The LeBron James Thread

[airjoca]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

You know, early in his career I disliked Kobe about as much as I dislike LeBron now. But he won me over with desire, hard work, intensity, his killer instinct. And as much as a douche that he was, he wasn't anywhere near LeBrons level of doucheness. I don't think I'll ever get to root for mr James as i did for mr. Bryant.

Some say he also choked in the Finals, but I don't remember him being passive 3 straight games playing like s**t...

[Court_vision]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

I am not a Kobe man...something about him bugs me and always has. I am not sure it's fair to say he choked game 7 last season though v Boston. He shot poorly...but he grabbed 15 rebounds.

15...from the SG position.

He outrebounded the entire C's front court.

I don't call that choking...I call that "finding a way to win".

(Damm, I sound like Mark Jackson)

[Kashanova]

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.

I don't think anyone is close to jordan, not even kobe. Jordan never lost in a finals, Jordan is rare air, its hard for us as fans of basketball to realize it

[Kashanova]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

I am not a Kobe man...something about him bugs me and always has. I am not sure it's fair to say he choked game 7 last season though v Boston. He shot poorly...but he grabbed 15 rebounds.

15...from the SG position.

He outrebounded the entire C's front court.

I don't call that choking...I call that "finding a way to win".

(Damm, I sound like Mark Jackson)

using that logic I can say the same for james, he had high assist numbers he was finding a way to win

[Scott812313]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

using that logic I can say the same for james, he had high assist numbers he was finding a way to win

His team lost bro, thus he wasn't finding a way to win. He was finding a way to not be blamed for choking. Instead he made it even worse.

[Jasong7777]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

I am not a Kobe man...something about him bugs me and always has. I am not sure it's fair to say he choked game 7 last season though v Boston. He shot poorly...but he grabbed 15 rebounds.

15...from the SG position.

He outrebounded the entire C's front court.

I don't call that choking...I call that "finding a way to win".

(Damm, I sound like Mark Jackson)

Thank you. Finally someone with some damn sense. If Kobe choked in last years game 7, then Dirk choked this year. Neither did.

[Jasong7777]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

I don't think anyone is close to jordan, not even kobe. Jordan never lost in a finals, Jordan is rare air, its hard for us as fans of basketball to realize it

5 out of 7 ain't bad.

[Jeffx]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

His team lost bro, thus he wasn't finding a way to win. He was finding a way to not be blamed for choking. Instead he made it even worse.

I've heard people say(including my father) that LeBron is similar to Wilt - tremendous physical gifts but their egos are so big, the fear of failure(looking weak)makes them reluctant to take the risk at the big moment. One of my friends posted this at another thread;

"Basically, I get the impression that it's very important for LeBron's ego that he never look weak or appear as if he's failed, never appear to be the loser or anything short of great. That's not odd or a bad thing in itself, that goes hand in hand with striving for success. In LeBron's case however, it also takes the form of deflecting responsibility and avoiding situations where he has to shoulder blame should he come up short. If he's not taking the big shots, he can't miss them, so there's less for people to point to and fault him for."

[Drewski]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

Jacking this from the Finals thread, think it deserves a spot here, especially because I like Simmons' analysis of what could have gone awry with Bron (Theories A & B)

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.

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)...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.

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

Great read, if you have the time.

[1Rose]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

When Pippen made that comment about LeBron being better than Jordan I wanted to vomit. How do you say that about a player you piggybacked to 6 Championships and witnessed his legendary play day in and day out?

No one will ever be Jordan, no one will ever be better than Jordan. He was the best player the game has ever seen and created the mold for players like Kobe and LeBron to try and emulate. He broke the mold for a championship team. But comparing players in todays game to him is ludicrous. The league is so much softer and caters to offense and the superstar players. If Jordan played in his prime in the league now, I'm pretty confident he could average 40 a game. He would embarass these guys today.

Should of been 7 for 7 in the Finals. Damn you baseball.

[Jeffx]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

But comparing players in todays game to him is ludicrous. The league is so much softer and caters to offense and the superstar players. If Jordan played in his prime in the league now, I'm pretty confident he could average 40 a game. He would embarass these guys today.

Not just Jordan - with the softer defenses, all the great wing players would flourish in today's NBA. Imagine the numbers Jordan, Bird, Dr.J, 'Nique, Gervin, David Thompson, etc., would put up now. Scary.

[King_B_Mack]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

When Pippen made that comment about LeBron being better than Jordan I wanted to vomit. How do you say that about a player you piggybacked to 6 Championships and witnessed his legendary play day in and day out?

No one will ever be Jordan, no one will ever be better than Jordan. He was the best player the game has ever seen and created the mold for players like Kobe and LeBron to try and emulate. He broke the mold for a championship team. But comparing players in todays game to him is ludicrous. The league is so much softer and caters to offense and the superstar players. If Jordan played in his prime in the league now, I'm pretty confident he could average 40 a game. He would embarass these guys today.

Should of been 7 for 7 in the Finals. Damn you baseball.

C'mon now dude. You're going a little too far with that BS right there. Let's not suddenly pretend that Pippen was just there for the ride. He had a whole lot to do with those Bulls championships and he sure as hell wasn't just piggybacking Jordan. Guys like Jud Buechler were piggybacked to titles. Randy Brown or Jason Caffey were piggybacked to a title. Bobby Hansen piggybacked his way to a championship. Scottie Pippen didn't piggyback his way to a championship. You can be upset about what he said, but don't start getting ridiculous about it.

[Altimus]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

Kerr on all this:

"The irony to me is that LeBron is not Michael. LeBron is actually Scottie," former Bull and current television analyst Steve Kerr said Monday on "The Waddle & Silvy Show" on ESPN 1000. "He's so similar to Scottie in that defensively he was just a monster, could guard anybody, really more of a point forward than scoring guard. Scottie always loved to distribute the ball. That's really where LeBron's preference is.

"Phil Jackson used to call Scottie a 'sometimes shooter.' Sometimes they would go in, sometimes they wouldn't. That's how it is with LeBron. He's a great talent and a great player but you can see his flaws as as a basketball player. He doesn't have an offensive game that he can rely on: no low-post game, no mid-range jump shot so when the game really gets tough he has a hard time finding easy baskets and getting himself going. That's what Michael did in his sleep so that's why the comparison is wrong."

Pretty spot on.

[1Rose]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

C'mon now dude. You're going a little too far with that BS right there. Let's not suddenly pretend that Pippen was just there for the ride. He had a whole lot to do with those Bulls championships and he sure as hell wasn't just piggybacking Jordan. Guys like Jud Buechler were piggybacked to titles. Randy Brown or Jason Caffey were piggybacked to a title. Bobby Hansen piggybacked his way to a championship. Scottie Pippen didn't piggyback his way to a championship. You can be upset about what he said, but don't start getting ridiculous about it.

Lol You get so defensive about every comment anyone makes that you disagree with. I've seen you argue with about half the board over little crap like that in the little time that I've been on these boards.

It was a figure of speech. Pippen was a great player. He had a role, played it well but the reason they won those ships is because of Jordan.

[JBH3]

Honestly...I think Lebron has grown apathetic.

I don't think Kerr's Scottie Pippen remarks are accurate either. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Pipp never had that "Lebron vs the Pistons" moment where he drilled the Pistons in the 4th on into OT...

At that moment eveyone was in awe of Lebron, and thought he was going to be at the forefront of the next NBA Dynasty....fast forward a few years and you find a player who has checked out of games which cost his team a title (MIA) or a chance at playing for one (CLE vs BOS).