Except for the history of the Cavs that would be nowhere without him and his existence. Maybe in the playoffs but nowhere near consecutive Finals and a title.
I'm with clubber on this one - who cares who was on the team - all that matters is that we won a championship. The banner is still going to be hung up and say "Houston Rockets" not "LeBron James" or "James Harden" or "Chris Paul", etc. And normally after you win a championship or too, the team does go into rebuilding mode. You can't stay on top forever.
Exactly even if you win, you would be remembered as trash. Your franchise is trash, your owner, your front office, your coach, your players are all remembered as trash.
It's a pipe dream but my ideal scenario is that the Warriors sweep the Cavs by huge margins every game with Curry leading the charge and Durant playing like **** and them dominating anyway. The media cooks up the narrative that it is and always be Steph's team and Durant is the unloved and unneeded stepmother. Snek gets sad and leaves for somewhere like Washington looking for approval. LeBron stays in Cleveland to be the anti Durant. And we bring everyone back with some ring hunting vets and win the championship without LeBron. That's better right?
If you don't want GOAT then you're too enamored w/ #Pursuit and not as focused on #Championship as - IMO - Morey and the rest of our front office. Honestly it's like if Dream played for the Bucks or somebody back in the day....LBJ doesn't play for the Jazz, or the 90's Sonics, or the 90's Spurs....he plays for his hometown team and he played in one of the premier cities in the world with some of his best friends. Dawg, you can #Unfriend #UnSubscribe #WetMyPants or whatever else but if that man wants to come here or even thinks that he may want to come here I'd grow a 3rd testicle just to be able to sacrifice something.
So now winning a championship is considered "trash"? This is worse than being the runner-up in the Super Bowl.
Fought so hard to lose to the Warriors? That's what you want the ceiling of this franchise to be? And you don't think our management is better than Cleveland's? Bosh got hurt in Miami and they're already back in the playoffs.
I can appreciate this, I really do. I get that, franken team and all, but you know, at the end of the day, Lebron is not OUR guy, we may not have drafted Harden, but he's been the face of our franchise for a long time, he's our guy, the face of Houston basketball. Lebron is everyone's guy, he's the dude everyone loves to talk about, blah blah. Yea I know you can say "well it's the same for CP" no its not, it didnt stack the deck for us against them. But you know, I'm not advocating against Lebron coming here, I get it. The part you said in bold pretty much says it all and I agree. I'm just saying it woudlnt feel as good winning without him, it's all about the emotion and pride of it. Obviously we all want the guy who gives us the best chance to win.
So when we win the championship after LeBron shows up, we can say, to appease some people here, that this was Clint Capela's team since he was drafted by the Rockets and home grown to win us that championship!
Why do you act like thats what people are saying here. Being homegrown isnt really what matters here, it's about who really feels like they meant something to our team. In before "well Lebron will mean something to us after we win a championship" Alot of us get it, you guys just want to change the way we feel about it, which frankly just isnt happening at the moment. But Lebron will always be Cleveland's guy.
I get what you are saying. To me it's different with Lebron than any other player. He comes here and you know that none of the platitudes mean anything when he talks about the fans or city, this is just a place he hangs his coat while he tries to get HIS ring.
I'm gonna repeat myself in response to this: Bringing Lebron here would Morey's Mona Lisa. Every little move and salary cap manipulations he's made over the years has prepared him for this moment. If Lebron wants to come here and Morey actually makes it work, to me, it wouldn't feel like "Lebron comes to save the day". It would feel like "Morey has completed his masterpiece". Morey's masterpiece winning a championship is a distinctly Houston Rocket achievement, not "Lebron's championship" to me.
I respect how you feel about it. I just dont. I want the best possible chance to win, but I dont feel that way.
Well you can stay and pout in your room over the championship, I'll be at the parade celebrating with everyone else.
That is the landscape of today's NBA - you have to almost bring in a mercenary if you want to win. Sadly, LeBron created it when he went to Miami with Chris Bosh to team up with D-Wade. Durant pulled it as well when he went to GS. It is true that LeBron redeemed himself, IMO, by coming back to Cleveland but unless you have a transcendent talent like LeBron, you are going to have to get a superteam together to win it all. Especially against a Warriors team that not only has all of their stars but the refs on their side as well. The days of winning a championship with one star like Hakeem in '94 and to a degree, 2 stars like Hakeem and Clyde in '95, are essentially over.
