Hmm Tmac has 66% chance to make HOF? Really? Nash 40%? On topic......Wade for sure. Right now, Lebron is just a glorified Tmac. When he wins something without Wade we'll talk (meaning never).
I would say Wade, he has a Finals MVP, and 1 ring. I like Wade more, for me its the best player on the Heat.
I don't recall Lebron ever having a teammate who was 1st Team All-NBA while he was in Cleveland. Wade did the year he won a championship. Basketball is a team sport. Wade winning a championship with that Heat team is really no more impressive to me than Lebron going to the Finals with his Cavs team the following year.
but you can't just say it's impressive that he went to the finals. Getting beat 4-0 in the finals has to has some meaning to it.
I'll go with LeBron. For my money, he's a more complete player and I'm probably the one person is this world that isn't a huge fan of the "ring trumps everything" argument. Wade certainly gets credit for winning one, but he had Shaq as a co-superstar and the Heat were a very well constructed team that season. They had a still very capable Antoine Walker as another scoring option, Jason Williams as the point guard when Wade wasn't bringing the ball up, James Posey as a defender and spot up shooter, a good rebounder in Udonis Haslem, and the veteran presences of Gary Payton and Alonzo Mourning. LeBron really never had anything like that. He never had a co-superstar and not only was the talent around him poor, but the teams were poorly built as a whole. The fact that LeBron all but carried his teams to as many wins as he did is almost as good an accomplishment to me as Wade winning his one gift-wrapped ring.
They aren't close in talent at all, its like saying Pippen is as good as Jordan. How many MVPs have Wade won? Exactly. As far as accomplishments go, I think an MVP (Finals, Reg season) is more important than a ring. IIRC, getting an MVP gives you an almost automatic pass in the HOF, which is why IVerson will get in despite being one of the most overrated players in history. Since LBJ has two, he's in the HOF for sure. FWIW if both athletes retired now I don't think any of them belong in the HOF yet. Wade won ring his partly because the NBA made him the golden child that year, I'll never forget his go-to move that series is the phantom foul call.
The squad he got there was technically the same one that almost became the worst team in league history right? That's really all the meaning you need to get out of it. The Robert Horry argument is so convenient because it really debunks the ring myth. It doesn't matter that Wade is a good player, fact is he DID have a lot of help in getting that ring. Bill Russell is another really good player, would you say he's better than Hakeem because he has 12 rings to Hakeem's 2?
I think its because LBJ is such a douche, people don't want to give him his due so its split because Wade has a much better "rep" and good body language on the court whereas LBJ is a prick and always does non-winner stuff like dancing on the court and doing clownish poses during the introduction. Its like the real world, the nice guy who is everyone's best friend will always be promoted over the performer who treats everyone like dirt.
Wade never won a playoff series again after that championship in 2006. Once he didn't have a motivated Shaq by his side, he's had zero team success. For some reason he gets a free pass because the refs decided to hand him a title in five years ago.
You can't really discredit anyone for getting help to win a championship, especially when Wade won Finals MVP. Lebron has always been the better player since they are drafted. I always thought Wade was a bit below Lebron and Kobe in the last 3-4 years.
lebron is a better fantasy basketball player, wade is a better player winner. No championship is won alone, period, hoops is a cohesive game, role players, secondary stars, its all apart of it and tehre is no 1-5, even cleveland did a lot with lebron, against the celtics one year for the first 4 games, james shot less that 33 percent, played horrible, they won 2 of those. Does that discredit james? no, what it does is show that hoops is a 5-5 game and it takes more than one player to win, but the guys who lead them to the ring get credit for taking the extra step to close things out and win, and that is a big factor. For the mvp people, bc nash has two mvps, is he better than Kobe, shaq, hakeem, stockton, etc.? no, mvp is by the media and its by hype. There is no doubt lbj puts up big numbers, but he is not even the closer and arguably not the most important player on his team even. He is a great specimen who can fill up the stat sheet, but hoops is about the guys who close the deal and win, and wade does it better than lbj
Not sure if serious You really think Mo Williams and Floppyjao is better than Shaq, Payton and Mourning? Also they faced the Mavs, while LBJ ran into the Spurs.
Wade. I'll take the guy that single-handedly carried his team to a ring. The only guy to do it with less was Dream...
Wade, because he steps up/leads his team when it matters most. Lebron gets nervous or something and fails when the game is on the line. This difference was seen since they first entered the league. However if Lebron finally gets that last part i would have to go with him sadly.
If you had to choose between the 2, you have to go with LeBron. You can't base a decision on rings, otherwise charles barkley, patrick ewing, etc. wouldn't be considered greats. Its a foolish criteria because basketball is a team sport, and to get to the finals and win depends on so many things- everything has to work out perfectly. For better or for worse, LeBron is probably the only athlete in the world who could have done The Decision and attracted a lot of attention. I think one of his greatest achievements was getting to the Finals in 07- he basically singlehandedly got them there, truly incredible to see. But again, he couldn't win that championship because he had no support.
It's not based on rings, it is based on what he did to get his ring. Under the highest amount of pressure possible, Wade gave arguably the best team carrying performance the league has ever seen. Who gives a **** about regular season MVP's...
