Our inaugural entry…Mitch Richmond (1988-2002)

Hall of Famer and 1995 All-Star Game MVP Mitch Richmond personified the prototypical  shooting guard, with his mix of catch-and-shoot, silky smooth release and just enough athleticism to make plays at the rim. Defensively he could get steals (81st all-time) but was never known as a lockdown guy. Richmond was an offensive juggernaut, the shooter you’d have coming off the bench in your custom late-90s NBA Live super team. Toiling on many bad Warriors, Kings and Wizards teams may have earned him a ‘good stats-bad team’ reputation, but that’s mostly unfair, as there’s only so far a team could go in the 90s when its best player was a (non-MJ) 2 guard. I’d say Mitch suffered from poor roster construction. He did win a championship in 2002 – scoring a measly 3 points in the playoff run – with the Kobe-Shaq Lakers, one of the few times in his career he shared the court with multiple All-Stars. The 1990-91 Run TMC Warriors were an early bright spot, led my Richmond (23.9 ppg), Chris Mullin (25.7) and Tim Hardaway (22.9)

Richmond’s most impressive stat is being one of the few players in NBA history to average 20 or more points per game over 10 seasons. The man could fill it up.

Kenny Smith and I salute Mitch Richmond!