Did Paxson and Kerr save Jordan's legacy? They hit shots to win Finals. Allen hit a shot to extend a Finals game, that LeBron won in OT with a shot, and did the same in G7.
If the Spurs are down 3-0 . . . .. does Kawhi play at all? I think pop will sit him for the next game too . . .. Rocket River
Bold: you're saying that as though LeBron left the Cavs, the first chance he got. He didn't. LeBron gave Cleveland 7 years to build around him, and he even carried a sorry roster to the Finals during his 5th year with them. He stayed for 2 more years; why would you waste your prime on a team that has peaked and/or has done everything they believe they can do, to win a title? "The Decision" was 7 years ago, and I couldn't tell you a single person that liked how LeBron went about doing it, except for Heat fans. However, it seems like you're still holding that against him, for whatever reason. Bosh and LeBron had to orchestrate going to Miami; there was no way of knowing if the chemistry would work, or if LeBron or Bosh would try to take over Wade's position as alpha dog. With GSW, plugging Durant into an established team would be far less likely to implode; square peg into a square hole. LeBron left Miami to come home. Ok, it wasn't like the Heat suddenly became hot garbage, overnight. Though the Heat lost to the Spurs in 5, the Heat was still a 54 win team and both Bosh and Wade were still relevant. Why would you leave Bosh and Wade and a team with a championship mentality, for Irving and Love (2 players who, then, had never even made the playoffs).
I realize that... the point here is that you brought up the "former All stars" on the Cavs, yet failed to bring up the same number of "former All Stars" on the bench for the Warriors. Cavs have Deron and Korver, and the Warriors have DWest and Iggy. Honestly between those two pairs, I would rather take West and Iggy (lest we forget who was the Finals MVP two years ago).
Others have already addressed this, but the two moves are similar - not identical. I didn't like the Decision back then, and I still don't like it. However, at this point in time, the Lebron narrative is far better than KD's. But the more important point I'm trying to make is that the KD move was straight up bad for the league. The year after Lebron going to Miami, there were at least 5-6 contenders in the league, and the playoffs were never better. Despite Lebron's super team, they were far from dominant. In fact, they had the 3rd best record in the league, and was 2nd in the East after Chicago. They didn't even break 60 wins, and ultimately got taken down by the Dallas Mavericks who were the 3rd seed in the West. Compare that to now...there are two contenders, and one is likely to be demolished by the other. There wasn't a single good series this playoffs other than by non-contenders. Worst of all, there's no end in sight for this lack of parity after KD gets locked down for another 3-4 years.
Ok, and so if Durant gets his ring and goes right back to OKC for next season, how is that different from what LeBron did? My point was 1 team built their way there and in MIami, they had to put it together. People always love to mention how Bosh wasn't leading the Raptors anywhere, Love wasn't leading the Wolves anywhere and Kyrie wasn't leading the Cavs anywhere, and make it seem like only LeBron made them winners. It's all of them together that became winners. Yet those same people want to give credit for LeBron carrying a bad roster to the Finals....but, against a bunch of bums in that awful conference. He would have been 6th seed in the West in 07 and faced the Spurs and got swept in the first round instead of the Finals where his top 3 defensive team was by default already #1 or #2 best team regardless of how bad people say that roster was. The #1 seed was a 53 win PIstons team minus Ben Wallace and Larry Brown replaced by washed up Chris Webber who should have already retired. Some can't do it on their own(no one really can except Hakeem ;D), but it doesn't mean they wouldn't be amazing 2nd or 3rd options on a stacked team. Curry wouldn't lead any team anywhere on his own(missed the playoffs 3 years in a row), and neither could Klay as a #1...hell, Curry and Klay together couldn't take the Warriors anywhere(1st round exit and 2nd rnd exit) before Draymond became a starter.. Draymond sure as hell wouldn't be leading any team anywhere as the #1 option. Put all of them together? They are an amazing fit. Same thing goes for Bosh and Wade or Kyrie and Love, but somehow LeBron fans and ESPN convinced the world Chris Bosh was a bum and not a 20-24ppg + 9-10 rpg type of player with length and 3pt range or that Kevin Love wasn't putting together super beastly stat lines like 13-15rpg, 20-26ppg and up to 4apg with 3pt range....they couldn't win on their own and their stats fell off(obviously would happen), so they're bums and not in reality incredible 3rd options to have. I'd take Kevin Love right now as the Rockets #2 option behind Harden...his stats will go right back up and he'd be an amazing fit. This is why i'm also not sold on Melo supposedly being some cancer or bum. Dude has been a winner since college and was a winner in Denver at a young age and the #1 option in a deep conference. NY has been a horrible franchise since long before Melo and they just caught bad breaks with free agent signings being injured all the time and no cap space to properly build around Melo(they doomed themselves the moment they traded so much depth for Melo instead of waiting to sign him as a free agent - a lesson Magic Johnson and the Lakers should remember regarding Paul George). Melo as a #2 option or on a stacked team? Kidding me? That's Team USA Melo raining 3s all game long. Melo can still catch absolute fire with the best of em and can kill a team on his own when he gets it going. He just needs to be on a good playoff team with a real hope and he will ball out again. sorry for the long rant..
Well, it wouldn't be much different. Parity would be relatively restored, but that will never happen. KD is signing with GS this off season. Both were coward moves. Lebron's move did not make the league total s***, while KD's did. KD can rectify this by going elsewhere this summer, but we all know he won't.
Boring series. Boring playoffs. Thanks NBA, I'm now watching NHL which I never thought I'd take over basketball. **** you durant.
Can't be anymore boring than this Celtic and Cavs game right now. ZZZZZ At least in GSW and Spurs, you get to see if LMA tries to injury someone and fail
Spurs have been broken - they should have folded earlier against us in game 5. We would have been happy getting waxed by GS 4-1 The assay is complete. Their victory over us is officially FOOL'S GOLD
That is a lie. . . .. . if we would have gone 4-3 and lost to the Warriors People would still be trying to trade Harden Then Would b**** the next 7 seasons after the trade about the #14 pick in the Draft Rocket River
If Kawhi doesn't play game 3 (but is available the rest of the series, barring a setback), and the Spurs win game 3, can the Spurs win the series?
No. I don't think so . . . but I would not be overly surprised it they took it to 6 or 7 Rocket River
does it really seem the same? i mean we could probably find plays that look like zaza's, but i would suspect over the course of the season we have a 10-1 ratio of the aldridge play vs the zaza play. for one thing, there's just the optics of it. golden state is being thrashed by the spurs and then their dirtiest player just so happens to lunge his foot forward under the spurs best player, who just happened to tweak his ankle right before. people are probably going to jump to conclusions and not to coincidences. is that the first time someone's foot got under someone like that? probably not. but it doesn't look good. in the aldridge/durant play, aldridge maybe moves his foot 6 inches forward on his second hop? still a ways away from where durant's foot actually was on his take-off. most of the gap is closed by durant landing, i would guess, about 1 foot forward from where he took off. we see this all the time where the offensive player jumps forward on a shot because the defensive player obviously isn't jumping backwards to get out of their way. sometimes the refs even call a foul, sometimes they just rule it incidental. this was just like the giannis and horford plays earlier in this playoffs no one batted an eye over. but in leonard's case, zaza moves well forward on his second hop and then really extends his leg away from his body as leonard is either going straight up or even fading away. do we know he was trying to hurt him versus just clumsily closing out? no, but the benefit of the doubt isn't going zaza's way. combine lunging forward with dirty history with super convenient timing and people are going to justifiably be in an uproar. certainly more than on a run-of-the-mill closeout like aldridge's.
If anything, Aldridge's looks worse since he's facing forward. Zaza was turned around on the second hop.
