The player with the strongest win percentage in NBA history, as of Friday, December 6, is not a Hall of Famer or a current superstar.
It is, shockingly, Boston Celtics reserve wing Sam Hauser, according to Buckets. Hauser had a 74.4 percent win percentage heading into Boston's eventual 111-105 win over the Milwaukee Bucks (meaning his career win percentage is now even better) on Friday night.
That's better than 12-time All-Star and five-time champion Los Angeles Lakers point guard Magic Johnson (74 percent) and 12-time All-Star and three-time champion Boston Celtics small forward Larry Bird (73.6 percent), the players with the next-best all-time league win percentage. Celtics Hall of Fame shooting guard K.C. Jones, who later became Bird's coach, is right behind him with a 73.1 percent win percentage, while Boston Hall of Fame small forward Tom Heinsohn's 72.6 percent win percentage ranks seventh all-time.
The 6-foot-8 Hauser, 26, initially went undrafted following a First-Team All-ACC season at Virginia in 2021. He inked a two-way deal with Boston heading into the 2021-22 season, and would be toggled between Boston and its NBAGL affiliate squad, the Maine Celtics, to start his rookie season. His deal was converted into a standard contract in February of that year, and the Celtics subsequently reached the NBA Finals for the first time in 14 years that spring. Boston fell in six games to the Golden State Warriors.
Subsequently that summer, Boston re-signed him on a three-season, $6 million agreement, which now looks like a huge bargain. Hauser played just 26 games for the 51-31 Celtics that season. The 2022-23 Celtics posted the second-best record in the Eastern Conference, 57-25, and fell in a seven-game Eastern Conference Finals series to the Miami Heat. The 2023-24 vintage of the squad, newly armed with All-Defensive guard Jrue Holiday and former All-Star center Kristaps Porzingis, went a league-best 64-18 before a breezy 16-3 run through the playoffs en route to the franchise's record-breaking 18th title.
Following the win over Milwaukee, the 2024-25 Celtics are 19-4 on the year, currently the second-best record in the NBA behind the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Suffice it to say, Hauser's NBA tenure has been fairly charmed so far.
Across the past two seasons, Hausers has really carved out a consistent bench role for Boston. He's averaging 8.9 points on .446/.374/1.000 shooting splits (that 3-point conversion rate arrives on a robust 6.1 triple tries a night, while his free throw attempt rate is just 0.1 a night), 3.5 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 0.8 steals a game.
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