Top Finals Performances

This is a special feature from guest blogger Christopher Sells.

We are a sports society that likes to use comparisons. Whenever a player comes into the league, you often hear that "he plays like [insert player’s name here] except for so and so." We also like to rank things. You’ll hear an argument about who’s the best player in the NBA or who’s the greatest player of all time and so on.

So it should come as no surprise that someone has taken the time to rank the top 50 individual NBA Finals performances since the NBA and the ABA became one league. You can click here to read the entire 50 (and even the 10 worst) with explanations for each, but I’ll give you the top 20 here.

Player	Team	Year
1. Dwyane Wade	Miami Heat	2006
2. Michael Jordan	Chicago Bulls	1998
3. Tim Duncan	San Antonio Spurs	2003
4. Michael Jordan	Chicago Bulls	1997
5. Hakeem Olajuwon	Houston Rockets	1994
6. Magic Johnson	Los Angeles Lakers	1987
7. Michael Jordan	Chicago Bulls	1991
8. Shaquille O’Neal	Los Angeles Lakers	2000
9. Shaquille O’Neal	Los Angeles Lakers	2002
10. Michael Jordan	Chicago Bulls	1992
11. Tim Duncan	San Antonio Spurs	1999
12. Magic Johnson	Los Angeles Lakers	1988
13. Shaquille O’Neal	Los Angeles Lakers	2001
14. Michael Jordan	Chicago Bulls	1993
15. Isiah Thomas	Detroit Pistons	1990
16. Chauncey Billups	Detroit Pistons	2004
17. Karl Malone	Utah Jazz	1998
18. Moses Malone	Philadelphia 76ers	1983
19. Shawn Kemp	Seattle SuperSonics	1996
20. Bill Walton	Portland Trail Blazers	1977

Apparently you don’t have to be that old to have witnessed most of these performances. The merger took place in 1976, so that excludes anything that Chamberlain, Russell, West, etc. did, but I find it interesting that only four performances from 1989 or earlier cracked the top 20.

I’m also appalled that Wade is listed as the best, but that’s just my opinion.

Any thoughts?