Dennis Johnson

Dennis Johnson was the most important player on three championship teams and the best perimeter defender of the 1980s. His 1979 Finals MVP with Seattle — averaging 22.6 points per game to lead the SuperSonics past the Washington Bullets — established him as a big-game player, and his subsequent two championships with the Celtics (1984, 1986) proved he could be the defensive anchor of a dynasty.

DJ's defensive assignments read like a Hall of Fame roll call: Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, Sidney Moncrief, Andrew Toney — he guarded the best perimeter player on the opposing team every single night, and he usually won those matchups. Larry Bird called Johnson the best player he ever played with, a testament from the greatest Celtic of all time that speaks to DJ's indispensable two-way value.

Johnson's famous steal-and-layup at the end of Game 5 of the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals — with Bird stealing the inbound pass and finding DJ for the winning layup — is one of the most iconic sequences in Celtics history. Three rings, a Finals MVP, and the defensive backbone of two different championship franchises. Dennis Johnson was the ultimate winning player.