More overrated? Kobe's 2006 RS, LeBron's 2007 PS, or Dirk's 2011 Finals?

[Fresh Kid]

Nobody on the Mavs gets near the credit Dirk "Jesus" Nowitzki gets for that playoff run. After they won.

Well Lebron had to play with three other all stars and a stacked bench full of 3 point shooters to win a ring, but they still give this corn mvps and still calls him king and all Whats up with dat??

[SCdac]

Off course they shouldn't. None of them were better or close to the impact overall to what Nowitzki brought to that team. He doesn't play the way he does, there's no title at all.

The rest is just some exaggeration that happens to a lot of all-time greats. Context ? That would favor Dirk more than the other way around. The rest of the basketball fans and in the future (casuals; don't know much about that Mavs) don't look into context, they'll just say that Dirk and the Mavs won a ring.

Dirk is the best player, obviously, and in saying that I agree he deserves the most credit of their players. But I'd venture to say he gets disproportionate credit, largely because it's still fresh, fans love offense, and love cinderella stories. I've seen comparisons to Tim Duncan in 03 or Hakeem in the mid-90's and it's where I start to think Dirk's teammates are really underrated in that run and/or Dirk is overrated. For instance, Kidd (all time great) lead the team handedly in assists and steals, other players (Chandler, Marion) lead the team in rebounds and blocks. These are just stats but they are representative of key parts of the game. Just a very well rounded roster and Cuban deserves a large amount of credit himself. Impact is tough to quantify and how do you measure holding Lebron to astronomically low numbers? or holding Durant to .43% shooting. Dirk had the strongest impact on offense, no doubt, but do people even care to measure the rest of the Mavs?.... not really

[SCdac]

Well Lebron had to play with three other all stars and a stacked bench full of 3 point shooters to win a ring, but they still give this corn mvps and still calls him king and all Whats up with dat??

Eh, Lebron will probably go down as a better player than Dirk, if he's not already. I don't get your point. Lebron is a pretentious douche who gave up on the Cavs? ... old news, but still an amazing player.

[DMAVS41]

Eh, odds and underdog stories is all media bullshit and preconceived notions.

People just looked at the Mavs as a team with a decade full of disappointment, so nobody at the time could reasonably put stock in them.

In actuality, the Mavs from top to bottom were the strongest team that season, yet people still talk about them like they weren't even a top-5 team in 2011. They were deep and experienced and champions.

Calling it a "fairy tale" run is a bit much if we're basing it solely on the competition. By that logic, the rest of the roster deserves alot more credit than they get... the guys guarding Lebron, Kobe, Durant.

This is just not true.

The likes of Terry and Kidd played noticeably better in the playoffs than what you would expect.

They were huge underdogs to get out of the 2nd round. Then enormous underdogs heading into the finals.

16 of the Mavs 21 playoff games went into crunch time.

It took Dirk going nuts repeatedly with the game on the line and Terry playing by far the best ball of his career and coming through in the clutch as well.

And this team last Caron Butler as well.

One of the biggest underdog champion I can remember. Actually...I don't can't think of a team that won that had worse odds to win the title entering the playoffs than the 11 Mavs.

[Legends66NBA7]

I've seen comparisons to Tim Duncan in 03 or Hakeem in the mid-90's and it's where I start to think Dirk's teammates are really underrated in that run and/or Dirk is overrated.

Yeah, it's in comparison to the 4 teams that are looked at as the weakest championship winners.

1975 Warriors
1994 Rockets
2003 Spurs
2011 Mavericks

Usually, their regarded as "weak" because they had a lone star player for each run and a bunch of role players surronding them. Not necessarily comparing each performance of each star to one another, which is where I think there's a confusion.

Mavericks or Rockets were the strongest of the 4 and the Warriors were the weakest of the 4, IMO. Spurs you could make a case as the strongest too since they had a lot of experience.

[Legends66NBA7]

One of the biggest underdog champion I can remember. Actually...I don't can't think of a team that won that had worse odds to win the title entering the playoffs than the 11 Mavs.

True. Maybe the 95 Rockets ?

Better than the 94 team with the addition of Drexler, but faced worse odds overall. No HCA, down major holes in 2 of those series, etc..

[Nash]

I love how people have gone complete retard. The question was, which of these is the most overrated in this very small context. In a bigger context they are all very good.

[cos88]

Lebron wasn't even the best player on the 07 Cavs, yet people act like he helped them. He was a liability all year

you're wasting time with basketball. it's like a guy from Botswana watching a japanese movie without any subtitles. and, of course you also are an idiot from watching something you don't understand.

[Fresh Kid]

I love how people have gone complete retard. The question was, which of these is the most overrated in this very small context. In a bigger context they are all very good.

expect for lebron tho.

[SCdac]

This is just not true.

The likes of Terry and Kidd played noticeably better in the playoffs than what you would expect.

They were huge underdogs to get out of the 2nd round. Then enormous underdogs heading into the finals.

16 of the Mavs 21 playoff games went into crunch time.

It took Dirk going nuts repeatedly with the game on the line and Terry playing by far the best ball of his career and coming through in the clutch as well.

And this team last Caron Butler as well.

One of the biggest underdog champion I can remember. Actually...I don't can't think of a team that won that had worse odds to win the title entering the playoffs than the 11 Mavs.

Eh, odds and underdog stories is all media bullshit and preconceived notions. Merely being surprised by an outcome doesn't mean the outcome it's irrational, unexplainable, or an entire run by a team should be attributed to one player. Basketball is a team game, and Mavs were clearly the strongest team by the end of it all. It took the Mavs playing amazing ball to win a championship? You can say that about nearly every championship team.

[SCdac]

Usually, their regarded as "weak" because they had a lone star player for each run and a bunch of role players surronding them. Not necessarily comparing each performance of each star to one another, which is where I think there's a confusion.

Well, how much of a load the star player has to carry is a factor in rating runs of individuals during team accomplishments. And that's basically what we're doing here. I'd argue Duncan and Hakeem had to do much more (on both ends of the court) for the Spurs and Rockets to win than Dirk had to do for the Mavs to win, hence my opinion on disproportionate credit. Duncan for instance was like a quarterback and averaged 5+ assists in his run (lead the Spurs) and Hakeem did the same with his team (not to mention being the leading shotblocker and stealer). In the grand scheme, I think it's a disservice to gloss over the two-way impact of these legendary players and how much it was the basis for their teams... In other words, replace Duncan/Hakeem with Dirk and I don't think those Spurs and Rockets teams get it done, replace Dirk with Duncan/Hakeem and I think they still win in 2011. I'm not even sure 2011 was Dirk's offensive peak.

[kuniva_dAMiGhTy]

Meh. The '11 Mavs were stacked. In fact, I called them favorites just before the playoffs began.

[Sarcastic]

The only reason the Mavs were such large underdogs was due to Dirk's choking in years past. Everyone just figured he wouldn't get it done as he usually didn't.

The Mavs winning had more to do with LeBron choking than anything else. It's rare when an all time great plays as far below his averages as LeBron did.

[SCdac]

The Mavs winning had more to do with LeBron choking than anything else. It's rare when an all time great plays as far below his averages as LeBron did.

and credit to DeShawn Stevenson and Shawn Marion for royally punking him... How do you accurately quantify that?

[DMAVS41]

Eh, odds and underdog stories is all media bullshit and preconceived notions. Merely being surprised by an outcome doesn't mean the outcome it's irrational, unexplainable, or an entire run by a team should be attributed to one player. Basketball is a team game, and Mavs were clearly the strongest team by the end of it all. It took the Mavs playing amazing ball to win a championship? You can say that about nearly every championship team.

Do you know what odds actually are? What causes one team to be the underdog?

You seem very ignorant. It's not the media...it's the odds makers. Vegas.

I'm speaking in factual terms. Factually the Mavs had the worst odds to start the playoffs out of any champion I can remember. Odds makers still had them at over 10 to 1 after winning the Blazers series. After...

Heading into the playoffs they were 18 to 1 to win the title....and that was the best I can remember...Saw them at 25 to 1 or more at a number of places.

The Lakers, for example, were 2 to 1 to win it all. Spurs were like 3 to 1. Heat 2.5 to 1. Bulls 3.5 to 1.

These are facts. It's not perception. You seem ignorant on what actual odds are and what constitutes an underdog and favorite.

The Mavs are factually the biggest underdog to win the title that I can remember. Even the 94 and 95 Rockets were probably less than 18 to 1 heading into the playoffs. Those are the only teams I can think of that would come close.