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#3 Michael Jordan vs Kobe Bryant - 8 regular-season duels, no NBA Playoff meetings
This one could easily have been #1 in this list. But when these two legends were in the NBA, their two teams were in very different situations, and their match-up just would not have been what was expected if they saw each other in the NBA Playoff.
When Kobe Bryant entered the NBA in 1996, Jordan and the Bulls were going for NBA Playoff runs that resulted in championships while the LA Lakers were still figuring out how to be competitive.
With Kobe Bryant in the West and MJ in the East, the only possible match-up between the duo was a Lakers-Bulls Finals.
LA made the NBA Playoff picture in 1996, 1997 and 1998, but they could not get out of the West. With the Bulls reaching the Finals in each of those years, the closest we got to seeing MJ vs Kobe Bryant was in the 1998 NBA Playoff stage when the Lakers fell in the WCF against the Utah Jazz.
After Jordan retired in 1999 and returned to the league in 2001, the LA Lakers were then the NBA Champions. With Jordan in the East again, the Finals were the only possible stage where they could have met, but Jordan's Washington Wizards did not enter the NBA Playoff bracket in the two years His Airness played there.
Against his mentor, the late Kobe Bryant averaged 22.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.9 assists on 46% shooting and 55% from three. Jordan, on the other hand, had averages of 24.5, 4.3 rebounds and 3.6 assists on 43% shooting.
Bryant's team won five of the eight duels against Jordan's while the former also had a 55-point night against MJ in 2003.
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#2 Bill Russell vs Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - No matchups against each other, Russell retired months before Abdul-Jabbar's debut
11-time champion Bill Russell and six-time champion Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, two of the five greatest Centers and legends in NBA Playoff history, were 167 days from being in the league at the same time.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a High School and College phenomenon who was then known as Lew Alcindor, made his NBA debut with the Milwaukee Bucks on 18 October 1969, five months and 18 days after Russell had retired after winning his 11th NBA title in a seven-game series against Wilt Chamberlain and the Lakers.
A 22-year-old Kareem-Abdul Jabbar entered the league and averaged 29 points and 15 rebounds per game in his first year, helping the Bucks enter their first NBA Playoff in history.
In 1971, Abdul-Jabbar impressed again with 32 points and 16 rebounds per game. Alongside Oscar Robertson, the Bucks harbored title hopes and capped off a tremendous NBA Playoff run by beating the Wilt Chamberlain-led Lakers in the Conference Finals and sweeping the Baltimore Bullets in the Finals.
Russell's career ended when he was 35 years old. Still, we can wonder what would have happened if the legendary 11-time champion stayed in the league for a little longer and possibly played against a young Abdul-Jabbar in the NBA .
With 17 titles and 11 MVPs between them, greatness would not have been in short supply in a hypothetical NBA Playoff series between the two legends.
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#1 Kobe Bryant vs LeBron James - 22 regular-season duels, no NBA Playoff meetings
Kobe Bryant against LeBron James, possibly the most anticipated NBA Finals match-up of the modern NBA era, ranks #1 in this list of dream duels that never happened in the NBA Playoffs.
With Bryant and the Lakers in the West and LeBron James in Cleveland, a season-deciding seven-game series between them was expected each year from 2008 to 2010. As both teams made great impressions during the regular seasons of those campaigns, the two best players at that time meeting in the Finals was a very likely proposition.
Bryant and the Phil Jackson-coached Lakers made it to The Finals three straight years from 2008 to 2010, but LeBron and the Cavs could not hold their end of the bargain.
Cleveland fell to the Big-Three Boston Celtics in the second round in both 2008 and 2010. The Celtics lost to the Orlando Magic in the 2009 NBA Playoffs. But, LeBron James and the Cavs lost to the Dwight Howard-commanded Magic to miss out on a golden chance of meeting Bryant and the Lakers.
Those years will always remain missed opportunities in terms of witnessing one of the greatest NBA Playoff match-ups of all time. That was because during that period, Bryant and James won three regular-season MVPs (Bryant in 2008 and James in 2009 and 2010) and were clearly the two best players in The Association.
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Also read: NBA Trade Rumors: New York Knicks willing to move everyone besides RJ Barrett and Mitchell Robinson.
Guess the Lakers players!
