Best Performance Ever

[3P]

The tittle says it all. What performance do you think is the best ever? Kobe's 81, Wilt's 100, Jordan's 63 or 38 with the flu? Which of those or any others do you think is the best ever?

I myself go with Jordans flu game. Barely being able to move he scored 38 while grabing 7 boards, and dishing 5, along with 3 steal and a block.
Michael played 44 minutes and could barely stand. The times I had the flu I couldn't walk a NBA court 10 times strait, much less do it many more running. However Jordan did it, it was amazing, and it was enough to be the best in my book (wait people will start speculating that he didn't have the flu).

[Jeffx]

Nothing comes close to what Magic Johnson did in Game 6 of the 1980 Finals. Playing at CENTER for the injured Kareem, he dropped 41 on Philly and won the series. He did this AS A ROOKIE!

[Sauru]

kinda hard to only pick 1 above the rest as there have been so many amazing ones over the years. i am sure you will get alot of picks for kobe and his 81 cause its new and fresh in people minds but i am going to go with magic also. jeffz has it right, he won the nba finals as a rookie by filling in at center for the teams top player at the time. most rookies would be crushed by that preasure but magic did his thing and the rest is history.

i would consider jordan vs the celtics but i cant pick a losing performance over one that won the nba finals

[Gator]

Nothing comes close to what Magic Johnson did in Game 6 of the 1980 Finals. Playing at CENTER for the injured Kareem, he dropped 41 on Philly and won the series. He did this AS A ROOKIE!

100% agree on that.....As a rookie, damn.

[Jeffx]

kinda hard to only pick 1 above the rest as there have been so many amazing ones over the years. i am sure you will get alot of picks for kobe and his 81 cause its new and fresh in people minds but i am going to go with magic also. jeffz has it right, he won the nba finals as a rookie by filling in at center for the teams top player at the time. most rookies would be crushed by that preasure but magic did his thing and the rest is history.

i would consider jordan vs the celtics but i cant pick a losing performance over one that won the nba finals

What were Bird's stats in Game 7 against LA in 1984?

[maes]

Jordan coming back from a year long injury to play against the powerhouse Larry Bird Celtics and dropping 63 against them.

(Kobe's 81 was amazing but a meaningless regular season game against a very weak team...Jalen Rose was having as much fun watching Kobe as the Laker fans were.)

That was the series where Larry Legend said "God disguised as Michael Jordan," that's a helluva quote.

There were probably greater moments a little further back in history, but i haven't witnessed those.

[Anthony15]

Wilt's 100, absolutely, you can get 50 boards, 30 assists, but those things wont matter on the scoreboard, 100 points definately does.

[---]

30 assists

30 assists gets your team at least 60 easy points without you taking a shot. That's pretty damn amazing considering you don't have control over whether your teammate shoots it or not.

[BigKaboom2]

Got to be Wilt's 100...how are the other ones better? I know Wilt was a far better athlete than the people he was playing against in those days, but it's still simply absurd.

[Patr1ck]

How about the double triple double.

02\02\68, Wilt Chamberlain, 76ers vs Pistons, 22 Points, 25 Rebounds, 21 Assists.

But a good question has been brought up. What defines a performance as being the best, considering there are so many ways of judging them?

[BigKaboom2]

How about the double triple double.

http://www.nbaliveforums.com/ftopic45582.php

We already had this horrible, horrible debate. It's just a triple double.

[msilver1]

Nothing comes close to what Magic Johnson did in Game 6 of the 1980 Finals. Playing at CENTER for the injured Kareem, he dropped 41 on Philly and won the series. He did this AS A ROOKIE!

I agree that the performance by Johnson was sickening, you have to remember he didn't play defense on the opposing center. It was more just liek he scored 41 as a rookie without Kareem.

[ThaLiveKing]

Jordan's 63, he did that with ease

[Cable]

You have to pick Magic. It's like if, say, in Wade's rookie year Shaq got hurt in the finals, so Wade played center for the Heat and scored 40+. It just doesn't seem possible that a player could do that.

[CMJ3]

You have to pick Magic. It's like if, say, in Wade's rookie year Shaq got hurt in the finals, so Wade played center for the Heat and scored 40+. It just doesn't seem possible that a player could do that.

Except Magic is 6-9 and Dwayne is 6-4. So height was the key which gave Magic the option of playing all 5 positions but he excelled at the point guard.

[Cable]

Yeah, but 6'9'' is still short to play center. Magic went up against Daryl Dawkins (who was huge strength-wise) and Caldwell Jones, both of whom were decent players and would have been more than a match physically for Magic. The fact that he went up against them and still had the strength to score 41 points is astonishing. I'm not taking anything against Jordan or anyone else, but this has to be the best all-time performance because of both the result and the situation he was in.

Yes, I had to look up Dawkins and Jones.

[Jeffx]

Yeah, but 6'9'' is still short to play center. Magic went up against Daryl Dawkins (who was huge strength-wise) and Caldwell Jones, both of whom were decent players and would have been more than a match physically for Magic. The fact that he went up against them and still had the strength to score 41 points is astonishing. I'm not taking anything against Jordan or anyone else, but this has to be the best all-time performance because of both the result and the situation he was in.

Yes, I had to look up Dawkins and Jones.

Magic(and Larry Legend) were f-n sick, man. I'm so glad I saw their entire careers, from college to the pros(although I hated Larry more because he killed my Knicks). I was watching that game and saying to myself, how is Magic doing this? He's a rookie in a championship game! Has this happened in other sports? Did Gretzky do something like this in his rookie season?

[Patr1ck]

Fuck it, give it to Jason McElwain. Not many people score 20 in one quarter.

[Cable]

Yeah, but 6'9'' is still short to play center. Magic went up against Daryl Dawkins (who was huge strength-wise) and Caldwell Jones, both of whom were decent players and would have been more than a match physically for Magic. The fact that he went up against them and still had the strength to score 41 points is astonishing. I'm not taking anything against Jordan or anyone else, but this has to be the best all-time performance because of both the result and the situation he was in.

Yes, I had to look up Dawkins and Jones.

Magic(and Larry Legend) were f-n sick, man. I'm so glad I saw their entire careers, from college to the pros(although I hated Larry more because he killed my Knicks). I was watching that game and saying to myself, how is Magic doing this? He's a rookie in a championship game! Has this happened in other sports? Did Gretzky do something like this in his rookie season?

Gretzky tied for most points and won the MVP in his rookie year, but it was his overall year that was spectacular, not one game.

If we want to talk about overall best year, I think that has to go to Oscar Robertson for averaging a triple-double in '61-'62.

[Sauru]

magic johnson had played center prior to joining the lakers on occasion anyway, it was not really a new thing to him but to do it at the highest level in the biggest game is something else. to answer bigkaboom's question about how anything could be better than 100, my opinion is magic did it in the finals. i set playoff and finals play above regular season. now that is just my opinion. thing with this kind of debate is you can really base it on anything, even favoritism(sp?).

btw jeffx, i dont know what birds stats were in that game unless i went and looked it up.

[Andrew]

Got to be Wilt's 100...how are the other ones better? I know Wilt was a far better athlete than the people he was playing against in those days, but it's still simply absurd.

Any way you slice it, Wilt's 100 was amazing but the game itself was, aside from the record performance, just another regular season game. I don't mean that as a slight to the record itself, but as far as the importance of that victory is concerned it's not on the same level as a playoff game where the whole season or indeed the championship itself is on the line. The fate of the team didn't rest on him scoring 100 points, though it does remain an astonishing feat.

I too will have to go with the "Flu Game". A stat line of 38 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, a few steals and a block, not to mention the game clinching shot, is an impressive performance at the best of times. The fact Michael Jordan was clearly under the weather in a pivotal game on the road in front of a frenzied crowd in the NBA Finals is what makes that game so amazing.

After that game, you couldn't help but wonder what Jordan might have done had he not been feeling the effects of the flu. Obviously he'd had his share of impressive games before then but that was a 34 year old Michael Jordan, dehydrated and weak, playing in the most important game of the 1997 season and he came through with a performance some players could only dream of on their best day. That's why for me, the "Flu Game" remains the greatest performance.

[Earendil]

I must agree with MJ's "flu" game. I'm an amateur sportsman, playing from tennis to basketball, loving all those sports at the same time. I especially enjoy soccer and basketball. In any sport, you must find your place in the team, if you have good sense for that, well it's a plus for you. I consider myself a delight for my teammates, my nose never lets me down, i can fit into any team and take any role... role player or the first scoring choice in the team, but what i love the most at those sports is leaving your heart on the field or court.

That's why MJ's flu performance surpasses any other. That game was all GUTS and HEART. He loved every second of it, even in pain, feeling week, he would have died on the court that day if he had to. PURE LOVE.

[Martti.]

I'm between Jordan's flu-game and T-Mac's historical comeback against the Spurs..

02\02\68, Wilt Chamberlain, 76ers vs Pistons, 22 Points, 25 Rebounds, 21 Assists.

This also rocks.