i think you're being a little too hard on yourself. if barry and mohammmed can be at -15 and -37, i say you do no worse than -812... provided they don't have you playing alongside them. in that case the sky's the limit.
i see myself in the -700's... using up my flagrants on the 1st two plays to decapitate manu and parker for my team.
I agree with booth52: you can do better. And I agree with you about Manu as the MVP, but then I'm from Argentina and biased towards him.
Well, you've convinced me. I've just nullified my previous vote in your poll (I voted Duncan before this post from work, but have voted Ginobili from home...)
Plus that's some good statistics showing that I'm not being sentimental to think that Horry deserved consideration as well.
Whoops. No, I guess I did make that vote from home. Damn. Just consider the vote should be 39 to 32 now. 
Here's my Public retraction.
First, kudos on your win. I know the MSM hated it, but it was an interesting series.
I know this is strange to say, but I think I've actually LOST some respect for TD over the course of this series. Beforehand, I think I might have agreed with the "best player in basketball" remark, but after being named MVP? I think he's kind of a wuss.(Manu -- much tougher) Not only do I not see him as the best power forward of all time, but I don't think he's as good as KG. It was weird to see him looked...spooked, I guess is the best I can describe it.
The toughest guy the Pistons played in this run was Allen Iverson, who did more to help his team try and win than any one player I've seen in a while. If TD had the will of AI, he'd be the best player of all time, not just the best PF. Oh, well, the media will blather on about 3 rings and such...but then Dennis Rodman has 5...
Don't forget to send a ring to Shaq for helping you chew up Ben Wallace for the first two games as well. 
Your wrong about the MVP. I can think of at least 5 players that if you switched them for Manu, the Spurs would win this series (D. Wade, Ray Allen (maybe), Paul Pierce, Vince Carter (maybe), TMAC, Kobe, LeBron, AI (maybe)) . I cannot think of anyone in the league who could replace Duncan and have the Spurs hope to win.
Well that's a great point and a good line of argument.
Is MVP = Most Irreplacable Player?
Sweet Jesus. Someone put me out of my misery.
I think you need to let it go. Do you hate Duncan? Does anyone really care about the Finals MVP? The Spurs won the series! Thats what we should care about. Who gives a crap about the awards. WE WON!!
Well, Matthew, Duncan hater, Tim basher, and you call youself spur fan. You even gave him a retard nickname... oh what is it that you have against him? The great fundamental one?!
I know what is it!
Even though he really aint black, you don't like him cause he aint wite... That's it.
I am the first to break this story. Matthew doesnt like Tim cause he is black!(or sort of black)
Or is it that you hate Duncan, and think spurs don't need him because he looks like a seal?
...
sorry.
Don't hate the Temmah, hate the fact that the league has to single out a particular player from a championship game and spur (pun) this pointless debate.
SPURS IN 2006!!!
Manu was better against Detroit, but don't forget Timmy's monster series against Phoenix (which was just as important as the finals). He was better than Manu in that series.
God, that's pathetic. Duncan struggled against a physical front line that was massively keyed in against him and had not completely regained his all-around game after damaging both ankles. He played extremely well down the stretch of Game 7 when it was necessary. So did Manu. So what? He should bounce back to full awesomeness and you should love having him as a Spur.
Also, STOP USING FRIGGIN' +/-!!!. It's a useless stat because it depends on who was on the floor WITH the player in question. Kind of like RBI's in baseball. +/- is destroying mid-level analytical basketball commentary.
MattN:
Which entirely independent statistic are you using that shows that Duncan should have been the MVP of the finals?
As brilliant as Horry was, Tim's fingerprints were all over Game 5.
He was on his way to a monster game till around the 4 minute mark of the 4thQ (25pts 11-19 15rbds by then), when Horry suddenly got so hot that he and Manu took turns finishing plays and they didn't call Tim's number. Quite inexplicable, but hey, when Horry is red hot, you let him play.
Then Tim's own missed FTs led to his offensive game collapsing.
But undiscussed by the media was the fact that he made the two biggest defensive plays of the game. Each was arguably as important as that Horry 3, but as it is with the media, defense isn't as sexy as scoring.
Tim forced Billups into ridiculously difficult scoop shot after Billups had beaten Bruce to the middle. Billups missed and that preserved the 89-89 tie in regulation, giving the Spurs the final possession.
Then in OT, Tim got switched on Billups on a pick and roll, contested Billup's layup attempt, got the rebound, called timeout with 9.2s left. If Billups had hit that shot, It would have been 97-93 with 10s left i.e. Horry's 3 would have been far less meaningful.
Bruce got all the credit for Billup's misses, but the true defensive hero of Game 5 was Tim Duncan.
Oh BTW Manu was playing like crap just as much as Tim on the offensive end in the end of the 4th and OT. And he made a couple of really bad defensive miscues in OT.
First he shot the gap when the screen was set low, and gave Prince a wide open jumper. Then he missed a shot, then went lunging for a rebound he had no chance of getting, which caused Tony to have to pick up Billups in transition instead of letting Bruce get him. Billups was later to get 2 FTs from that possession. Of course there was that crazy pass that Horry had no chance to get followed by a mini tantrum.
Make no mistake, Manu was cracking, but Tim took all the negativity (for a win, no less!) on his own shoulders.
I love Manu to death, but Tim's MVP was well-deserved.
Speaking of players from Argentina, I'm going to try and track down Luis Scola, or one of his reps, and see what's up.
Maybe it's just me but is this a Dynasty in the making or what? The last time I heard this MVP finals crap was during 2000 finals on the KOBE vs Shaq debate........
How many rings will the spurs win in the next 5 years? I say atleast 2 more.
don't flinch but Luis Scola will join us next year.
Chris(COKE0
I wish Mat would sink to my level and answer to my funny provocations
Matthew,
Matthew,
Actually, I think Manu was the MVP, as I said in my first post. John Hollinger's PER is quite a bit more independent, although obviously still somewhat dependent. Team offensive PER correlates with points per possession pretty well. Of course, the difficulty is measuring man to man defense. Let me put it this way, do you honestly believe Manu was 72 points better than Tim in this series? Or that Tim was 2 points better than Parker? I haven't checked, but I suspect Manu's PER was a little better than Tim's.
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