LeBron James had the worst awesome performance in NBA Finals history

[M Dogg™]

While Andre Iguodala was simply awesome and the deserving MVP.

By: Chris Chase   | June 17, 2015 8:21 am

LeBron James was sensational in the NBA Finals, enough so that he nearly won the MVP award on the losing team, which would have been the first time in 45 years that a player who lost took home that hardware. But, in the end, LeBron’s awesomeness ended up being pretty awful. Here are the reasons why both are true:

1. LEBRON WAS THE FIRST PLAYER IN NBA HISTORY TO LEAD BOTH FINALS TEAMS IN POINTS, REBOUNDS AND ASSISTS.

That’s insanity. It’s hard enough to lead your team in all three categories, but leading both teams is almost unfathomable. Consider this: When Oscar Robertson averaged a triple-double in 1961-62, he barely accomplished the feat of leading his own team in all three, only leading the Cincinnati Royals in rebounds solely because teammate Wayne Embry played four fewer games. Granted, six games isn’t 75, but LeBron was simply a basketball monster in the Finals.

2. YET THE MAN TASKED WITH DEFENDING HIM FOR MOST OF THE SERIES WON THE FINALS MVP AWARD.

That’s sort of like giving World Series MVP to a pitcher who went 2-0 but in games that finished 11-9, right? Not really. Andre Iguodala was the rightful recipient of the Finals MVP and certainly deserved to win it by more than the 7-4 margin he had over LeBron. Why? Despite LeBron’s prodigious numbers, his offensive efficiency was garbage — and that’s being kind. Iggy was like a wall, holding LeBron to just eight uncontested shots prior to Game 6 and forcing The King into an 11-46 shooting performance when he was D’ing him up.

3. IN THE 83 GAMES LEBRON STARTED BEFORE THE NBA FINALS, HE TOOK 30 SHOTS OR MORE JUST THREE TIMES. IN THE SIX GAMES OF THE NBA FINALS, LEBRON DID IT FIVE TIMES.

That’s the stat of a desperate man. A man who has no answers with the loss of teammates Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. Why did LeBron 35.8 points per game in the NBA Finals? Because he took so many shots that it’d have been impossible not to. His shooting nights, with Iguodala draped all over him: 18-38, 11-35, 14-34, 7-22, 15-34 and 13-33. That’s a .398 shooting percentage from the floor. Did LeBron try to do too much?

4. LEBRON DIDN’T SHOOT WORSE IN ANY MONTH OR PLAYOFF SERIES THAN HE DID IN THE FINALS.

His overall shooting percentage from the regular season was .488, which was .090 worse than what he shot in the Finals. For the entire month of January, LeBron never had a single-game shooting percentage lower than .400. There are dozens of stats that basically say the same thing: LeBron shot really, really poorly in the Finals.

5. IT’S THE EXACT OPPOSITE FOR HIS REBOUND AND ASSIST AVERAGES.

In no month or playoff series did LeBron average better than the 12.8 boards and 8.8 assists he had in the Finals.

6. LEBRON’S WORST FINALS GAME CAME IN THE BIGGEST FINALS GAME.

After a surprising lead of 2-1 games after 3, everyone knew Game 4 was the tipping point in the NBA Finals. James needed to win the game to put the Warriors away. So what did LeBron do with the series on the line? He put up 20 points on 7-22 shooting, a .314 shooting percentage, a 5-10 night from the free-throw line, with 12 rebounds and eight assists thrown in to make for what could have been one of the worst triple-doubles in Finals history. From January 1st through that night, LeBron had only scored fewer than 20 points in 10 games, many of which came in blowouts in which LeBron left the game early.

7. YET, SOMEHOW, LEBRON WAS ONLY THREE MVP VOTES BEHIND IGUODALA.

I wrote a post earlier this week saying LeBron should be the MVP of the NBA Finals. I was proven wrong. After his 13-33 performance in the series-clinching game, most of that due to Iguodala, there was no doubt who the actual winner should be especially when you consider that Iguodala — who didn’t start a game this season until the Finals — scored 22 points in that crucial Game 5 and 27 in the clincher. Those were his two highest point totals of the entire year.

So good on the media for making the right call and especially for not giving Steph Curry any votes. Curry deserved none, but his lack of support was a surprise only because you’d figure the regular-season MVP would just get some votes due to inertia. And though Curry was fine in the Warriors final three-game winning streak, he was awful in the first three games. Thus, there was only one man who deserved to be named most valuable.

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/06/lebron-james-had-the-worst-awesome-performance-in-nba-finals-history

[Hack Wilson - real]

reminds me of Barry Bonds in the 2002 world series with the Giants


Angels won the series but Bonds was by FAR the best player out there on either team -  Angels were scared to death of him.

[M Dogg™]

reminds me of Barry Bonds in the 2002 world series with the Giants


Angels won the series but Bonds was by FAR the best player out there on either team -  Angels were scared to death of him.

I remember that, as I'm a HUGE Angel's fan. I remember this though, when Percival challenged Bonds, as the Angels were up 2 and no one was on so Percy basically said... "fuck it, let's see if he can his my 98mph fastball down the middle... To this day, I still can't see where the ball landed.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/Ol2_UkJS6kw" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/Ol2_UkJS6kw</a>

But here is the thing, they may have walked Bonds 13 times, but they pitched to him 13 times, he got 8 hits and 4 HRs and 3 strike outs. So they didn't completely run away from him, they just challenged him when it was safe... LOL

[Sccit]

reminds me of Barry Bonds in the 2002 world series with the Giants


Angels won the series but Bonds was by FAR the best player out there on either team -  Angels were scared to death of him.

the best player in a series doesnt chuck up 30+ attempts per game, freezing out his teammates when he's shooting under 40% (and under 30% outside of 5 feet lmao).......lebron is a stat stuffer. he cares more about how people view him than actually winning. thats why he only excels next to yes men. artest was on the radio yesterday, straight SHITTING on lebron..said he didnt see lebron setting screens for his teammates or moving off the ball once in the entire series. there's a reason the guy guarding him got the mvp, despite espn tryin its hardest to shove the lebron agenda down our throats. any star woulda put those numbers up with the same usage rate. hell, the PER numbers show that iguodala woulda averaged 40+ on 33 shot attempts.

[Chamillitary Click]

artest was on the radio yesterday, straight SHITTING on lebron..

Seems credible.

[Sccit]

say what u will about artest, but he actually knows a whole lot about basketball. is what he said wrong? did u see lebron move without the ball or set screens for his teammates? or was he just dribbling for 20 seconds of each possession, only to put up brick after brick/pass it to some1 with 4 seconds left on the clock? u tell me.

[Hack Wilson - real]

reminds me of Barry Bonds in the 2002 world series with the Giants


Angels won the series but Bonds was by FAR the best player out there on either team -  Angels were scared to death of him.

I remember that, as I'm a HUGE Angel's fan. I remember this though, when Percival challenged Bonds, as the Angels were up 2 and no one was on so Percy basically said... "fuck it, let's see if he can his my 98mph fastball down the middle... To this day, I still can't see where the ball landed.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/Ol2_UkJS6kw" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/Ol2_UkJS6kw</a>

But here is the thing, they may have walked Bonds 13 times, but they pitched to him 13 times, he got 8 hits and 4 HRs and 3 strike outs. So they didn't completely run away from him, they just challenged him when it was safe... LOL

3 strikeouts in 13 at bats isn't bad but the rest of that is

so glad Bonds never won that ring, he was a huge jerk.   Meanwhile Bron has 2 and counting.

[7even]

reminds me of Barry Bonds in the 2002 world series with the Giants


Angels won the series but Bonds was by FAR the best player out there on either team -  Angels were scared to death of him.

the best player in a series doesnt chuck up 30+ attempts per game, freezing out his teammates when he's shooting under 40% (and under 30% outside of 5 feet lmao).......lebron is a stat stuffer. he cares more about how people view him than actually winning. thats why he only excels next to yes men. artest was on the radio yesterday, straight SHITTING on lebron..said he didnt see lebron setting screens for his teammates or moving off the ball once in the entire series. there's a reason the guy guarding him got the mvp, despite espn tryin its hardest to shove the lebron agenda down our throats. any star woulda put those numbers up with the same usage rate. hell, the PER numbers show that iguodala woulda averaged 40+ on 33 shot attempts.

Please... a nigga only taking the shots he wants to take will of course have a higher effiency than a nigga who takes shots he doesn't like. Plus the fatigue factor. You can't just say "Look Iggy scores better than LeBron"... you as a Kobe fan should know that best.

[Sccit]

reminds me of Barry Bonds in the 2002 world series with the Giants


Angels won the series but Bonds was by FAR the best player out there on either team -  Angels were scared to death of him.

the best player in a series doesnt chuck up 30+ attempts per game, freezing out his teammates when he's shooting under 40% (and under 30% outside of 5 feet lmao).......lebron is a stat stuffer. he cares more about how people view him than actually winning. thats why he only excels next to yes men. artest was on the radio yesterday, straight SHITTING on lebron..said he didnt see lebron setting screens for his teammates or moving off the ball once in the entire series. there's a reason the guy guarding him got the mvp, despite espn tryin its hardest to shove the lebron agenda down our throats. any star woulda put those numbers up with the same usage rate. hell, the PER numbers show that iguodala woulda averaged 40+ on 33 shot attempts.

Please... a nigga only taking the shots he wants to take will of course have a higher effiency than a nigga who takes shots he doesn't like. Plus the fatigue factor. You can't just say "Look Iggy scores better than LeBron"... you as a Kobe fan should know that best.

thats the point...lebron shoulda stopped forcing the issue, taking shots he "didn't like", and instead ran a legit offense with ball movement, screens, pick-n-rolls..yaknow, try to get others goin through teamwork as opposed to announcing to everyone "im the best player in the world" and throwing his teammates under the bus during press-conferences. didnt he throw kevin love under the bus earlier this season as well? the guy truly doesnt know how to get the best out of his teammates..starting with larry hughes and up til today, any1 who plays next to lebron typically underperforms....as opposed to kobe, who usually got his players performing at their highest level, leavin them with nice contracts based on how they looked next to him. the only cats who really like lebron are alpha male superstars who can put him in check ala wade, irving....or yes men role players who on his dick, like damon jones or mike miller.....he turns good role players into scrubs, and stars into good role players. that style of play and the fact that the bigger the moment gets, the smaller he gets...those two facts is what has hindered him from winning more. outside of that, he's a beast of a player and probably the most gifted athlete the nba has ever seen.