What MVP was embarrassed the most in the playoffs?

[colts18]

This is the thread for the guys who won MVP, then made people think why was the guy the MVP after a humiliating playoff performance.

I came down to 3 choices:
11 Rose
07 Dirk
95 Robinson

I think Rose takes the cake because the other 2 were legit MVP's, while Rose was closer to 5th than 1st in my eyes.

[tsherkin]

You should probably add 2008 Kobe in here, given his performance in the Finals that season. It is understandable, but to be frank, one could say the same of those other 3 as well.

[ronnymac2]

Rose was not embarrassed. He was a third-year guy, young as hell, with no other offensive weapon on his team. He got his team to the ECFs.

He was facing a team defense anchored by perimeter defenders, one of whom is a former MVP still in his prime, the other of whom is a former Finals MVP in his prime.

Dirk struggled against a gimmick team because, with seven years in the league under his belt, he still wasn't able to fully take advantage of small forwards defending him.

Robinson, at his peak, got his ass whipped.

Rose has nothing to be ashamed of.

[kobe_vs_jordan]

You MVP for regular season not what you do in the playoffs.

Also think taking the bulls from 8th seed to 1st seed and to the ECF is less embarrassing than being the 1 seed and losing to the heavily underdogged 8th seed.

[LoyalKing]

Kobe's performance in the 2008 Finals was pretty embarrassing as well

And I agree with your choices.

[nitric0]

How is a 3rd year player taking his team to the ECF embarrassing? This goes to Dirk IMO, losing in the 1st round as a top team IS the most embarrassing.

[therealbig3]

You should probably add 2008 Kobe in here, given his performance in the Finals that season. It is understandable, but to be frank, one could say the same of those other 3 as well.

But Kobe played pretty darn well until the Finals.

I agree with ronnymac2, actually. Rose shouldn't really be included, it's between Dirk and Robinson. Can't really decide, to be honest.

[kooldude]

Easily Dirk. There was no one on his level in that series and he couldn't take capitalize despite having an obvious skill and size advantage.

Rose wasn't embarrassed. He went against 2 players that are just better than him.

Kobe faced perhaps the best defensive team of all-time statistically, that shut down perimeter players all season.

Admiral was embarrassed but he also went against a (slightly) better player.

[Benedict_Boozer]

Kobe 2008 was bad but he had a pretty good playoff run up to that point. I would put Dirk at the top of this list, no excuse losing to a #8 Warriors team that year.

His legacy is solid though after the playoff run last year and his close in the Finals so it's a moot point.

[LAKERS_1981]

1. Dirk
2. Rose
3. Robinson


p.s leve Kobe out of it. He was great in the first 3 rounds and lead them to the finals. In the finals they went up against the best D team in the NBA and they were playing Kobe great.

[mopper8]

The thing with Rose was the whole surrounding controversy around his MVP, which sparked this whole meta-conversation about MVP narratives and journalistic group think, with stat guys accusing "narrative" guys of basically voting with their heart (or some other part of their body, heh) rather than their head, and others telling stats guys that they just don't "get" it, and then the random true idiot who was doubling-down and proclaiming, No, I REALLY think Derrick Rose is the best player in the NBA period (looking at you, Bucher).

And so when Lebron outplayed Rose in the EC Finals, there was a resolution to this whole debate, where a lot of people felt like they got to say, essentially, I told you Lebron is more valuable than Rose, even in these weird/unique contexts (Lebron playing with another wing who duplicates a lot of his talents/Rose being a 1-man offensive-show - not including orebs - on a defensive-oriented team).

And that was really embarrassing IMO for all the people who had been insisting Rose simply HAD to be better than Lebron, because how else do you explain their team success?

But it wasn't embarrassing for Rose.

[MASH Transit]

Rose.


He was a bum in the playoffs.

[Wone]

yup it was definitely dirk.

i give rose a pass not even just because he was a third year baby but because he was also playing injurd.

dirk from what i remember was 100% healthy during the golden state series and his team got beaten badly by the 42 win warriors. dirk's team won 67 games that year, the first first round upset in a seven game format in nba history.

[JordansBulls]

I wouldn't call Rose's being embarrassed, he played against two guys on the other team that were better than him. To me being embarassed is more so when you are the better player and you have the better record and you go down especially when you play bad.

[colts18]

I wouldn't call Rose's being embarrassed, he played against two guys on the other team that were better than him. To me being embarassed is more so when you are the better player and you have the better record and you go down especially when you play bad.

Rose had the better and played real bad. Just because Wade and LeBron are better doesn't mean that should excuse his poor performance. He shot like 9% in the 4th quarter in that series.

[SideshowBob]

Here's Rose's numbers from the 4th quarter (and 1 OT) of the Miami series

Code: Select all

Miami

GP   MP      FGA    FTA    TRB    AST    PTS     eFG%   TS%   TOV%
5    11.6    5.6    2.6    0.2    2.6    4.4    .232   .326   .114

So no. Not quite 9%, he actually shot 21.4% in the fourth quarters of the Miami series

[wallflower]

Lebron two MVPS two number 1 seeds, two early exits, straight up embarassing. He even admits so by fleeing to Miami.

[GrangerDanger]

Lebron two MVPS two number 1 seeds, two early exits, straight up embarassing. He even admits so by fleeing to Miami.

Agreed. In 2009 he played some of the worst defense I have ever seen, and turned the Cavs offense into a bunch of spot up shooters. Can't win anything with a clock killing no defense ballhog. And in 2010 with the series tied 2-2 he proceeds to have more turnovers than field goals over the last three games

[BattleTested]

I'd put Lebron in 2010 up there definitely. Went out in the second round against a worse team, playing mediocre-bad in the last 3 games after absolutely tearing up the regular season.

[penbeast0]

Interesting that Wilt, for all the abuse he gets on this site as a choking dog, doesn't get a mention . . .