Best NBA Playoff Players of All Time (Part 2)

G'day tribe! Yesterday I posted part one of the best NBA playoff players of all time which you can check out here. We featured Kevin Durant, Jerry West and Larry Bird. Let's kick it off with the next lot of best playoff players in history.

7. Shaquille O’Neal

Shaq is fifth on the list of best NBA playoff players. Winner of four NBA Titles and three Finals MVP awards, O’Neal won a title with the Orlando Magic and three alongside Kobe Bryant with the Lakers.

In 133 playoff games during that period, Shaq averaged 28.3 points per game. Shaq led the league in playoff scoring in 1999-2000 and is fifth in career postseason points with 5,250. In addition, O’Neal averaged 11.6 rebounds and 2.7 blocks in the postseason.

6. Stephen Curry

Curry led the Warriors to their fourth NBA title over the last eight years by single-handedly taking down the Celtics. He's scored 3,520 points over 134 playoff games at an average of 26.6 points per game, eighth all time in the postseason.

He has made the NBA Finals six times over the last eight years and is hitting over 40 percent of his three-point shots in the playoffs. Curry is a threat to score anytime he passes half court. His range and accuracy have transformed the game.

5. LeBron James

Not only has LeBron James established himself as one of the best NBA players of all time, he’s among the best NBA playoff players in history. He led the Cavaliers to the championship in 2006-07 with one of the weakest NBA Finals teams we've ever seen. The title was also clinched following the best blocked shot of all time.

He also made four-straight NBA Finals appearances with the Heat and Cavaliers. James has four NBA titles, winning the Finals MVP each time. He’s led the league in postseason scoring three times and has averaged 28.7 points, 9 rebounds and 7.2 assists in 266 playoff games.

Although James is only 3-6 in the NBA Finals, it’s hardly due to his production as one of the very best playoff performers ever.

Entire list of all players in NBA history who have finished their playoff run with a PER of at least 30 and played in a min of 10 games.

LeBron has 8 of the 20 search results and as many as MJ, Shaq and Kawhi combined (the only other players to even do this feat multiple times). pic.twitter.com/cz7NNFkr2g — Josh Medeiros (@JoshMedeiros20) August 2, 2022

Source

4. Kobe Bryant

Over an NBA career that spanned two decades, Bryant played in 220 postseason games, ranking in the top ten in NBA history. He won five NBA titles and was Finals MVP twice. Bryant is fourth all-time with 5,640 playoff points and averaging 25.6 points per game in the postseason.

He led the league in postseason scoring three times and also averaged 5.1 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game. Only LeBron James and Michael Jordan have more postseasons with at least 450 points than Bryant’s seven.

Kobe Bryant really faced 35 +50 win teams in the playoffs and defeated 25 of them. That doesn't get talked about enough.

— Dom / BBall Talk (@DominickNBA) July 31, 2022

Source

...I'll be back tomorrow with the final part!

---

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

Wolfgang Sport started in 2017 as a way to connect my passion for American and British sports. Today it's evolved into a blockchain sports blog pushing the boundaries into the crypto world and embracing Web3 technologies.

• Check out our Web3 HIVE powered blog
• Or our traditional Web 2.0 website
• Check us out and give us a follow on Twitter
• Get motiviated by my Actifit journey on dblog
• And visit Sports Talk Social, a HIVE built sports media community

G'day tribe yesterday was part two of the best NBA playoff players of all time. We spoke about Shaq, Steph Curry, LeBron James and the late Kobe Bryant. You can check out parts one and two here.