It's been proven in the history of the NBA that it would be close to impossible to win a title with just one superstar spearheading your franchise.
In recent time, we've had the chance to witness Big 3s like the LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh of the Miami Heat. Not to mention Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors win multiple championship seasons for their respective squads.
In this post, we're going to look at the greatest Big 3s of all-time, then rank them.
3. Magic Johnson, Kareem-Abdul Jabbar, James Worthy (Lakers, 1982-1989)
The trio that brought about the Showtime Lakers in the mid-80's are undoubtedly one of the best big 3s to ever play in the league. Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worty led the Lakers to seven out of eight possible NBA Finals appearances and won three of those (1985, 1987 and 1988).
After six successful seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks where he had already won two titles as well as three of his six total league MVP awards, KAJ moved to Los Angeles in 1975 and would pave the way for the franchise to enter a new chapter. A few years after, they were able to get their hands on a young talented point guard from Michigan State in Magic Johnson who would immediately impact the team and would be a pivotal part of the organization for decades to come. These two were already formidable, as they were able to bring back home the title twice in three years.
After winning the title in 1982, the Lakers found another gem in that year's draft when they picked up James Worthy as their first overall pick and things just blew up from there. It took the trio a couple of seasons before finding their groove together as they brought home the first of their three titles in 1985.
After losing to an opposing big 3 in Boston in 1986, the Showtime Lakers led by these three came back to win back-to-back titles in 1987 and 1988. All three of them also got a Finals MVP nod on each of their three championship wins which only further proves that this is indeed one of the best big 3s the league has ever seen.
2. Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili (Spurs, 2002-2015)
One of the best and most long-lasting threesomes in NBA history is the Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili of the San Antonio Spurs. These three international stars spent 14 seasons together in Texas which sounds so foreign to a modern-NBA setting where trades and moves are almost automatic to any franchise. But these three remained in San Antonio where they all built their respective careers and found success in every sense of the word.
As much as their durability and loyalty to each other is worth noting, the Duncan-Parker-Ginobili trio earned their stripes and made sure to put some huge W's to their names. To date, these three have won the most games as a trio tallying a whopping total of 575 wins.
They were also able to win four NBA titles out of five NBA Finals appearances. They dominated the mid-2000s and won in 2003, 2005 and 2007 and found a way to stick with Gregg Poppvich's system and win another title in 2014 – 11 years after their first one. These three brought the Spurs to the playoffs every year they were together. That's 13 straight seasons.
Though it will most probably be Duncan gaining much of the praise as he is, after all, one of the best power forwards to ever play in the league, it can be argued that he won't have done it without both Parker and Ginobili by his side. Those these three were incredible individual talents, they were simply better together and will undoubtedly go down in history as the best and most balanced trios in NBA history.
1. Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman (Bulls, 1995-1998)
It's hard not to include this one in the list given the amount of success their team had in the 1990s. Even if this big 3 can easily be considered as a big 4 (if you add in Toni Kukoc) which makes them ineligible for this list, it's hard to argue against any team that has Michael Jordan in it so we can probably cut these Bulls some slack and give them this one.
The Chicago Bulls were already a three-time NBA champion team with a superstar like Jordan leading the way and a talent like Pippen backing him up. We all know what happened after the 1993 season when MJ decided to take a sabbatical from winning an NBA trophy which paved the way for the Bulls to consider adding another championship caliber player to their roster. One of the first moves of GM Jerry Krause was to add in Kukoc but a Jordan-less team couldn't get over the hump.
After Jordan made his infamous return at the latter part of the 1994-1995 season, the Bulls decided to add a two-time NBA champion, two-time All-Star and a two-time Defensive Player of the Year in Dennis Rodman. And the rest, as they all say, was history. A comebacking Jordan with a ripe Pippen and and a defensive powerhouse like Rodman would prove to be unstoppable. In the three years that these three were together, they went three of three in the NBA Finals beating the Seattle Supersonics (1996) and the Utah Jazz, twice (1997, 1998).
Yes, we all know that Jordan is arguably the GOAT of basketball but he wouldn't have accomplished this status if Pippen and Rodman didn't put in the work. Jordan, Pippen and Rodman, as it stands, will still be the biggest trio to ever dominate the league and their 3-0 Finals record would be hard to compete with.
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