Rank these legends based on their cumulative finals performance

[Hook_Em]

Using whichever criteria you prefer; record, stars, impact, suppprting cast, competition etc. All finals series combined for each player.

Shaq: 95’, 00’, 01’, 02’, 04’, 06’
Duncan: 99’, 03’, 05’, 07’, 13’, 14’
Kobe: 00’, 01’, 02’, 04’, 08’, 09’,10’
Lebron: 07’, 11’-18’, 20’
Curry: 15-19’, 22’

[Cavsfansince84]

Very tough to do given the large variance in appearances. I think overall I might grade them like this
Shaq A-
Duncan A-
Kobe C
LeBron B+
Curry B

[DirtyDez]

Shaq
Duncan
Lebron
Steph
Kobe

[AEnigma]

Cumulative is so obviously Lebron that I feel like you must have intended and everyone so far must have interpreted this as “average”. Based on an off-the-top calculation, I give Lebron and Shaq roughly 8/10 on average, Duncan a hair lower, Kobe a 7/10, and Curry a bit below that. Probably could go higher on Curry but there is a relative penalty for repeatedly not even playing like the second best guy in a series.

[EmpireFalls]

Shaq
Duncan
Steph
LeBron
Kobe

[Joao Saraiva]

Cumulative Bron goes 1st without a doubt. Dude was the best player of the finals for at least 7 times and holds the best finals performance I've ever seen in 16.
Sure he had his downs in 07 (well it was OK for his age) and 11 (very bad here) but he definitely has the lognevity to largely overcome that if we're talking cumulative.

Then there is Shaq who actually played very well in 5 finals and was OK with the Heat vs Mavs, but far from superb on that one. Even against the Pistons I don't hold it against him. He might have consistency above Bron, but Bron played a lot more finals.

Tim Duncan was never bad in the finals, but some were played as not the main offensive force. 2003 was a thing of beauty but the Spurs also had it easy in 99 and 03. 05 he was good, 07 too and 13/14 given context he was very good. I'm not even sure I wouldn't put him over Shaq being cumulative, but it's hard to do that since Shaq produced so much from 00 to 02.

Then Kobe and Curry... Kobe has 08 but Curry 2021 as clearly the best players. Then I'd say it's Kobe 10 over any finals Curry played. I'd say however even with Curry not playing to superb standards always he never had anything as bad as 04 Kobe. And Kobe 01 wasn't exactly a stellar performance either.

I'll go Curry and then Kobe.

Bron
Shaq
Duncan
Curry
Kobe

It just shows sometiems context is needed, as I still have Kobe ahead of Curry and Duncan above Shaq all time.

Anything cumulative will be hard to let Bron out of the top (in finals it might be possible if you include Bill Russell). If it's consistency then yeah Shaq and Duncan might go ahead, altough I still think not by a big margin.

[f4p]

If we're talking average, Shaq maybe beats out LeBron. 2011 is terrible but I'm not sure it's actually worse than 2006 shaq, just more disappointing. 2007 is pretty bad in absolute terms but LeBron has a ridiculous 8 more series to balance things out. And they're basically all great, with only 2014 even being close to not great.

On the other hand, Shaq averaging something like 36 and 15 across 2000 to 2002 is absurd, completely shredding mutombo in 2001. And that's after basically playing Hakeem even in 1995 and putting up 27 ppg on 63% against Ben Wallace in 2004. Even if 2015.to 2018 against the warriors is amazing by LeBron, Shaq might still win overall.

Duncan pretty clear 3rd with 42% shooting in 2005 and 45% shooting for 18.5 PPG in 2007 being part of arguably his 3rd and 4th best series, with 2013 and 2014 as part of an ensemble certainly not up there with the other 4.

Kobe definitely liked to shoot poorly in finals and steph managed to avoid the FMVP without a Shaq level player around to take them away. Tough call.

[rand]

Cumulative will favor volume, making LeBron hard to beat. Let's say 2011 cancels out one of his great Finals like 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018 or 2020, that still leaves more MVP level Finals appearances than any of these other guys even have.

I'm going to use this scale to rate the value of their performance in each Finals
3 : The effectiveness expected from a top-10 All-Time player at or near peak
2 : The effectiveness expected from a reigning MVP
1 : The effectiveness expected from a perennial All-NBA player in their prime
0 : The effectiveness expected from a multiple All-Star in their prime
-1 : A weak performance for a star
-2 : Impact in their minutes was actually detrimental to their team

Shaq
1995: 2
2000: 3
2001: 3
2002: 3
2004: 2
2006: -1

Duncan
1999: 3
2003: 3
2005: 1
2007: 1
2013: 1
2014: 0

Kobe
2000: -1
2001: 1
2002: 2
2004: -2
2008: 1
2009: 2
2010: 1

Curry
2015: 1
2016: -1
2017: 2
2018: 1
2019: 2
2022: 3

LeBron
2007: 0
2011: -2
2012: 2
2013: 2
2014: 2
2015: 1
2016: 3
2017: 3
2018: 3
2020: 3

Cumulative Rank:
1. LeBron (17)
2. Shaq (12)
3. Duncan (9)
4. Curry (8)
5. Kobe (4)

[Ian Scuffling]

Kobe doesn't deserve to be in this list. With that being said, due to Shaq's incredible three LA finals, I have it Lebron, Shaq, Duncan and Curry.