Sports Mike Chiari @@mikechiari Featured Columnist IV June 18, 2024
Mitchell Leff/Getty Pictures
After Boston Celtics huge man Al Horford at remaining broke thru with the principle NBA championship of his occupation after showing in 186 playoff video games, Los Angeles Clippers guard James Harden is now the active chief in playoff contests played with out a title.
Based totally on Brad Botkin of CBS Sports activities, the all-time sage still belongs to Utah Jazz narrative Karl Malone with 193 postseason video games with out a title, but Harden is fourth on the all-time checklist and first among active gamers at 166:
1. Karl Malone: 193
2. John Stockton: 182
3. Sam Perkins: 167
4. James Harden: 166
5. Chris Paul: 149
6. Kyle Korver: 145
T7. George Hill: 144
T7. Reggie Miller: 144
T7. Charles Oakley: 144
Horford, 38, has overlooked the playoffs perfect twice one day of his 17-year occupation, which explains how he accumulated so many postseason video games played before at remaining breaking thru and having the chance to protect the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
NBA TV @NBATV After 17 seasons and 186 #NBAPlayoffs video games, Al Horford is formally an NBA champion 🙌 pic.twitter.com/0QcRAx6m29
There is an excellent chance Horford would occupy broken Malone’s sage next season had Boston didn’t score it all this season, but he no longer has to agonize about entering the sage books in such an heart-broken formulation.
Malone spent 19 seasons within the NBA and 18 of them had been with the Jazz, who twice fell to Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls within the NBA Finals. Malone additionally reached the Finals in his remaining NBA season with the Los Angeles Lakers, but they had been upended by the Detroit Pistons.
It comes as shrimp surprise that Malone’s longtime Jazz teammate, fellow Hall of Famer John Stockton, is now second on the checklist for the reason that Jazz reached the playoffs every season of his 19-year occupation.
Provided that Harden is 34 and still taking half in quality basketball, it is a ways no longer outside the realm of possibility that he would possibly maybe well surpass every Stockton and Malone on the all-time checklist of playoff video games played with out a championship.
In the heart of his 15-year occupation with the Oklahoma Metropolis Recount, Houston Rockets, Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers and Clippers, Harden has reached the playoffs all 15 times, making it as a ways as the NBA Finals once.
Harden is among some of the performed offensive gamers of his generation, having earned 10 All-Well-known person selections, three scoring titles and an NBA MVP Award, but an NBA championship continues to elude him.
Since Harden’s occupation playoff numbers of 22.7 aspects, 6.4 assists and 5.5 rebounds per recreation, while taking pictures 42.5 percent from the realm ride within the support of his occupation regular-season manufacturing, Harden has gained the recognition for no longer being a playoff performer.
A hit one title can commerce the total legend, but if that does no longer happen, Harden would possibly maybe well retire as the poster boy for playoff futility.