Best Player to Wear #3?

[Dee-Zy]

Originally Posted by Adam

Can you not flame our third leading scorer in that finals behind Antoine Walker? Sheesh.

This.

[Luke]

I love it when Heat fans try to belittle Shaq's influence/pretend like they would have won the '06 championship if it wasn't for the big fella.

This is still probably Wade though, at least as far as impact on the court. If we're talking about overall influence then it's Iverson and this isn't even a real debate.

[e-monk]

why? was there a spread of no practicing, bad teammate, ball chucking sweeping the nation that I havent heard about?

[Jace]

Originally Posted by e-monk

in one game of Wades first finals the big cheese put up a stellar 10 pt 7 rebound game

Let's also not forget he scored 9 points in the closeout game. Zo was clearly better during that series, and maybe the entire playoffs. Shaq had a 30/20 game against the Bulls, but most of his play beyond that left much to be desired. '05 was Shaq's last Shaq-type season, which was still below his prime.

Originally Posted by Luke

I love it when Heat fans try to belittle Shaq's influence/pretend like they would have won the '06 championship if it wasn't for the big fella.

This is still probably Wade though, at least as far as impact on the court. If we're talking about overall influence then it's Iverson and this isn't even a real debate.

No one's saying we wouldn't have won without him. The point is many outside of Miami make Wade out to be Vince Carter clutching onto the coattails of superstar Shaq. That simply wasn't the case. Shaq was a shell of himself by then.

And AI's influence was a negative one. Hence all of the "combo" guards who really are just small scorers, and aren't prone to making their teams better. A true, good, combo guard can run a team and get his own. Not sure AI's NBA cultural influence was one to be championed either.

[Hyperion]

Originally Posted by e-monk

why? was there a spread of no practicing, bad teammate, ball chucking sweeping the nation that I havent heard about?

Yes, it's called the 2004 US Olympic basketball team.

[Jace]

That team was so awfully assembled.

[Luke]

Yeah, a shell of his former self that was less than a year removed from finishing runner up in an MVP race that he should of won and was fresh off yet another all NBA first team. Not trying to belittle D-Wade here, dude was easily a top five player in '06, but that's one hell of a shell.

[Dee-Zy]

Heat wouldn't have won that championship without Shaq.

Without Shimmy
UD
Zo
Payton
JWIll
and
Posey

They were all instrumental in the Heat's first chip but let's not act like Shaq was actually the first or even the second reason for the Heat to win it all.

[Jace]

Payton was definitely not instrumental. He held us back. The only reason he had to hit those huge shots in games 3 & 5 was because he was playing like the worst backup PG in the league during the postseason, after a decent regular season. Had he produced to the level of the 2nd or 3rd worst, we wouldn't have needed those big shots.

Originally Posted by Luke

Yeah, a shell of his former self that was less than a year removed from finishing runner up in an MVP race that he should of won and was fresh off yet another all NBA first team. Not trying to belittle D-Wade here, dude was easily a top five player in '06, but that's one hell of a shell.

He could've been a year removed from winning 6 MVPs in one season, but he clearly wasn't playing near the top of his game. The fall off was pretty precipitous. He made me flat out sad a lot of nights. Growing up, his was the only jersey I ever bought other than my 11 Jordan jerseys. Seeing him fall so hard, and on my team no less, was painful.

I don't know what percentage of peak production someone must max at to qualify as a "shell," but if that doesn't work for you semantically, can I just say he was nowhere near peak efficacy?

[e-monk]

Originally Posted by Hyperion

Yes, it's called the 2004 US Olympic basketball team.

well played, sir, well played

[Dornado]

Shaq was great against Chicago in the playoffs... his impact was tremendous and wasn't necessarily reflected in the box scores

[Diable]

Yeah, it's widely accepted that the Bulls beat the Heat without Shaq. Wade was awful in that series, but none of the usual suspects happen to recall that fact.

[e-monk]

Wade was the finals MVP - between him and the refs, right?

[Cajon]

Dwyane Tyrone Wade Jr.

[Marcus13]

And Russell Westbrook misses the wide open 3 to ice it


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