Another Jordan vs Lebron thread... Now what if we put Lebron on Jordan in the "Jordan era" and allowed Lebron to hand check and run rough shot?
I don't know, back in the 80's it was nearly impossible to top 30 ppg when you had to deal with all-star Centers like James Donaldson. Not sure if LeBron could match Mark Aguirre's above-the-rim game.
I will match your today's spurs (2-3 HOF) with '91 Lakers with Magic, Divac, Worthy and Perkins (2 HOF and one of them regarded as top 3 of all time) I will match your today's Thunder (Westbrook and Durant) with '97 and '98 Jazz (Stockton greatest assist man of all time and Malone 2nd most scorer in nba history) Don't be naive
Hahahah, I'd like - actually LOVE - to see Stockton and Hornacek try to cover Harden and Westbrook. They couldn't even cover Vernon Maxwell. How would they stop Harden?
Give me Magic over Durant. I'll take everyone else from the Thunder roster on down (ie comparing #2 options down to the 12th man). The same goes for the Spurs (give me Magic over Parker). I wouldn't take Malone over Durant. I would take Stockton over Westbrook. Harden and Ibaka are better than anyone else on the Jazz roster. I'll also take Duncan over Malone, Stockton over Parker, and everyone else on down give me the SA players. Yes, don't be naive.
Your not understanding. Just imagine Miami playin San Antonio the first round, then having to play OKC, Portland or the Clippers just to get to the finals. Miami's 1st and 2nd round opponents are almost bottom level teams. The only competition in the east is Indiana. Other than Indi the east is a cakewalk. Miami can literally sleep through the first two rounds. MJ, Kobe had legitimate opponents they had to go through just to see the finals
Umm, for Miami to play San Antonio in the first round, San Antonio would be the 8th seed, which probably means a season-ending injury to Duncan or Parker or both. Good analogy.
LOL! Dude, NBA rule changes allow players to look better than they do so don't be deceived. There was so much defensive and physical mentality in the 90's...these days, you can about get a flagrant on any call. You think Westbrook and Harden can easily slash to the hoop in the 90's. As i said man don't be naive
Yes I do, considering I watched players like Zeke, KJ and Dantley easily do it. As I said man, don't be naive.
Lebron is amazing, but he really gets to cherry pick some shots on the heat due to the team they have built. Not saying there is ANYTHING WRONG with that, on the contrary, that is the smartest thing a team can do, put its players in positions for high % shots.
Sure, and Michael Jordan didn't have to advance the ball up court or take the other team's toughest cover on defense. And Magic Johnson didn't have to score very much or shoot lots of jumpers, which was a weakness of his. It's what great teams do.
So if I understand this correctly, LeBron is nowhere near Jordan mainly because Jordan played in an era that was littered with all-time great defensive big men and where the rules allowed much more physical contact, so it was much tougher to score, except it wasn't. Right?
That's the argument, defense was tougher yet teams scored more points at higher efficiency level - so offense was tougher too. Unlike all other sports which tend to evolve to higher levels as the level of participation increases over time and refinements are developed - Basketball is the rare exception. The generation of individuals born from 1955-1970 were exposed to radiation from nuclear testing in the south pacific which means taht nobody before or since will ever be able to approach their legacy.
Your argument doesn't even make any sense, how can Miami play SaS, OKC, Portland and Clips all the way to the finals? Is this some sort of Miami vs the World championship battle? All the guys you mentioned are top teams in the West, even if Miami played in the West they'd have a top 4 seed in the playoffs and meet only 2 of those teams in the WCF, not really all that different in the East with Indiana. Plus, unlike other teams Miami relies mostly on LBJ, if LBJ has a bad game very little chance they win. He makes it look easy but if it was some other superstar in Miami they don't win 2 rings in the past 2 years. Plus, let's be real here. MJ played in an era 30 years ago. You can't seriously think that with the advances in learning, technology and training basketball players actually regressed than 30 years ago? Guys like MJ are anomalies and would still be dominant, but if you had a time machine and brought an average NBA players 30 years ago to today's era I doubt he even makes it in the dleague, much less the NBA.
Except LBJ has been playing the PF spot every time he's serious. The NBA has such a love affair with perimeter players, LBJ moves out of the perimeter when he wants to win
The funny thing is that these Kobe stans (extreme LBJ haters are almost exclusively insecure Kobe stans worried about Kobe's legacy) would say that Kobe and the Lakers had it much tougher during their title runs. But in truth, the competition was comparable. Look at the threepeat Lakers. They faced two tough teams each playoffs in the West, and then an absolute joke in the Finals. The Heat face a tough team in the East (actually two prior to last year) and then a tough team in the Finals. And historically, in the four playoff rounds, this is pretty typical of ANY champion, including Jordan's Bulls.
This has already been discussed many times....read this great article so you can understand the effect since the 2004/05 rule change and how the basketball today is so different before http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...y-score-50-with-the-hand-check-rules-in-place
