Although not as demeaning as being blocked, when an NBA player has the ball stolen from him it is just as demoralizing. When someone steals something from you in the streets or in your own house, it hurts. In the game of basketball, when you have control and the control is stolen you are left to play defense.
Steals may actually be more defeating than blocks because it seems half of blocked shots fly into the stands or actually back into the hands of the team it was blocked from. Steals are more solid defensively because control for the stealing team is more common.
Steals can turn around a game, in fact, steals have determined winners in the playoffs and Finals. "Havlicek stole the ball, it's over, it's all over!" Too bad steal statistics weren't kept until 1972 or I know Havlicek would be at or near the top of this list.
Remember when Bird stole the inbounds pass from Isiah and dished it to DJ?
In 1998 Michael Jordan stole it from Karl Malone and the took it down and hit the sickest game winner in a Finals closer ever.
These are the guys who finished their careers (some aren't done yet) with the most ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Zachmo Marsupalami
NBA’s All-Time Steals Leaders
September 2nd, 2011 by Zachmo Marsupalami Leave a reply »
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