How would this run compare to Wade 2006 run?
Nah this is better than Wade's overrated '06 run. Shaq was the best player in the ECF for Miami. Wade just had a strong Finals...
Ironically the post-Mike era coincides with my basketball life, as the '99 season is the year I started following The Game. Both Jimmy and Jokic are on some big time, historic runs right now. Bout the only things I'd compare it to would be early 00s Shaq (multiple runs), Duncan (multiple runs), Comeback Kobe, '11 Dirk, LeBron (multiple runs), and '19 Kawhi ('17 is really close to this level though)...
Thats it. For me this run is already in a class of 6 for the post-Mike NBA, now a class of 8 because Jokic is also on the bullshyt in the other bracket too. And a Finals with two guys on All-Time runs is The Finals everybody got robbed of in '19 when Durant got hurt, so we should want Jokic vs Butler...
Idk where he was generally placed before, but Dirk is pretty close.
Close but Dirk did have an MVP and two other Top 5 finishes well before his run, that Jimmy has never had. To go along with his one Finals appearance and two WCF appearances pre-run, that match Jimmy. Dirk was on the lower end of Top 50 but he was already a dozen years in and considered the GOAT European befire he won his ring...
You like the stats stuff so I’ll ask you a sincere question…
How many nikkax have lead their teams to at least a finals appearance along with three conference finals appearances?
I’m sure that list isn’t that big AT ALL. Then we have to start about the other shyt…
Beat a #1 seed twice that was heavily favored with the best player in the game in convincing fashion
Another Finals appearance on the horizon? Maybe a title? Maybe a Finals MVP?
Then look at his teammates…Granted Spo & Riley get the last drop out of the bottle but all of these guys are cast offs aside from Bam at this point
Son this shyt is a cheesy Disney movie come to life..
It's not the stats I value, I value the postseason and history (a player's history, and history of The Game) more than anything. But everything has nuance and I'm with everyone that Jimmy's profile has heightened greatly in a historical sense...
The problem here is cats can't objectively evaluate a player's career because dudes are in the moment. The bump to "Top 15" is the same shyt nikkas were doing around here when Giannis won in '21...when Kawhi won it in '19...and dudes rushing Durant and Curry to Top 10 2+ years ago...
It's the epitome of casual, hot take culture, within The Culture, because most heads have no knowledge or respect for the history of the sport or the heavyweights who put in work prior...
Winning a title as an 8-seed is unprecedented, and if they do that, he'll get his flowers accordingly---->he's already getting them now. Getting to The Finals and beating better teams along the way as an 8 isn't exactly unprecedented though, and I've had to listen to dudes on here downplay Mo's career and his work when his '81 Rockets was also a team of misfits and this nikka as an essential 8-seed (there were only 6 seeds per conference until '84) was smoking everything in his path...
That Rockets team had a losing record, by the way, and Mo got em to The Finals and got two games off Bird and the C's. So this particular point isn't directed at you specifically g, but the board in general;
I've already stated his run this postseason is one of the Top 8 I've witnessed with my own eyes, but it's not the first time this has happened, and if I'm asked to scale the level of dominance, I gotta put it underneath the peak playoff versions I saw from Duncan, Shaq, Kawhi, and LeBron, but it's right under there. This is a level of play greater than I ever saw from Dirk and Kobe. He's on a different level but this isn't the highest I've ever seen a player go...
Cats will get insulted by me saying this is a Top 5 playoff run I've seen instead of calling it the best
because nikkas gonna ignore Jokic doing the same shyt on the other bracket and nikkas will definitely ignore shyt they never saw like '81 Moses or any of his other years for that matter (he actually won it all two years later and was STILL smoking nikkas)...
My answer to you isn't finished, I'm adding more below...
