Of all the arguments against Lebron, this is the dumbest. Every team he's left turned into trash, and every team he joined went to the Finals. His jumping around is more evidence of how great he is. Both Kobe and Jordan were on terrible teams when they didn't have good teammates. A 22 year old Lebron took a team with freaking Larry Hughes as the 2nd scorer to the Finals.
never said lebron wasn't a great player but as great as what jordon was nope. his jumping around and manipulation of being next to the other top players in this era of the incredibly weak east isn't exactly out of this world impressive.
Well the stats argument is always used when comparing Kobe vs Lebron. Just going by stats, you can say Lebron's a better overrall player than MJ (which is dumb). The fact is the game has evolved into a more open court game, allowing Lebron to get most of his shot attempts off the fastbreak leading to dunks. His shooting percentages are higher because most of his shots are closer to the rim. Today's game is faster paced and less about go-to moves. Had prime Kobe played in today's era he'd average 37pts a game on less shots.
guys like josh smith, jr smith, nick young, brandon jennings, waiters, are chuckers. kobe was far from that
His chucking lead to 5 championships. He was the closer on all 5 championship teams, he didn't have Kyrie Irving closing games for him
I think that the answer is lebron. Dude is an analytics guys wet dream. Im not going to compare any of them to guys like jordan, hakeem, or magic because i never saw them play. Lebron is the best player that I've ever seen play. He is on a level above kobe IMO. Id say shaq was the 2nd best player that ive ever seen in my life. Prime shaq was such a dominant force while being as graceful as a ballerina lol
What about lebron closing game 7 vs the spurs? He hit that super clutch shot off the dribble. Shaq helped kobe more than kyrie helped lebron
But he never closed a championship right? Lebron won 3 as the man and kobe won 2 as the man. Lebrons been to 8 straight finals. They are both amazing players but lebron is the best of my generation. Id probably put shaq as number 2, then kobe, then duncan. Thats my 2 cents
Actually, it's quite impressive. I grew up watching a generation of NBA players have their best years wasted because their organizations weren't good enough at surrounding them with the talent to win titles. This includes our very own Hakeem Olajuwon, who played with inferior talent for the majority of his career. These players fought to increase their options as far as free agency is concerned. The owners gave them free agency and gave the hometeam a financial advantage, figuring no player would bypass guaranteed millions to take control of his own career. LeBron was one of the first to do that (only taking the 3 year deal), and now it's a trend. He recognized his own value and leveraged it for partner like power as opposed to employee like power. The Cavs sucked at building around him at first. Now any team that wants him knows they have to pay the cost for talent to compete for titles. I don't see how a player making that happen isn't impressive. As far as basketball is concerned, if you join a team and they go from 1st round exit or lotto to Finals/titles and back to 1st round exit or lotto when you leave, then you are clearly impressive. I don't see how one could argue against that either. I find it laughable when athletes are knocked for actually using their brains. "Oh no, I should sit around playing with the likes of Mo Williams my entire career cuz I'm so helpless".
The guy that jumps from team to team and still hasn't played on a team as good as Jordan's best teams (96-98 Bulls) and got to the Finals with a team worse than Jordan ever took (07 Cavs)? Yeah, that guy.
Did someone with Hakeem in their name really type that? Please list one of Hakeem's teammates from 88-94 that was better than Lamar Odom, who provided 15/10/5 a night with good defense? Lamar Odom is also better than every Cav not named LeBron on the 2007 team.
Is this really a question for some people? Kobe at his best couldn't carry Lebron's shoes. I really don't get why Kobe gets overhyped as much as he does, he wasn't ever even the best player in the league at any point in his career, let alone a guy who should be compared to the all time greats which Lebron is already one of.
He may have been the best player for a 2-3 year stretch. No one can really use the same argument to show how he was better than Duncan pre 07 and better than LeBron post 07. If winning is your thing then he clearly falls behind Duncan until 2007. If numbers or individual play is your thing then he clearly falls behind LeBron post 07. Pick a side but stay consistent.
and that's a fault of jordan's right. this post doesn't really say anything. people give a bit too much credit for this terrible era of the east
problem here is you're using this logic as if you're comparing lebron to some other everyday player. like i said never said he wasn't a great player but jordan great nope.
8 finals in the east says nothing, especially when you're forming superteams in a terrible conference. Lebron is not stupid. He stayed in the east because that's the easiest path. As for being the man, Kobe was the closer on every championship team he played on. Shaq was always a liability in the 4th quarter. So I'm not sure how the "Kobe wasn't the man" argument pans out
