Losing with home court advantage (top 12 players of all time)

[Doranku]

Damn. Bron with the 3peat.

[SamuraiSWISH]

How were the Spurs "old" in 09, but good enough to make the finals this year?

Built in excuses for Timmy.

[K Xerxes]

How were the Spurs "old" in 09, but good enough to make the finals this year?

Duncan also never was able to repeat as champion, which is a flaw in his resume. Most of the other players in the top 10 were able to defend their titles, with Wilt being the exception but he played in the Russell era which is his excuse and he has outstanding stats.

I'm with you on the excuses for Duncan in the past few years, but Bird didn't repeat either. Not to mention that Kareem only repeated when he was 39/40 and very much a role player behind Magic, Worthy and Scott. He never repeated as 'the man'.

[tpols]

Also, Bird had no McHale in 1980.

I decided to do a couple more.

Duncan -

01 - Lost to prime Shaq during threepeat
04 - Lost to Lakers super team, a young Manu/TP were the help
06 - Lost to the Mavs who should've won the championship
09 - They were pretty old, lost to the Mavs again
11 - Manu's broken arm against Memphis
12 - Lost to OKC

I'd give them a pass for 01, 04, and 06 for sure. The other three times they were beaten by youth. Even if they beat Memphis they'd lose to someone else.

2012 is probably the only year I'd say they f*cked up.

Shaq
94 - Second year with nobody good around him, Pacers had vets
95 - Hakeem's rockets were the better team
04 - Detroit was the better team, Kobe chucked, Detroit went on a run of 7 ECFs
05 - Detroit again
10 - Old fat Shaq beaten by the very good Celtics

Shaq was beaten with good team work so you can't really blame him for the losses against better teams. I wouldn't blame Shaq specifically for any of those years. If you want someone to blame, blame Kobe in 04 and LeBron in 10.

Hakeem
85 - lost as a rookie on a weaker team to a slightly better Jazz team
87 - lost as a 3rd year player with a pretty weak team to a stronger Sonics team

The 2nd best guy was Ralph Sampson, then and old Cornbread Maxwell in 87.

Neither were Hakeem's fault.


------

Face it, home court doesn't mean you have a better team. Basketball is all match ups, and regular season strength of schedule can totally skew seeding. The better teams usually win regardless of home court.

Looks like a giant list of excuses...

[guy]

Bird = 7 (1980, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1988, 1990, 1991)

Duncan = 6 (2001, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2011, 2012)

Shaq = 5 (1994, 1995, 2004, 2005, 2010)

Wilt = 5 (1961, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1973)

Kareem = 4 (1973, 1974, 1977, 1981)

Oscar = 4 (1962, 1965, 1973, 1974)

Lebron = 3 (2009, 2010, 2011)

Magic = 3 (1981, 1990, 1996)

Hakeem = 2 (1985, 1987)

Kobe = 2 (2004, 2011)

Russell = 1 (1958)

MJ = 0

You forgot 1986 for Magic and Kareem.

[guy]

IDK about Bird but Duncan never take flack for losses, they get the oh hes such a great teammate! praise when they lose, and OMG 2003! when they win.


Its no surprise the greatest winners, and players with the strongest will MJ and Russel top this list.. if the ball was in their court, they got it done.

I don't hear anyone praise Duncan when he loses. Duncan doesn't take much flack, because no one gives a sh*t about him. He's almost always put on the bottom end of the top 10, and no one ever says he's arguably the GOAT or close to it.

[Magic 32]

You forgot 1986 for Magic and Kareem.

fixed

[ILLsmak]

if you have Kobe over Shaq on your goat list you're ****ing up.

-Smak