50 Greatest Basketball Players Ever - 21 to 30 of the best NBA players ever

#21 Isiah Thomas

Isiah Thomas (#11) in action during the 1988 NBA Finals

Having made his debut in the golden age for big men in the NBA, Isiah is still the only point guard other than Stephen Curry to be the best player on a team while also being its shortest. Drafted by the Pistons in the 1981 NBA Draft with the 2nd overall pick, Thomas rose to prominence in his very first season, making the All-Star team as a rookie and sparking the Pistons to an 18-win boost from their 21-61 record in the previous season (they finished in 3rd place in the Central Division and qualified for the playoffs).

Isiah made consecutive All-Star Game appearances for 12 seasons after this. While his best scoring season was '82-83 when he averaged 22.9 points and 7.8 assists per game, he took the league's assists title with a mind-boggling 13.9 apg average in the '84-85 season on top of his 21.2 ppg scoring average.

The Pistons drafted quite well following Isiah's rise, and by the '86-87 season, they were challenging for a berth in the NBA Finals. They took defending champions Boston to 7 games in the Conference Finals and were in the thick of Finals action the following year.

By this time, the core of the Bad Boy Pistons era had already arrived at the franchise and the unit as a whole was revered as one of the greatest defensive lineups in history - spearheaded by Bill Laimbeer at center and Dennis Rodman as a forward. Game 6 of the 1988 NBA Finals saw Isiah unleash a historic scoring outburst, shaking off a nagging ankle sprain suffered earlier in the same game to score a Finals record 24 points in a quarter.

The Pistons lost the series 4-3 but proceeded to stamp their authority as the premier team in the NBA the following season with a 4-0 sweep of the injury-hobbled Lakers. They defended their title successfully with a 4-1 victory over Clyde Drexler's Portland Trail Blazers the following year after being stretched to the limit by the Bulls in the Conference Finals

The rise of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen as the Association's premier two-way swingmen eventually helped them over the top, as the Pistons had to make way for a new era in basketball. Nevertheless, Isiah continued his dominant play up until his final season (1993-94), and retired still near the top of his game.

Mr. Wonderful was one of the fastest players ever to grace an NBA court, and he used his sick handles to pave the way for one of the most effective driving games for any player in the history of the game. At his peak, he was a great two-way player (although the accolades of his era were dominated by the likes of Sidney Moncrieff, Michael Jordan and Alvin Robertson), as evidenced by his career steals average of 1.9 per game.