# Who was the best NBA player of the 1960s?

> The decade of the Celtics dynasty, the 100-point game and the first triple-double season. Ten years, one league, and a dozen men with a case.

*By YPB Team · Published September 5, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/who-was-the-best-nba-player-of-the-1960s*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Bill Russell** — score 1000/1000
   Won nine championships in the decade and coached the last two of them himself.
2. **Wilt Chamberlain** — score 848/1000
   Scored 100 points in a game, averaged 50.4 a night for a season, and led the league in rebounding almost every year.
3. **Jerry West** — score 597/1000
   The Finals scorer whose silhouette became the league logo, and the only player named Finals MVP in a losing series.
4. **Walt Bellamy** — score 546/1000
   Averaged 31.6 points and 19 rebounds as a rookie, numbers no first-year player has matched since.
5. **Bob Cousy** — score 488/1000
   Opened the decade running the Celtics' offence and left it as the standard for a point guard.
6. **Lenny Wilkens** — score 488/1000
   A guard good enough to make nine All-Star teams while carrying weak rosters.
7. **Bob Pettit** — score 488/1000
   Carried St. Louis through the start of the decade as the league's most reliable scorer-rebounder.
8. **Nate Thurmond** — score 423/1000
   The defensive centre who guarded Chamberlain and Russell in their own conference and held up.
9. **Oscar Robertson** — score 423/1000
   Averaged a triple-double across the 1961-62 season and nearly did it again across the decade's first five years.
10. **John Havlicek** — score 423/1000
   Came off the bench for Boston and outran everyone in the fourth quarter of the decade's biggest games.
11. **Billy Cunningham** — score 349/1000
   The Kangaroo Kid, whose athleticism off the Philadelphia bench pointed at the game's next decade.
12. **Elgin Baylor** — score 263/1000
   Brought the game above the rim and once scored 61 in a Finals game.
13. **Rick Barry** — score 263/1000
   Rookie of the Year in 1966 and the league's scoring champion a year later, before jumping to the ABA.
14. **Willis Reed** — score 263/1000
   Rookie of the Year in 1965 and the frontcourt that made New York a contender.
15. **Dave Bing** — score 263/1000
   Arrived in 1966 and immediately led the league in scoring for a struggling Detroit team.
16. **Hal Greer** — score 163/1000
   Philadelphia's most consistent scorer and a starter on the 1967 team that ended Boston's run.

Tags: sports, 60s, basketball, players, nba