# Who was the best NBA sixth man of the 1980s?

> Award winners, title-team role players and one former MVP reborn as a backup: the decade's benches ran deeper than the box scores suggest.

*By YPB Team · Published October 31, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/who-was-the-best-nba-sixth-man-of-the-1980s*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Bill Walton** — score 1000/1000
   Former MVP who reinvented himself as Boston's backup center and won Sixth Man of the Year for the 1986 champions.
2. **Kevin McHale** — score 813/1000
   Celtics forward who won Sixth Man of the Year in 1984 and 1985 with an unstoppable low-post game off the bench.
3. **Bobby Jones** — score 423/1000
   76ers defensive stopper who won the first-ever Sixth Man of the Year award in 1983, the year Philadelphia took the title.
4. **Detlef Schrempf** — score 423/1000
   Versatile German forward who built his bench role with the Mavericks and Pacers in the late 1980s.
5. **Michael Cooper** — score 423/1000
   Showtime Lakers swingman off the bench who won Defensive Player of the Year in 1987 and five championships.
6. **Bob McAdoo** — score 310/1000
   Former scoring champion who became a key bench weapon for the Lakers' 1982 and 1985 title teams.
7. **Roy Tarpley** — score 310/1000
   Dallas Mavericks big man who averaged a double-double off the bench to win Sixth Man of the Year in 1988.
8. **Thurl Bailey** — score 310/1000
   Utah Jazz forward who gave the team steady scoring off the bench behind Karl Malone in the late 1980s.
9. **Dennis Rodman** — score 310/1000
   Pistons rebounding and defensive force who came off the bench for Detroit's 1989 championship team.

Tags: 80s, basketball, players, nba, sixth man