Bigger choke; LeBron 2011, Curry 2016

[Red Pill Sports]

Which is the worse choke job?

[1987_Lakers]

Both were major chokes.

I will say 2016 will probably be remembered more.

- All-time great Finals series that went down to the final seconds in a game 7
- A 73 win team blowing a 3-1 lead
- LeBron playing out of his mind after game 4

Those factors will make the Finals fresher in people's memories as time goes on, even though you can make a great argument that LeBron's 2011 choke was worse.

Both LeBron & Curry redeemed themselves as players, similar to Magic in '84, winning multiple titles after their chokes, so people will look at those chokes are minor bumps.

[zeerghit]

its Lebron easy between theese two
but if you talking finals only u should add 2004 Kobe aswell

[Hey Yo]

2004 Kobe.

[pandiani17]

I like LeBron more, however his choke was more epic because he had never won a ring before and at the time it seemed that the bright lights of the finals were too much for him. The 2016 loss was more of a team loss (I don't remember Curry playing particularly bad). Then there are those who get forgotten, like Magic in 1984 or Kobe in 2004, but they had already won rings before, there wasn't social media yet, etc.

[WhiteKyrie]

LeBron, for several reasons.

For starters, he was in his absolute prime. He had just cowardly colluded and stacked the deck with insane talent, relative to the rest of the league, and even more so within his own conference. Two of the three best players in the game were on the same team.

Oh and he just verbally guaranteed seven championships.

LeBron and Dwyane Wade were two of the three best players in the league. The third, was Kobe Bryant, coming off three seasons of massive deep finals runs plus Olympics. And was on a hobbled knee. And starting to get up there in age, and wear and tear.

Not only that, he was being guarded by literal ancient forms of Jason Kidd, a guy he has about 4 to 5 inches and probably 60 to 70 pounds on. Or being guarded by the corpse of Shawn Marion, and I guess just a highly motivated DeShawn Stevenson, who unlike the previous two guys, was never much of a defender to begin with.

Oh and oddly would get locked up in the post by 5 foot 8 JJ Barea, who looks like a chipotle floor manager.

Combine all this, with an insane performance from Dwyane Wade, who was by far and away clearly the best player for both teams on both sides of the ball. They very well should’ve went up three games to none, they pissed away I think game two when they had a lead. LeBron had some of the most putrid, passive, borderline quit job style performances at various moments and was totally a non-factor in any meaningful stretches of the games, particularly fourth quarters.

Steph Curry, he’s a small jump shooting point guard. Who was busy getting roasted by two all-time performances three games in a row from prime LeBron James, who is arguably or is supposed to be according to his dumb fan base either the best player of all time, in actuality at best the second best player of all time, which no person on planet earth was holding the standard for about Steph Curry, even given his insane season. And he also was being out performed at his own very position, by a blistering hot and clutch destructive isolation scorer in Kyrie Irving.

The Stephen Curry collapse with the Warriors is kind of embarrassing, but not really. They were in insanely good team. But I never thought they were actually as good as their record implied. I think they told advantage of a very weak transitional season in the NBA. And they were highly motivated, because so many people thought they shouldn’t have won the 2015 finals. With Kyrie Irving being out and Kevin Love being injured etc. LeBron basically missing his next two best players and it still was a six game series. But the Warriors had an over inflated record that season. So many teams just hadn’t caught up to a new brand of basketball, that really was ushered in that season, that had roots through the Phoenix Suns of the 2000s and what the Warriors had done in the previous year. But that team that won 73 games, there was like five of those games they could’ve very easily lost.

And if we’re being really honest, if it wasn’t for career loser Russell Westbrick, and A Kevin Durant choke job from the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Warriors should’ve been booted in the conference finals to begin with.

They let Klay Thompson, the Warriors number to guy, go nuclear and destroy them on their own home court. This was before Kevin Durant got turned out and turned into Katie Durant, and got cocked to the point he joined the team that beat him that year.

Even though the record was inferior the next year, the 2017 Warriors were dramatically better. That is the team that is in the conversation with one of the five best and most terrifying teams I’ve ever seen in real time.

The first 3 peat Bulls, the second 3 peat Bulls, the 2001 and 2002 doubled headed alpha monster Shaq and Kobe Lakers, the 2012 and 2013 double headed alpha monster LeBron and Wade Heatles and that 2017 Warriors squad.

And for all intensive purposes, those LeBron and Kyrie and Kevin Love cavaliers teams dramatically under performed in the regular season. Those teams should’ve easily especially in the conference they were in, winning 60 to 65 games a year in and year out. They didn’t, because they deliberately coasted during the regular season. Talent wise? Those two teams are absolutely equal. The 2016 warriors and 2016 cavaliers I mean.

So for somebody people want to claim is the greatest player of all time, when in reality is probably the second best, that level of a putrid meltdown performance, is the worst I’ve ever seen for such a mega star.

Yes, it’s worse than Kobe Bryant scoring 21 first half points in game seven versus Phoenix, in a series where they shouldn’t of even have the series lead given the dramatic inferiority of talent and record wise. Where a coach told him to make his inferior teammates involved more, and Kobe in his competitive anger said **** it, I’ll pass them the ball and show just how putrid my teammates really are.

He still was dramatically dominant in the first half of that game seven. Scoring at will. He very easily could’ve scored 40 to 50 or 60 points that game had the coaches not deliberately made Kobe switch up his style in the second half. Because clearly he had already maximized his shitty teammates talent through the first five games of the series, that’s why he had to go off for a 50 burger in game six, where Phoenix just got insanely lucky with a rebound and a long Tim Thomas three pointer. Series would’ve been won right there.

So yes, LeBron‘s choke job or quit job or a hybrid of the two in 2011 finals is the worst ever for a super star. And unfortunately it came on the heels of him quitting mid series just the previous season in the semis when they had series lead and experts had them in the Finals.

Michael Jordan never had a choke job to that level on that type of stage in particular.

Kobe Bryant had a putrid 2004 finals, but given everything going on around him, kind of excusable. Plus he was gone and you’re trying to forcefully get rid of the stigma from a knowledgeable basketball fans as if he was some Robin, Scottie Pippen or Pau Gasol level sidekick to Shaquille O’Neal since 2001. He just played bad.

LeBron either got totally shut down out of nowhere, by old white corpses after having a great conference finals, or he simply quit on his team, and was also pouting for the entire series, because in his first potential finals win, it was obvious Dwyane Wade was going to get finals MVP. So his narcissistic and fragile ego might’ve been hurt. And he shut down.

2011 LeBron James is the biggest choke job I’ve ever seen.

[dankok8]

Definitely Lebron. Curry was actually decent and looked like himself for several games and one can't say the same thing about Lebron.

[Full Court]

Both were major chokes.

I will say 2016 will probably be remembered more.

- All-time great Finals series that went down to the final seconds in a game 7
- A 73 win team blowing a 3-1 lead
- LeBron playing out of his mind after game 4

Those factors will make the Finals fresher in people's memories as time goes on, even though you can make a great argument that LeBron's 2011 choke was worse.

Both LeBron & Curry redeemed themselves as players, similar to Magic in '84, winning multiple titles after their chokes, so people will look at those chokes are minor bumps.

I agree with this.

Lebron had the bigger choke, but 2016 will be remembered more due to the record-setting 73-win team losing the finals.

2011 was probably the biggest superstar choke job of all time though.