Julius Erving's 1976 Finals is the greatest Finals performance of all time

[warriorfan]

ESPN actually created a list

That list sucks

[warriorfan]

Not the GREATEST but certainly one of the greatest...
People don't pay much regard to it though; like you've said the Nuggets were one of the best teams in the NBA in the following year (1977) with the #1 ranked defense, and they had one of the GOAT defenders in Bobby Jones, also a great athlete.


I've seen a couple of games from those Finals...

-Larry Brown's fast-tempo approach made the Nuggets play right into Dr J's hands

-Julius made/had the "right thing" vs a defender like Bobby Jones, which was being physical af, and trying to kill him on the boards

-Bobby's one of the best and most versatile defensive players ever, and the right player for Denver to have on Doc but he was also the Nuggets best/main paint-protector and shot-blocker (Marvin Webster didn't play much)... So, that was still somewhat detrimental for the Nuggets because Julius was great without the ball and when Jones was playing ball-denial down-low, Nets' players were making some great entry passes while Denver had no good shot-blocker left to help out and protect the rim, with the Doc was feasting inside... However if they didn't put Bobby on Erving in the 1st place, they were also screwed anyways

-When smaller David Thompson was put on Erving? Game-over

-The Dr's off-ball defense is one of the best ever and was at full display there, allowing for them/him to score lots of fastbreak points

-Doc was also playmaking pretty well, keeping them on their toes

Good post.

[ClipperRevival]

Hard for me to give it full credit given it was the ABA. But no doubt an amazing finals.

For my money, give me MJ's 1991 finals:

31.2 ppg / .558 fg% / 11.6 apg / 6.6 rpg / 2.8 spg / 1.4 bpg

Of course there are other great performances too. I just prefer the all around impact MJ had in 1991.

[SHAQisGOAT]

BTW, Julius also had a great Finals series in the following year (1977), in the NBA...

30.3 / 6.8 / 5.0 / 2.7 / 1.2
.543 FG% / .857 FT%

You can check out some of those games too, he was playing extremely well...
With the exception of Doug Collins, most of his teammates played like shit though, especially McGinnis - one of the league's best forwards - who was just awful.
Philly lost against a better T-E-A-M.

And ofc that the NBA was different than the ABA; less run-n-gun, more physicality, more defensively driven at the time, no 3pt-line then so less spacing...

Doc still more than proved his worth in the NBA though, in many ways...
And while I agree that the ABA was an inferior league, it still had some great players/teams, and what Erving did there shouldn't be disregarded or even close to it, especially stuff like those 1976 Finals.

Plus, when Julius made the transition to the NBA, he had to sacrifice his personal play, because the team was filled with (iso) scorers, shot-creators and ball-stoppers, with coach Shue running that strategy of players creating for themselves and others instead of keeping the ball moving around more - with the players/talent they had, you could say it was better that way though...
And the team still had success that year despite everything, they immediately made the Finals with the Dr having a great Playoff run.

[SHAQisGOAT]

ESPN actually created a list

[ShawkFactory]

BTW, Julius also had a great Finals series in the following year (1977), in the NBA...

30.3 / 6.8 / 5.0 / 2.7 / 1.2
.543 FG% / .857 FT%

You can check out some of those games too, he was playing extremely well...
With the exception of Doug Collins, most of his teammates played like shit though, especially McGinnis - one of the league's best forwards - who was just awful.
Philly lost against a better T-E-A-M.

And ofc that the NBA was different than the ABA; less run-n-gun, more physicality, more defensively driven at the time, no 3pt-line then so less spacing...

Doc still more than proved his worth in the NBA though, in many ways...
And while I agree that the ABA was an inferior league, it still had some great players/teams, and what Erving did there shouldn't be disregarded or even close to it, especially stuff like those 1976 Finals.

Plus, when Julius made the transition to the NBA, he had to sacrifice his personal play, because the team was filled with (iso) scorers, shot-creators and ball-stoppers, with coach Shue running that strategy of players creating for themselves and others instead of keeping the ball moving around more - with the players/talent they had, you could say it was better that way though...
And the team still had success that year despite everything, they immediately made the Finals with the Dr having a great Playoff run.

On the low..you're one of the top 2-3 posters on this forum. Keep bring the logic to us

[Wade's Rings]

ESPN actually created a list

D-GOAT

Honestly ranking them by PER is

[Wade's Rings]

Hard for me to give it full credit given it was the ABA. But no doubt an amazing finals.

For my money, give me MJ's 1991 finals:

31.2 ppg / .558 fg% / 11.6 apg / 6.6 rpg / 2.8 spg / 1.4 bpg

Of course there are other great performances too. I just prefer the all around impact MJ had in 1991.

GOAT

[SHAQisGOAT]

On the low..you're one of the top 2-3 posters on this forum. Keep bring the logic to us

Thanks, I appreciate that.

[And1AllDay]

D-GOAT

Honestly ranking them by PER is

Hard to argue against Wade at the #1 spot though, especially considering Dirk won MVP the next year, and the Mavs were up in the series before Wade made a huge comeback.

35-8-4 on 47% with the highest PER is NBA Finals history...Not bad

[warriorfan]

Hard to argue against Wade at the #1 spot though, especially considering Dirk won MVP the next year, and the Mavs were up in the series before Wade made a huge comeback.

35-8-4 on 47% with the highest PER is NBA Finals history...Not bad

That Dallas team wasn't very good on the defensive side, especially when it came to defending the Wing. That plus some dubious officiating and you have found the true reason for Wade's '06 Final numbers.

[ClipperRevival]

Hard to argue against Wade at the #1 spot though, especially considering Dirk won MVP the next year, and the Mavs were up in the series before Wade made a huge comeback.

35-8-4 on 47% with the highest PER is NBA Finals history...Not bad

Not to take anything away from Wade but he shot 16+ fts in that series per game. Sure, he earned some of it but that's lot of free points.

MJ never came remotely close to that many ft attempts per game in any of his finals. Even in 1993, when he averaged 41.0 ppg, he shot less than 9 fts per game while shooting .508% from the field along with 8.5 rpg and 6.3 apg.

[ClipperRevival]

And the thing about MJ and his finals career scoring avg of 33.6 is that his teams needed those points. Like in 1993, if he didn't average 41 per game, they might not win that series because the Suns were a noticeably deeper team. And for MJ to carry that much of a load and still dominate and be efficient is a testament to his greatness. He imposed his will on the game unlike anyone I have ever seen, including bigs.

[sportjames23]

And the thing about MJ and his finals career scoring avg of 33.6 is that his teams needed those points. Like in 1993, if he didn't average 41 per game, they might not win that series because the Suns were a noticeably deeper team. And for MJ to carry that much of a load and still dominate and be efficient is a testament to his greatness. He imposed his will on the game unlike anyone I have ever seen, including bigs.

As an MJ fan, that is what impressed me the most about him.

[ClipperRevival]

As an MJ fan, that is what impressed me the most about him.

And that's what greatness is. Bball is a game where one player can literally impose his will on the game. The more you impact the game, the greater you are as a player.

Just look at the final 30 seconds of the 1998 finals. His team is down 1 in game 6 and he steals the ball on the defensive end and scores on the offensive end. They lose that game, game 7 is in Utah. But he never let it get to that point.

I laugh when people say it's a team game. Sure you need some help. But truly dominant players can impose their will on the game and affect the outcome of games. MJ is the most alpha killer ever and it's not even close.