability (88.8 FT percentage of career), and was five times in free-throwing position.
He made five All-Star games and was a three-time selection on All-NBA teams. An 18.2-point average scoring career helped Miller end his career with the 21st largest in the history of the league.
9. George Gervin
Gervin was one of the most popular scorers in the history of the league but he was one of the coolest players ever seen in the game. He was called "The Iceman" for that reason. His finger roll was his trademark shot and nobody did it better.
He easily could go past the defenders, and they somehow couldn't deter him, even though they were conscious that the finger roll would happen. The Iceman scored 27.2, 29.6, 33.1, 27.1, 32.3, 26.2, and 25.9 points per game over 7 years. These are some of every player of the 72-year history of the league's greatest marking seasons.
8. Clyde Drexler
Known as a Portland Trailblazer legend, Drexler was one of NBA’s most prolific scorers of all time. In 1983, he entered the NBA and scored more than 20 points in nine of his 16 seasons in the NBA.
Drexler took part in the 10 all-star game shows, in 5 teams chosen from the all-NBA, and won the Houston Rockets championship in 1994.
7. James Harden
Harden has been one of the league's top scorers over the past five seasons. The two-time scoring champion had three straight seasons, averaging at least thirty points, all the more than the players on my list.
The 2011 Sixth Man of the Year made the transition from a rotation player to a powerhouse in less than a decade, and Harden's supremacy was on full display during the 2017-18 season as he received the MVP trophy. In addition to his score, Harden is an outstanding player as he led the league in assists in 2016 and has six straight seasons with seven or more assists per game.
6. Manu Ginobili
The sharp left-handed Ginobili is one of the best foreign players in the history of the league and was a big part of the success of the San Antonio Spurs in the early 2000s and the late 2010s. Ginobili joined the NBA in 2002 and was a little raw until he was completely etched on Greg Popovich's scheme.
Come the end of his career, Ginóbili was a two-time All-Star, a sixth Man of the Year, and a four-time NBA Winner. His effect on winning well surpassed his 13.3-point score average subpar, as he was the backbone of the Paddy franchise, which created regular winning seasons during his tenure with the team.
5. Ray Allen
Ray Allen, one of the best pure shooters in the league, is also the number one all-time three-pointer with 2,973 in his career. He had an all-around game that was all you could wish for from your shooting guard, and more.
He was an agile guard who could drive and dunk almost anybody. Since he was still lethal from the three-point line, the defenders did not know whether to take the three-point shot away or hold him away from the road.
4. Jerry West
West's excellence speaks volumes, as it is the NBA emblem and one of the greatest scorers in NBA history. West's 27-point season score average helped him finish his career with the 22nd-most points in the history of the league as well as a single-point championship. The 14-time All-Star was also a terrific defenseman, making five All-Defensive Team appearances and recording 2.6 steals per game.
Not just a prolific scorer, West was a fantastic competitor, illustrated by his 6.7-strong average and assist title in the 1971 season. The Hall of Famer has won an NBA championship with the Lakers in 1971 and is the only player in NBA history to win the MVP Finals on the losing team (1968).
3. Dwayne Wade
Wade was a marvelous two-way guard, and one of the most entertaining players of his generation. The Miami Heat legend transformed the franchise culture and led them to three championships in his 17-year tenure.
Wade made thirteen All-Star appearances and also earned an ASG MVP award in 2009. The future Hall of Famer also comprised eight All-NBA players, three All-Defensive teams, and was the final MVP of the 2005 NBA season.
2. Kobe Bryant
We are never going to see anyone like Kobe Bryant again. He won five NBA championships with the Lakers, stayed his entire career, and regularly made his case a top-two shooting guard to have ever existed. What he did for the basketball game was special, as he brought the "Mamba Mentality" and the killer would walk on the court every time.
He spent his entire life dominating the basketball game, and we are all very thankful for that. 5 NBA awards, 2 MVP Finals, 2 Olympic Gold Medals, and 11-time All-NBA Team make him the second-best shooter ever, very very far away from all others.
1. Michael Jordan
Unarguably the No.1 shooting guard to have ever walked the earth belongs to Michael Jordan. Jordan's iconic accolades include five MVP awards, six title rings, and six MVP Finals. Jordan's career scored an average of 30.1 points a game, and he was a ten-time scoring champion throughout his career.
Jordan received nearly every imaginable individual award since he also won ROY in 1984 and Defensive Player of the Year in the 1987 season. Michael Jordan is above any player on my list, and pretty much the rest of the NBA. There's no other player who has so far matched his success.
