What if Magic wasn't injured in 1989 NBA Finals?

[32jazz]

You are a world class cherry picker.

Yes, of course, Magic had a great game for 3 1/2 quarters of games 2 and 4.....but.....SO WHAT??? What is the friggin point in playing well for most of the game, and then stinking up the joint in crunch time, when it matters most?



Magic was one of the most clutch players of all time, but.....come on. You are being blinded by STATS again. L.A should have beaten Boston! You said it yourself! Magic failed big time.

Cherry picker? But you are simply ignoring that game 2 was won until Worthy missed free throws & threw away a cross court pass.

Big Game James Worthy made the most memorable blunder of the series by throwing away the ball to Gerald Henderson because he has admitted he wanted nothing to do with the ball. "The Henderson stole the ball" is right up there with Havelicik's steal(64 or 65) & Bird's steal versus the Pistons.

It shows you don't remember the series when you fail to mention Worthy in game 2. When your pg(Magic) is consistently outrebounding his own center (Kareem) one can hardly claim Kareem was perfect into that series.

Magic made some mistakes ,but only an idiot like you could possibly blame the entire series on him.

I think the question was about the 89 finals anyway

[oolalaa]

Cherry picker? But you are simply ignoring that game 2 was won until Worthy missed free throws & threw away a cross court pass.

Big Game James Worthy made the most memorable blunder of the series by throwing away the ball to Gerald Henderson because he has admitted he wanted nothing to do with the ball. "The Henderson stole the ball" is right up there with Havelicik's steal(64 or 65) & Bird's steal versus the Pistons.

It shows you don't remember the series when you fail to mention Worthy in game 2. When your pg(Magic) is consistently outrebounding his own center (Kareem) one can hardly claim Kareem was perfect into that series.

Magic made some mistakes ,but only an idiot like you could possibly blame the entire series on him.

I think the question was about the 89 finals anyway

WOW, you're actually completely clueless. That's impressive.

Firstly, I watched that entire series again recently.

Secondly, Magic was the leader and the best player on the Lakers. He was burdened with the biggest share of responsibility for the result of that series, WIN or LOSE. The Lakers had more talent than Boston. Magic choked in the 3 of the biggest/most pivotal games of that series. The Lakers lost the series. He deserved the biggest share of the blame, even if he didn't choke it up. But.....he did choke it up! It's not good enough to say - "but, but, but.....Worthy choked as well. It wasn't just Magic! ". Magic was the superstar. Worthy was the 3rd wheel. They had different standards.



Game 2: Yeh, Worthy made a bad turnover - I'm not making any excuses. But, Magic did call a dumb timeout to put Worthy in that situation (again. Not an excuse). Riley wanted L.A to call a time out, only if McHale made the 2nd free throw. But, McHale missed it, and Magic called a timeout anyway - this allowed Boston to set up their defence and get the steal. And then, as you know, Magic inexplicably ran out the clock, preventing L.A from attempting a game winning shot. Magic Johnson! Not paying attention to the clock! In one of the most crucial posessions of the entire season! The Lakers could have been up 2-0.


Game 4: The pivotal, series altering game 4. Worthy clanked a couple of free throws, with 10 seconds to go (he made up for it somewhat with 11 points in OT). But Magic, for some reason, was determined to outdo him. He didn't JUST miss 2 free throws himself, down the stretch.

No.

Again, Magic.....with the ball in his hands.....the final posession.....a chance to win the game and go up 3-1.....throws one of the dumbest passes I have ever seen him make. Seriously, Parish was all over Worthy. He had no right to let that ball go out of his hands


Game 7: Lets ignore his 5-14, 7 turnover statline, and the fact that he didn't score a single point in the last 5 minutes, shall we. He had 2 of the most pathetic turnovers I've ever seen, in crunch time, of a still very winnable game.

1:30 remaining, 5 points down.....he employs some of the shoddiest ball security I've seen from him. He gave Dennis Johnson one of the easiest steals of his career. What was he doing anyway, trying to drive into the lane, past one of the greatest perimeter defenders of all time? Maybe he wanted to give Kareem a big bear hug?

1:00 remaining, 3 points down.....he dribbles up the court, jumps into McHale (WHY??), throws the ball to Dennis Johnson and then complains to the ref.



So.....No, I'm very, very sorry, Magic wasn't the SOLE reason that the Lakers lost (surely you must have realised I was exaggerating?!). But, he was undoubtedly the overwhelming one - he didn't just make "some mistakes". He made a calamity of game losing, and ultimately series losing, errors. 'Tragic Johnson' was an apt nickname. And you are A.....DUMB.....ASS.

[jlauber]

Magic "choked" like MJ did in his 63 point game against the Celtics. Jordan missed a FT that could have won the game in the last second of regulation, and the game went into OT, where Boston won.

Damn "chokers."

As for Wilt...I covered this in another thread, but he played in nine game sevens, one game five of a best-of-five series, and one game three of a best-of-three series. In those 11 games, all he did was average 29.9 ppg, 26.6 rpg, and shot nearly .600. That "choker" only averaged a 30-27 .600 in his 11 absolute elimination games. In the game three of a best-of-three, all he did was hang a 53-22 game. In the game five of the best-of-five series, all he could do was put up a 56-35 game.

He also had a game seven against Russell, in which he scored 30 points, with 32 rebounds, and on 12-15 shooting from the floor (which included six of Philly's last eight points...including 2-2 from the line with 36 secs left, and a dunk over Russell with 5 secs left, which brought the Sixers to within 110-109.) And after the "clutch" Russell hit a guidewire with his inbound pass, the Sixers had a chance to win, but, "Havlicek stole the ball."

Of course, I am in the process of posting ALL of his "must-win" and "clinching game" performances....

http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=250076

Pretty interesting stuff. He was not only BRILLIANT in vast majority of those games, he also DOMINATED his OPPOSING centers in nearly all of them, as well.

[oolalaa]

Magic "choked" like MJ did in his 63 point game against the Celtics. Jordan missed a FT that could have won the game in the last second of regulation, and the game went into OT, where Boston won.

Damn "chokers."

1. It's a joke to even attempt to compare Jordan's 63 with any of Magic's games in the finals.

2. Do you think I would be chastising Magic, if The Lakers still lost, and his only crunch time error for the whole series was missing just 1 free throw?

Of course not! It's the fact that he had MULTIPLE, bad crunch time errors, in MULTIPLE games.

[Da_Realist]

Magic "choked" like MJ did in his 63 point game against the Celtics. Jordan missed a FT that could have won the game in the last second of regulation, and the game went into OT, where Boston won.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m83dSDbqSaQ#t=8m14s

[oolalaa]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m83dSDbqSaQ#t=8m14s

Haha wow I couldn't remember exactly what happened. Thanks for the reminder

BTW, keep posting those classic games on youtube! They're awesome

[Da_Realist]

Haha wow I couldn't remember exactly what happened. Thanks for the reminder

BTW, keep posting those classic games on youtube! They're awesome

Thanks! Unfortunately, my main channel was deleted. I'm slowly adding more vids on my new channel (DaRealistOne3). All the 80's games were deleted with the old channel.