He was on the same team as Dave Bing, who was one of the nation's top scorers, like 28ppg, as I recall. So JB was not the first option, not the most talented guy, but he was a solid role player, a very good player, a guy who could do everything pretty well - score, rebound, pass, ballhandle, defend. In retrospect, he was a very good candidate as a player to be a coach - solid fundamentals, worked hard for everything he accomplished on the court, good team player, a "glue" guy.
If I had to compare him to a recent player, Howard Triche comes to mind, maybe Adrian Autry, maybe Kevin Joseph. Some SG/SF who does everything well but not necessarily great. Our recent teams seem to have more specialized players, and JB was more of a jack of all trades., so I'm having trouble with recent comparisons.