chris palmer @ESPNChrisPalmer It's worth mentioning Haslem is shooting a career-worst 16% from 10 feet this year. Was 53% last year. That's interesting to me. He's usually automatic with that shot. They were also without Bosh though... if Bosh was in that situation, I would think he would've hit that shot.
i think it's definitely passed. but i'm not sure why people bring it up so much, especially as a putdown to lebron. "you're not going to be better than the best player ever" isn't really much of an insult. jordan was a freak in damn near every way. he may not be as physically impressive as lebron, but lebron is also playing against 15-20 extra years of athletic evolution. for his time, jordan was just about the same freak. he was also very skilled, had incredible body control (highly underrated part of his success i think), had lebron's understanding of the game (underrated part of lebron's success), was insanely dedicated, had a dominating personality, and was a ruthless cold-blooded killer whose killing wasn't just more myth than fact (unlike some other unnamed star), it was real. you're just not going to put that together in everybody. if lebron's biggest sin is that he passes to wide open teammates instead of taking shots that are missed 70% of the time (even by that unnamed star) then i guess his legacy will just have to live with it and we'll see what the ultimate results will be winning-wise. maybe he's doomed to always come up just short even if he plays about as well as anyone ever has.
Only reason I had brought it up is because I heard the Jazz announcers utter some words that were very disrespectful to MJ. Just had to mention it in here while the game was going on. But yeah, I agree with what you said.
i feel like jvg would have hated that if he was watching the game. i would love to see the refs just not call anything when the guard runs into the big man's path.
Watch the replay again and you will see that no one would have had time to truly help given how quick Lebron is if he was to go to the basket or throws up a quick floater. Plus he is freaking Lebron James, if he bends down like he driving to the basket Milsap will react expecting a drive giving Lebron just as much space as that Haslem had to shoot. There was still nearly 4 seconds left on the clock. More than enough time for Lebron to get a shot. There was also him basically disappearing and bricking a house in the Finals against the Spurs; unable to guard Turkeyglue in the '09 ECF, disappearing against Boston in '10, and his perform against Dallas in the finals, not to mention his lackluster clutch stats on 82games.com. Don't get me wrong. Not saying Lebron is always not clutch or always clutch. The issue is that he was billed as the savior, e.g. King James, and with that comes the expectation of being clutch a lot more often that not. He has not lived up to those expectations, especially now in 2 Finals appearances.
Or the big man make no effort to avoid the foul, fall right on top of the guard, make no attempt to brace himself and throw his full weight on top of the guy (especially his knees and elbows).
The Clippers should have been able to win these types of games, yet they are about to lose this one here. It seems that they are still some pieces away from being a real contender. The West is wide open this year. The playoffs will be interesting.
So Jordan was wrong for giving it to Paxson? So Jordan was wrong for giving it to Kerr? So Hakeem was wrong for giving it to Horry in G1 of the 95 WCFs? So the Spurs were wrong for letting freaking Avery Johnson shoot in the 99 Finals? They let a washed up Sean Elliott do the same in those WCFs. So the Spurs were wrong for letting Horry do that in the 2005 Finals (G5 I believe). So Kobe was wrong for giving it to Artest in G7 of the 2010 Finals? What about the year Payton hit a game winner for Miami (I think it was a washed up Payton)? Need I go on? I can list NUMEROUS other examples. Why? Cuz any coach will tell you that's smart basketball. You guys are honestly in here saying a dude shouldn't pass to a wide-open teammate....THAT CAN ACTUALLY ****IN SHOOT?? Who has a ring and has hit big shots before? What's happened to this board? I thought we had very educated basketball fans. This isn't real gm....
Once the Clippers tied it, I thought the game was over. Props to the Suns for righting the ship and pulling it out after collapsing.
Can't blame LeBron on that one. I do think he should have shot it especially after hitting that difficult jumper but he made a simple basketball play and Haslem was all by himself. Good play, bad result.
