The 1980s in the NBA

The decade's most valuable players

1. 1
   Magic Johnson

   PG · 10 seasons in the decade · best 1987 (20.8)

   172.8
2. 2
   Moses Malone

   C · 10 seasons in the decade · best 1982 (18.9)

   154.9
3. 3
   Larry Bird

   SF/PF · 9 seasons in the decade · best 1982 (18.6)

   153.4
4. 4
   Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

   C · 10 seasons in the decade · best 1980 (21.1)

   150.5
5. 5
   Robert Parish

   C · 10 seasons in the decade · best 1989 (17.4)

   145.3
6. 6
   Maurice Cheeks

   PG · 10 seasons in the decade · best 1986 (17.4)

   139.7
7. 7
   Jack Sikma

   C/PF · 10 seasons in the decade · best 1982 (16.4)

   134.6
8. 8
   Dennis Johnson

   PG/SG · 10 seasons in the decade · best 1982 (15.7)

   134.5
9. 9
   Isiah Thomas

   PG · 8 seasons in the decade · best 1983 (19.3)

   130.2
10. 10
    Alex English

    SF · 9 seasons in the decade · best 1982 (18.7)

    128.6
11. 11
    George Gervin

    SG/SF · 7 seasons in the decade · best 1980 (22.2)

    126.6
12. 12
    Reggie Theus

    SG/PG · 9 seasons in the decade · best 1983 (16.2)

    120.9
13. 13
    Sidney Moncrief

    SG · 10 seasons in the decade · best 1983 (16.5)

    117.2
14. 14
    Julius Erving

    SF · 8 seasons in the decade · best 1982 (18.7)

    116.8
15. 15
    Michael Cooper

    SG · 10 seasons in the decade · best 1984 (13.7)

    114.7
16. 16
    Artis Gilmore

    C · 8 seasons in the decade · best 1982 (17.5)

    113.3
17. 17
    Buck Williams

    PF · 8 seasons in the decade · best 1982 (16.4)

    111.9
18. 18
    Kevin McHale

    PF · 9 seasons in the decade · best 1987 (16)

    111.7
19. 19
    Bill Laimbeer

    C/PF · 8 seasons in the decade · best 1984 (14.9)

    107.1
20. 20
    Fat Lever

    PG/SG · 7 seasons in the decade · best 1987 (19.3)

    106.3
21. 21
    Mark Aguirre

    SF/SG · 7 seasons in the decade · best 1984 (17.6)

    104.2
22. 22
    Clyde Drexler

    SG/SF · 6 seasons in the decade · best 1987 (20.3)

    103.2
23. 23
    Mychal Thompson

    C · 8 seasons in the decade · best 1982 (16.2)

    100.2
24. 24
    Rolando Blackman

    SG · 8 seasons in the decade · best 1984 (16)

    100
25. 25
    Robert Reid

    SG/SF · 9 seasons in the decade · best 1981 (16.5)

    99.7

Decade VAL is the sum of a player's VAL across the decade's seasons. How VAL works.

The decade's greatest single seasons

What this page stands on

VAL player-seasons in the corpus for each year of the decade.