Traditional Playoff Chokers

Peja comes to mind.

Season: 18.6 ppg. 46.8% shooting 39.8%. 3-point shooting.

Playoffs: 16.8 ppg. 41.3% shooting. 35.2% 3-point shooting.

 

Yao Ming

 

I don't know about traditionally, but my all-time favorite playoff choker is John Starks.

 

It was during the regular season when Latrell Sprewell choked PJ Carlissimo, wasn't it?

That was one of my favorite non-playoff chokings.

 

Lindsey Hunter: 30.4% fg and 24.2% 3fg for the playoffs in 74 games. Not that he was/is a superstar outside the playoffs, but I'd call that a choke job regardless.

 

Karl Malone came up with more dramatic heat-of-the-moment chokes, but he played well during the games for the most part. Peja's FG% kills the Kings, it makes them much easier to defend when he is bricklaying.

 

Chris Webber can't make a big basket if the game is on the line.


He also has problems with timeouts.

 

Hasn't Shawn Marion been to the playoffs only 2 or 3 times? One of those times was when he was a rookie, skewing his stats a bit. The sample size is not large enough to convince me that he's a playoff choker. It's like calling Yao a playoff choker for only scoring 15 a game in his one trip to the playoffs. Peja and Webber, on the other hand, have together failed in the playoffs for half a decade.

 

Well obviously your stats are going to go down a little in the playoffs, especially if you are not a star player. Defence and pressure are exponentially higher in the playoffs.

 

System guys that depend on others or hustle plays to get their points like Richard Jefferson or Marion tend to see their games suffer. Playmakers usually do a little better (Bibby, Nash, Pierce, Wade, Cassell).

Then there are the guys whose nads shrivle in the 4th quarter of a tight game: Webber and Peja are by far and away the biggest chokers in recent memory - just horror shows in the clutch. Tony Parker and Eddie Jones are the other ones that come to mind.

Evan

 

WHy is Richard Jefferson a "system guy"?

Either way he averaged almost 20 ppg during last year's playoffs, about 1.5 over his season average.

 

Tough call between him and Nick Anderson.

 

Nick Anderson had the worse choke job ever. It's one thing to miss shots with someone in your face but another to miss 4 consecutive freebies when hitting just 1 wins the game for them.

 

I think both guys (Stark and Anderson) never recovered from their respective humiliating failure.

 

I love that about them.

 

I agree. Starks wasn't the same after that series and Anderson's FT% went directly into the toliet in subsequent seasons.

 

Charles Barkley anyone?

 

You have GOT to be kidding...23 points and 13 rebounds on 51% shooting in the postseason. He practically carried the Rockets in '99 against the Lakers. Just because he never won a ring doesn't make him a choker...

 

any PG who leads his team to the championship is not a choker. I agree about Eddie Jones.