Gasol don’t belong in the same convo as these dudes. Dude got swept every year prior to Kobe lol
How can you say he doesn't belong in the same convo as those guys when he's had more accolades and done more as a #1 than Klay, Kyrie, or Draymond have? Gasol was leading shyt supporting casts to better playoff seeds than Kobe in 2005 and 2006. No one expected him to advance against stacked Suns and Mavs title contenders with Mike Miller as his #2.
In 2005 when Pau was just 24, he led his Grizzlies to 45 wins and a playoff berth with Miller, J-Will, Battier, and Lorenzen Wright as his supporting cast. In the playoffs they faced a Suns squad of Nash, Amare, Marion, Joe Johnson, and Quentin Richardson. How many games were they supposed to take off that fukking squad? Kobe lost to an inferior Suns team the next year (no Amare, no Iso Joe) and Kobe's #2 was better than what Gasol had.
In 2006 Pau's Grizzlies won almost 50 games with a starting lineup of 35yo Eddie Jones, Chucky Akins, Battier, and Jake Tsakalidis. THAT team was one win away from 50. That's a fukking achievement. In the playoffs they faced the Dirk-Terry-Howard-Stackhouse Mavs that went on to nearly win the title. Dirk averaged 31ppg on 51/42/87 shooting and 4 different Mavs scored more than Gasol's #2 (which was Jones at 10ppg). How the fukk was he supposed to be competitive there?
2007 Pau got hurt and Mike Miller was the #2 scorer for the season.
2008 gets traded to the Lakers
2009 outplays Dwight Howard in the Finals
2010 outplays Kevin Garnett in the Finals
If you drag those weak-ass lineups to the playoffs, you deserve credit just like Kobe got credit for reaching the playoffs in his lean years. If you outplay the other team's best player in back-to-back Finals, you deserve a shytload of credit.
Steph has never manned up the other team's best player in a Finals. Steph has never outplayed the other team's #1 head-to-head on both ends of the court. Pau has done it, twice. So give him some fukking credit.
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