Has a star player ever been rendered as completely irrelevant as Lebron 10-11 Finals?

[Lucifer]

Terrible comparison since 06 Shaq was Grandpa Shaq and it was the last year he was even semi useful/impactful.
(both Kobe and Lebron were in their Physical Prime's)
+ Shaqs team won the Title.

Shaq (had he shot his FT's better) was at 17/11/2 on 60% shooting in the 06 Finals.
He deferred to Wade and played a smaller role to let his team win.

Your trying to compare two players in their absolute primes to one who was way past his and that is retarded.

Kobe was not in his physical prime. He lost 20 pounds that off season and didn't even work out cuz of his rape case. He was battling shoulder problems all year as well.

Kobe made that 3 in game 2 that prevented the sweep. That in itself makes his series better then Lebron's you butt hurt kobe haters

[32Dayz]

Kobe was not in his physical prime. He lost 20 pounds that off season and didn't even work out cuz of his rape case. He was battling shoulder problems all year as well.

Kobe made that 3 in game 2 that prevented the sweep. That in itself makes his series better then Lebron's you butt hurt kobe haters

Disagree about the GWinner making it a better series.

I personally think its the WOAT Finalz series for a GOAT level player.

Fair enough about the Kobe conditioning stuff.
Still its not even remotely comparable to Shaq who had just suffered a Prime ending injury the year before Pre-Playoffs and was in his 15th season.

[DaPerceive]

Lebron's 2011 finals performance was worse than Kobe's 2004 Finals performance

[Yao Ming's Foot]

Kobe certainly wasn't good in the 04 finals but he sure as hell wasn't irrelevant. There is a difference.

[knightfall88]

People think I am exaggerating when I say this but if Lebron just stayed at home throughout the finals, the Miami Heat would have had a better chance. That's how bad he was.

[nayte]

Seriously, are we still going on about that??
Yeah, he played err..dissapointingly.It's done now, get over it.
Damn we need this lockout to finish....

[ukplayer4]

for me kobe(23/4/3 38% fg) was worse, lebron had his moments in the series and he still went 18/7/7 48% not lebron numbers and he didnt come through at the right times but i think he did less than kobe- less that is to loose his team the series.
kobe was determined he would be the one to take all the shots and forced through out, no matter how thet game went, he basically played keep away from shaq(27/11 63%fg).

he did have that one big shot which won them game 2 or 3, i dont recall. its a toss up really, a passive lebron. or the brick laying kobe who wanted to jack everything and not get the ball to the most dominant player.

[Nick Young]

Lebron in the 2007 Finals

[DaPerceive]

kobe was determined he would be the one to take all the shots and forced through out, no matter how thet game went, he basically played keep away from shaq(27/11 63%fg).
.

I think you just proved to everyone here that you didn't watch the 04 finals.

[millwad]

Ewing in '94 was garbage, he only made 36% of his FGA attempts in the series.. Horrible shooting through-out the finals..

[joe]

It was truly amazing. Lebron was invisible out there.

I think people are wrong when they question his character, though. I wouldn't say he's unclutch, I think his game just has serious holes. When great teams are playing their absolute hardest, he has very little to fall back on. His jumper is weak, his handles are so-so, and his post game is non-existent.

If Lebron developed a sweet midrange jumper, I'd bet he'd suddenly become a very "clutch, gritty player." But sadly.. he hasn't shown that desire, IMO

[Dragonyeuw]

Kobe had a bad 2004 finals, horrible by his standards. BUT, it certainly wasn't because of lack of effort. When I saw Lebron in the 2011 finals, it was like the guy wasn't even aware of the magnitude of the situation. You're in the finals, even if you play like crap at least put it all on the line! It doesn't even seem like Lebron was trying half the time, he was totally disengaged from the moment.

[Dragonyeuw]

for me kobe(23/4/3 38% fg) was worse, lebron had his moments in the series and he still went 18/7/7 48%

This is where stats don't tell the whole story. Lebron, in one of those games, had just about the most irrelevant, non-impactful triple double I've ever seen. The guy just wasn't into it, say what you will about Kobe's 2004 performance, but at the least he acted like he KNEW he was in the finals. Lebron's demeanor in the 2011 finals was like he was playing a pre-season game. And this is a guy who KILLED in the Bulls series, against greater defense than what he saw against Dallas. So what happened, exactly?

[Nick Young]

This is where stats don't tell the whole story. Lebron, in one of those games, had just about the most irrelevant, non-impactful triple double I've ever seen. The guy just wasn't into it, say what you will about Kobe's 2004 performance, but at the least he acted like he KNEW he was in the finals. Lebron's demeanor in the 2011 finals was like he was playing a pre-season game. And this is a guy who KILLED in the Bulls series, against greater defense than what he saw against Dallas. So what happened, exactly?

Jason Kidd happened

[madmax]

the turning point of the series was that embarrassing Heat loss in Game 2...had Miami played the game till the end and subsequently won, there was no coming back from dead for Dallas. Too bad it was not meant to be I guess