30 best NBA players to never win a championship

15. Sidney Moncrief

Sidney Moncrief came out of Arkansas as the No. 5 overall pick in the 1979 NBA Draft and was immediately a leader, what you’d have to describe as an early version of the modern combo-guard. The Milwaukee Bucks were the team lucky enough to land the 6-foot-3 guard’s services and, though it wasn’t immediate, it wasn’t long before he became an unquestioned staple of their squad and an unquestioned All-Star in the league.

During the height of his powers from 1981-86 (when he went to five consecutive All-Star Games), Moncrief really did it all for the Bucks. The guard put up 21 points, 4.7 assists, 5.8 boards and 1.5 steals per contest and was simply the do-it-all type of player that so many teams covet. Perhaps even more impressive than that was his ability as a leader and how his presence simply improved everyone on the floor around him. That’s a strange thing to say for a guy who was putting up the high-caliber stats that Moncrief was at the height of his powers, but it’s the truth.

Perhaps the biggest drawback when talking about the legacy of Moncrief is the lack of sustained success and the fleeting nature of his dominance. He wasn’t his best his first two years in the league and began to suffer from injuries in just his eighth season in the league. He retired in his early 30s and really wasn’t the same after the 1986-87 season.