The LeBron James Thread

[Starlin4Prez]

Re: LeBron James Signs With Miami Heat

LOL....

Any year from now...We will be hearing Durant or Rose demanding a trade.....LMAO jk

If you thought LeBron "desicion" started fires.....CP3 demanding a trade threw some more gas on it...lol

Well seeing he guaranteed he was never leaving Chicago, if he does demand a trade, whooo, there might be a second Chicago Fire in the future lol.

[jeebs9]

Re: LeBron James Signs With Miami Heat

In fairness the way your post is worded makes it seem like you're saying what you heard was BS something. If it's not what you meant then disregard the post, but that is the way it looks.

Sorry Man...I suck at emotions on the web.

Sounds like that's what he's saying. If not, I don't know why he'd bring it up.

At the supermarket the other day I heard someone say that I could get 5 apples for a buck.


You realize that when you throw out these ambiguous "two completely different situations...." "they haven't played a game yet...," or "let's see how this all plays out...," you aren't actually saying anything or answering the question right?

You heard someone say that they were hyped up as the favorites to win the title for the last two years BECAUSE THEY WERE. Unless you watched zero ESPN, there's no way that you didn't hear Legler, Mashburn, Jon Barry, etc., waxing poetic about that team. Everybody loved the Shaq and Jamison trades but I'm pretty sure that you knew, when they were made, that it wasn't gonna work right? 60+ wins in a season, and you were pretty sure that they still weren't going to make it all the way? Not even close to a favorite?

I'll just ask, do you not agree with that poster's sentiments?

I mean, that's not even the point of this thread (the topic changes quite a bit) but please, don't let that allow to dodge the question again. I'm really interested to see if you were the lone member of the NBA-watching community who didn't see the Cavs ripping everyone apart during the regular season, while the Celtics were losing left and right (while everyone was calling them old), and still knew that the roster was SO garbage, that they had no chance in the playoffs.

I did agree with the person who posted that (can't remember who it was). I had quoted some who was saying the "LeBron greatest Robin was Mo Williams".

I think I'm going to stay out of the LeBron threads from here on in...lol

[jeebs9]

Re: LeBron James Signs With Miami Heat

Well seeing he guaranteed he was never leaving Chicago, if he does demand a trade, whooo, there might be a second Chicago Fire in the future lol.

How do you think I feel?....I remember LeBron being quoted his second or third year. Saying the same exact things Rose had said in his comments. Saying that he wouldn't leave Cleveland to win a championship some where else. I remember that like it was yesterday. But it happen....

Not saying that Rose is going to do the samething.

[Starlin4Prez]

Re: LeBron James Signs With Miami Heat

How do you think I feel?....I remember LeBron being quoted his second or third year. Saying the same exact things Rose had said in his comments. Saying that he wouldn't leave Cleveland to win a championship some where else. I remember that like it was yesterday. But it happen....

Not saying that Rose is going to do the samething.

Touche. I feel a little more confident after Rose said he didn't want to call and recruit LeBron lol. He wants it to be his team I believe/hope.

[KSUowls]

Re: LeBron James Signs With Miami Heat

I believe that was the point I was trying to make, maybe you need to read a little further. Jordan didn't run, LeBron did.

I gathered that, but Jordan didn't have to "run" to get talent around him. Chicago is an attractive city for free agents to come play in and he already had some really good young talent around him. So even though he hadn't won yet the guys around him were already pretty good and really starting to enter their prime.

Lebron on the other hand only had 2 players of any real consequence on his team and one of them would have been early 35 by the time the next playoffs roll around. That doesn't bold well for next season and even less for the future.

There situations are hardly comparable at all.

Yeah but the Cavs techncially improved as well, and had the best player in the league on their team. So maybe it really isn't that obvious.

Cleveland improved yes. You would be correct on that technicality. Teams like Boston and Orlando improved a lot more though.

[Dice]

Re: LeBron James Signs With Miami Heat

http://espn.go.com/blog/TrueHoop/post/_/id/18462/magic-johnson-sought-elite-teammates-too

Got some issues with this article. And to think, a professional sports media outlet like ESPN would have some major flaws for an article like this.

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 wish he would have done his homework because Wilt never signed with the 76ers. He was traded. Same with the Lakers. Players have limited power when they are traded, free agency gives players a lot more power on where they can go. So comparing Wilt and Lebron's scenario is two different things.

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."

While that's true, Magic had yet to attain the status of LeBron at that point in his career. Matter of fact, at that time Magic didn't have an NBA career just yet. So your comparing Magic Johnson at that point of time with zero NBA experience to LeBron at the point of his career with 2 MVP's? That situation doesn't match.

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.

And this is what I don't like when people argue about this because this is not the basis of the argument, at least from my perspective. First of all, the problem(at least to me) is not him getting on a championship team, it's how he got there and why. We all know that the Cavs failed to put a championship team around him. We all know that BUT him leaving Cleveland is not the issue. It's him going to a team AS A FREE AGENT WHO HAS ALREADY A TOP 5 PLAYER while HE'S A TOP FIVE PLAYER himself. That's the problem, which as a result hurts his legacy as a player. Does that mean he's not a HOF player? Of course not. He continues to put up the number he's a lock. BUT to place him in the tier 1 superstars of HOF players(Jordan,Bird,Magic) hurts him tremendously.

[Starlin4Prez]

Re: LeBron James Signs With Miami Heat

I gathered that, but Jordan didn't have to "run" to get talent around him. Chicago is an attractive city for free agents to come play in and he already had some really good young talent around him. So even though he hadn't won yet the guys around him were already pretty good and really starting to enter their prime.

Lebron on the other hand only had 2 players of any real consequence on his team and one of them would have been early 35 by the time the next playoffs roll around. That doesn't bold well for next season and even less for the future.

There situations are hardly comparable at all.

Yeah, he didn't HAVE to run, but we were comparing the situations Jordan and James were in, which were very similar. Some playoff success, no ships etc...etc...and LeBron ran, Jordan didn't. Jordan didn't conspire with Magic and Bird to magically all sign the same contract to be free-agents at the same time.

Yeah, that is great and all but they acquired Pippen and Grant via draft from sucking, not from free agency.

Cleveland improved yes. You would be correct on that technicality. Teams like Boston and Orlando improved a lot more though.

They also didn't have the best player in the NBA on their team. Just saying.

[ZB9]

Re: LeBron James Signs With Miami Heat

Yea Magic was drafted into one of the best situations in the history of the NBA. His comments are ridiculous.

[goldteethbandit]

Re: LeBron James Signs With Miami Heat

http://espn.go.com/blog/TrueHoop/pos...-teammates-too

Got some issues with this article. And to think, a professional sports media outlet like ESPN would have some major flaws for an article like this.


I wish he would have done his homework because Wilt never signed with the 76ers. He was traded. Same with the Lakers. Players have limited power when they are traded, free agency gives players a lot more power on where they can go. So comparing Wilt and Lebron's scenario is two different things.


While that's true, Magic had yet to attain the status of LeBron at that point in his career. Matter of fact, at that time Magic didn't have an NBA career just yet. So your comparing Magic Johnson at that point of time with zero NBA experience to LeBron at the point of his career with 2 MVP's? That situation doesn't match.


And this is what I don't like when people argue about this because this is not the basis of the argument, at least from my perspective. First of all, the problem(at least to me) is not him getting on a championship team, it's how he got there and why. We all know that the Cavs failed to put a championship team around him. We all know that BUT him leaving Cleveland is not the issue. It's him going to a team AS A FREE AGENT WHO HAS ALREADY A TOP 5 PLAYER while HE'S A TOP FIVE PLAYER himself. That's the problem, which as a result hurts his legacy as a player. Does that mean he's not a HOF player? Of course not. He continues to put up the number he's a lock. BUT to place him in the tier 1 superstars of HOF players(Jordan,Bird,Magic) hurts him tremendously.

soooooo your issue with Lebron is that instead being drafted to a team with a top five player or demanding a trade to a team with a top five player, he went through FA which was well within his rights to do. Got it you're only a coward if you go to a better team via free agency. Do I have that correct?

[ZB9]

Re: LeBron James Signs With Miami Heat

soooooo your issue with Lebron is that instead being drafted to a team with a top five player or demanding a trade to a team with a top five player, he went through FA which was well within his rights to do. Got it you're only a coward if you go to a better team via free agency. Do I have that correct?

It wasnt just that he left. Many people feel that the way he handled it and the circus Lebron created was classless...

[wwharton]

Re: LeBron James Signs With Miami Heat

It wasnt just that he left. Many people feel that the way he handled it and the circus Lebron created was classless...

don't bother. just start pointing people to the other 100+ pages of the thread. If that's not enough then they just want to keep arguing about points that exist in their heads.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: LeBron James Signs With Miami Heat

don't bother. just start pointing people to the other 100+ pages of the thread. If that's not enough then they just want to keep arguing about points that exist in their heads.

Just thinking the same thing. If after 647 pages people don't get it, they never will.

[Murkurial]

Re: LeBron James Signs With Miami Heat

First of all, the problem(at least to me) is not him getting on a championship team, it's how he got there and why. We all know that the Cavs failed to put a championship team around him. We all know that BUT him leaving Cleveland is not the issue. It's him going to a team AS A FREE AGENT WHO HAS ALREADY A TOP 5 PLAYER while HE'S A TOP FIVE PLAYER himself. That's the problem, which as a result hurts his legacy as a player. Does that mean he's not a HOF player? Of course not. He continues to put up the number he's a lock. BUT to place him in the tier 1 superstars of HOF players(Jordan,Bird,Magic) hurts him tremendously.

This is what people still don't seem to get.

I personally couldn't care less about his legacy but those who think that he's still just as much in the running for the G.O.A.T. are deluded. Of course they will just as soon turn around and say that maybe he never wanted to be that in the first place or the old way of doing it doesn't matter anymore.

Don't care that he left.

Don't care where he went.

He was compared to MJ (and he WAS; to debate this is to admit that you've been listening to nothing NBA related for the past 7 years).

He's no longer in the conversation (for reasons discussed, and ignored, ad nauseum in this thread).

[goldteethbandit]

Re: LeBron James Signs With Miami Heat

It wasnt just that he left. Many people feel that the way he handled it and the circus Lebron created was classless...

yeah I agree on disliking him for how he handled the process, but Dice is saying his issue isn't the leaving of Cleveland but rather leaving via FA to get with another top player and that will hurt his legacy more then if he had demanded to be/and was eventually traded to a team with a top player. Thats where my confusion comes from.

[wwharton]

Re: LeBron James Signs With Miami Heat

yeah I agree on disliking him for how he handled the process, but Dice is saying his issue isn't the leaving of Cleveland but rather leaving via FA to get with another top player and that will hurt his legacy more then if he had demanded to be/and was eventually traded to a team with a top player. Thats where my confusion comes from.

Do a search on this thread... you can even limit it to Dice's comments. I'm sure you'll find many more detailed posts explaining his position. Your response to his post was just a shot to entice a response to keep this going around in the same circle.

Please don't pretend you think Dice or any of us actually felt your response wasn't sarcastic.