Thursday, May 31st 2007, I became a witness

[DeToxRox]

Lebron James managed to do it today, he converted me. He was playing with GODMODE all night. He was straight out of NBA Jam 97, Bill Clinton style, with as much domination.

This was one of the damndest things I've ever seen tonight.

[Deattribution]

He just made another 100+ million in endorsements tonight.

[RGunner]

that was definitely the best individual performance ive ever seen from the 4th on....just insane how easy it looked for him to do whatever he wanted

[Neon_Chaos]

PREACH ON, PREACHER MAN!

[cmp]

Yup. Tonight he showed the world he's the best we've ever seen. Jordan couldn't do what Lebron did tonight, I don't care what anyone else says, no one else could do that. I've never been a Lebron fan, but tonight, he showed me no one is even close to his level. Just a few months ago I would have told you Kobe was the best in the league, now there's no argument. Lebron's taking a team filled with average players and is bringing them to the finals.

And being a Pistons fan, that last paragraph was hard to write.

[DeToxRox]

Dola, I too am a Pistons fan, but I was just in awe at that performance, obviously.

[RedKingGold]

OK, ok. I too am one of LeBron's biggest supporters. However, let's not swing from one side (saying he's overrated and could never hit a clutch shot) all the way to another.

LeBron is still great and will be one of the all-time greats, but let's not get too far in saying he's "better than Jordan" right here, right now.

However, it will be nice to see some idiots (aka Skip Bayless) eat serious crow tomorrow morning.

[cmp]

LeBron is still great and will be one of the all-time greats, but let's not get too far in saying he's "better than Jordan" right here, right now.


I'm saying what he did tonight, Jordan couldn't do. The way he dominated that game no one else can do. He has a long way to go before he's better than Jordan but he has all the tools to do it.

[TroyF]

Yup. Tonight he showed the world he's the best we've ever seen. Jordan couldn't do what Lebron did tonight, I don't care what anyone else says, no one else could do that. I've never been a Lebron fan, but tonight, he showed me no one is even close to his level. Just a few months ago I would have told you Kobe was the best in the league, now there's no argument. Lebron's taking a team filled with average players and is bringing them to the finals.

And being a Pistons fan, that last paragraph was hard to write.


Best single game I've ever seen.

But let's cut the "nobody else is on his level" garbage. One game does not a career make. Just a week ago, I was wondering if he'd ever have the break out performence everyone thought he had in him.

The last three games he's been nothing short of brilliant. Now he has to close out the series. And he has to follow this up by emerging as this type of player repeatedly next year. Over and over and over again.

If anything, tonights performence makes me scratch my head a lot more. Where has this been? Regular season or playoffs in the last two seasons?

I'll say it again. Single best performence I've seen in a playoff game. No question. But I'll say another thing again. . . cut the "nobody else on his level" garbage until he does this type of thing on a regular basis.

I have a gut feeling he's going to find the going very, very rough in a couple of nights. I'm very interested to see how he'll respond.

[Groundhog]

The problem is, as I've said in the other threads, that LeBron isn't a "hop on my back boys and let me carry you all with 48 points" kind of player. That he can have performances like tonight is a testament to just how good he is, but scoring 29 out of your team's final 30 points is not something he can fairly be asked to do night in and night out.

In a few days time he'll find himself swamped with Pistons defenders once again, and if his team-mates don't lend a hand, much like Z and to a lesser extent Gibson did until fouling out tonight, then he could find things tough going next game. The Cavs can't allow the Pistons to play a box and 1 keyed in on LeBron exclusively. They didn't do a good job of this tonight, but you have to figure Flip will do a better job of coaching this after sitting through a tape of tonight's game.

[Jas_lov]

I don't think I'd ever say Jordan couldn't do something. One of the best playoff performances I've ever seen was Jordan putting up 38 on the Jazz in the finals while sick with the flu. He dominated the 4th quarter. The Bulls were down by 1 and Jordan got to the free throw line. He hit the 1st and missed the 2nd, but got the rebound and hit the game winning 3 pointer to give the Bulls a 3-2 lead in the series in Utah. Then he scored 39 in game 6 where Kerr hit the series winning shot.

That said, I think what Lebron did was the best performance I've ever seen in the playoffs because of the way he did it all by himself. Sure Detroit let him drive to the hoop and get dunks and layups, but he hit some extremely tough jumpers. I know we tend to overreact when we just see something and forget about past performances, but what Lebron did tonight was just unreal. But don't say that Jordan couldn't dominate games like Lebron did tonight because Jordan did it every game every year.

[MikeVic]

Yeah, LeBron was on another plane tonight. Unreal.

[cthomer5000]

Yup. Tonight he showed the world he's the best we've ever seen. Jordan couldn't do what Lebron did tonight, I don't care what anyone else says, no one else could do that. I've never been a Lebron fan, but tonight, he showed me no one is even close to his level. Just a few months ago I would have told you Kobe was the best in the league, now there's no argument. Lebron's taking a team filled with average players and is bringing them to the finals.

And being a Pistons fan, that last paragraph was hard to write.

Serious question, how old are you? I think it's pertinent.

I mean, seriously... you must have been less than 10 during Jordna's heyday to think that he didnt repeatedly pull the most ridiculous shit out of his ass in the clutch.

[TroyF]

The problem is, as I've said in the other threads, that LeBron isn't a "hop on my back boys and let me carry you all with 48 points" kind of player. That he can have performances like tonight is a testament to just how good he is, but scoring 29 out of your team's final 30 points is not something he can fairly be asked to do night in and night out.

In a few days time he'll find himself swamped with Pistons defenders once again, and if his team-mates don't lend a hand, much like Z and to a lesser extent Gibson did until fouling out tonight, then he could find things tough going next game. The Cavs can't allow the Pistons to play a box and 1 keyed in on LeBron exclusively. They didn't do a good job of this tonight, but you have to figure Flip will do a better job of coaching this after sitting through a tape of tonight's game.

I don't mean he has to do this on a nightly basis. Hell, he may never again have a night like he had tonight.

I mean he has to come up big in fourth quarters repeatedly now. Not just once in awhile. The last three games has shown what he CAN do in those situations. Now he must continue to have great games.

It's easy to get caught up in last nights game and forget that heading into that game he was averaging 24 points on 43% shooting in 14 previous playoff games. (for the comparisons to Jordan, understand he never averaged under 29 in this playoff career and rarely shot under 50% until the end of his career) I disagree with the statement he isn't a hop on my back boys type of player. He most certainly is and always has been. Yeah, he can board and pass as well, but so could Jordan.

Hell, the last three games shows what James is capable of. IMHO, he has a chance to be one of the greatest players any of us has ever laid eyes on. But I'm not annoiting him after a single game either. He has a long ways to go before I'm mentioning him in the debate about the greatest players ever.

As Cthomer put it, unless you watched the Jordan years, you have no idea how good that guy was in the fourth quarter. He simply killed you.

[Izulde]

Incredible performance by James last night, I agree.

Better than Jordan? Not even close.

[Pumpy Tudors]

OK, you guys are making me mad. I was bowling last night, but they had the game on in the bowling center. The game was maybe in the third quarter when I headed for home. My wife and I got home 5 minutes later, and she started up "Pirate Master" on the TiVo. By the time she was done watching that, I figured that the basketball game was over. I'm not a huge NBA fan anymore, so I didn't bother trying to check for a score or anything last night. I didn't care enough.

A few minutes later, I was hanging in an IRC channel, and someone mentioned that LeBron was probably about to make a game-winning shot. I asked, "Isn't the game over yet?" A minute later, someone said, "It is now." I was wondering what the hell I had missed. Now I find out that it was apparently one of the most dominating playoff performances by a single player in the past whoknowshowmany years...

...and I missed it because of Pirate Master.

[miami_fan]

Why are there only two options A) he is the worst superstar in the league or B) he is the greatest player ever.

[Dr. Sak]

...and I missed it because of Pirate Master.

Good job ass pirate

[rkmsuf]

I'll still take Detroit in the series.

[Buccaneer]

It's clear LeBron can beat Detroit by himself.

Way of sports since the 1990s - celebrating The Man in a team sport.

[Dr. Sak]

Way of sports since the 1990s - celebrating The Man in a team sport.

There is no I in team....but there is a ME

[Pumpy Tudors]

Way of sports since the 1990s - celebrating The Man in a team sport.
I know how you feel about this sort of thing, and you're probably not really looking for a response, but I'll throw one in anyway for comedy value. :)

From what I'm reading, in this case, the celebration of LeBron James is deserved. When your options are 1) be the best player on the team and put them on your back and 2) pass the ball to Larry Hughes, I think I'd take option 1 every time. Judging from the foul trouble that Cleveland had last night, the Cavaliers didn't even really have an actual team on the floor by the time overtime got going. In this case, James kinda had to do it by himself or Cleveland would have lost. It's one thing to know that you have to carry your team. It's another thing when the other team knows it and you carry your guys anyway.

[Mustang]

There is no I in team....but there is a ME

Ain't no we either.

- Leon

[Dr. Sak]

I miss those commericals

[gstelmack]

That's great that he did it last night, but where was he in games 1 & 2?

[Atocep]

Whatever Lebron or any other superstar that comes along in the NBA does isn't going to be enough. They'll unfairly compared to guys like Russell and Jordan or Bird and Magic.

It was bad when Vince Carter came along, was worse with Kobe, and has reached stupid levels with Lebron. Can't wait for Oden or whoever comes along after him.

[Ksyrup]

I miss those commericals

Weren't they supposed to make a sitcom out of that character? Or did it happen, Fox ran it at 2:30am, got no audience, and they canceled it at 2:50?

[gstelmack]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/blog/index?name=simmons&entryDate=20070531

I know, everyone hates Bill Simmons, but the bottom of that article says it all.

[nilodor]

Why are there only two options A) he is the worst superstar in the league or B) he is the greatest player ever.

I think this may stem from the fact that he doesn't turn it on every night. Jordan in his hayday or Kobe most nights just looked pissed, they were pretty much either on or off, mostly on, always on in the playoffs. LeBron seems to have gears, the last 3 games he has been in high gear, playing to dominate the game, but in many other games he just doesn't seem to be there, kinda mid gear, like the first two games of this series. For LeBron to cement his star he needs to be able to deliver these top gear performances night in, night out in the playoffs. I for one hope he does, we don't need anymore Vince Carters in this league.

[Ksyrup]

Are you Bill Simmons, or do you just play him at FOFC? :)

[rkmsuf]

Are you Bill Simmons, or do you just play him at FOFC? :)

lol

can we get some chauncey billups talk too? perhaps a recap of his career?

[flere-imsaho]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/blog/index?name=simmons&entryDate=20070531

I know, everyone hates Bill Simmons, but the bottom of that article says it all.

I'll admit it, this in particular cracked me up:

The Cavs having superior athletic talent and a major speed advantage, but walking the ball up every possession so Ilgauskas can remain on the court … and the Pistons not taking advantage of Z's glacier-like defense by going small and making him guard the likes of Sheed, Antonio McDyess or even Jason Maxiell. It's the rare case of both coaches willfully going for a disadvantage at the same time. I've never seen it before and, honestly, I'm just glad that it happened in my lifetime.

[Crapshoot]

Way of sports since the 1990s - celebrating The Man in a team sport.

You're right Bucc - we should celebrate those good ol days, when men were men, and everyone held hands and sang Kumbaya. Sports are an outlet - we love brilliant individual play, and I'll be damned if I'm going to condemn them for it.

[Noop]

LeBron was amazing last night. 23 is back people.....

[Buccaneer]

Pumpsy, you're right, I wasn't looking for one but that's a good response.