Ibaka is young, he is not used to this level of media attention, and his mastery of his 5th spoken language is far from perfect. What is LeBron's excuse?
Still, there's no reason to suddenly say how LeBron isn't a good defender. It's not as if LeBron proclaimed himself 'Best in the World' or something. And regardless of imperfect English, it's hard to mess up interpreting someone saying something about how bad a defender someone is, lol.
Wellp, he's certainly not on Pippens or Jordan's level defensively. Some people around here were smoking something earlier this season with some of the posts I saw... He's a good defender, there's no need to over-exaggerate it though.
I saw LeBron's quote. He was smiling and not making a big deal about it at all. He wasn't serious, he wasn't mad, he just smiled and said it's stupid. Nobody made a big deal out of this. It's over now. The media is done talking about it, there was no bad blood in the game, it's not a big deal, it's over with, so relax.
I have a feeling that what Ibaka meant was lost in translation. But it makes a good story so the media ran with it.
WTF, this is the classic case of blaming the victim. Who was the one who opened his mouth and started mouthing about LBJ's D? Now you're saying the people who're calling Ibaka stupid for dissing LBJ are wrong? And please don't give me that lost in translation BS, if he was misquoted he could have said so and denied everything.
Then Lebron will shut down KD while dropping 46-15-10 on the Thunder. Hopefully, it results in a Heat loss...
He's the best defender in the league. He's a better defender than jordan too. Did you not see jordan trying to guard magic. Lebron is the only player in the history where if he switched on any position,you don't feel like its a mismatch.
I'm not so sure about that, I've seen LeBron do somethings on defense against opponents I could never picture Pippen or MJ doing. During the year, LeBron held his opponents to a ridiculous FG% (under 30%). That's insane. Another thing is as great Pippen and MJ were they did not shut down every opponent they faced and there were some opponents that could take them to woodshed. LeBron James would probably stand a better chance against guarding a player, like Barkley, Magic, Bird, or even a power forward, like Malone, more so than MJ. The extra height and muscle with the quickness gives him an added advantage.
Also, there's no way MJ could bother or guard competent PF for good portion of the game. I cannot say that about LeBron. It's not a bash or dig at Jordan, it's more of a situation of them being two somewhat different players. LeBron is nearly 2-3 inches taller and about 20-35 pounds of added muscle. Just looking at Lebron's physical statistics, you'd think he's a power forward, but he's got the otherworldly athleticism and skill. He also possess great BB IQ, doesn't get credit for that sometimes.
This x 2. MJ and Pippen may have been smarter defenders but lebron is a physical anomaly. He can literally guard 1-5. Except when Yao was playing.
They already said during the game that Ibaka did not mean it. He is still learning english and it came out wrong. He probably just meant that no one, including Lebron, can play great defense for 48 minutes. He already apologized for the comment.
Yeah, I'm sorry but just because he's more versatile doesn't mean he's a better defender overall. I'll take MJ's and Scottie's defense over LeBron's. I think most people would support me with this opinion.
