So I was bored and I decided to see just how unusual Tracy Mcgrady's streak is. Method: Using Basketball Reference Play Finder's I searched for number of playoff losses a player had only in games in which they played more than 1 minute. I did this because a player who has lost multiple series would have a high number of losses. Also by limiting the search to players who played 1+ minutes it removes players who were DNP due to coach decisions or injuries, and as such progressed as a tag along. B-R's information only goes back to 1986-87 season, so that is as far as I could go. After getting the list, I looked through the player stat card for the players with the 400 most playoff losses in games played. If at anytime a player had played in more than 5 games prior to 2003 or 7 games after that in a single playoff appearance, they were eliminated. If they met that criteria, I checked to make sure they were not simply spot players during multiple series and eliminated most of these players unless they had played something like 1 or 2 minutes in an entire series. The results show: Tracy Mcgrady - 25 playoff losses - 0-7 series record Andre Miller - 24 playoff losses - 0-6 series record Mike Miller - 18 playoff losses - 0-5 series record Lorenzen Wright - 15 playoff losses - 0-5 series record (Has never won a playoff game. Overall playoff record is 0-15) Harvey Grant - 14 playoff losses - 0-5 series record Honorable Mentions: Bo Outlaw - 0-5 series record to start career. His team won a playoff series the next year but he never played in the first round. They did let him play 2 minutes in the 2nd round just for fun.) Pat Garrity - 0-5 series record (1 series he only played 6 minutes) Chris Gatlin - 0-5 series record (1 series he only played 12 minutes)
Bosh made it to the Eastern Semi Finals w/ the Raptors, I think. Anyways, if you look at the stats above, McGrady went the longest w/o going to the playoffs. Which is funny, because in Orlando they were up 3-0 on Detroit and he said"I'm glad to get out of the first round"(this was right after the league changed the playoff format) Detroit then won the next four games. While we're talking about playoffs, does anyone know what franchise took the longest to get to their 1st playoff series?
Chris Bosh never made it past the first round with Toronto. Also, T-Mac's Orlando team was up 3-1, not 3-0. And T-Mac was asked by the reporter something like "what would you be thinking if you won this series?" That's when he responded, "it feels good to be in the second round." That comment has been misrepresented to make it seem like T-Mac was assuming his team had already won.
You said he was 1-23 in elimination playoff series. Every playoff series is an elimination series. He beat the Bulls and then lost to them the next year in the ECF. I get what you are saying that his teams have almost always been swept when eliminated, but Kobe w/o Shaq/Gasol: not in the playoffs first year, then 0-4 and 3-4.
Pistol Pete was a second round virgin before his defloration act as a Celtics role player in th age of 32
