Funny that all year you LeBron stans were sayin how overrated the Warriors were yet when LeBron beats them they suddenly the best team in the Finals ever
everyone pointed out how they weren't better than the 96 Bulls 01 Lakers and Showtime Lakers to name a few but now yall gonna gas them up to make it look like LeBron accomplished some impossible feat.
I never said the Warriors were overrated this season, so what the hell does your beef have to do with me?
I'm not going to say that they were better than the '96 Bulls, the '01 Lakers or the Showtime Lakers....but they are certainly the best team to be BEAT in the Finals ever. 73 wins goes a long way to that argument.
My argument was that the Cavs had the best Finals victory every. Since no one beat the '01 Lakers, '96 Bulls, or '87/'88 Lakers, who are you actually going to compare the victory to?
sorry but only LeBron stans think a top seed team beatin another top seed team is in the discussion of best finals victory forever (soundin just like a dumbass kid clueless on NBA history wit that hyperbole) just cause of the losin team's regular season record when we've seen countless times 60 win teams go home early which is why the sayin "It don't mean a thing if you ain't got that ring" was used so much durin their run.
I like how a 57-win team beating a 73-win team is just "a top seed beating another top seed" in your world. The 66-win Spurs who lost earlier in the same playoffs were the best team (by wins) to have ever been sent home early. Warriors were another 7 wins above that. Beating teams with this many wins had simply never happened before.
Even describin it as takin Curry's soul is a narrative cause yall were tight he the back to back MVP and the first to ever win unanimous MVP,
I thought "taking Curry's soul" had more to do with Curry getting blocked about a dozen times during the series, giving up the ball on the quick whenever Lebron switched onto him, and Lebron working a clear intimidation angle at the basket to the point where Curry looked afraid to take it inside and played a horrific Game 7, including a complete disappearing act in the 4th quarter.
You do realize Magic and Kareem have 5 and 6 rings respectively right? They lost AGAINST stacked teams and BEAT stacked teams, cut the bullshyt about LeBron always bein on teams full of scrubs when he was on a superteam for 2 of his Ls.
The have 5/6 rings because
they played together for 5 of them. Kareem only had 1 ring in 9 seasons before he joined with Magic, and Magic didn't have any rings in 3 years after Kareem left. If you really are 2 of the top 3 players in history, then once you combine forces in a weak era shouldn't you be winning the ring in EVERY season?
And did you ignore the breakdown of Magic's playoffs I provided earlier in the thread? The only "stacked" teams he beat were the 2 Celtics wins, and maybe the 1991 Blazers. All the other teams they beat were badly outmatched - teams in the 1980s outside of the Celtics/Lakers tended to be thin as hell, and the West especially was as weak as it's ever been.
In your world, were those 40-win Rockets, 51-win Rockets, and 54-win Suns that beat Magic's Lakers "stacked teams"??? Not to mention 2 years where Magic didn't have to beat a single team with more than 43 wins on the way to the Finals, 4 more years where he didn't have to beat a single team with more than 53 wins, and getting the weak pre-Moses Sixers and a not-quite-ready Pistons team in 1988 as 3 of his 5 Finals wins.
Magic didn't turn the ball over that much which is why they called him Tragic Johnson for those 2 turnovers in the Finals, if he was "a turnover machine" nobody would've been surprised at those turnovers to give him that nickname then he woulda had the name before that and been called that his whole career.
He didn't get called "Tragic Johnson" just for two turnovers.
Game 2 he just dribbled out the last FIFTEEN SECONDS OF A TIED GAME without even trying a game-winning shot.
Can you point out a bigger last-second mental lapse in history than not even TRYING to score when you have a chance to win?
Game 4, he had the awful turnover to let the Celtics tie the game in regulation, then missed two free throws in the final minute that would have tied the game in overtime.
Game 7, he lost the ball on his own for another awful turnover that ruined the Lakers' last chance to win. Shot 5-14 for just 16 points (though 15 assists) and had 7 turnovers in that deciding game.
Overall, he had 31 turnovers for the series, setting a new NBA record for the Finals...beating the previous record of 30 turnovers that....Magic had also set himself in 1980. At the time he also had the 3rd-most turnovers in a Finals series with 26 in 1982, giving him a sweep of the top three slots. None of this is surprising for a guy who averaged 4 turnovers/game in an era with few ball-hawking guards, including nearly 5 turnovers/game in 1986.
THAT'S how you get called "Tragic Johnson".
the only bad series he had was the Tragic Johnson series which he was really only called for those turnovers cause he still had great numbers that were up to his standards thru that series.
I love how losing to a 1st-round opponent with a losing record isn't a "bad series" to you. Magic had plenty of wins where he didn't play well, but the Lakers were so stacked it didn't matter (I especially like the closeout game against the way overmatched Sixers where Magic shot 2-3 and was the SEVENTH leading scorer on the team, yet the Lakers still won by 10). 5-15 for 14 points in the closeout game against the Celtics in 1985, 7-21 for 16 points in the closeout game against the Celtics in 1987, and the Lakers won both games by double-digits. And then there are the losses. How about:
1996: Magic averages 15-9-7 on 39% shooting as the Lakers lose against the Rockets in the 1st-round.
1991: Magic averages 19-8-12 on 43% shooting as the Lakers lose 4 straight against the Bulls in a near-sweep in the NBA Finals. Magic couldn't guard Jordan/Pippen, and even Paxson went off (14ppg on 65% shooting for the series).
1989: Magic pulls his hamstring in Game 2 as the Lakers are swept by the Pistons in the Finals. But it had already been clear in Game 1 that Magic was completely unable to guard either Isaiah or Dumars, as they combined for an average of 50 points and 13 assists on 20-35 shooting in the two games Magic played.
1986: Magic had good stats against the no-namers playing guard for the Rockets, but when you're a 62-win team stacked from top to bottom and you lose to a 51-win team with limited talent and experience, stats aren't a good enough excuse. Yet another series where Magic couldn't be hidden on anyone.
1984: Tragic Johnson, as you mention. Magic has good stats but makes massive mental mistakes to blow the game at the end of Games 2, 4, and 7.
1983: Magic averages 19-8-12 on 40% shooting in getting swept by the Sixers in the Finals. Lakers aren't even close in any game, and Magic goes 8-21 with 9 turnovers in the deciding Game 4.
1981: Magic averages 17-14-7 on 39% shooting while losing
in the 1st round to a 40-42 team. The final game is so embarrassing that I shouldn't describe it, I'll
let the New York Times do it for me:
Magic Johnson reached into his bag of tricks and came up with air today - an ''air ball'' that never reached the basket with five seconds left - as his Los Angeles Lakers, the defending National Basketball Association champions, were eliminated by the Houston Rockets, 89-86.
Johnson, the charming young man who carried the Lakers in the game that clinched their championship last spring, had complained about teammates' jealousies this week. But he gave them nothing about which to be jealous today.
Johnson turned in a dreadful performance, making two of 14 field goal attempts and six of 11 foul shots, including two missed free throws with 30 seconds left that would have greatly affected the outcome. Fifteen seconds later, Mike Dunleavy hit a 15-foot jump shot that gave the Rockets the lead for good.
The Houston coach, Del Harris, opened with Billy Paultz, basically a center and an immobile one at that, in the starting lineup. Paultz took Magic inside, made a couple of early baskets and tossed several good passes as the Lakers were unable to take control.
Playing sometimes against four big men, Johnson seemed hesitant and ineffective
The Lakers called a timeout and gave the ball to Johnson, expecting that sooner or later he would perform some of the magic that has changed his name from Earvin. He drove down the middle on Tom Henderson, who is five inches shorter. Looking for the foul, Johnson hesitated before tossing up a weak jump shot that never reached the rim.
Malone hauled it down and later made two foul shots to complete the victory. Malone finished with a team-high 23 points. Reid had 16, Calvin Murphy 14 and Dunleavy 10. Abdul-Jabbar led all scorers with 32 points; Johnson was held to 10.
Go 2-14 for 10 points in the deciding game of a playoff series against a team with a losing record, lose the game when you miss two free throws with 30 seconds left and shoot an airball to end the game, and you dare to call it "not a bad series". Magic was 4th on his own team in scoring for the series and couldn't even dream of guarding the Rocket's little PG Calvin Murphy, who averaged 21ppg while Magic was mostly hidden on slower players - who, as the NYT pointed out, also burned him regularly.
That wasn't nearly as bad as LeBron's disappearin act against the Celtics much less his WOAT finals performance in 2011 against the fukkin MAVS of all teams, hell all of Magic's loses you just named put together ain't worst than that cause LeBron had subpar numbers and went ghost in the 4th IN THE FINALS against a team notorious for their lack of defense.
Dallas was notorious for their lack of defense?
They had Tyson Chandler protecting the rim, who was only the
Defensive Player of the Year the next year, and Shawn Marion, one of the best defensive small forwards in the league who led the league in steals twice, plus DeShawn Stevenson who was another solid defender at small forward.
Numerous people were saying at the time that Dallas had perhaps the best 2-3 zone defense anyone had seen in the NBA to that point. That's how you take out the Kobe-Gasol-Artest-Odom-Bynum Lakers in a 4-0 sweep and the Durant-Westbrook-Harden-Ibaka Thunder in a 4-1 domination. Kobe was an embarrassing 23-3-2 on 42% shooting against that defense, and he supposedly has the jump shot you need to defeat the zone.
I'd love to see you explain again how Lebron losing to a Dallas team in 6 games in the Finals is worse than Magic losing to a Rockets team with a LOSING RECORD in the 1st round, especially when he goes 2-14 for 10 points and blows the game-winner in the process.
LeBron also has first and second round Ls which of course were always excused by claimin he didn't have enough help
Actually, no, Lebron doesn't have any 1st-round losses at all, and he's never lost to a losing team or anything even close to it. That shows how much you know about this.
His only 2nd-round losses were against the Celtics, and against the Pistons in his very first playoffs. In each of those series, the other team had 4 of the best 5 players on the court AND better coaching. Magic never even came close to facing that.
He's not better than Magic at ballhandlin and
@ sayin he's a better defender when I just pointed out that Magic could truly play all 5 positions you lookin at Bron's trackdown and double team blocks and gettin stuck, Magic had elite highly honed skills that don't go wit age Bron relies way too much on athleticism once that goes its a wrap for your man's "goat contendin" career cause the fall off will be dramatic.
Magic could barely even dribble with his left hand. Outside of the open court, his ballhandling was nothing compared to today's players.
And you don't have to believe me,
you can trust Isaiah Thomas if you want.
And you're trying to pretend Magic even compares to Lebron on defense.
If Magic's skills didn't go away with age, then why didn't Magic win any titles after the age of 28 when Kareem left? He had 3 full seasons before he retired and his team was still stacked with Worthy, Thompson, Green, Scott, Cooper, Divac, Perkins, etc. in an expansion era. Yet he only won 1 Finals GAME total in the next three years. I agree that Magic's skills didn't degrade much...but then you have to admit that it was the stacked team and weak competition, not just Magic's skills, that got the Lakers so many championships from 1980-1988 and none at all after that.