Top 5 playoff runs that you watched live.

[Breezy]

Everyone knows the players from the 60's 70's and 80's Had wicked playoff runs and were no doubt dominant. I'm 30 and I assume I'm on the older side of posters here so there is a good chance that only a small number of us were even watching magic and bird live, Let alone Wilt and Russel.

So what I want is the top 5 "Damn that guy's good" runs that you witnessed and were glued to your tv watching to see how they would play next. Justify it however you want. (And by the way if you did see those older players play live by all means tell us about it!)

1. Dirk 2011 - Just couldn't miss a shot when it counted, That WCF!!! Game comeback, playing while sick. It really just seemed like he went into another gear and just chewed up and spit out all stars and hall of famers.... Brandon Roy, Lamarcus Aldridge, Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Russel Westbrook, Kevin Durant, Dwyane Wade, Lebron James, Chris Bosh... All Brushed aside by Dirk. It was incredible.

2. Jordan 1993 - In the back of my mind I assumed he would start fading in third go around. And it seemed like it might be the end after those first 2 games in New York but it after that it was like someone poured rocket fuel in his gatorade. And that finals... Holy crap that was insane. Im acutually surprised he only averaged 41 ppg in that finals. It seemed like he was gonna hit 50.

3. Lebron 2009. I know he didn't win which knocks him down a peg, but they swept the first 2 round with Lebron going bonkers in what seemed like every game. and for all the criticism he gets. He's not the reason they lost. Dear lord that ECF was insane.

4. Iverson 2001 - My main memory of this is the second round against Vince. 2 50 point games in the same series was crazy and then the first game against the lakers made my brain melt.

5. Duncan 2003 - This is a bit of an outlier because Nothing Timmy did was exciting per se but every game I would watch and it was just like "Damn, Timmy doing work", "There's another 30/15/5 and nothing anyone does changes that." He was like a slow moving wrecking ball making his way to a ring.

[no pun intended]

Everyone knows the players from the 60's 70's and 80's Had wicked playoff runs and were no doubt dominant. I'm 30 and I assume I'm on the older side of posters here so there is a good chance that only a small number of us were even watching magic and bird live, Let alone Wilt and Russel.

So what I want is the top 5 "Damn that guy's good" runs that you witnessed and were glued to your tv watching to see how they would play next. Justify it however you want. (And by the way if you did see those older players play live by all means tell us about it!)

1. Dirk 2011 - Just couldn't miss a shot when it counted, That WCF!!! Game comeback, playing while sick. It really just seemed like he went into another gear and just chewed up and spit out all stars and hall of famers.... Brandon Roy, Lamarcus Aldridge, Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Russel Westbrook, Kevin Durant, Dwyane Wade, Lebron James, Chris Bosh... All Brushed aside by Dirk. It was incredible.

2. Jordan 1993 - In the back of my mind I assumed he would start fading in third go around. And it seemed like it might be the end after those first 2 games in New York but it after that it was like someone poured rocket fuel in his gatorade. And that finals... Holy crap that was insane. Im acutually surprised he only averaged 41 ppg in that finals. It seemed like he was gonna hit 50.

3. Lebron 2009. I know he didn't win which knocks him down a peg, but they swept the first 2 round with Lebron going bonkers in what seemed like every game. and for all the criticism he gets. He's not the reason they lost. Dear lord that ECF was insane.

4. Iverson 2001 - My main memory of this is the second round against Vince. 2 50 point games in the same series was crazy and then the first game against the lakers made my brain melt.

5. Duncan 2003 - This is a bit of an outlier because Nothing Timmy did was exciting per se but every game I would watch and it was just like "Damn, Timmy doing work", "There's another 30/15/5 and nothing anyone does changes that." He was like a slow moving wrecking ball making his way to a ring.

No one on that team has ever won an NBA championship before then. Very underrated run thanks to the media focusing on the Heat's failure rather than the Mavericks' success. But yeah, Dirk was a god.

[JohnFreeman]

1. Wade 2010
2. C Webb 2001
3. LeBron 2012
4. Iverson 2001
5. Duncan 2003

[MMM]

1. Wade 2009
2. C Webb 2001
3. LeBron 2012
4. Iverson 2001
5. Duncan 2003

didn't they lose in the first round that year??? because T-Mac would deserve some mention. He would have consistently have crazy 1st rounds but wasn't able to advance.

[Breezy]

didn't they lose in the first round that year??? because T-Mac would deserve some mention. He would have consistently have crazy 1st rounds but wasn't able to advance.

The only rule is it had to make you go

Obviously more people will to deeper runs and title wins but if a first round series was the most impressive thing you saw then list it!

[ImKobe]

1) MJ 1998 - it's not his best run, but the last one and the one I saw, that Finals series has been my favorite for over 15 years now...MJ takes the cake here
2) Shaq 2001 - Swept through the entire Western Conference that included the Spurs and Kings, 15-1 overall record, just dominant
3) Duncan 2003 - He carried an entire team to a championship, very dominant Finals series
4) Dirk 2011 - sweeping the defending champs, crushing the big 3, beast.
5) Kobe 2009 - averaged 30 5 5 with almost 2 steals against the Western Conference in the playoffs with great efficiency, very dominant WCF and a dominant Finals, have to include this one, my personal favorite.

[JohnFreeman]

didn't they lose in the first round that year??? because T-Mac would deserve some mention. He would have consistently have crazy 1st rounds but wasn't able to advance.

Yeah i mean't 2010 sorry. I really enjoyed watching that first round against the Celtics.

33.2 ppg .564 FG% 5.6 RPG 6.8 APG.

My list isn't really in an order

[pauk]

Michael Jordan 1993
Lebron James 2012
Lebron James 2009
Dirk Nowitzki 2011
Reggie Miller 1995 (clutchness & drama galore)

[sejoon101]

In recent memory.. Seriously Dirk. I never followed the Mavs before, and far from a fan, but I hated the Heat so much, I bet $5000 per game every game of the NBA finals that year. The results? I follow the Mavs now, and my pockets got fat like Trina ass.

[JohnFreeman]

In recent memory.. Seriously Dirk. I never followed the Mavs before, and far from a fan, but I hated the Heat so much, I bet $5000 per game every game of the NBA finals that year. The results? I follow the Mavs now, and my pockets got fat like Trina ass.

[Stringer Bell]

Jordan- 91
Duncan- 03
Olajuwon- 95
Shaq- 01
Lebron- 12


You could probably put a couple more for Jordan and Shaq, or 94' for Olajuwon, but I figured I'd put just one for each player.

[havoc33]

These are the most memorable playoffs runs to me that I saw live, though not necessarily the best:

1) Jordan 1998 (Not his best playoffs, but as we all sort of knew it was the last hurrah, every game was especially precious that year. For me being able to watch it live made it that much more special as well of course).
2) Kobe 2001 (for the first three rounds of the 2001 Playoffs, Kobe was the MVP of the league. I'll never forget those back to back games vs the Kings and Spurs)
3) Kobe 2009 (played at a very high level throughout, finally got his first ring sans Shaq, which made it a special one)
4) Pippen 1997 (clutch all playoffs, with gamewinner against Washington, steal&assist to Kukoc to clinch the title. Proved yet again he was the best allround player in basketball, and prompted Stockton to say after the defeat that the most difficult thing about facing the Bulls was not Jordan, but Pippen due to his disruptive nature on defense)
5) Pippen 1998 (probably the only wing player throughout history that I've seen that could totally dominate an ECF game with only scoring 4 pts, as he did against the Pacers that year. A defensive juggernaut)

[JebronLames]

Lebron 2012
Lebron 2013
Lebron 2009
Lebron 2007
Lebron 2008

[longhornfan1234]

1. '06 Wade - 28/5/5 playoff run. 26/61 FG% in ECF, 34/ 47 FG% in finals.

2. 2003 Duncan

3. '01 Shaq

4. '12 LeBron

5. '11 Dirk

[JohnFreeman]

Lebron 2012
Lebron 2013
Lebron 2009
Lebron 2007
Lebron 2008

LeBron was so sick against Detroit. Orlando was incredible as well.