30 best NBA players to never win a championship

20. Marques Johnson

After being taken with the third pick in the 1977 NBA Draft, Marques Johnson wasted little time making his presence felt in the league with the Milwaukee Bucks. The forward out of UCLA put up 19.5 points and 10.6 rebounds per game in his rookie season. Though he would never touch that clip for rebounding again, it set the tone for a wildly consistent and productive career that was ultimately cut short due to injury.

Throughout his first nine years in the league (seven with Milwaukee, two with the Los Angeles Clippers), Johnson was the picture of dominance and consistency at the position. Johnson averaged 20.4 points, 7.1 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.3 steals over that span. More impressive, though, is the fact that the forward never averaged fewer than 16.4 points per game over that nine-year run, never played fewer than 60 games in a season, and shot below 50 percent from the field just once over that span. That’s a remarkable mark in terms of consistently producing at a high level.

The legacy of Johnson and his career unfortunately (and perhaps unfairly) take a hit, though, due to a neck injury suffered in the 1986-87 season. He played just 10 games that year and then was forced to miss the next two campaigns as a result also. He attempted a comeback with the Golden State Warriors in the 1989-90 season, but that lasted only another 10 games before he was forced to hang it up.