What MVP was embarrassed the most in the playoffs?

[bastillon]

even without Cunningham they had some serious talent on that team and I wasn't refering to their team performance but to Wilt's individual performance.

I see your point, but I don't think it was as bad as Nowitzki getting destroyed by Jackson. I don't think Embry really played much that series did he? I always assumed Russell was guarding Wilt, but really don't know.

Sanders got injured in the middle of the series and Chet Walker was torching the Celtics so Russell as their head coach decided that Embry will start guarding Wilt and Russell will take Chet Walker. Wilt struggled badly in the last 3 games of the series, posting like 15 ppg on poor shooting % and was horrible from the FT line. just a total collapse.

Dirk didn't play that bad, GSW was swarming him with quick little defenders and Dirk struggled against them but they were focused on closing him so much that Mavs other players had a lot of room to work. Mavs offense was still functioning well so if anything we should be blaming Dirk for his poor interior defense, not shooting struggles.

[JordansBulls]

Wilt 68. those guys got embarassed vs Hakeem and LeBron. Dirk actually didn't play well but he was still having a great impact offensivley getting triple teamed all the time (Mavs lost that series because of defense and Avery's unwillingness to play big). Wilt was embarassed vs Wayne Embry that year and didn't win a title despite playing on by far the most talented team in the league at the time.

Huh? Bulls lost because Chris Bosh outplayed the Bulls frontcourt. Boozer was a no show in the games in Chicago and shot 41% and Noah shot freaking 31%. While Bosh averaged 23 ppg and shot 60% FG.


Wade
18.8 PPG / 6.4 RPG / 2.2 APG / 1.60 SPG / 1.20 BPG / 4.00 TPG / 40.5% FG / 20.0% 3 PT FG / 82.9% FT

Lebron
25.8 PPG / 7.8 RPG / 6.6 APG / 2.40 SPG / 1.8 BPG / 3.6 TPG / 44.7% FG / 38.9% 3 PT FG / 86.4% FT

Bosh
23.2 PPG / 7.6 RPG / 1.2 APG / 0.60 SPG / 1.0 BPG / 2.0 TPG / 60.0% FG / 0.00% 3 PT FG / 91.4% FT



Rose
23.4 PPG / 4.0 RPG / 6.6 APG / 1.0 SPG / 0.2 BPG / 3.8 TPG / 35.0% FG / 23.3% 3 PT FG / 81.2% FT


Boozer
14.4 PPG / 10.2 RPG / 1.6 APG / 0.8 SPG / 0.8 BPG / 1.0 TPG / 40.7% FG / 0.00% 3 PT FG / 77.4% FT


Noah
6.0 PPG / 9.8 RPG / 3.4 APG / 1.4 SPG / 1.8 BPG / 1.2 TPG / 31.7% FG / 0.00% 3 PT FG / 50.0% FT


Deng
17.2 PPG / 7.0 RPG / 2.0 APG / 1.8 SPG / 0.6 BPG / 1.2 TPG / 42.1% FG / 40.8% 3 PT FG / 91.7% FT


Boozer averaged 8.7 points and 7.7 rebounds in the three games in Chicago and shot 34 percent.

In the two games in Miami, Boozer averaged 23 points and 14 rebounds and shot 45%.

[SDtotheBay]

Not only did Kobe face the best defensive team of all time, they were also allowed handchecking and blatantly holding in all games but 1 here Kobe got 18 free throws.

[penbeast0]

even without Cunningham they had some serious talent on that team and I wasn't refering to their team performance but to Wilt's individual performance.

I see your point, but I don't think it was as bad as Nowitzki getting destroyed by Jackson. I don't think Embry really played much that series did he? I always assumed Russell was guarding Wilt, but really don't know.

Sanders got injured in the middle of the series and Chet Walker was torching the Celtics so Russell as their head coach decided that Embry will start guarding Wilt and Russell will take Chet Walker. Wilt struggled badly in the last 3 games of the series, posting like 15 ppg on poor shooting % and was horrible from the FT line. just a total collapse.

Dirk didn't play that bad, GSW was swarming him with quick little defenders and Dirk struggled against them but they were focused on closing him so much that Mavs other players had a lot of room to work. Mavs offense was still functioning well so if anything we should be blaming Dirk for his poor interior defense, not shooting struggles.

I've read the Russell quotes about that series and how he had to switch onto Chet Walker because the Celtics had no one who could handle him with Sanders out . . . . made me wonder about John Havlicek's defensive reputation; why can't Havlicek guard Walker? (remember KC was guarding Hal Greer so it wasn't that)

[mysticbb]

Mavs offense was still functioning well so if anything we should be blaming Dirk for his poor interior defense, not shooting struggles.

Why would you say that? Did you see Harrington do anything meaningful against Nowitzki? The interior defense was not the problem, the problem was perimeter and transition defense. Watch Howard how he constantly is late back on defense during that series or Harris/Terry are getting owned by Baron Davis. Additional to that the Warriors were really lucky with their 3pt shooting. Davis, Jackson, Barnes and Richardson combined for in average 9.5 3PM (42%) while they usually made 7.7 in the same amount of minutes. That alone makes 5.8 points per 100 possession the Warriors were better than expected. We can look at the opponents PER during that series: Harris 29.8, Howard 22.1, Terry 16.8 and Nowitzki 11.9. The defensive problem had basically nothing to do with Nowitzki. Multiple times you see Nowitzki being the one running out to the closeout despite the fact that this was not on him.

Let us assume Nowitzki scores at his usually efficiency during those games. Game 1: He should have scored 9 points more, the Mavericks lost by 12. Game 3: Nowitzki should have scored 4 points more, the Mavericks lost by 18. Game 4: Nowitzki should have scored 2 points more, Mavericks lost by 4. Game 5: Nowitzki should have scored 10 points more, the Mavericks lost by 25.
So, overall, not even one of the losses could have been prevented, if Nowitzki would have scored at 60.5 TS%. In order to win those games, Nowitzki would have needed to score on 69 TS% in game 1, 100 TS% in game 3, 67 TS% in game 4 and 115 TS% in game 6. In order to win that series in 4 games, Nowitzki would have needed to score on 74 TS%.

Well, overall Nowitzki was below his standard, but the team overall was still at 108.9 ORtg with him on the court. That would have been enough even against the Warriors, if they wouldn't have scored so much in transition and from the perimeter against Howard, Harris and Terry.

It should also be noted that Nowitzki had to deal with familar matters. His father had life threating conditions and underwent surgery just during the night before game 6. He had basically no sleep. Nowitzki himself never mentioned it, but his sister revealed it in an interview. Here is a brief comment on this: http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_ ... k-nowitzki

It is easy to blame Nowitzki, but overall he reacted like most human beings would. Maybe some people should consider that.

Also, Moses Malone lost twice in the first round while being the MVP of the regular season (1979 and 1982). Granted, in both cases the Rockets weren't considered the favorites, but it should be pointed out that Moses Malone also scored 10 percentage points below his regular season average TS% during both of those series. At least against the Hawks in 1979 it would have been enough to win game 1, if Moses Malone would have scored at his usual efficiency.

[fatal9]

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

'68 Wilt probably deserves a mention. His team blows a 3-1 lead while having home court and he personally chokes hard in the last two games. In game 6, he shot 6/21 from the field and 8/23 from the line while his teammate Hal Greer had a 40 point game (think about say if LeBron played that poorly and Mo Williams dropped 40 on the Celtics on great shooting, how much bigger would the media sh*t strom be?), then in game 7 he mysteriously disappeared in the second half and didn't take a single shot. Kind of similar to how LeBron went out in '10...probably even worse.

[AshyLarry]

as a dirk fan, pains mo to say this but him, followed closeley by robinson, please correct me on this, but i think one of KAJ's MVPs he didnt even make the playoffs and one of moses malone's MVP he also lost in the first round.

dallas (which represents dirk since its his team) got embarrassed as a team, and dirk's averages lowered, but it was a blessing in disguise, its what made him developed his post up game, its what made him clutch, its what made him into a beast that he was last year,

david robinson got embarassed by hakeem, hakeem just went into david robinson like he owed him money.

historians would look at MVP's and say that dirk's team (HIM and his team both) got embarrassed in the first round by the golden freaking state warriors, and when he won and had that legendary Post season performance last year would be looked at as a person who evolved and learned from those experiences

david robinson got embarassed as a single individual got embarrassed by hakeem, dude never seemed to got over it too, i like the admiral but he didnt seem to got over that hump and evolved more,

[Dipper 13]

Wilt 68. those guys got embarassed vs Hakeem and LeBron. Dirk actually didn't play well but he was still having a great impact offensivley getting triple teamed all the time (Mavs lost that series because of defense and Avery's unwillingness to play big). Wilt was embarassed vs Wayne Embry that year and didn't win a title despite playing on by far the most talented team in the league at the time.

It was deemed remarkable that they even got to the Division Finals vs. Boston with all the injuries. There were times during the NY series when the hobbled Sixers were getting killed on the boards, as Bellamy & Reed were feasting on the offensive glass. They played Games 4, 5, and 6 consecutively. No days off in between.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3jIemiXiPs#t=16m15s



DELAWARE COUNTY - April 13, 1968

Club Rated 'Most Courageous' By Hannum as Injuries Mount

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The Philadelphia 76ers could be billed as the best touring troupe In basketball. All they need is a doctor to complete the cast.

Going into the fourth game Sunday of their National Basketball Association playoff series with the Boston Celtics, the 76ers are hurting from head to toe.

So what's new? Injuries have plagued the defending NBA champions since the opening of the season.

"Alex Hannum says this is the most courageous team he's ever coached," says Harvey Pollack, the 76ers' statistician. "The locker room looks like a hospital ward every time I walk in."

Pollack ticked off some of the cases, which read like a medical diary:

-Wilt Chamberlain (partial tear of the calf muscle in his right leg, a strain in his right thigh and an injured right toe):

-Wally Jones (injured knee cartilage):

-Luke Jackson (pulled hamstring muscle):

-Hal Greer (bursitus in his right knee):

-And, Billy Cunningham (broken right wrist).

"That's not mentioning (rookie) Jim Reid who had a knee operation after injuring it the first game of the season," said Pollack, "and Larry Costello," the veteran guard who tore an ankle tendon after one-third of the season was gone.

The most recent injury was to Chamberlain in Friday night's Eastern Division playoff contest with the Celtics. The dipper was given whirlpool treatments for the calf muscle tear, but Pollack wasn't sure how he'd respond.

The 76ers have nine men in uniform for the best-of-seven playoffs, which they lead, two games to one. But whether they'll have anybody left for the finals against the Western Division winner is anybody's guess.

The team's troubles multiplied in the Eastern Division semifinals against the New York Knickerbockers. Cunningham broke his wrist, knocking him out for the season, Jones and Jackson suffered their injuries and Chamberlain aggravated his perennial toe injury.

And when Boston thumped the 76ers in the opening game of their playoffs here last Friday, some predicted a quick knockout of the injury-riddled champs.

But Philadelphia whacked Boston two straight, including Thursday where an injury actually helped the 76ers cause, points out Pollack.

How so?

"Well, Chamberlain was hurt and he couldn't turn around to score-so he kept feeding Greer, and he scored 31," explained the statistician.





DELAWARE COUNTY - April 4, 1968

There they are—the Philadelphia 76ers. See them gulp pills. Notice their bandages. Watch how they limp. Look at how they struggle.

They are sick and battered invalids. Pain and fatigue stagger hand in hand. They do not belong on a basketball court, they belong in wheelchairs.

There are only eight of them left now, and seven are ailing. They're wearing so much tape -they look like mummies in short pants. Do you wonder how they keep playing? Or why?

* * *

The 76ers will return to their rightful place at the Spectrum Friday night to meet the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Division finals.

From a New York viewpoint, the older 76ers should not have beaten the youthful, deep Knicks in the semifinals. After, the Knicks evened the series at 2-2, New York newspapers had buried the 76ers. The act seemed to be contagious.

Loyalists in Philadelphia started believing it, too. But it was mostly the New York press. And when the 76ers resisted the early burial last Sunday, the New York press became cranky.

The sour grapes began to spill. A sportswriter who is one of the very biggest in New York City characterized the mood when he spent a greater part of the afternoon last Sunday complaining loudly and bitterly about the location of the TV cameras during foul shots. As a result, several heated arguments between TV and NBA officials and the writer developed along the sidelines.

It was exemplary of the New York mood, which was soon compounded by the 76ers' demoralizing 123-105 victory.

* * *

The turning point of the series was Sunday. The Knicks, feeling they could take advantage of the 76ers' badly battered and undermanned squad, suffered a psychological breakdown after the battered and undermanned 76ers destroyed them in the fifth game.

Then in the third game in three days Monday — an incredible piece of scheduling by the NBA—the 76ers administered the coupe de grace as the Knicks fell apart after blowing a big early lead.

Winning the rough, bruising series with a team riddled by injuries and its bench practically stripped may — under the circumstances — be one of the most remarkable feats in NBA history.

* * *

A TEAM playing under these conditions should not be expected to survive such a series. Have you ever tried driving a car on three wheels?"

But the fact that the 76ers did win was a glowing tribute to the sheer determination and dedication of a proud team; one whose supreme pride shunned defeat in the face of most dire circumstances.

You had to be there to appreciate it . . . the way Hal Greer and Wally Jones ran and shot on battered knees; the way Wilt Chamberlain played the middle with a volcano in his stomach and an injured toe shot full of needles; the way Johnny Green kept hustling although long past the point of exhaustion; the way Luke Jackson, Chet Walker and Matt Goukas played their guts out despite assorted injuries.

It was an effort propelled by a strong motivation; dedication to a mission known as winning. These were driven men. Old pros who refused to buckle.

The Knick series can be forgotten now. The 76ers face a new challenge; one that is much bigger. Can they produce another maximum effort against Boston?

* * *

THERE THEY are — the Philadelphia 76ers. See how they scrap. Watch how they claw.

Notice their contempt for adversity.





Fond Du Lac Commonwealth Reporter - March 30, 1968

Injuries Plague 76ers

The Philadelphia 76ers, a team some rank as the physically strongest in professional basketball history, are in trouble. The trouble is injuries—to handyman Bill Cunningham and starting forward Luke Jackson, and to a lesser degree the two standouts of the defending world champions, Wilt Chamberlain and Hal Greer.

Cunningham broke his right wrist in the double overtime, 138-132 victory over New York which gave the 76ers a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series Wednesday night at Philadelphia. Cunningham shoots southpaw, but the injury has kayoed him for the year.

Jackson, the brutish, 6-foot-9 forward who supplies Wilt with rebounding assistance, has a hamstring pull, and was a doubtful performer when the series resumed at Madison Square Garden today.

Chamberlain has been taking cortisone shots in his right toe, and Greer, the middle-distance shooting star, has a knee which troubles him and on which he wears a brace.

Wally Wonder

It appears that Wally Jones, Greer's partner at guard who unblushingly dubbed himself "Wally Wonder," and Chet Walker, the smooth cornerman, are the only healthy 76er starters now.

The team, which ended Boston's domination last winter and then went on to stop San Francisco in the final playoff, was conceded as good a chance this season before the injuries set in. To make matters worse, the current opponent— the Knicks—is a young team which is just starting to feel its oats. The Knicks would enjoy nothing more than knocking off the world champions, and you can bet that Boston will be cheering for them.

Those who watch the pros over ABC each Sunday afternoon will have a chance to watch two games tomorrow. ABC announced Thursday that it will "split" its telecasting time, switching from the 76ers-Knicks' game to the Pistons-Celtics' match and back as the occasion arises.

This will give fans a chance to watch pivotal games in the Eastern Division playoffs, from which will probably spring the eventual champion.

The Pistons and Celtics are tied at 2-2 after Boston's 135- 110 win Thursday. Detroit, which won 10 of its last 13 games to beat out Cincinnati for the fourth playoff spot in the East, has given Boston a stronger run than the aging Celtics expected.

The two playoff series will probably be decided by the play of the two men who have dominated the game in recent years, Chamberlain and Bill Russell.

Counting On Wilt

With his team crippled by injuries, 76ers coach Alex Hannum said Friday that he is counting on Chamberlain to carry his club through against the Knicks. For Boston, player-coach Russell must play well for the Celtics to win.

Both teams depend on their big men to lead them to success. In both cases, the chores have been handed to capable men. So it will come as no surprise if the Celtics and 76ers end up in the Eastern Division's final round.

But the Knickerbockers will have something to say before it's over, and the Pistons likewise. The more experienced 76ers and Celtics are hoping the youngsters remember an old saying which goes, "Children should be seen and not heard."





Lawrence Daily Journal World - April 29, 1968

There never has been a keener rivalry in athletics than the one between basketball's Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell.

But while they go at it tooth and nail on the court, Wilt of Philly and Bill of Boston have great respect for each other.

After the Celtics edged the 76ers in the Eastern playoffs — mainly because the 76ers turned stone cold from the floor m the second half — Chamberlain led his mates to the Boston dressing room to congratulate the Celts.

But Russell, sportsman that he is, was quick to turn it around and laud Wilt, who played the final game with a bad leg injury. "Any lesser man wouldn't even be on the court, yet here was Wilt out there giving it all be had," Bill said.

At one point, Celt guard Larry Siegfried tried to stop Wilt from making a dunk by wrapping both arms around him The fabulous 7-1 strongman merely unleashed his fantastic power and flipped the 6-4, 215 pound Siegfried clear off the end of the court. Russell ha often said he never hangs or to a jump ball too long with Chamberlain: "I'm always afraid he'll pick both of us up and stuff us through the hoop, Russell chortles. Everyone in the NBA contends Chamberlain is the strongest man they've ever encountered.





Wayne Embry's ability to keep Wilt off the offensive boards, clearing Russell (the GOAT defensive rebounder) to get the rebound and outlet to start the break was basically the reason the Sixers didn't close Boston out in Gm. 5 of the '68 EDF, despite an injured Wilt (partial tear of calf muscle in his right leg, a strain in his right thigh, partial tear of right knee tendon, and an injured right toe) coming out strong with a 28/30/7 effort. To quote Russell during the series, "A lesser man wouldn't be out there." Hell, the reason they won G4 was big Luke making Russell pay for sagging back on Wilt by hitting 4 big outside shots (3 consecutive) in the 4th quarter to open up a 10 pt. lead. Final score = 110-105. Chamberlain's G5 effort (28/30/7) exceeded his regular season statistical averages in both points & rebounds.

While it is noted that Russell switched himself onto Chet to cool him off, it appears he killed two birds with one stone. Of course the Sixers exceptionally poor outside shooting (below 25% FG in the 4th) when it counted along with Billy C's glaring absence didn't hurt either.


Article prior to Gm. 1 vs. Boston:

Christian Science Monitor - Apr 5, 1968

For example, Philadelphia lost Billy Cunningham for the season in the New York series with a broken right wrist. This is like Boston having to play without John Havlicek or St. Louis minus Joe Caldwell. Cunningham is a shooter' in all that the term implies. He played almost as many minutes during the season as the 76ers' two starting forwards, Luke Jackson and Chet Walker. Bill is an expert at driving the middle, drawing fouls, and then cashing them in at the free throw line. There is no one on the Celtics who really plays him well. Havlicek probably comes closest. But John's quickness is generally wasted against Cunningham, mostly because Bill gives no indication of when he is going to shoot.

The 76ers run what they call a C-pattern for Cunningham. It allows Billy to come across the top of the key from either side, pull up for a quick jumper whenever he feels like it, and then clears out the middle so that he can follow his own shot to the basket.



Article prior to Gm. 7:




Gettysburg Times - May 9, 1968

According to Vince Miller after the game Chamberlain got five touches in the 4th quarter of G7. Whether it two touches or five in the final period, all accounts agree that he got 7 touches in the 2nd half. This after 23 touches in the 1st half.


"What would I have looked like if I had said, 'Hey, we lost because my teammates didn't get the ball into me? If Alex Hannum didn't have guts enough to lay it on the line and accept a certain amount of responsibility for the loss and name the reasons why, then I've lost a lot of respect for him, which I have and I will tell him that when I see him. You can't shoot the ball if you don't have the ball. But you know something, after the game, not one writer came up to me and said 'Hey, how come the ball didn't come into you?' Not one. But all of them did ask me, 'How come you didn't shoot more?'


Bill Russell interview from 2008:

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/prin ... /rus0int-1

Before we leave 1968 altogether, can we talk about game seven for a minute? In 1968 you limited your friend Wilt Chamberlain to two shot attempts in the entire second half of game seven.

That's not true at all. That was a coach's decision. There was a forward on their team named Chet Walker, and he was hurting us badly, okay? So I had my backup center, it was a guy named Wayne Embry. Now Embry had been in the league seven or eight years, and he played against Wilt all those years. So at half time I said to him, "Wayne, I'm going to try something. It's not new. I want you to guard Wilt. Okay? I have to take care of Chet Walker." And see, when I made that substitution everybody thought it was trying to stay out of foul trouble, something like that, which was to me the best part of that because I made adjustments that they didn't know what I was doing. So they couldn't make a counter adjustment. You see if you make an adjustment, and they know what you're doing, well they can just counter it. But I made an adjustment, they thought it was to get off of Wilt. They didn't know it was to get on Chet. Now Wilt had a game plan, but his game plan was counting on me trying to guard him. When we put Wayne on him, he guarded him a completely different way.


He was used to you guarding him.

Yes. To me, the pretty part of it was -- I hate to use the word beauty -- is that Wayne had enormous experience guarding him. So it wasn't like you took some guy out of the stands and put him on Wilt. Here's a guy who's been guarding him for years. That adjustment was for Chet Walker, it wasn't for Wilt.


Can you talk us through the last minute of the 1968 Eastern Finals?

It was a close game, but we were in charge. So they got to the place where they've got to foul us. So they fouled, and we make free throws and they go down, and they score and make three fouls. So they get down to 12 seconds to go. That's when the thing with Sam came up. It was going to that series. After we got down three to one...

I'm the coach, okay, and so I'm talking to my guys before the fifth game. And I says, "We're going to beat these guys, and this is how we're going to do it." And we had a rookie on the team who's now a judge in Boston, because he had an ailment, he had to retire, but he told me a few years ago, he said, "You know, I was in the locker room when you said that. That's the most disciplined situation I've ever been in my life, because I had to discipline myself from falling out on the floor laughing, when you said we're going to beat these guys." He says, "They're going to kill us!" And he says, "We haven't got a chance!" And he sat there and watched the whole thing happen. And he says that's one of the wonders of his life, because I said it with complete confidence. And then I said, like I said earlier, "We don't have to win three games in a row. We've just got to win one." You see, after we won two of them, the pressure completely shifts. The pressure is on them. You're up three to one, and how do you lose three straight?

So it was basically routine.

I think that that move that I made at half time was the most important move I made as a coach in that series, because it worked, and we got accomplished what we wanted to get accomplished without them knowing what we were trying to accomplish. See everybody still talks about the fact that Wilt only took two shots. They still almost won the game, right? And the key was that Chet Walker had been killing us. And I knew that I could guard him. And the reason I knew I could guard him is his moves were very deliberate. As part of my teaching myself, I learned -- we had six plays and nowadays they number those positions. One is point guard, two is shooting guard, three is a small forward, four is a power forward, five is a center. Well, I made a point to learn how to play all those positions on all six plays. Now not that I ever wanted to or hoped to play in those other positions, but in knowing those positions I know the problems that go with that position. So that if my teammate needed help I can help. And on defense I watched these guys, how they play defense, and I know how to guard almost any position. And I physically took over Chet.



The inside game: race, power, and politics in the NBA - Wayne Embry

[Dipper 13]

then in game 7 he mysteriously disappeared in the second half and didn't take a single shot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4Vtw7fbktc#t=7m55s

How can shoot if he isn't getting the ball due to the sagging defense? Only two touches in the 4th quarter. Even Wali Jones has admitted error in their play.



But in Game 5 when the Sixers should have closed it out home, Chamberlain's tremendous performance is ignored.

[mysticbb]

as a dirk fan, pains mo to say this but him, followed closeley by robinson, please correct me on this, but i think one of KAJ's MVPs he didnt even make the playoffs and one of moses malone's MVP he also lost in the first round.

Moses Malone lost TWICE in the first round as MVP, in 1979 and 1982. And in both series he played not that good either. Well, he grabbed a lot of offensive rebounds of his own misses, that makes his numbers look better, but he was neither offensively nor defensively on a MVP level during those two series.

The Warriors were also not the typical 8th seed. The team changed their look with a midseason trade which brought in Harrington and Jackson, they also had to deal with injuries by Davis and Richardson throughout the season and came really together at the end. In the last 21 games with Davis, Harrington, Jackson and Richardson available, the Warriors posted a 9.64 SRS. That is incredible high. The Warriors went 17-4 during that stretch. For the comparison, the Mavericks were a 7.28 SRS team during that season. With the matchup problems the Mavericks had against those Warriors on the perimeter, it is not such a big upset as it may sound. The Warriors were closer to a 60 win team in terms of real strength at the end of the season.
But, yes, people will look at that with the impression of a 1st seed losing to a 8th seed while the MVP played poorly, assuming that the Mavericks would have won, if Nowitzki would have played like a MVP. Funny thing is, the latter would not have happened, but how many people are really capable and willing to make a deeper analysis?

[Ca234]

Lebron in 2009 and 2010

Turkoglu and Lewis are killing the Cavs.. who does Lebron guard? Rafer Alston

Rondo is killing the Cavs in 2010, Lebron says he will guard Rondo in game 5. Never happens


In 2009 Lebron's style of play led to the downfall of the Cavs. When you hog the ball 90% of the game and reduce everyone around you to be spot up shooters, your team will fail. I dont care how high his PER was, if you guys actually WATCHED the games and looked at the box score you would see how much of a fail Lebron was.


In conclusion, Lebron wins this contest, as he had the number 1 seed two straight years and choked to inferior teams. Especially in 2010 where his team was up 2-1

[bullsnewdynasty]

So of those 3 mostly mentioned here I would say it's Rose because his MVP was already highly questionable to start with. And while Dirk and Robinson did not play great, Rose pretty much single-handedly lost the Miami series for the Bulls. They were in it pretty much every game until Rose (humble, down to earth guy that he is) thought he should join a hero-ball competition with Wade and LeBron in the 4th and got embarassed badly.

Worst post I've seen in awhile.

[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

While he didn't play all that well, I don't think he should be considered among the "Most embarrassed MVPs." He did manage to get to the ECF at the very least

[Dr Positivity]

Dirk, because even before that he didn't have that much respect compared to other MVPs.

[JordansBulls]

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

'68 Wilt probably deserves a mention. His team blows a 3-1 lead while having home court and he personally chokes hard in the last two games. In game 6, he shot 6/21 from the field and 8/23 from the line while his teammate Hal Greer had a 40 point game (think about say if LeBron played that poorly and Mo Williams dropped 40 on the Celtics on great shooting, how much bigger would the media sh*t strom be?), then in game 7 he mysteriously disappeared in the second half and didn't take a single shot. Kind of similar to how LeBron went out in '10...probably even worse.

Yep especially after winning the title season before and having HCA this season as well.

[NO-KG-AI]

Rose's MVP being "questionable" makes his even less embarrassing. I personally didn't value Rose even close to the level of Dirk or Robinson, so a poor series(particularly as a young player against two players that are better, and more experienced) really isn't a black mark.

I think Rose is a bit overrated, and his 3 point jacking was really bad to me, but I really don't see his playoffs last season as an embarrassment.

[GreenHat]

Rose did get to the ECF and lost to the better team. Even though the Bulls had HCA (and one of our resident Bulls fan thinks that automatically make the team with HCA better) the Heat were clearly the better team so I don't fault him much for that.

Dirk taking a 67 win team and not even getting to a 7th game against the 8th seeded Warriors is the most embarrassing.