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If we substituted Magic Johnson for Lebron in LBJ’s NBA Finals series, would he get more than 3 rings?

Yes – I believe he would but only in one Finals, 2011. In 2011 Lebron famously melted down and I don’t think that would have happened to Magic.

For the other 5 lost Finals – no I don’t think so. 2007, 2015, and 2018 Lebron’s second best scorers were Zydrunas, Delladova, and a very inconsistent Kevin Love. I don’t think Magic would have done much better than Lebron did, especially considering that Magic is not as good a scorer as Lebron was.

In 2014 and 2017 the Cavs were simply up against two of the greatest NBA teams of all time, and its doubtful that Magic would have beaten them. Keep in mind Magic played most of his career with the NBA’s all time leading scorer.

Another thing I might note is that Magic might have lost the 2016 Finals. I don’t think he would have been able to come back up from 3–1 down to win the series the way Lebron did. So maybe he would have ended up with 3 rings either way – just swap 2011 with 2016.

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Which NBA player (or future NBA player) can you see getting the next quadruple double?

Here’s an interesting thing: If you make a search on Basketball Reference with the criteria > 10 PPG, > 6 RPG, > 6 APG, > 2 SPG you will see the most well rounded guards/forwards: Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Lebron James, Russell Westbrook, Jason Kidd, Scottie Pippen, Walt Frazier, Rick Barry, Fat Lever etc these are the players most likely to get a quadruple double with steals.

Getting 10 steals is remarkably difficult though; I think its interesting that Jordan, Magic, Kidd, Lebron etc never got a quadruple double before.

Using the criteria for blocks, you have to set it to > 10 PPG, > 6 RPG, > 4 APG, > 2 BPG and you can see some of the most well rounded big men: David Robinson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kevin Garnett, Bob Lanier all appear on the list pretty frequently. Wilt Chamberlain would have also been on there. Curiously, none of them except Robinson have produced a quadruple double, and Hakeem doesn’t appear on the list. Kareem had several seasons of statlines like 27/14/5/4 so I’m surprised he never had a quadruple double too.

Modern day, players are averaging triple doubles left and right so I will start with the most likely candidates: Anthony Davis, Draymond Green, Lebron James, Russell Westbrook, Ben Simmons would be my picks. Davis is currently the player most similar to Hakeem and Robinson too.

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Why does LeBron have a bad NBA Finals record despite the fact that he seems to get there every year easily enough?

Kind of the reverse of Michael Jordan and Kobe/Shaq, I think. Lebron breezes to the Finals every year because the teams in the East aren’t that tough – but his Finals opponents have been formidable. The 2014 Spurs and 2017 Warriors are two of the best teams in NBA history. Jordan/Kobe had a much tougher time going to the Finals (hence why they lost before the Finals so often), but once they were there they had a pretty easy time. No one would consider the 1992 Trailblazers an all time great team – nor would they consider the 2001 76ers or 2002 Nets or 2009 Magic an all time great team. This is part of the reason why Jordan (6–0) and Kobe’s (5–2) Finals records look much better than Lebron’s.