What is the most impressive carry job by a star?

[worldjbfree]

If LeBron in 2007 is an option to some, you also have to credit Moses Malone in 1981. That Rockets team was the ultimate carry job, with a Cinderella story that began with upsetting the defending champion Lakers in the first round and taking the 62-20 Celtics to six games in the finals. History won't be kind to Moses unfortunately. People will bury him on the all-time Centers list.

I'll also mention the '77 76ers. They were seen as the giant for Walton's Blazers to conquer, but people forget how undisciplined that team was. They were cocky from their pregame dunk showcases to their turnover frenzies. Once Portland solved them, it was over. Doc was the only thing keeping them a contender, which is why the organization shuffled his teammates off and rebuilt the team with some actual winners.

[SweaterBae]

Watch on YouTube

;ab_channel=HouseofHighlights

oh sorry, by a star. disregard.

Everytime LeBron does a crossover and puts two hands on the ball switches hands and continues dribbling.

[One_and_Done]

I guess I shouldn't be surprised by how much some of the less recent options are being disrespected. The Bucks went from a 27 win team, worst in the East, to a 56 win contender in his rookie year and lost to the champs. They had a 10 point SRS turnaround.

When Bird joined the Celtics they had a similar turnaround.

Dr J single handedly took the Nets to a title.

Duncan's Spurs in 02 or 03 would have been lucky to win 20 games without him.

[KGtabake]

Kawhi 2019 not being here feels criminal.

The way he willed his team against Embiid-Butler Sixers and Giannis Bucks were exceptional, and then going up 3-1 against the Warriors core trio with Cousins.

Some of his teammates:
Former DPOY Gasol.
Former blocking champion Ibaka.
All Star Lowry.
Van Vleet killed the Bucks.
Siakam was the 2nd best player of that team.

So, no it's not criminal. That Raptors team was very good.

[KGtabake]

It's Dirk, followed by Hakeem.
If Iverson had won in 2001, it would have been him.
But it's not a story of "ifs".

[DelAbbot]

Kawhi 2019 not being here feels criminal.

The way he willed his team against Embiid-Butler Sixers and Giannis Bucks were exceptional, and then going up 3-1 against the Warriors core trio with Cousins.

That's because you didn't watch games after the 3rd game vs Bucks - the rest of the way other Raptors contributed equally to Kawhi to reach the championship

[CodeBreaker]

Kawhi 2019 not being here feels criminal.

The way he willed his team against Embiid-Butler Sixers and Giannis Bucks were exceptional, and then going up 3-1 against the Warriors core trio with Cousins.

That's because you didn't watch games after the 3rd game vs Bucks

lol there's a reason I named 2019 Kawhi first in this thread. I watched that entire run to the championship. Without Kawhi, that team would be first round exit.

[One_and_Done]

Kawhi 2019 not being here feels criminal.

The way he willed his team against Embiid-Butler Sixers and Giannis Bucks were exceptional, and then going up 3-1 against the Warriors core trio with Cousins.

That's because you didn't watch games after the 3rd game vs Bucks

lol there's a reason I named 2019 Kawhi first in this thread. I watched that entire run to the championship. Without Kawhi, that team would be first round exit.

Ok, but most of the options in the poll are guys whose teams wouldn't even make the playoffs without them. So even if that were true, and I'm not sure it is, it's a poor argument for Kawhi.

[DelAbbot]

That's because you didn't watch games after the 3rd game vs Bucks

lol there's a reason I named 2019 Kawhi first in this thread. I watched that entire run to the championship. Without Kawhi, that team would be first round exit.

Ok, but most of the options in the poll are guys whose teams wouldn't even make the playoffs without them. So even if that were true, and I'm not sure it is, it's a poor argument for Kawhi.

Raptors 2019 can beat Orlando easily without Kawhi. But they would have lost to that juggernaut PHI team

[One_and_Done]

02 and 03 Duncan is really being slept on here.

[CobraCommander]

Dirk and It’s not close -

It’s not only that he won one while carrying a team - it’s who he beat lol

It’s maybe one of the greatest feats in sports history-

It would be like if Westbrook won a ring with the wizards !

An aging mvp carrying some dudes with aight names into the finals against the GSW with KD and winning.

That’s what Dirk did

The Heat had a prime LBJ, Great Wade and Under rated all time great Bosh and he beat them with just some aight guys

[One_and_Done]

As discussed, the Heat had a completely unbalanced roster. Good on Dirk for beating it obviously.

[Homer38]

lol there's a reason I named 2019 Kawhi first in this thread. I watched that entire run to the championship. Without Kawhi, that team would be first round exit.

Ok, but most of the options in the poll are guys whose teams wouldn't even make the playoffs without them. So even if that were true, and I'm not sure it is, it's a poor argument for Kawhi.

Raptors 2019 can beat Orlando easily without Kawhi. But they would have lost to that juggernaut PHI team

but in some other case in this poll,their team would not been able to make the playoffs without their best player

[ShootersShoot]

Dirk. LeBron never had to carry his teams through more than half of the All NBA team selection without having even an allstar himself as help

Dirk had alot of good players on his team, including several players with all-star talent regardless of whether they technically made the team. I listed him for a reason, but I'm much more impressed by Duncan's carry jobs tbh. His support casts were rubbish, and he still took down the Shaq/Kobe Lakers.

You mean the tim duncan who beat the lakers with manu, parker, drob on the roster?

[One_and_Done]

Dirk. LeBron never had to carry his teams through more than half of the All NBA team selection without having even an allstar himself as help

Dirk had alot of good players on his team, including several players with all-star talent regardless of whether they technically made the team. I listed him for a reason, but I'm much more impressed by Duncan's carry jobs tbh. His support casts were rubbish, and he still took down the Shaq/Kobe Lakers.

You mean the tim duncan who beat the lakers with manu, parker, drob on the roster?

Those were just names in 02 and 03.

[ShootersShoot]

Dirk had alot of good players on his team, including several players with all-star talent regardless of whether they technically made the team. I listed him for a reason, but I'm much more impressed by Duncan's carry jobs tbh. His support casts were rubbish, and he still took down the Shaq/Kobe Lakers.

You mean the tim duncan who beat the lakers with manu, parker, drob on the roster?

Those were just names in 02 and 03.

Jkidd in 2011 was older than drob in 03. Marion was considered washed up. Jterry was solid and chandler was a perfect fit next to dirk..but I wouldnt say that supporting cast was greatly superior than the one duncan had in 03. That said, that run by duncan was very impressive and definitely cemented his status as atg player. Both 2011 dirk and 03 duncan were very impressive runs and I for sure have duncan over dirk all time.

[GiannisAnte34]

Kawhi 2019 not being here feels criminal.

The way he willed his team against Embiid-Butler Sixers and Giannis Bucks were exceptional, and then going up 3-1 against the Warriors core trio with Cousins.

That team was stacked tho

Gasol, Ibaka, FVV, Spicy, Lowry, Powell, Green

[One_and_Done]

You mean the tim duncan who beat the lakers with manu, parker, drob on the roster?

Those were just names in 02 and 03.

Jkidd in 2011 was older than drob in 03. Marion was considered washed up. Jterry was solid and chandler was a perfect fit next to dirk..but I wouldnt say that supporting cast was greatly superior than the one duncan had in 03. That said, that run by duncan was very impressive and definitely cemented his status as atg player. Both 2011 dirk and 03 duncan were very impressive runs and I for sure have duncan over dirk all time.

The 2011 Mavs were a vastly better support cast than the 03 Spurs. If you want to argue Dirk faced stronger opponents you can make that argument, but you can't plausibly argue the teams were comparable.

[picko]

Dirk and It’s not close -

It’s not only that he won one while carrying a team - it’s who he beat lol

It’s maybe one of the greatest feats in sports history-

It would be like if Westbrook won a ring with the wizards !

An aging mvp carrying some dudes with aight names into the finals against the GSW with KD and winning.

That’s what Dirk did

The Heat had a prime LBJ, Great Wade and Under rated all time great Bosh and he beat them with just some aight guys

In the Finals, the Mavs come from 2-1 down and in the game 4 win Dirk goes 6-19 and in the game 6 win he goes 9-27. In fact, you could argue that the only win he performed really well in was game 5.

This whole 'Dirk carried the Mavs' may very well hold in the Western Conference playoffs but it wasn't remotely true in the Finals. Those 'aight' guys absolutely stood up when Dirk wasn't capable.

So I'm not sure that it's one of the 'greatest feats in sports history' when you don't even perform partly well in some pretty key games.

[ShootersShoot]

Those were just names in 02 and 03.

Jkidd in 2011 was older than drob in 03. Marion was considered washed up. Jterry was solid and chandler was a perfect fit next to dirk..but I wouldnt say that supporting cast was greatly superior than the one duncan had in 03. That said, that run by duncan was very impressive and definitely cemented his status as atg player. Both 2011 dirk and 03 duncan were very impressive runs and I for sure have duncan over dirk all time.

The 2011 Mavs were a vastly better support cast than the 03 Spurs. If you want to argue Dirk faced stronger opponents you can make that argument, but you can't plausibly argue the teams were comparable.

Yea I agree jkidd and terry were a better back court than manu/tony at the time. Chandler was better than 37 yr old drob. That said, none of dirks teammates in 2011 were all star talents at the time.