If LeBron James is so great, why does he have to change teams and stack the deck with superstars

Some of these comments amuse me. LeBron barely escaped a 7 game series in the first round of playoffs and that makes him great.

 

Apart from his rings (which are a team accomplishment and Horry has way more) Kobe doesn't have anything to say he should be included in the conversation for best player in the league.

Kobe isn't even better than Tim Duncan, Tim Duncan has more MVPs, just as many rings, more finals MVPs and unlike Kobe Tim Duncan was always the main man for each of his 5 rings (Kobe first 3 rings he was sidekick to Shaq this was undebatable).

How many people include Duncan in the conversation of best players ever?

MJ isn't even the best scorer the world has ever seen, that goes to Abdul Jabbar who is the career points leader. And Jabbar did it without the 3 pt line. How can you be the greatest scorer if you don't have the most points?

 

Why do Rockets keep on looking 2nd super star and 3rd super star all these years? Why can't Rockets win with Harden as the only superstar?

 

To say that LeBron is not one of the greatest players that have ever played the game is just blind hate. He has proven time and again how much he impact the game like very few players have ever could.

I think the only knock on LeBron's legacy is that he goes to stars rather than have stars come to him. It is true that no player, no matter how great, can win it by himself. It is not a fault to want to play on a talented winning team. But I guess we expect the real great ones to have the lesser stars to come to him, or a talented team built around him, instead of him going to a team that already has lots of talents. This is the same knock on Durant's move to GS. (Of course, Durant's act was a bit extreme. It will be hard for LeBron to outdo it--except if he joins the Rockets after we have won a title.)

LeBron's apolgists usually blame it all to Gilbert and the Cavs' incompetent front office. (And LeBron going back to Cleveland is supposed to fulfill his promise of winning one for his hometown.) That IMO is a legit argument. The Cavaliers organization is indeed a piss poor franchise. However, LeBron has to bear some responsibility on personnel decisions. When a star player takes control or heavy influence on how the team is built, this usually does not bode well.

Team building and personnel decisions, including the management of contracts and capspace, is usually out of the abilities of a player. In fact, I have said in the past that coaches doubling as GM is usually a bad idea too. You need someone who is objective and clear minded to be able to build a team from a long-term perspective. Players and coaches are too shortsighted to understand this kind of things. This is especially true in this day and age of analytics.

So if LeBron's legacy is tarnished by his nomadic mentality of moving on to a greener place every now and then, he is at least partially responsible for making his current place not green enough.

 

ive been saying that lebron is over rated than a m*fugaa...i dont exactly know where the hype came from but now every one wants to act like lebron is a goat? no... he hasnt done anything to enter that stratosphere...played in the weak ass eastern conference and stacks his teams with superstars too make himself look better...gets him more national attention from the average fan who knows nothing about basketball though and i guess it helps him get foul calls...like i said i would take prime durant over prime lebron - prime curry over those guys - and i would take prime harden over all of them. ----hopefully we can sign lebron in free agency though lol!

 

Lebron the player is great, but Lebron the GM sucks because he has conflicts of interest from his buddy the agent and his desire to win despite cost. Tristan Thompson should not have gotten a max deal. JR Smith should not have gotten the contract he got.

 

None of those players you listed are even close to all stars.
Kevin Love was forced to give up his post-ups but is still an 8 win player just with the spacing he provides.
Kyrie Irving is only averaging .6 more shots per game in Boston than in Cleveland.
Chris Bosh also had to give up his post ups but him having to work on his 3 pointer turned him into the second best player on the heat during LeBron's last two years their IMO
How have the likes of Mo WIlliams and Big Z done after leaving LeBron?

The truth is, players get better and worse as they approach and leave their athletic peaks. No **** Harden got better when he left OKC, he was 22 and would have gotten better anyways. No **** Dwight Howard got worse after leaving, he was 30 years old and relied on his athleticism alone to be effective.

 

LeBron the GM got to the Finals 3 straight times and won a title. I wish our GM sucked like that.

 

lol..so Karl Malone is a better scorer than Jordan too?

 

Kareem in the same amount of games as MJs career scored almost 2,500 less pts in the regular season. Over 1k less playoff pts in the same amount of playoff games MJ played. Mentioning 3pt line is ridiculous considering MJ took 1 or less attempts a game for over half of his career. Someone can just easily say Kareem stat padded in the 70s where everyone had ridiculous video game stats.
Totals don't make one the greatest anything. It's a testament to longevity and having good teammates to sustain a high level for a long time, but using totals is something i've seen more and more fans these days bring up to say Kareem is the GOAT. I suspect these people are LeBron fans who know with that argument, it's realistic that LeBron with his longevity can dominate "totals" and then be the GOAT in their mind.

Sorry. It just doesn't work that way. Magic testing HIV positive. Bird breaking his back paving his driveway, etc. There's tons of players who have long enough body of quality work that trumps players who just played longer.

If someone comes in and averages 50ppg for 5 seasons in a row and suddenly dies, he's nowhere near the top of the career pts totals, but he will be the GOAT scorer, period. Career totals. Silly. Jordan is by far and away the greatest scorer and trying to argue totals against it is ridiculous.


The LeBron hate is also out of control. Of course he's one of the greatest of all time. In my time, i've seen this same tired cycle though. Any time theres a great player post MJ, those new fans try and tear down MJ, and then the MJ fans create hate for the new guy. NBA fans are the worst.

With that said. Russell Westbrook is hot garbage. That to me is a perfect example of just taking a guy and giving him green light and free reign. Highest USG% ever and low efficiency ball hogging, but triple double stat accumulation in a league where pretty much everyone who gets to handle the ball most of the game can get triple doubles will no doubt put him in the GOAT PG conversation. Ugh. I dread that day when people start saying he too is better than MJ. Some will even compare him to Kobe, shooting at a MJ level of usg but at a 40% clip, but that too will be a disrespect to Kobe. Kobe for as polarizing his career and talent was for casual to analytic fans, at least was one of the most feared, entertaining and truly skilled players EVER.

 

@roslolian “greatest scorer of all time” need not mean most points scored. Most people view it in terms of career averages, or sometimes averages over peak years, rather than career totals. On that basis, Jordan has the best argument.

You could perhaps argue Kareem had the greatest career ever because of the longevity and sustained elite play over 20 years.

 

I'd say LeBron the player rather than LeBron the GM got to those Finals. By the time he got back to Cleveland, they already had Kyrie and a nice asset in Wiggins. LeBron inherited those assets. It took LeBron the GM a few years to disassemble what was there.

To be fair, it's not all LeBron's fault. Nobody is denying that Cleveland's FO is bad. But we shouldn't blame it all on the FO and give LeBron a pass because he had a lot of say in those things.

 

LeBron the GM has the luxury of being able recruit LeBron the player.

 

I drop this BOMB on y'all.

He is the most Selfish GOAT. If the GOAT is Jordan.

Lebron the GM is just decent, not very good.

 

Yep. Against the Pacers at that. The Cavs should've beat them in 6

 

That is ridiculous, sorry,

One older man cannot defeat a team all by himself, not easily.

He aint Thanos. This is still a team sport.

Pacers are one of the better overall teams. Yeah they got Oladipo but the rest of the team is good.

 

He didn't do it all by himself lol. He had a great series and it should be noted. But they were supposed to beat the Pacers because the Pacers aren't that good



We've seen James Harden carry his team like this through a whole regular season against BETTER teams with less talent than Lebron. Nothing new

 

That is your opinion, breh. You are entitled to it.

I think the Pacers have a young upcoming superstar at hand and will continue to get better. Top 4- 5 in the East to come.

The East have more stars than superstars but they are not as weak as I thought.

 

Lol, we are spoiled.

In comparison to Rox and Golden State, everyone is not 'that good'. Lmao.