Playoffs: Bird vs Curry vs Kobe vs Wade

[SNPA]

What puts Bird on top?

Talent.

He certainly had a talent for losing with home court

And MVP’s and championships.

The playoff numbers argument is weak. He was involved in a bloodbath every year to get to the finals. Magic meanwhile was walking on top of cake year after year.

[AEnigma]

Magic also never struggled as much in tough matchups. Hell, if you think it is such an impossible struggle to play *gasp* two good teams in a row, well, maybe more teams should take Miami’s approach and get their ostensibly toughest conference competition out of the way early.

If you as a player drop effectiveness as you play more games, that makes you less useful. It has rightly always been held against Chris Paul, and there is no sincere reason not to hold it against Bird. So many of his devotees seem incapable of seeing him in any context other than his best moments, but the problem is those strong playoff moments were consistently rarer than the disappointing ones.

Btw Bird is a joint third in titles among this group, despite having the most consistently favourable seeding advantage.

[capfan33]

1. Wade
2. Curry
3. Kobe
4. Bird

Think Wade and Bird are clear, I think Kobe and Curry are relatively close.

[rk2023]

1a. Bird
1b. Kobe
3. Curry (2022 was Bird - Kobe esque)
4. Wade (2006 was Bird - Kobe esque. Less longevity than Curry)

[f4p]

Magic also never struggled as much in tough matchups. Hell, if you think it is such an impossible struggle to play *gasp* two good teams in a row, well, maybe more teams should take Miami’s approach and get their ostensibly toughest conference competition out of the way early.

If you as a player drop effectiveness as you play more games, that makes you less useful. It has rightly always been held against Chris Paul, and there is no sincere reason not to hold it against Bird. So many of his devotees seem incapable of seeing him in any context other than his best moments, but the problem is those strong playoff moments were consistently rarer than the disappointing ones.

Btw Bird is a joint third in titles among this group, despite having the most consistently favourable seeding advantage.

much was made this year of patrick mahomes playing his first road playoff game. if the nba were like the nfl, where the finals were at a neutral site, the first road playoff series of larry bird's career would have been...the very last playoff series of larry bird's career, all the way in 1992. and even then, the only combo breaker was the 1987 finals.

[therealbig3]

I think I’d take Kobe #1 here. All of them had notable struggles. I think outside of 06 and 10, Wade had his fair share of mediocre performances in the playoffs. And I think in terms of consistency and health and being able to do it against the toughest defensive competition, I would have Kobe clearly at the top here. I mean, he went up against a dominant Celtics defense in 2008 and 2010, and was better against them than LeBron was. And he was flat out awesome in the remainder of the playoffs from 2008-2010. Just absolutely torched the Western Conference. Was a 7th and 8th seed in 06 and 07 and played well enough, his team was outmatched though. Was a second option on a team that 3-peated and made 4 Finals in 5 years…was maybe the best second option in history during that time, and was certainly good enough to be a 1st option, as he proved later.

Idk, consistency and health is pretty clearly in Kobe’s corner here, and his peak playoff performance is pretty close to theirs as well, I’d certainly put it in the same tier. Certainly as an overall anchor for a playoff offense. Lakers playoff offense was better with Kobe on the court from 08-10 than the Warriors playoff offense in 15 and 16 with Curry on the court. And Wade never anchored a strong playoff offense.

1. Kobe
2. Wade/Curry
4. Bird

[AEnigma]

I think I’d take Kobe #1 here. All of them had notable struggles. I think outside of 06 and 10, Wade had his fair share of mediocre performances in the playoffs. And I think in terms of consistency and health and being able to do it against the toughest defensive competition, I would have Kobe clearly at the top here. I mean, he went up against a dominant Celtics defense in 2008 and 2010, and was better against them than LeBron was.

Kobe is a fine choice here, but this is a terrible reason why. Lebron was clearly better in 2008, and the only real argument against him also being better on average in 2010 was that he was disproportionately bad in the final three games (making it more of an inverse of 2008). Across the two series, he averaged 26.8 points per game on 51.3% efficiency to Kobe’s 27.2 points per game on 51.7% efficiency… while being a notably better playmaker and defender.

[Eagle4]

I think I’d take Kobe #1 here. All of them had notable struggles. I think outside of 06 and 10, Wade had his fair share of mediocre performances in the playoffs. And I think in terms of consistency and health and being able to do it against the toughest defensive competition, I would have Kobe clearly at the top here. I mean, he went up against a dominant Celtics defense in 2008 and 2010, and was better against them than LeBron was. And he was flat out awesome in the remainder of the playoffs from 2008-2010. Just absolutely torched the Western Conference. Was a 7th and 8th seed in 06 and 07 and played well enough, his team was outmatched though. Was a second option on a team that 3-peated and made 4 Finals in 5 years…was maybe the best second option in history during that time, and was certainly good enough to be a 1st option, as he proved later.

Idk, consistency and health is pretty clearly in Kobe’s corner here, and his peak playoff performance is pretty close to theirs as well, I’d certainly put it in the same tier. Certainly as an overall anchor for a playoff offense. Lakers playoff offense was better with Kobe on the court from 08-10 than the Warriors playoff offense in 15 and 16 with Curry on the court. And Wade never anchored a strong playoff offense.

1. Kobe
2. Wade/Curry
4. Bird

Along side Enigmas point it's funny how you boast of Kobe's performance vs Celtics and claim prime Wade had his share of mediocre performances as if Wade didn't outperform both Kobe and Lebron against that Celtics squad in '10. Every star has had their share of mediocre series but healthy Wade never went out like Kobe did in '04 or just refuse to shoot to make a point pre-Gasol years and lose.