No 4: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – 1977 Western Conference Semifinals
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, known for his skyhook shot, or maybe for his 38,387 career points that have secured him in the top spot for the NBA’s all-time leading scorer ever since he retired in 1989. There’s a long list of accolades that comes to mind whenever Kareem’s name is mentioned, but he falls in at No. 4 for his Game 7 performance against the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Semifinals in 1977.
The seven-foot-two center was traded in 1975 from the Milwaukee Bucks to the Los Angeles Lakers, where he spent the final 14 seasons of his career and won five titles. In Game 7 of the playoffs against the Warriors at the end of the 1976-77 season, Abdul-Jabbar scored 36 points off of 14-for-25 shooting. He added 26 rebounds, four assists, five steals and one block in 47 minutes. Los Angeles won, 97-84.
Kareem is the only player to post at least 35 points, 25 rebounds and five steals in a playoff game since the league first started to track steals in the 1973-74 season. The No. 1 pick in the 1969 draft was used to putting the rest of the league on notice at this point in his career. The Lakers not only entered the postseason with the best record in the NBA, but Abdul-Jabbar also picked up his fifth MVP title.
Los Angeles went on to lose to the Portland Trail Blazers in the Western Conference Finals, but Kareem was one of the essential pieces of the Showtime Era. In 2007, ESPN named him as the greatest center of all time. The Lakers were lucky to have snagged him from the Bucks all those years ago.