In order to win in the game of basketball, there have to be five players on the court who buy into a team philosophy. Basketball is a team sport and it has been that way since James Naismith founded it. However, there are individuals who made winning much easier. They are the superstars of the NBA over the years who made winning a part of their personality and became the ultimate competitors while leading the charge for their respective teams.
These NBA players would go on to accomplish all there is to accomplish in the NBA. Among the things they accomplished, they also became the players who accumulated the highest winning percentages the game has ever seen by any individual player ever. Some of these players that we will discuss here today got their winning percentages simply from being part of great teams. Others were leading the pack as the catalyst for those wins.
These are the NBA players with the highest winning percentages in history.
10. Bill Russell – 71.7%
Credit: Malcolm Emmons-USA TODAY SPORTS
Career Record: 690-273
Career Stats: 15.1 PPG, 22.5 RPG, 4.3 APG
Career Awards And Achievements: 11x NBA Champion, 5x MVP, 12x All-Star, 1x All-Star Game MVP, 11x All-NBA Team Selection, 1x All-Defensive Team Selection
When it comes to winning, the first name that comes to everybody’s name is Bill Russell. With 11 championship rings in 13 seasons with the Boston Celtics, Russell is the winningest player in NBA history. When it comes to winning percentage, though, Russell just barely makes the top 10 cut.
As many like to point out, Russell never averaged 20.0 PPG in any season of his career. Heck, he didn’t even average 19.0 PPG at any point in his career, but he didn’t need to. Early on as a player, Russell realized that his team would be better off if he mastered the things he was already great at rather than work on a part of his game, like scoring, that still needed work to be elite in the NBA. As a result, the NBA’s greatest defender and rebounder ever was 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧.
Russell would lead the Celtics to 11 NBA titles in 13 seasons which included eight in a row from 1959 through 1966. Russell and the Celtics would win over 70.0% of their games nine times during his career and under 60.0% of their games only twice. A Celtics team led by Russell never finished under .500 in a season and was almost guaranteed to compete for an NBA championship.
9. Sam Jones – 71.8%
Credit: Fadeaway World
Career Record: 625-246
Career Stats: 17.7 PPG, 4.9 RPG, 2.5 APG
Career Awards And Achievements: 10x NBA Champion, 5x All-Star, 3x All-NBA Team Selection
For most of his career, Sam Jones shared the court with Bill Russell for the majority of Boston’s championship runs. Jones pulled his weight, though, make no mistake about it. Jones was an accomplished offensive player who at his very best was averaging over 25.0 PPG and, many times, was the Celtics’ first option on offense.
During Jones’ NBA career, the Celtics finished with a winning percentage under 60.0% just once and finished with a winning percentage of over 70.0% eight times in 12 seasons. Most of the players on this list never finished under .500 in their careers, but Jones and the Celtics’ worst record with him on the court was 40-30 in 1969 for a winning percentage of 57.1%. Most NBA players today would 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 to be part of a team like that, especially the ones who have never made the NBA playoffs.
8. Tim Duncan – 71.9%
Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Career Record: 1,001-391
Career Stats: 19.0 PPG, 10.8 RPG, 3.0 APG, 0.7 SPG, 2.2 BPG
Career Awards And Achievements: 5x NBA Champion, 3x Finals MVP, 2x MVP, 1x Rookie Of The Year, 15x All-Star, 1x All-Star Game MVP, 15x All-NBA Team Selection, 15x All-Defensive Team Selection
Tim Duncan winning over 1,000 games in his career while losing less than 400 has to be one of the most underrated parts of his legacy in the NBA. We know all about his five championships and his Finals MVP run as a young man in his second season. We all know all about his defensive accomplishments and the way he manhandled some of the greatest big men to ever play the game. But 1,00 wins and less than 400 losses is absolutely incredible over the span of 19 years.
With the Spurs, Duncan never finished anywhere close to .500 in any one season in his career. He never even finished with a winning percentage of less than 60.0% for any one season in his career. The best season they had with Duncan on the court came in 2016 when Duncan was toward the end of his career. San Antonio went 50-11 with Duncan in the lineup that season, but if we look at his peak, the 2011 team he led was best with a 60-16 record in games Duncan played, averaging 13.4 PPG, 8.9 RPG, and 1.9 BPG.
The worst a Tim Duncan-led Spurs team ever finished in a season was in 2010 when they went 47-31 with him in the lineup averaging 17.9 PPG, 10.1 RPG, and 1.5 BPG, which was much more reminiscent of a prime Tim Duncan. I would say that when it comes to winning and what a player meant to that success, Tim Duncan is as impactful as any player in NBA history.
7. Manu Ginobili – 72.1%
Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Career Record: 762-295
Career Stats: 13.3 PPG, 3.5 RPG, 3.8 APG, 1.3 SPG, 0.3 BPG
Career Awards And Achievements: 4x NBA Champion, 1x Sixth Man Of The Year, 2x All-Star, 2x All-NBA Team Selection
Another significant member of those successful Spurs teams during the 2000s and 2010s was Manu Ginobili. Manu would play for the Spurs for 16 seasons from 2003 through 2018, winning four NBA championships as an offensive and defensive energy boost both in the starting lineup and off the bench.
There were two instances in which the Spurs finished with a winning percentage over 80.0%, with Ginobili on the court in 2012 and 2016. There were 10 seasons in total that the team finished with a winning percentage of over 70.0% as well, including his Sixth Man of the Year season in 2008 when he averaged 19.5 PPG off the bench for a 56-win team.
Was Ginobili a superstar who led these teams? No, I would say he wasn’t. Did he make a major impact on the court with his selfless play that led to wins and four NBA championships? He absolutely did, and that is a big reason he is on this list today.
6. Tom Heinsohn – 72.6%
Credit: Fadeaway World
Career Record: 475-179
Career Stats: 18.6 PPG, 8.8 RPG, 2.0 APG
Career Awards And Achievements: 8x NBA Champion, 1x Rookie Of The Year, 6x All-Star, 4x All-NBA Team Selection
Tom Heinsohn has a very short nine-year career in the NBA with the Boston Celtics, but one that saw him and his team win more than any other team in NBA history. Heinsohn made his NBA debut in 1956-57 when he went on to win the Rookie of the Year award averaging 16.2 PPG and 9.8 RPG. He would also help the Celtics capture an NBA championship averaging 22.9 PPG and 11.7 RPG in the playoffs. In 1958, the Celtics would lose to the Hawks in the NBA Finals, which would be the only year in Heinsohn’s career that he didn’t win an NBA title.
Heinsohn’s rookie season would be the worst winning percentage of his career, as the Celtics went 44-28 with him on the court that year. It was one of only two seasons with the Celtics that Heinsohn and the team would finish with a winning percentage under 70.0%, the other coming in 1958. From that moment on, all Boston did was win as they won seven straight NBA championships with Heinsohn from 1959 through 1965.
Over that seven-year stretch, Heinsohn averaged 19.1 PPG and 8.5 RPG on 40.9% shooting from the field in the regular season and 19.7 PPG and 8.7 RPG on 41.0% shooting in the playoffs. It’s fine if you’d like to say that Russell, Jones, and Cousy were the better players, but those NBA championships do not happen without the contributions of Tom Heinsohn and his 72.6% winning percentage.
5. Michael Cooper – 72.9%
Credit: Dick Raphael-USA TODAY Sports
Career Record: 636-237
Career Stats: 8.9 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 4.2 APG, 1.2 SPG, 0.6 BPG
Career Awards And Achievements: 5x NBA Champion, 1x Defensive Player Of The Year, 8x All-Defensive Team Selection
If you looked at just his numbers, I could easily see some fans claiming that Michael Cooper rode the coattails of other greats to his five NBA championships. If you actually watched the Lakers during the 1980s, you would know that is the furthest thing from the truth. There is a reason Michael Cooper was labeled the toughest defender Larry Bird ever faced. There was a reason he was so respected by Magic and Kareem. That is because what Cooper brought to the table directly led to winning.
In 12 seasons with the Lakers, Cooper was never on a team with a winning percentage less than 65.9% in his career. In 1987 when he won Defensive Player of the Year, Cooper and the Lakers finished 65-17 on the year with Cooper on the court guarding the opposing team’s best perimeter scoring threat every single night. Cooper would also make five All-Defensive First Teams and three All-Defensive Second Teams during the 80s with the Lakers.
If you do not think Cooper’s defensive play led to numerous victories and championships for Los Angeles, then I would suggest doing your homework a little more on one of the more underrated players in NBA history.
4. K.C. Jones – 73.1%
Credit: Fadeaway World
Career Record: 494-181
Career Stats: 7.4 PPG, 3.5 RPG, 4.5 APG
Career Awards And Achievements: 8x NBA Champion
Yet another member of the Celtics dynasty whose contributions go unrecognized is K.C. Jones. During the 1960s, Jones’ numbers were quite pedestrian as he and the Celtics enjoyed eight NBA championships in the nine seasons he spent in the NBA. The truth is Jones excelled at the little things that go unnoticed even in today’s NBA. His intelligence on the court goes unnoticed but came to light when he went on to win even more championships as a coach.
Jones was also a talented defensive player as well, and he knew exactly how to compete with Russell on the court, considering they spent so much time together in college in San Francisco. When Jones was on the court, they finished with a winning percentage of less than 70.0% just twice in nine years, with their best year coming in 1960 with a 57-16 record.
Jones may have been relegated to a bench role for most of his Celtics career, but that is only because Boston was loaded with Hall of Famers. I am willing to bet that if Jones would have been selected to any team other than the Celtics, his contributions as a player would have never been overshadowed or attributed to being on Bill Russell’s team.
3. Kawhi Leonard – 73.6%
Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Career Record: 462-166
Career Stats: 19.6 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 3.0 APG, 1.7 SPG, 0.6 BPG
Career Awards And Achievements: 2x NBA Champion, 2x Finals MVP, 2x Defensive Player Of The Year, 5x All-Star, 1x All-Star Game MVP, 5x All-NBA Team Selection, 7x All-Defensive Team Selection
You can cue all the jokes about Kawhi Leonard’s health and inability to stay on the court. The truth is, Kawhi Leonard is a winner, plain and simple. Leonard has won over 460 games in his short NBA career with the Spurs, Raptors, and Clippers while only dropping 166 games, giving him the third-best winning percentage of any player ever. Yes, his two-way play can be directly linked to over half of those wins, especially NBA championships.
From 2012 thru 2018, Leonard spent seven seasons with the San Antonio Spurs. This is where five of his winningest seasons as a player to date would come from. In his 2014 championship and Finals MVP season, the Spurs went 54-12 with him on the court for a winning percentage of 81.8%. Only once did he finish with a winning percentage under 60.0% and that was the 2018 season in which he played just 9 games.
In 60 games with the Toronto Raptors in 2019, the team would go 41-19 when he was on the court, which, believe it or not, is the third-lowest winning percentage of any season in Kawhi’s career. I think he made up for it by delivering their first NBA championship in franchise history with one of the best championship runs of the last decade.
2. Larry Bird – 73.6%
Credit: Dick Raphael-USA TODAY Sports
Career Record: 660-237
Career Stats: 24.3 PPG, 10.0 RPG, 6.3 APG, 1.7 SPG, 0.8 BPG
Career Awards And Achievements: 3x NBA Champion, 2x Finals MVP, 3x MVP, 1x Rookie Of The Year, 12x All-Star, 1x All-Star Game MVP, 10x All-NBA Team Selection, 3x All-Defensive Team Selection
For the NBA during the 1980s, there were two players that represented the league and what it took to win better than anybody else. One of those players was Larry Bird, who would win three championships, two Finals MVPs, and three consecutive MVPs during the 80s with the Boston Celtics. There was nobody quite like Larry Legend, and he made sure to let his opponent know about it every time he stepped out on the court.
Bird would have one season in which he finished with a losing record which came in 1989 when his back had deteriorated. To still boast the second-highest winning percentage ever is insane, considering that mark on his record. There were only three other times that his Celtics teams would finish under 70.0% for the season.
The 1985-86 season, the year of Bird’s third straight MVP and second Finals MVP, would be his best season. The Celtics would finish 67-15 with Bird playing all 82 games for a winning percentage of just over 81.0%. In their other championship seasons in 1981 and 1984, the Celtics would finish with winning percentages of 75.6% and 74.6% with Bird on the court, respectively. The conclusion is if you wanted to win, having Larry Bird on your team gave you one of the best bets in NBA history.
1. Magic Johnson – 74.0%
Credit: Malcolm Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
Career Record: 670-236
Career Stats: 19.5 PPG, 7.2 RPG, 11.2 APG, 1.9 SPG, 0.4 BPG
Career Awards And Achievements: 5x NBA Champion, 3x Finals MVP, 3x MVP, 12x All-Star, 2x All-Star Game MVP, 10x All-NBA Team Selection
The other player who represented the NBA to the best of his ability during the 1980s, and Larry Bird’s biggest rival, was Magic Johnson. As the greatest point guard in NBA history, Johnson led the Lakers to five NBA championships between 1980 and 1988. He won three MVP awards and three Finals MVP awards as well, with his first coming as a rookie in 1980, becoming the youngest Finals MVP in NBA history.
In the seasons where he wasn’t sidelined due to illness, Magic won over 70.0% of his games 11 times in 13 healthy seasons. Magic played in or won the NBA Finals in the top 10 winningest seasons of his career, showing the direct impact he placed on winning as if there wasn’t already enough evidence from his performance as a rookie. Even in his worst season in 1984, The Lakers went 46-21 with him on the court, winning 68.7% of their games, and they ended up going to the NBA Finals.
Magic’s ability to play winning basketball came from his unselfish playmaking, versatile defense, his ability to run the fast break better than any point guard ever, and of course, his ability to make anyone who shared the court with him better. If you watched Johnson play, then you know his spot at number one here today is no surprise and you also know that his spot as the greatest point guard of all-time is still safe, for now.
