According to an informal poll conducted by ESPN the magazine. The poll made up of 26 NBA players. 88% say MJ should take the last shot, with another 12% believe Kobe. http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/9829550/lebron-james-gets-mixed-reviews-poll-peers I personally think that Bird was the best clutch shooter of all time and that if my life was on the line I'd want Bird to shoot the shot for me. But these polls are always about MJ, Kobe and Lebron.
Kobe is actually below average when it comes to clutch time shooting. It's just that he takes such a high volume of them, that some become memorable.
It's not that surprising, Kobe establishes his clutchness by taking more clutch shots than anyone else. A clutch make is always more remembered than a clutch miss. Bird and Jordan are good, safe picks I imagine, but it's a bit hard to quantify that - the drive to look at "clutch" statistics has not to my knowledge yet spun itself into looking at old box scores to list off game winning attempts en masse. The article in OP places Jordan at 50%, which is pretty excellent. For the record, postseason leaders among modern players in regards to percentage: Most postseason makes: Source More: Spoiler Most regular season makes, '03-'09: Source Multiple game-winners/game tiers in 2012/2013: Source
I agree with the OP and this thread generally. Lebron should be on the list. That said, let's not pretend that Lebron hasn't had problems "closing out"... be it down the stretch of certain games - game 6, NBA Finals... he owes Ray Allen big time... or closing out series, etc.
kobe being listed is just mass market media spin in order to put a pleyer on a pedestal. great quote and nice find... i wonder about all time, or if there is a stat recording for that? i like horry as well as players like reggie miller and ray allen. but, superstars run this league and in the last seconds of the game you seemingly always put the ball in your best players hand. For instance, Jeremy Lin could be shooting 50% from deep all season, 55% in the playoffs. During game 7 of the finals with 3 seconds left im putting the ball in hardens hands.
He hit the 3 that bought them within 3. Lebron is held to a higher standard than MJ. He average 38-8-8 for an entire playoffs and people said he chocked. He had a triple double and people said he threw the game on purpose. I think I would rather have MJ take a last second shot, but LeBron gets way too much hate.
In all seriousness, shots 1-99 Jordan/Kobe all day. Last shot, I'll take this guy if its the playoffs. LOL all you want.
Melo's percentages are pretty sick in the clutch. Too bad he's such an inefficient player in general.
When did he average 38-8-8 for an entire playoffs? i actually don't know But 1-3 on threes plus 2 costly turnovers in the last two minutes of an elimination game when your team is down is not clutch...i just don't see MJ doing this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryoq48dZHZ8 it was kind sad to watch until allen hit the 3. i agree he is held to higher standard...thats cuz for the first 40 minutes of a game he raises the bar to a level that he normally shies away from in crunch time.
