Title Run of the Decade: 2011 Dirk vs. 2019 Kawhi.

[Naero]

It's been a legacy-defining playoffs run for Kawhi, who's spearheaded a dark-horse title for the ages. I ask myself, "Why not declare it the title run of the decade?" and the only reasonable objection I can think of is another Cinderella-esque run earlier this decade: 2011 Dirk.

Both of their runs accomplished:


A gauntlet of upsets
The dethronement of back-to-back champions
Iconic clutch-play
Their respective franchise's first titles
Mountainous comebacks in several pivotal games


Neither quite peaked in the Finals, but they played solidly enough on the biggest stage to win Finals MVP and immortalize otherwise-spectacular runs theretofore.

Which one do you find more impressive in the grand scheme?

[MrFonzworth]

Easily 2011. A lot of people had Raptors making it out of the east, and the Warriors got plagued with injuries. Idk if you can really call any of their wins an upset.

[SouBeachTalents]

Bro this is gonna be a laughably lopsided poll :lol

Edit: Dirk already up a touchdown 5 minutes after making the thread

[Cleverness]

If I'm trolling, I'll say

"Kawhi beat the Warriors that swept LeBron."

If I'm being real,

it's obviously Dirk's 2011 run.

Swept the healthy defending champ Lakers w/ Kobe and Gasol
Beat the following year WCF Champs in 5 (Durant/WB/Harden Thunder)
Beat the one of the* most stacked superstar teams ever (Wade, Bosh, LeBron, ALL 3 in their PRIMES)

2nd option was JASON TERRY.


Beat a Magic team with... nobody
Beat a 76ers team with... Embiid, though injured at the end :/
Beat a Bucks team with Giannis (solid)
Beat a completely injured G-league team w/ Steph and 50%Klay

[UK2K]

Toronto was projected to be the #2 seed in the east after adding a former finals MVP and top 5 player.

That Dallas run was pure magic.

[Gougou]

I like 2019 Kawhi run, im a Toronto fan, it is one very strong run.


2011 run was quite more impressive, Mavs beat a back to back champion, young and hungry OKC, an extreme super team Miami Heat.


By the way I think game 2 NBA finals Miami lead at home with 15 points lead, then Dirk lead his team to tie the game to 1-1, that one game was very memorable during this run.


2011 Mavs team just like raptors, they have many solid role players like:


Shawn Marion (a bit past prime, his best was during his Suns days)
Caron Butler (solid player)
Jason Kidd (bit old but still get the job done with his knowledge to the game)
Tyson Chandler (he was in his prime and defended the paint really well vs Lebron)
JJ Barea (Lebron hater knows this guy!)

[NBAGOAT]

In terms of Cinderella run, it

[Uncle Drew]

2016 LeBron James.

[jstern]

Difficult.

In one hand Durant didn't play, but the Warriors are a super team that won 6 games in a row after he went down. If it wasn't for a bad time out here, a bad 3rd quarter there, the Raptors could had won 4 games in a row, preventing the Durant and Klay injuries.

On the other hand, Dirk was impressive, but would Dallas have been as dominant against a super team if the the GOAT didn't have the WOAT choke in sports history? If the chosen one didn't turn into the frozen one?

Difficult to know. To many what ifs.

I'm going to vote for Kawhi, not fully at 100% and still getting things done. Perhaps it's just refreshing seeing a style not dependent on stat padding, with his teammates getting to play at full capacity.

[RRR3]

Difficult.

In one hand Durant didn't play, but the Warriors are a super team that won 6 games in a row after he went down. If it wasn't for a bad time out here, a bad 3rd quarter there, the Raptors could had won 4 games in a row, preventing the Durant and Klay injuries.

On the other hand, Dirk was impressive, but would Dallas have been as dominant against a super team if the the GOAT had the WOAT chokes in sports history? If the chosen one didn't turn into the frozen one?

Difficult to know. To many what ifs.

I'm going to vote for Kawhi, not fully at 100% and still getting things done. Perhaps it's just refreshing seeing a style not dependent on stat padding, with his teammates getting to play at full capacity.
LeBron is the GOAT now?

Pick a side and stick with it :lol

[warriorfan]

LeBron is the GOAT now?

Pick a side and stick with it :lol

He was on a trajectory for it before 2011.

That

[jstern]

LeBron is the GOAT now?

Pick a side and stick with it :lol

Yeah, I should of put it in quotation marks. The "GOAT," as in the supposed GOAT to a bunch of 13 year olds back then, and what was being portrayed by many in the media trying to hype things up.

I mean can you imagine the casuals tuning in to watch the supposed "GOAT," expecting to see a Michael Jordan level of excellence, and then asking themselves, "Is this the GOAT???" :facepalm :no:

Or an older person asking one those 13 years olds, "Is this your GOAT?" after the 13 year old convinced them to watch.

[RRR3]

Yeah, I should of put it in quotation marks. The "GOAT," as in the supposed GOAT to a bunch of 13 year olds back then, and what was being portrayed by many in the media trying to hype things up.

I mean can you imagine the casuals tuning in to watch the supposed "GOAT," expecting to see a Michael Jordan level of excellence, and then asking themselves, "Is this the GOAT???" :facepalm :no:

Or an older person asking one those 13 years olds, "Is this your GOAT?" after the 13 year old convinced them to watch.
Yes?

I can find bad Jordan moments lol. There are more choices for GOAT than just Jordan and Bron.

[3ball]

I'm pretty sure it's a lot harder to beat wade/lebron/bosh than curry/klay/dray

The Warriors simply lucked out by learning new spacing strategy before everyone else, and then they got durant when everyone else had caught up..

ultimately, they're frauds because they're not championship caliber (15' was a joke)

[3ball]

Yes?

I can find bad Jordan moments lol. There are more choices for GOAT than just Jordan and Bron.
Everyone said Durant needed to win with his own team, and that Kobe needed to win without Shaq

So players, fans and media crave 1st option rings, or "alpha dog" rings - they're the holy grail of basketball accomplishment

And only MJ has more than 3 alpha dog rings - he infact lapped the field with a ridiculous 6, including 2 three-peats... All while being the all-time leader in PPG and efficiency rating (PER)..

So no one is even CLOSE to jordan's 6 alpha dog rings, which is why every poll shows that he's the consensus goat

[talkingconch]

Dirk and its not close

[Cleverness]

I'm pretty sure it's a lot harder to beat wade/lebron/bosh than curry/klay/dray

The Warriors simply lucked out by learning new spacing strategy before everyone else, and then they got durant when everyone else had caught up..

ultimately, they're frauds because they're not championship caliber (15' was a joke)

Yeah, they lucked out by taking basketball to the next level strategy with Stephen Curry, the greatest shooter ever.

Turns out Jordan's era was playing checkers, while the Curry era is playing chess.

Ultimately, Warriors > Bulls

[Manny98]

Where is the 2012 LeBron option?

[3ball]

Yeah, they lucked out by taking basketball to the next level strategy with Stephen Curry, the greatest shooter ever.

Turns out Jordan's era was playing checkers, while the Curry era is playing chess.

Ultimately, Warriors > Bulls
Curry can only shoot threes - that's weak

And he shot threes poorly in this series, so he got beat by guys that can do more than just shoot threes...

Curry/Klay are the only guys that can't win if they shoot like 35% from three, while Kawhi just won with 35% on threes (because he can do other things)

[G0ATbe]

2016 bron

[3ball]

2016 kyrie
Fixed

Name another player that had a 27 ppg sidekick (nearly equal-scoring sidekick) that hit the big shot - I'll wait

[Andrei89]

Dirk beat a team of Prime Lebron, Wade and Bosh with a worse supporting cast.

Bad poll tbh

[Mr Feeny]

Yes?

I can find bad Jordan moments lol. There are more choices for GOAT than just Jordan and Bron.

You cant find a bigger choke or a bigger abomination of a series for Jordan because that was arguably the most disappointing performance by a top star in the history of the sport. Lebron's lowest low is much, much lower than Jordan's was. If you're attempting to waste my time with false equivalence, I'd advise you to spend 5 seconds to think it over.

[Gileraracer]

Where is the 2012 LeBron option?

Correct, he only had Bosh and Wade. That's no help at all :(

[Cold soul]

This is easily Dirk in 2011 and I like Kawhi a lot to me Dirk run that year was best one man show carrying a team throughout the playoffs doing legendary shit since Hakeem in 94.

[Manny98]

PER:

12 LeBron 30.3
16 LeBron 30.0
13 LeBron 28.1
19 Kawhi 27.9
11 Dirk 25.2

WS/48:

12 LeBron .284
16 LeBron .274
13 LeBron .260
19 Kawhi .249
11 Dirk .210

In what universe did Kawhi or Dirk have a better championship run than LeBron f*ck outta here

[Manny98]

Correct, he only had Bosh and Wade. That's no help at all :(
Kawhi scored a whopping 0 points in the 4th quarter last night and his team still won. LeBron never had that type of luxury

[Mr Feeny]

Kawhi scored a whopping 0 points in the 4th quarter last night and his team still won. LeBron never had that type of luxuryKawhi can elevate his teammates in ways Lebron cant. We know that already.

[Manny98]

Kawhi can elevate his teammates in ways Lebron cant. We know that already.
Raptors went 17-5 this season without Kawhi (63 win pace)

[FKAri]

Dirk beat a team of Prime Lebron, Wade and Bosh with a worse supporting cast.

Bad poll tbh
Dirk had a much, MUCH better supporting cast than the Heat tho and he didn't do shit in the finals anyway. It was how he got there that was more impressive.

[Hamtaro CP3KDKG]

Dirk by far

Raps are still a 60 win team without Kawhi as they were last year and in the games he missed

Kawhi carried them against the Sixers but he got alot of help against Orlando, Milwaukee and specially GS. He even got carried multiple times

The Mavs were one of the worst offenses in the league without Dirk and they were a lottery team without him

what he managed to do with them and the competition he beat (repeat champ Lakers, young OKC and Miami with Bran/Wade/Bosh at their highest level as a trio combined) was unprecedented. Hakeem 1995 is the only other carryjob on that level or better

[Mr Feeny]

Raptors went 17-5 this season without Kawhi (63 win pace)

Terrific stuff. He doesnt need to assemble a team that is predicated on him hogging the ball so that he can maximize his box score stats. And when he does play with them, he
elevates his team enough to beats the Warriors. Good stuff.

[Ne 1]

Dirk. IRRC The Mavs were underdogs vs the Lakers, the Thunder and the Heat and barley even favored over Portland. Lot of people had Toronto coming out of the East and with home court thought they had a shot against the Warriors without KD.

[Mr Feeny]

Dirk. IRRC The Mavs were underdogs vs the Lakers, the Thunder and the Heat and barley even favored over Portland. Lot of people had Toronto coming out of the East and with home court thought they had a shot against the Warriors without KD.

He swept the Lakers (who were overwhelming favourites), then played an insanely good series against the thunder before one of the biggest upsets of all time against Miami. I agree. Its Dirk.

[Manny98]

Terrific stuff. He doesnt need to assemble a team that is predicated on him hogging the ball so that he can maximize his box score stats. And when he does play with them, he
elevates his team enough to beats the Warriors. Good stuff.
Anyone could beat the Warriors without KD & Klay not impressed

[Mr Feeny]

Anyone could beat the Warriors without KD & Klay not impressed

Klay played*

[egokiller]

2016 LeBron James.

Means nothing. Weak east and barely beat a hobbled team that came out of the blood bath west that was down 3-1 in the WCF. Just another asterisks ring like 2015 and 2019.

[DMAVS41]

Leonard is getting undervalued here, but obviously beating Lakers, Thunder, and Heat with the kind of help Dirk had (clearly worse help than Leonard) was a more impressive title run.

[bigkingsfan]

Fixed

Name another player that had a 27 ppg sidekick (nearly equal-scoring sidekick) that hit the big shot - I'll wait
Sounds like Lebron elevating him teammate.

[Mr Feeny]

Sounds like Lebron elevating him teammate.

Then apply that logic to Kawhi. He was able to elevate lesser teammates to a higher level than Lebron was.