RealGM

generally championships are seen as battles between tean stars, the star who won outplayed or "wanted it more" than the one who lost

how often is that really the case in, lets say, finals series?

if you looked at the different finals in league history (or in the early 2000's case, the western finals) that decides the championships

a)how often did the best player in the series have a worse performing team and won by outplaying the rival star(think hakeem vs ewing in 94) aka, the underdog best player

b) how often did the best player in the series lose cause the other team had a better performing cast beyond its best player (the 17 finals for lebron are arguably this)

c) how often did the best player also have the better team compared to the rival star (example would be someone who has durant/curry as the best players in the 17/18 finals)

basically how many times can we really say a team victory really came down to one star outplayinh the rival one?

falcolombardi wrote:b) how often did the best player in the series lose cause the other team had a better performing cast beyond its best player (the 88 finals may be a good example)

I am confused, who do you have as the best player in 1988 finals?

70sFan wrote:

falcolombardi wrote:b) how often did the best player in the series lose cause the other team had a better performing cast beyond its best player (the 88 finals may be a good example)

I am confused, who do you have as the best player in 1988 finals?

i made a dumb mistake and for some reason was thinking magic and lakers lost in 88, brain fart

was thinking of 89 when magic was the best player bur pistons were beating the lakers regardless when he played

falcolombardi wrote:

70sFan wrote:

falcolombardi wrote:b) how often did the best player in the series lose cause the other team had a better performing cast beyond its best player (the 88 finals may be a good example)

I am confused, who do you have as the best player in 1988 finals?

i made a dumb mistake and for some reason was thinking magic and lakers lost in 88, brain fart

That makes sense, because there is no way to argue anyone else is even close to Magic in that series

If you want to go with Magic series, 1990 vs Suns is definitely up there. KJ and Hornacek had solid series, but Magic was the man.

16, 11, 03, 00, 94, 93 are those closest in recent decades I would say where it felt like the star of one team simply lifted his team to a title in the finals. 2019 is close but you could argue that GS was more or less the underdog due to injuries and Kawhi got some key help towards the end of that series. 2012 is close.

Is this best player based on how they played over the entire year or based on how they played in the series?