Re: LeBron James Signs With Miami Heat
There is a new trend on the rise....
There is a new trend on the rise....
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Hands Down....Man Down - 2k9 memories
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IHP_5GUBQo -
Re: LeBron James Signs With Miami Heat
A new trend of players wanting to win? I don't think that's new or a trend...most, if not all, highly competitive people want to win.
It's just a matter of "is your name being mentioned with all-time greats like Jordan, Bird, and Oscar Robertson?...if the answer is yes, what are you going to do about that?"
Kobe is working on ring number 6 as THE GUY on his team, even tho in the past he's said things like "don't compare me to Mike, Mike was Mike and I'm me" it's still insanely obvious that he wants to be in the same category as Jordan. Same goes for Albert Pujols and Payton Manning with Stan "The Man" Musial and Unitas. Both were compared to greats that came before them and both nipped it in the bud, but it's still obvious they want their names on the same level as their predecessors based on their actions (mainly their leadership and focus on being better than everyone else.) To me it looks like a "certain someone" lived a lie for 7 years, or turned his back on what his goals were. Because in those situations you can see a player saying one thing with his mouth, but something completely different by his actions. Those actions do not include running to someone else's team to alleviate the pressure.
I think a CP3 dominates a game in a slightly different fashion than a Kobe, LBJ, Jordan, and even Wade does. He needs talent around him, a PG can't do it all by himself. But you don't hear him saying he wants to go to the Nuggets with Billips or the Suns with Nash. Every team he's allegedly picked has a spot for him to do what he does along with complementary players (Gasol & Kobe, Amar'e and MAYBE Gallo depending on whether or not he survives the trade and if he plays to his potential, and then you have the Magic...I mean...Howard, Lewis, Reddick, VC (but I doubt he'd survive that deal.)
You really think the CP3 situation is the same?Last edited by nuckles2k2; 07-22-2010, 09:42 AM.Comment
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Re: LeBron James Signs With Miami Heat
LOL at this whole situation. The only things I feel LeBron did wrong were the one hour special and not letting the Cavs know his desicion before the show. Knocking the man because he want to play with a good team or justy want to win period...Thats wrong...
Now that "CP3 wants to move" its a totally difference situation now...lol I know exactly the counter points people will bring up now. Considering team situation, teammates, Win % and etc. All the man wants to do is win. And win now. Nothing wrong with that.Hands Down....Man Down - 2k9 memories
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IHP_5GUBQoComment
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Re: LeBron James Signs With Miami Heat
No one said wanting to win is wrong. But if he didn't like the pressure being put on him...say something... You don't have to sit back and let people call you The Chosen One, and you don't have to tattoo that to your back if you don't believe it. If you do believe it, act accordingly.
He's so outspoken about what a legend Jordan is and how his number should be retired, but yet he chooses to wear Bill Russell's number. It's not like LBJ is Tayshaun Prince and you damn near have to twist his arm to know what he's thinking. If he thought the whole "King James" and next G.O.A.T was too much....do something about it. You hold your brand, career, and public image in your hands. Don't tell us for 7 years that your a King, and then suddenly you don't want the pressure of having to "score a lot and shoot a high percentage every night" (I'm paraphrasing, I don't know the exact quote but that's the jist of it.)
Look...there's nothing wrong with liking the guys and supporting his decision, but why are you acting like you just don't get what people are saying? LBJ didn't materialize from some puddle of freakish athleticism on July 8th, the dude's been in the NBA for 7 years, and in the public eye for longer. You and I both know what he was labelled as, and all signs pointed to him accepting that label and challenge and running with it both on the court and in his marketing campaign put on by Nike. Why allow any of that to happen if that's not you? It's not like Nike would tear up his contract and say "get outta here!!" If they were willing to dig up old sound recordings of Tiger's dead father to help repair the image that Tiger single handedly destroyed...I think they would have listened to LBJ if he said "look, I'm not really comfortable with this whole King thing, take it in another direction."
Which ironically seems like what they have to do anyway, since I'm not seeing any "Witness" or King James Miami gear. Only a pair of his sneakers in red and black.Comment
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Re: LeBron James Signs With Miami Heat
It's not knocking the man because he wants to play on a good team or win, he wants to win at any costs by playing on an All-Star team cause it's the easiest route to a title.
People just tend to have a desire to see people do things the right way and actually earn what they get by putting in hard work and getting the payoff in the end for their effort. No likes seeing people take shortcuts and there's nothing at all satisfying about winning with a shortcut. It's why teachers want you to SHOW your work in math problems as opposed to just giving the answer. It's the reason video games disable your ability to earn achievements when you use cheat codes. Why a person in perfect health and ability entering the Special Olympics and dominating wouldn't be some heartwarming, okay story.
It may not in fact be an easy ride for the Heat, but the fact that they formed this team with the idea that it would (and LeBron has said as much) be says all you need to know about why it's a problem. If this happened organically, it's one thing, but happening like this? Big problem. Either way if they win the question is still going to be whether LeBron could do it on his own or not. You think there aren't people that question that about Magic and Bird to this day? Kobe went through it after Shaq. But some of you guys act like LeBron is above all of them and shouldn't get the same type of criticsm. At least those other guy's situations was something they had no real control over.Comment
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Re: LeBron James Signs With Miami Heat
If I'm Cleveland, I sign Charles Oakley to a 10-day contract right before they play the Heat. Just let him head hunt.Comment
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Re: LeBron James Signs With Miami Heat
I apologize if this has been posted before, went back a few pages and didn't see it.
Magic Johnson joins the cavalcade of those saying, essentially, hey LeBron James, real men don't play with superstars.
"We didn't think about it 'cause that's not what we were about," Johnson said at Baruch College in New York, according to Bloomberg News. "From college, I was trying to figure out how to beat Larry Bird."
This past weekend, Jordan said at a celebrity golf event that he never would have played with Johnson or Bird, his two main rivals during his playing days.
"There's no way, with hindsight, I would've ever called up Larry [Bird], called up Magic [Johnson] and said, 'Hey, look, let's get together and play on one team,'" Jordan said after playing in a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada. The interview aired on the NBC telecast of the event. "But that's ... things are different. I can't say that's a bad thing. It's an opportunity these kids have today. In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys."
TrueHoop reader Mike, however, takes special exception to the idea that Johnson would stick with a mediocre roster over playing with superstars. He e-mails:
As much as I admire and respect these players, it becomes hard to take them seriously when none of them had situations comparable to LeBron, and all of the them got to play with other great, Top-50 All-Time players. The quest to play with other elite talent is basically universal amongst stars, be it Wilt going to join Hal Greer and later Jerry West and Elgin Baylor or all the way up to Kobe openly flirting with the Bulls and Clippers and threatening trade demands until the Lakers acquired Pau Gasol.
The fact that LeBron simply exercised his rights as a free agent to leave Cleveland to do what countless other players have done, rather than demand trades or refuse to play for the team that drafted him, should not be held against him.
I'm not even a fan of LeBron, but at this point I think he's getting dumped on pretty unfairly.
And in the case of Magic Johnson, Mike has done his homework. He found a Mike Downey L.A. Times article from 1991:
Magic Johnson would have returned to Michigan State rather than play for the Chicago Bulls.
"I'd have stayed in school," he said here Tuesday, standing alone outside Gate 3 1/2 of Chicago Stadium, the house that could have been his. "A coin toss changed the course of my whole life." Chicago called heads in a 1979 coin flip with Los Angeles for the No. 1 pick in the NBA college draft. It came up tails.
Johnson signed with the Lakers after his sophomore year of college and proceeded to win five championships. The Bulls picked second, took UCLA's David Greenwood and have won no championships.
"I wouldn't have played here," Johnson said on the eve of Game 2 of the NBA finals between his team and the team that could have been his. "The only reason I came out was to play with Kareem and the Lakers."
Then Mike gets to comparing the Lakers who played with Johnson in his first seven years to the Cavaliers who played with James over the same period. Johnson's teammates, in aggregate, had:
Two first team All-Rookie selections (Byron Scott, James Worthy)
11 All-Star appearances (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar seven times, Norm Nixon twice, Worthy, Jamaal Wilkes)
Four All-NBA first team selections (Abdul-Jabbar)
Two All-NBA second team selections (Abdul-Jabbar)
Five All-Defensive first team selections (Michael Cooper three times, Abdul-Jabbar twice)
Four All-Defensive second team selections (Cooper three times, Abdul-Jabbar once)
One MVP Award (Abdul-Jabbar)
In addition, Abdul-Jabbar, Worthy, Wilkes, Nixon, and Cooper all got votes for MVP at one point in time or the other during Magic's first seven years, and Cooper won defensive player of the year in Johnson's eighth year.
Mike does a similar analysis on James' Cavs' rosters:
Zero first team All-Rookie Selections
Two All-Star game appearances (Mo Williams, Zydrunas llgauskas)
Zero All-NBA first team selection
Zero All-NBA second team selections
Zero All-Defensive first team selections
One All-Defensive second team selection (Anderson Vareajo)
Zero MVP Awards
Mike adds, in conclusion:
In order to have a situation even comparable to Magic's, LeBron would have needed to be drafted onto, say, Tim Duncan's team (to parallel Abdul-Jabbar), played the last six years with a prime Bruce Bowen (to parallel Michael Cooper), and had the Cavs draft Danny Granger in his third year (as a parallel to Worthy), and that's ignoring guys like Scott/Wilkes/McAdoo etc.
I mean, let's be real, if LeBron had been in a situation like that does anyone doubt that he would have stayed? That he would already have multiple titles and that we'd be talking about his place amongst the top 10-15 players of all-time instead of dumping on his competitive fire? Magic had it easy, which make his comments seem absolutely ridiculous.
I'll acknowledge there's a chicken and egg thing here. I can hear the argument now: If James had been a better leader, then the Cavaliers would have won more titles which would have earned his teammates more accolades. Even leaving aside entirely the reality that James has been about as productive as any player in NBA history, let's concede that point, and merely say: It's still not even close.
In fact, there's a debate to be had about whether James' current SuperFriends team in Miami is as good as the one Johnson played for. Is Dwyane Wade more valuable than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? It's an insane question without a real answer, but I think we can agree there are strong cases to be made on both sides of the equation, and though Wade has a much better PER (around 30 last season) Abdul-Jabbar's was still insanely high in the mid-20s through Johnson's first seven seasons, and Abdul-Jabbar almost never missed a game.
What it really comes down to is that Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson can say they wouldn't have stooped to seeking out teammates as good as Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. But bear in mind they also never had to confront the reality of seven years with the kinds of rosters James played on in Cleveland.Comment
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Re: LeBron James Signs With Miami Heat
What it really comes down to is that Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson can say they wouldn't have stooped to seeking out teammates as good as Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. But bear in mind they also never had to confront the reality of seven years with the kinds of rosters James played on in Cleveland.
They must of forgot Jordan's first 7 seasons, when they suffered the same fate year in and year out the Cavs did, with much worse records. I think one year they made the playoffs with like 30 wins...smh. Didn't see Jordan running away.Comment
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