After a brutal 82-game regular season, the best teams - and, in turn, the best players - are rewarded with another battle: the NBA playoffs.

With the pressure ramped up to boiling point, it takes cool heads and hot hands to separate the wheat from the chaff at the business end.

For those who prove able to get the job done, gilded legacies and silverware aplenty await them.

But for those who fail, infamy and pain are theirs to deal with.

From a contemporary king to his goggled predecessor, here is the full list of NBA players to have lost at least 75 career playoff games.

 

Player Playoff losses Team/s
LeBron James 104 Cleveland, Miami & Los Angeles Lakers
Derek Fisher 98 Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State, Utah, Oklahoma City & Dallas
Karl Malone 95 Utah & Los Angeles Lakers
Tim Duncan 94 San Antonio
John Stockton 93 Utah
Tony Parker 89 San Antonio & Charlotte
Robert Horry 89 Houston, Phoenix, Los Angeles Lakers & San Antonio
Shaquille O'Neal 87 Orlando, Los Angeles Lakers, Miami, Phoenix, Cleveland & Boston
Al Horford 86 Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia & Oklahoma City
Kobe Bryant 85 Los Angeles Lakers
Manu Ginobili 83 San Antonio
Paul Pierce 83 Boston, Brooklyn, Washington & Los Angeles Clippers
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 83 Milwaukee & Los Angeles Lakers
Jason Kidd 79 Dallas, Phoenix, New Jersey & New York
Rasheed Wallace 79 Washington, Portland, Atlanta, Detroit, Boston & New York
Sam Perkins 79 Dallas, Los Angeles Lakers, Seattle & Indiana
Danny Ainge 78 Boston, Sacramento, Portland & Phoenix
James Harden 77 Oklahoma City, Houston, Brooklyn, Philadelphia & Los Angeles Clippers
Clifford Robinson 77 Portland, Phoenix, Detroit, Golden State & New Jersey
Robert Parish 77 Golden State, Boston, Charlotte & Chicago
Dirk Nowitzki 76 Dallas
Charles Oakley 76 Chicago, New York, Toronto, Washington & Houston
Dennis Johnson 75 Seattle, Phoenix & Boston

*All stats correct as of April 30, 2024