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Top 10 All-Time Clutch Shooters...

Discussion in 'NBA Dish' started by JAG, Feb 3, 2002.

  1. JAG

    JAG Member

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    With a little buzz going about Jordan's clutch shots recently, I though it would be interesting to try and come up with a list of the top 10 clutch shooters of all time, or at least of the times we have witnessed. If your team had 3 seconds left on the clock, and you needed a shot to win a big game,and could have anyone you've ever seen take the shot for you, who would you chose?Or, were it the other team, who would you least like to see with the ball with the game on the line? Also, I can't include guys like Havlicek or Barry, cause I never saw them play. Here's mine...

    1) Larry Bird...I hate, hate, HATE this guy, but I've gotta admit there is no one I would rather have take a big shot for me...Made big shots look routine, especially deep ones.That steal and pass (I know, not a shot, but still) in the playoffa against the Pistons made me a ( grudging) believer. Did I mention I hate this guy?

    2) Reggie Miller...DOn't like Reggie either, but boy could he be clutch. That performance against the Knicks in the ECC was jaw-dropping. Always reminded me of Gumby, but I would hate to have the game in his hands if he's on the other team...

    3) Michael Jordan....At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I hate this guy...BUT, even though a lot of it has to do with the no-fly zone the refs ensure around him, especially at clutch time, the results by themselves are what they are, and the guy made the shots.

    4) Isiah Thomas...More than any of the other guys on this list, he seemed to will his teams to victories in the clutch, as opposed to dominate physically. Just gutted it out at the big moments, and lived up to the whole 'Smiling Assassin' label...Do you think that being a bit of a jerk and being a clutch player go hand in hand?

    5) Magic Johson...His head-to-heads with Bird were probably the biggest clutch vs. clutch matchups the game has ever seen...Was never a deadly outside shooter like a Bird or Miller, except at money-time, and then...look out. Also came up with great baby-hooks in the clutch. Center game in the Finals one of the better big-time performances I've ever seen...

    6) Tim Hardaway...Have watched him kill teams at buzzer time too mant times to leave him off this list. Has a lot of game winners that look ugly everywhere but the scoreboard, but my fingernails wouldn't survive long if I had to watch him decide the game every night against my teams...

    7) Robert Horry...Laugh all you want, but considering the relativley low number of shots this guy takes, he makes an incredibly high number of big ones...Has almost developed into a Claude Lemieux playoff specialist, for those of you who know hockey...

    8) Jeff Hornacek...I know, I know, I'm going to get killed for putting a Utah player on the list, but even Barkley said this is the man he would most want taking the shot if his life depended on making it...Actually, he said he would want Horacek or...

    9) Steve Kerr....Did he ever do anything else?

    10) Sam Perkins...I know, you're asking me if I've lost it. Well, Sam has hit a ton of big shots in his life, I'm serious. Besides, I want to get debate going here...

    Hon. Mention...Danny Ainge, Byron Scott, Adrian Dantley,Hakeem Olajuwon, Jeff Malone, John Stockton ( ouch!), Sam Cassell, Rex Chapman, John Starks, Alen Iverson, Larry Johnson, JOE D!

    Up N' Coming... Steve Nash, Vince Carter, Eddie Griffin ( okay, real early to say this, but come on, I gotta get a Houston guy on here...), Jermaine O'Neal...

    Okay, I'm sure there are guys I've forgotten about, so please refresh my memory...Either way, what do you thimnk, and what would your list be..Oh, and I know a few of the Hon. Mention guys I have missed some big ones to, but they made enough to make me hate them having the ball for the other team in the closing seconds...
     
    #1 JAG, Feb 3, 2002
    Last edited: Feb 4, 2002
  2. TheReasonSF3

    TheReasonSF3 Member

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    What about the Mooch?
     
  3. AroundTheWorld

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    Nice post. I would like to add Mario Elie to this list...
     
  4. Johnny Rocket

    Johnny Rocket Contributing Member

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    What about the Junkyard Dog Mario Elie?!? He is the one who hit the Kiss of death shot and helped to get Houston's nickname of Clutch City and was the insperation for why clutch is clutch. right? b/c there used to be a section about Elie here back in the day.


    Ok so Det the Threat Beat me
     
  5. huby_n1

    huby_n1 Member

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    Vernon Maxwell.
     
  6. IluvtheLakers

    IluvtheLakers Member

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    Don't know anything about those old players but from what I have seen this season and last two or so these are the best at clutch shots

    Kobe
    Iverson
    Horry
    Jordan
    Shaq(yes he's pretty clutch I guess, he is a late game liability with his free throws but pretty often he's made a basket and a foul with a minute or so left to completely demoralize the opposition. His baskets just looks so easy that it doesn't seem to be very clutch, he probably devastates the other team's psyche more than anyone else, but the crowd watching is just like, oh he's fatter than everyone else, all he needs to do is put the ball in the basket from 2 inches away, I mean it's true, but 2 points is 2 points, especially when you really need them)
     
  7. JAG

    JAG Member

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    Yeah, I thought about him when I was doing Horry, at least for the Hon. mention, but then forgot him later...He's sort of like Horry, in that neither takes that many, but they make big ones, but I'd say Horry made a lot more..Still, at least Hon mention...good call...

    Re: Mooch...Thought about him too, for obvious reasons, but didn't seem to fit either category...He's certainly not one of the All-Timers, or Hon. mention, as he's hit a few for a sub- .500 team in one season, hardly worthy of ranking him with guys like Steve Kerr et al, nor is he exactly an Up N' Comer, in that there is no reason to assume he's going to become one of the All Time Greats, like you could argue for a Nash or Carter...

    Re: Kobe: Thought about him too, at least for the Up N' Comers, but it seems to me that A) He doesn't have to take that many big shots, both because they usually win big, and because a on a team with Shaq, Horry, Fox, and Fisher, he's hardly THE GUY in the Clutch, or even necessarily THE GUY II B) He's never gets double/triple teamed at clutch time because teams just know it's going to him with the game on the line as do Iverson or Carter, or did Bird, Jordan, Isiah, etc...And C) It seems that he misses in the clutch significantly more than he makes...Still, you could make a case that his talent alone, plus the fact that his careeer will probably have him in many big games should put him on the list, at least as Up N' Coming, and you could probably say the same about McGrady...
     
  8. boomboom

    boomboom I GOT '99 PROBLEMS
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    Ralph Sampson
     
  9. Dave Jamerson

    Dave Jamerson Member

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    joe dumars was money down the stretch too...he deserves an honorable mention...perkins in questionnable..he's too doped out to know it's even the 4th quarter (or at least he looks it)
     
  10. JayZ750

    JayZ750 Contributing Member

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    Free throws aside, I cant remember Shaq winning any game on a last second shot/dunk/layup/whatever. Kobe has hit some though.

    What about Lee Naillon - HAHA!
     
  11. JAG

    JAG Member

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    Oh, I definitely thought about Joe D, in that he is one of my 2 or 3 all time favorites, but I thought I might be too biased...As an objective obserever has brought him up, ZOOM~ On he goes to the hon. mention list at least...
     
  12. HOOP-T

    HOOP-T Member

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    UGH. You are more homerized than most of the Rockets fans here.

    Shaq? Clutch? Not even close. How many games a year is he sitting on the pine in the waning moments of the 4th quarter in a close game? Shaq won't be clutch until he learns to shoot free throws.

    Kobe? He's had a few, but he damn sure does not rank among the best all time. Not even close.
     

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