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Bob Cousy
Born
Cousy brought behind-the-back dribbles and no-look passes into the NBA of the 1950s, when coaches thought them showboating, and led the league in assists eight seasons running. More importantly, his outlet-to-fast-break game with Bill Russell's rebounding built the Celtics' first titles. Old footage looks quaint, but you can see the first passer who used deception as a system.
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Pete Maravich
Born
Pistol Pete is remembered as a scorer, but his passing was the wilder part: between-the-legs feeds, behind-the-head lobs and passes thrown off the dribble without looking. His teams in Atlanta and New Orleans were rarely good, and team-mates sometimes struggled to catch what he threw, a real caveat. Watch for the reads, which were decades ahead of the style his era accepted.
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Magic Johnson
Born
A 6ft 9in point guard who could see over the defence, Magic turned the Showtime Lakers' fast break into five championships. His signature was the no-look pass on the run, released just as a defender committed, to James Worthy or Byron Scott filling the lane. He also started at centre in the 1980 Finals clincher as a rookie, which shows how far his vision travelled across positions.
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Larry Bird
A forward who passed like a guard, Bird averaged over six assists a season in his prime from the frontcourt. His best reads came from the high post and on the move: the touch pass before catching fully, the skip pass over a collapsing defence to Danny Ainge or Dennis Johnson. He shows that elite passing is about seeing the floor, not where you line up.
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John Stockton
Born
The NBA's career assist leader by a wide margin, Stockton earns his place for something the number hides: the pick-and-roll with Karl Malone, run thousands of times, with Stockton reading whether to hit the roll, the pop or the weak-side shooter. He rarely threw a spectacular pass. If you want to learn the timing of a bounce pass into the roll man, Utah's 1990s footage is the textbook.
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Arvydas Sabonis
Born
Before Jokić, there was Sabonis: a 7ft 3in Lithuanian centre who threw full-court outlets and over-the-shoulder passes to cutters from the post. Injuries meant the NBA saw him only in his thirties with Portland, yet he was still a playmaking hub. His Soviet and Žalgiris years show a big man whose passing set up a whole offence.
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Ticha Penicheiro
The Portuguese point guard led the WNBA in assists seven times with the Sacramento Monarchs and helped win the 2005 title. Penicheiro's passes were flamboyant, behind the back and through traffic, but they were chosen to reach a team-mate in rhythm, and she retired as the league's assist leader at the time. Every WNBA passer since has been compared to her.
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Jason Kidd
Born
Kidd took a New Jersey Nets side that had won 26 games to two straight NBA Finals in his first two seasons there, mainly by pushing the ball and finding runners early. He was also a big rebounder for a guard, which let him start the break himself. Later, at Dallas, he reinvented himself as a spot-up shooter and still ran the 2011 title team's offence.
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Steve Nash
Born
The Canadian won back-to-back MVPs in Phoenix by turning the pick-and-roll into a constant probe: he would keep his dribble alive under the basket, circle back out and wait for a defender to break. Amar'e Stoudemire and a crew of shooters became an offence that led the league in scoring. Every modern spread pick-and-roll owes something to what Nash made Mike D'Antoni's system look like.
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Šarūnas Jasikevičius
Born
Šaras won the EuroLeague with three different clubs, Barcelona, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Panathinaikos, running half-court offences with a shooter's threat and a coach's eye. His pick-and-roll partnerships with big men at Maccabi are classics of European basketball. For NBA-first fans, he is the clearest example of a European point guard whose passing travelled across systems.
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Sue Bird
Born
Bird retired in 2022 as the WNBA's career assist leader, with four titles across three different decades in Seattle and five Olympic golds. What made her passing work was patience and deceit with her eyes, holding a defender a beat longer before hitting Breanna Stewart or Lauren Jackson on the move. She adjusted to very different team-mates over 19 seasons, which is the adaptability this list prizes.
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Chris Paul
Born
The Point God retired in February 2026 after 21 seasons, second on the NBA's career assist list. His hallmark was control: he snaked pick-and-rolls, kept his man on his hip and chose between the lob, the pocket pass and his own mid-range jumper with very few turnovers. Almost every team he joined improved sharply, from New Orleans to Oklahoma City and Phoenix, where he reached the 2021 Finals.
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Rajon Rondo
Born
Rondo could not shoot reliably, yet he led the league in assists and won titles in Boston and Los Angeles because of how he read defences. He manipulated help defenders with fakes and hesitations and knew opponents' sets well enough to call them out. His playoff nights, including 44 points, 10 assists and 8 rebounds against Miami in 2012, show a basketball IQ that outweighed his limits.
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LeBron James
Born
The NBA's all-time scoring leader is also one of its great passers, top five on the career assist list. His cross-court skip pass, thrown with either hand off a drive, finds corner shooters before the defence rotates, and he reads the floor like a point guard from a forward's body. Role players from Cleveland to Miami and Los Angeles have had their best shooting seasons beside him, which is the point.
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Courtney Vandersloot
Vandersloot led the WNBA in assists many times and once held its single-season record, most of it with the Chicago Sky, whom she led to the 2021 title before winning again with New York in 2024. Her best passes are the left-handed pocket feeds and hit-ahead passes in transition. Watch her if you want the modern WNBA point guard who makes the whole floor move.
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Draymond Green
Born
Draymond Green's passing made Golden State's dynasty work. Teams trapped Stephen Curry; Green caught the short roll in the middle and made a four-on-three decision, a lob, a corner kick-out or a handoff. Few forwards have been trusted that way. Pair his passing with his defence and you see why line-ups without a traditional centre became championship units.
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Nikola Jokić
Born
A Serbian second-round pick turned three-time MVP and 2023 champion, Jokić runs Denver's offence as a centre. His specialities are the over-the-head flick to a cutter, the full-court baseball pass and the handoff game with Jamal Murray. Defences cannot double him without giving up something. He has posted triple-double seasons that make him the defining passing big man of the era.
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Luka Dončić
Born
Dončić learned the game at Real Madrid, winning the EuroLeague at 19, and plays at his own tempo: a step-back threat that pulls defenders out, then the cross-court pass or lob to a roll man. He took Dallas to the 2024 Finals before his trade to the Lakers. Big men from Dereck Lively to Daniel Gafford have lived off his lobs, which shows how far he raises a supporting cast.
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Tyrese Haliburton
Born
Haliburton pushed Indiana to the 2025 NBA Finals with an offence built on his early, low-turnover passing, often hitting a runner before the defence set. He has led the league in assists and kept an exceptional assist-to-turnover ratio. An Achilles injury in the Finals took him out of the following season, so watch his 2024 and 2025 playoff runs to see his best work.
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Caitlin Clark
Born
Known for deep threes, Clark set WNBA records for assists in a game and in a season as a rookie in 2024 and led the league in assists. Her full-court outlets and pocket passes to Aliyah Boston made Indiana's offence click, and the threat of her shot is what opens those lanes. Injuries limited her second season, but her passing vision is already one of the league's main attractions.
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