Alrighty, It's the 2012 NBA Playoffs Thread

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by RedKingGold

Still gotta feel bad for Cleveland though, this championship has to hurt.

Not as bad as it would've been for Seattle had the Zombies won.

[RedKingGold]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Not as bad as it would've been for Seattle had the Zombies won.

True, and at least Cleveland has a good base of young talent to build around now (so long as they draft well this year).

[Neon_Chaos]

Most important of all...

Eddy Curry is an NBA Champion. -.-

[Grover]

Howard is the only member of the Fab Five to win an NBA title.

[RainMaker]

Webber was robbed of one a decade ago.

[RedKingGold]

I wonder where that "Great Job, Great Effort" kid is at now. . .

[Noop]

Scott Brooks is classy.

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I got no dog in the NBA fight but this is one of the more "atta boy" championships I've seen in a while.

LeBron gets about as much shit as any athlete - or public figure - in history. Insofar as I know he hasn't killed anybody, raped anybody, beaten a dog, or any of the enormous list of popular transgressions. Yet he's supposed to be some sort of bad guy? That's utter bullshit & I'm happy that this title will take another arrow out of the lameass quiver that gets fired at him.

What he said.

[Arles]

At age 27, Michael had 0 NBA titles. At age 27, Lebron has one. Just reminding people ...

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by Arles

At age 27, Michael had 0 NBA titles. At age 27, Lebron has one. Just reminding people ...

Only needs at least 5 more since MJ took a detour.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I think Kobe is much more disliked. LeBron made a spectacle of a free agency decision, but he didn't get accused of rape.

I think stars are always going to be disliked outside of the city. That's just part of all sports. Lebron helped add fuel to that fire by choking a lot. That always makes things worse. Having a bad PR team hurts too.

He is definitely the best player in the league and one of the best all-time. Put the best supporting cast in the league around him and lived up to expecations this season.

[Noop]

[miami_fan]

Now that Lebron has won, who is the next on the "Needs to win a title"? Carmelo? Dwight Howard? Darko?

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

Now that Lebron has won, who is the next on the "Needs to win a title"? Carmelo? Dwight Howard? Darko?

Carmelo is sitting on top of the "needs to learn how to do something other than shoot the ball every time he has it" list.

[chadritt]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

Now that Lebron has won, who is the next on the "Needs to win a title"? Carmelo? Dwight Howard? Darko?

Joe Johnson? Chris Paul?

[chadritt]

Dola -

Not a fan of the Heat but it felt right to see Lebron win a title and an MVP. It really wouldve felt wrong if he never got a championship in his career.

[Radii]

Grats Noop, enjoy it.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

Now that Lebron has won, who is the next on the "Needs to win a title"? Carmelo? Dwight Howard? Darko?

Darko has one allready

[Danny]

No pressure on Melo, the championship pressure is for otherwise great players who haven't yet won a ring. Melo is not a great player

[Danny]

Oh and congrats to Lebron. I have fun rooting against him, but this is a well deserved title for him. I also don't really dislike him, it's just fun to have somone to root against.

[Danny]

Originally Posted by Danny

Oh and congrats to Lebron. I have fun rooting against him, but this is a well deserved title for him. I also don't really dislike him, it's just fun to have somone to root against.

Which is tougher since I root for the least likeable team in the league lol.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by whomario

Darko has one allready

Damn you are right.

4 of the first 5 picks of the 2003 NBA draft have rings now. Only Carmelo is missing.

After that, the rest of the top ten

6. Chris Kaman
7. Kirk Hinrich
8. T.J. Ford
9. Michael Sweetney
10. Jarvis Hayes

[Noop]

Originally Posted by Radii

Grats Noop, enjoy it.

I didn't do anything but cheer from Virginia and Miami during the playoffs. I am happy for the team.

[whomario]

James handled the whole thing very well tonight, kudos to him and the rest of the heat.

[Noop]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

Damn you are right.

4 of the first 5 picks of the 2003 NBA draft have rings now. Only Carmelo is missing.

After that, the rest of the top ten

6. Chris Kaman
7. Kirk Hinrich
8. T.J. Ford
9. Michael Sweetney
10. Jarvis Hayes

I don't think Melo will ever win one.

[Logan]

[jeff061]

He looks like a SNL parody of a clueless talk show host in that clip.

[Radii]

Its really difficult for me to watch more than about 15 seconds of video with skip bayless in it... but that was worth it.

[Arles]

Nicely done by Cuban. Some media people like Bayless love to make black and white statements to stir the pot. Player X didn't care. Team Y didn't play as hard. At the end of the day, all these guys are professionals and some execute better than others in a series. It's not a matter of effort, it's a matter of confidence, execution, coaching and adjustments. But, that's too complex for Bayless to throw into a 5 second sound bite - so you get that Lebron didn't care as much last year.

[Logan]

I loved every second of it, but a more underrated part was when Cuban asked what defensive schemes were used against LeBron and Skip couldn't think of a thing to say.

[larrymcg421]

Cuban is awesome.

I wrote earlier about how stupid the media was after the Celtics went up 3-2 on the Heat. They said the Heat couldn't win because they don't play like a team. Then LeBron almost singlehandedly beats the Celtics in game 6 and suddenly the Celtics have no chance in game 7. But wait, I thought thought the Heat had to play like a "team" to win? Apparently not.

It reminds me of the tired old "bulletin board material" cliche. If a player says something about how his team is going to win, that's somehow stupid because it motivates the other team. This is said even during championship games or series, where apparently the other team didn't care until this bulletin board material happened. This is funny because one of the most famous examples of someone doing this is Joe Namath in Superbowl 3, and the general media narrative about that is how Namath's statement gave his team the confidence to win.

Also, Larry Bird had no athletic skill. He just worked super duper hard.

[korme]

Last night comments a day later- the way Lebron was pushing it up the floor all night, being the field general with the ball, and making otherworldly passes all night, you could tell that he smelled the blood. I loved every minute of it.

[larrymcg421]

Give Stephen A. Smith credit (never thought I'd say that). He shut up for the entire segment, automatically making himself smarter than Skip Bayless..

[Danny]

Man that clip was awesome!

[Atocep]

Sports writers want to apply a story to what they're seeing. They typically don't understand the X's and O's well enough to explain something in that way and the X's and O's aren't what the general public wants hear about.

Skip Bayless has been saying for years that Lebron wouldn't win a title and every time he came up short he had a box full of generalities to explain why he didn't win and why he never will. Now that Lebron won Skip wants to apply a new narrative to the story. He thought he was the smartest sports writer in the world last year when the Heat lost and how that Lebron "broke through" and won he wants to be the smartest sports writer in the world again by explaining the changes Lebron made to his approach in order to make it happen.

Too often it's either someone stepped up in a clutch situation and carried his team or someone else didn't step up when his team needed him and he let his team down. Cuban did a great job in that clip of explaining that it's never that simple.

I hate Skip Bayless and the vast majority of sports writers.

[gstelmack]

The bit where Cuban said "so last year he listened to Skip Bayless and lost, this year he stopped listening to you in won, that's what you just said, right?" was awesome.

[Groundhog]

Cuban slaughtered Skip. Awesome.

[Matthean]

I honestly wonder how many owners could break down what their team did like that.

[sterlingice]

That was awesome!

{Skip}That's why one of these guys is a billionaire who owns a basketball team and the other is just a loudmouth sportswriter{/Skip}

SI

[kingfc22]

Oh Skip. You're such a tool.

Way to go Cuban!

[larrymcg421]

It's not that Skip didn't know as much as Cuban, he just didn't have the heart or desire to perform in that segment.

[sterlingice]

Gold

SI

[korme]