The LeBron James Thread

[ronyell]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

When he hit that three and Dirk n Chandler started getting fouls I thought he was gonna do it. You know take over and win the game but to my delight he did the opposite lol. I really almost didn't watch the finals that's how much I thought it was a foregone conclusion you know.

Oh and love that quote applies nicely "the Bears are who we thought they were! That's why we took the damn field. Now if you want to crown them, then crown their ***! But they are who we thought they were! And we let 'em off the hook

ahaha one of my favorite moments in sports the other being hal mcrae tossin his phone good stuff!

OMFG! did we just become best friends (Quote from Step Brothers)...? LMAO... ROTFL

2 of my favs too... u ARE taking about the that old baseball manager that was tired of getting asked "the same stupid *** questions every night" right?... LMAO!

[wwharton]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

Game 4 he was abysmal, yes. I can't explain it other than he differed hard trying to find a rhythm in the first and then just lost complete focus in the second half. Game 5 he seemed more active but without a jumpshot against a double team and a zone and the inability to get to the foul line what is he supposed to do? chuck when Wade had it going? Drive head first like a bull in a china shop into the teeth of the zone? Game 6 was more of the same in Game 5 except Wade didn't have it and he was pressing more.

Hopefully what the Heat are trying to build is something the opposite of what people seem to want from Lebron(to be some type of hero) Spoelstra preached trust all year long and when Lebron trusted the open man he get's killed for it. He made some bad reads this series at the worst times but I'm not going to kill him for trying to play basketball the right way. People are drunk off of the LeIso years.

Well yeah, a guy his size and with his speed in a desperate moment probably should start just driving into the teeth of the zone. What's he worried about getting called for a charge? You can't say he's getting killed for trusting the open man. The play he made to Howard was perfect. He drove, drew the defense and dished it. That's what he should've done... drive, if the help comes, THEN he's hitting the open man. If the help doesn't come he finishes and/or gets fouled. Lets also not forget that there were some passes when HE was the open man and he didn't even look at the basket. He's getting piled on, but this isn't about LeIso.

One last thing. The sentence that he says "So they can get a few days or a few months or whatever the case may be on being happy about not only myself, but the Miami Heat not accomplishing their goal. But they got to get back to the real world at some point."

Not only myself but the Miami Heat not accomplishing their goal. Sounds like don't forget they deserve blame for losing as well. Calling out his teammates right? Oh and we get to go back to the real world? Where the **** is LeBron living never never land?

I don't think so. I thought it seemed like pinning guilt on the haters. Basically saying, you're not only throwing darts at me but the entire team. Funny thing is he's the one that put the team in the position for getting all the hate.

[23]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

thats how Kobe won me over...after... u know... the incident... he STFU played & won... Lebron always says that he'l let his game do the talking... well... Lebron... u CERTAINLY did that! only prolem is; you STILL had a LOT to say & it all came back on you.

please explain

You mean the rape trial...shoot they got spanked that year by the Pistons and Detroit owned him in that series

After Shaq left the dude got knocked out of the 1st round, then lost a 3-1 lead over the suns to lose out again....then he cried

put him under pressure and he wilts like the rest of em


Im not defending Lebron in CLE but im sorry that team was regular season fodder

[BaselineBakes]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

Well yeah, a guy his size and with his speed in a desperate moment probably should start just driving into the teeth of the zone. What's he worried about getting called for a charge? You can't say he's getting killed for trusting the open man. The play he made to Howard was perfect. He drove, drew the defense and dished it. That's what he should've done... drive, if the help comes, THEN he's hitting the open man. If the help doesn't come he finishes and/or gets fouled. Lets also not forget that there were some passes when HE was the open man and he didn't even look at the basket. He's getting piled on, but this isn't about LeIso.

The LeIso comment is towards the extremists but it is all somewhat about LeIso, he seems to be expected to set up at the top of the arc with his teammates scattered across the perimeter break his man down and make the decision from there, that hasn't been the Heat's offense all year, he's in new spots, running a new offense and his role was more facilitator this year. At times he was plenty aggressive this year but most others he played point from the high elbow, he seemed to have a hard time picking and choosing his spots against the Mavs.

As far as being aggressive and hitting the open man he did do that at scattered times but when the Mavs locked down in the fourth he just seemed uncomfortable when his jump shot left him, they cut off his driving lanes and he misread coverages.

[Weeks]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

THEORY A

Remember when Wade tore into LeBron with three-plus minutes remaining in Game 3? When he yelled at him for eight solid seconds? When there was genuine anger in his eyes? When he did it right on the court, right in front of the other players, right in front of 20,000 fans and 10 million TV viewers?

LeBron was never the same after that.

When was the last time anyone ever really yelled at LeBron James? You'd have to go back to high school, right? He just spent the past 10 years being coddled by everyone (teammates, coaches, agents, entourage members, yes-men, general managers, owners, media members, etc.). Imagine he was a little kid (which really, he might be to some degree), and imagine you were his father and didn't believe in yelling at your kids. Now, imagine your kid screwed up in his second-grade play and, for whatever reason, you broke character, snapped, and berated him for eight seconds in front of everyone. How would he handle that? Poorly, right? He'd pretend it didn't affect him, but the more he thought about it, it would gnaw away at him (especially once his buddies said, "I can't believe your dad yelled at you like that").

Could that have been what happened to LeBron? Did those eight seconds shake his confidence beyond repair? Did he resent Wade for embarrassing him? Did he think to himself, "Fine, you want to act like this is your team, then YOU win this title?" I believe every basketball champion needs a pecking order of sorts; that's just what the history of the league told us. Miami tried to cheat this concept by putting two of the league's best three players on the same team. It worked for 8½ months; LeBron and Wade ran the team together and deferred to one another depending on the moment. Then the Finals rolled around, Wade kicked it up another gear, LeBron didn't do the same, Wade called him out … and the team was NEVER the same. These are the facts.

THEORY B

Passed along by a friend of mine in NBA circles: LeBron caved from the never-ending scrutiny (as brutal as any athlete has ever faced in the Internet era) and his shaky inner circle, which consists of one parent (his mother, who battled a ton of problems over the years), his high school friends (who assumed an inordinately crucial role in his life without any real experience), his agents (who never threw their bodies in front of "The Decision"), and Miami's management (who walked him into another fiasco with the Heat's Welcome Party). By all accounts, he's a genuinely nice and happy guy who just wants to be liked — he was never meant to be a villain, and as much as he tried to feed off the heat (no pun intended), once it piled up past a certain point, he broke. Maybe he felt that happening against the 2010 Celtics as well; maybe that's why he chose to play with Wade in the first place.

And maybe that's why, right now, he's in total denial. Even in the postgame presser, when he should have been devastated the same way Magic Johnson was distraught after coming up small in the 1984 Finals, LeBron was doing the Frank Drebin "Nothing to see here, please disperse" routine, bristling at the notion that he choked and taking shots at anyone who rooted against him. That's what you do when you're surrounded by enablers — you blame everyone else, and you never look within. He never understood that people only rooted against him because that's what you do when someone boasts before they've ever actually done anything.

Let's say you're in college and one of your buddies says, "See that girl over there? I'm taking her home tonight. And I'm doing this because I'm the funniest and best-looking guy in this room." And let's say he's COMPLETELY serious. Guess what you're doing if it doesn't happen? You're making fun of him. Relentlessly. Really, that's what 50 percent of the Miami-related vitriol was about; the other 50 percent was because LeBron tried to stack the deck by playing with his biggest rival (we didn't respect it), and because he broke Cleveland's hearts on national TV (we didn't like it). To this day, LeBron hasn't shown any real regret about last summer; that's the main reason everyone rooted against him. He couldn't handle it. He caved. And now we're here.

So it's Theory A or Theory B, or maybe both, or maybe neither. As I wrote last Wednesday, I don't know why I care so much. Maybe it's because I know LeBron might be the most talented player I will ever watch, the Wilt of this generation, and I'm going to end up being pissed off that he never reached his potential and took me to a higher place as a sports fan … which is only the entire reason we watch sports in the first place, right? Because we don't know what's going to happen next, and because once in a while, someone shows up who's so good and so talented that he makes us say, "I know what's going to happen next?" Like he's giving us sports fan ESP? The best thing about Jordan's final shot wasn't that he made it, but that we knew he would make it. That's why we revere him all these years later. Usually heroes come through only on command in movies; Jordan did it in real life. We loved him for it.

LeBron? We thought he was next. Then he fell apart against Boston. Then he chose to play with his buddy instead of beating him. Then he fell apart again. Forget about him losing; we're losing, too. Nobody has ever fully explained that part to LeBron. We rooted against him this season because it's fun to have villains in sports, and because it's fun to see an overly confident person gets his or her comeuppance. Not because we hated his guts. There will be a day when we root for LeBron James again. You wait. Either way, thanks for indulging me. Back to the diary.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6657623/nba-finals-game-6-retro-diary

[Weeks]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

^^^Theories on LBJs ineffective play

[Scottdau]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

please explain

You mean the rape trial...shoot they got spanked that year by the Pistons and Detroit owned him in that series

After Shaq left the dude got knocked out of the 1st round, then lost a 3-1 lead over the suns to lose out again....then he cried

put him under pressure and he wilts like the rest of em


Im not defending Lebron in CLE but im sorry that team was regular season fodder

So how did they win the last two finals before this one? Kobe choke there too?

[23]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

So how did they win the last two finals before this one? Kobe choke there too?

He did choke the last one but luckily for him Gasol was there to save him

[Scottdau]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

He did choke the last one but luckily for him Gasol was there to save him

Lol Ok. Kobe is the closest to Jordan. I thought James was but he seems to be afraid to take over in the 4th. Which is shocking, because in the Bulls series he did, but for what ever reason he decided to not show up in the finals.

[23]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

Lol Ok. Kobe is the closest to Jordan. I thought James was but he seems to be afraid to take over in the 4th. Which is shocking, because in the Bulls series he did, but for what ever reason he decided to not show up in the finals.

Do you always regurgitate non factors like this

I dont care what LeBron did, nor Kobe to be honest... Ive seen both of them choke in the finals... im not sure it makes a difference at this point

Both of them were compared to a standard they couldnt possibly live up to.

[ex carrabba fan]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

Kobe again in this thread eh?

Anyway, you know I really wish we could go back in time... and I wish James could have just stayed in Cleveland. Originally I didn't give a rat's ***. But I guess I took his time in Cleveland for granted.

I was 100% thoroughly entertained with every Cavs game I watched over the years. Except his last games against Boston.

The pageantry was off the charts. The personalities and bonds that were on that team were priceless. It was like a college atmosphere. The energy and electricity was ridiculous.

I freaking miss those days.

Miami games are drab to be honest. The offense is so stagnant at times. The Cleveland offense, for all the "LeIso" jokes thrown around, was a thing of beauty in the regular season. And into the first and second rounds.

It's sad to me that it's all over. I pretty much just figured that out right now. I'm not mad at James at all, I'm just disappointed that the next 5 years in Miami... I don't know if they'll ever reach the entertainment levels of his 7 years in Cleveland. Their fans are some of the worst, they don't have the personalities Cleveland did, and overall they just seem a lot less enthused as LeBron's teammates in Cleveland. Sucks.

[Scottdau]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

Do you always regurgitate non factors like this

I dont care what LeBron did, nor Kobe to be honest... Ive seen both of them choke in the finals... im not sure it makes a difference at this point

Both of them were compared to a standard they couldnt possibly live up to.

Lol what ever. I love reading your OPINIONS!

[23]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

Kobe again in this thread eh?

Anyway, you know I really wish we could go back in time... and I wish James could have just stayed in Cleveland. Originally I didn't give a rat's ***. But I guess I took his time in Cleveland for granted.

I was 100% thoroughly entertained with every Cavs game I watched over the years. Except his last games against Boston.

The pageantry was off the charts. The personalities and bonds that were on that team were priceless. It was like a college atmosphere. The energy and electricity was ridiculous.

I freaking miss those days.

Miami games are drab to be honest. The offense is so stagnant at times. The Cleveland offense, for all the "LeIso" jokes thrown around, was a thing of beauty in the regular season. And into the first and second rounds.

It's sad to me that it's all over. I pretty much just figured that out right now. I'm not mad at James at all, I'm just disappointed that the next 5 years in Miami... I don't know if they'll ever reach the entertainment levels of his 7 years in Cleveland. Their fans are some of the worst, they don't have the personalities Cleveland did, and overall they just seem a lot less enthused as LeBron's teammates in Cleveland. Sucks.

When times change, they change man

He took flack for how he acted in CLE as well though...kinda how people dismissed Shaq's jabs at people til he left La, then he was a classless oaf all of a sudden

Its a new chapter man, no more of that dance and be happy stuff.... Memphis and OKC might stroke your college nba itch, but its all or nothing in Miami

[Scottdau]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

Agree. I think James is an *** just for what he said last night. You never say that. The media and people will hammer you on that forever. Even if it is true.

[BaselineBakes]

Kobe again in this thread eh?

Anyway, you know I really wish we could go back in time... and I wish James could have just stayed in Cleveland. Originally I didn't give a rat's ***. But I guess I took his time in Cleveland for granted.

I was 100% thoroughly entertained with every Cavs game I watched over the years. Except his last games against Boston.

The pageantry was off the charts. The personalities and bonds that were on that team were priceless. It was like a college atmosphere. The energy and electricity was ridiculous.

I freaking miss those days.

Miami games are drab to be honest. The offense is so stagnant at times. The Cleveland offense, for all the "LeIso" jokes thrown around, was a thing of beauty in the regular season. And into the first and second rounds.

It's sad to me that it's all over. I pretty much just figured that out right now. I'm not mad at James at all, I'm just disappointed that the next 5 years in Miami... I don't know if they'll ever reach the entertainment levels of his 7 years in Cleveland. Their fans are some of the worst, they don't have the personalities Cleveland did, and overall they just seem a lot less enthused as LeBron's teammates in Cleveland. Sucks.

I 100% felt this way about a month to two months into it, I've grown to like Miami though, I do wish their fans didn't suck so much though. But hopefully when the team truly trusts in each other we can see the true point guard Lebron, no doubt the LeIso was exciting at times and went as far as it could but the proposition of an actual offense between a big 3 in their primes is something I'm hoping to see, maybe oneday we can witness St Vincent St Mary, More than a Game Lebron someday soon. I think once/if they get that first title they can go back to having fun again but right now all this pressure is making them stiffs.