i truly enjoyed this series, if Parker doesnt miss the FT in game 2, its a sweep. What a nice NBA season ending.
None of those have really been consistent and I can't see how anyone with a straight face could say Lebron isn't the best in the game right now without any doubts and has been for quite sometime. Rose as you said is injury prone, not much playoff games to set him into the light. Durant is sometimes questioned if even the best on his team. Kind of the same with CP3. Shane is right…Very few question Jordan as the best in his era or ever but when he was playing he had tons of haters who wished and hoped and prayed he wasn't. That is how you can tell who the greats are. Many love them and many more hate them until they are just memories.
@VampMuse @bhelmLSU what all those players lack is what LBJ has in spades, Durant doesn't have the size needed to "own" the floor and isn't anything special defensively, cp3 flops too much instead of just trying to win the game and we may never know what Rose may have been. LeBron is a beast defensively, can score from anywhere on the court, can play any position including the point and do them all very well. Just a freak. Now quit making me say good things about him. I'm not supposed to like him.
I agree. How about 3 wins of 15 points or more? It was certainly sweet sweet revenge. I love when Duncan said that this championship took the sting out of last year. That was pretty profound.
Not sure if Duncan's interview immediately following the game that it "makes last year okay" was a natural reaction or pre-thought. I know he believes that though and will make the rest of his life more enjoyable. Being the best Power Forward of all-time is a great title but I don't think he's a 1st team all-time player. Still, 2nd or 3rd team is really impressive. I think it's still obvious that Lebron is the best player on the planet. I can't really see an argument for anyone else. It was good to see a "team" easily handle the best player's team. I didn't see all of Lebron's post game interview but one of his comments gave a lot of praise to the Spurs and said they played the game the way it was supposed to be played (or something like that). Lebron has shown a lot of class at times.
I was very impressed with how LeBron handled it. We have all seen his immaturity in the past when his teams have lost in the playoffs. So who is the greatest power forward of all time if not Tim Duncan?
PPG, RPG, APG, BPG, 2 PT FG%, FT% Tim Duncan 17 seasons 19.9/11.1/3.1/2.2/.509/.694 Charles Barkley 16 seasons 22.1/11.7/3.9/0.8/.581/.735 Karl Malone 19 seasons 25.0/10.1/3.6/0.8/.519/.742 Kevin Garnett 19 seasons 18.6/10.3/3.9/1.5/.504/.790 Chris Webber 15 seasons 20.7/9.8/4.2/1.4/.490/.649 Dirk Nowitski 16 seasons *** 3 PT Shooting ability adds value to his stock 22.5/8.1/2.6/0.9/.499/.879 Elvin Hayes 16 seasons 21.0/12.5/1.8/2.0/.453/.670 Kevin McHale 13 seasons 17.9/7.3/1.7/1.7/.558/.798 Bob Petit 11 seasons (shorter career, not considered the modern era) 26.4/16.2/3.0/NR/.436/.761 Jerry Lucas 11 seasons 17.0/15.6/3.3/NR/.499/.783 I think when you add in Duncan's defensive ability (2.2 blocks per game is what a good center will usually average) and understand his scoring average is tempered by an unselfish "who has the best look at the basket takes the shot" mentality of a Popovich offense, I think Timmy D takes the title. Plus he has 5 of those "other" titles. Notes: Elgin Baylor played small forward and Bob McAdoo played center for most of his career.
Nice breakdown...If rings is factored heavily then Tim is very much the guy. But Barkley and Malone numbers are better and meant more to their teams maybe.
Regarding Duncan, I just meant that if you had to pick the best five players to create an All-Time NBA starting five, I might go with two Centers (i.e. Wilt and Kareem for example) or some combination that doesn't have the traditional PG,SG,SF,PF,C lineup. "Best PF of all-time" implies that he belongs on the All-time starting five. Maybe he does although most fans would say that he does not. It's interesting that he takes so long to warm up to his teammates. I had the impression that David Robinson quickly embraced Duncan like a team leader should do. Maybe Duncan is just an extreme introvert.
