If you don't know the difference between MRI positive and negative. It's not worth debating. Some players can win championship with broken pinky. Other players rested 2 weeks on sprained pinky.
It's interesting how you strategically parsed that quote. He said that he doesn't know that anyone is 100% at this stage of the season, and so it can't be used as an excuse. And he only mentions the elbow when the media directly questions him about it and says that he looked to be clearly not himself and limited. The entire quote is here. http://greenstreet.weei.com/sports/...010/05/14/lebron-on-elbow-it-limited-me-some/ [rquoter] Following the Cavaliers’ season-ending, 94-85 loss to the Celtics, Thursday night at TD Garden, Cleveland’s LeBron James spoke about both his injured left elbow and impending free agency. James finished his team’s Game 6 loss with 27 points, 19 rebounds, and 10 assists, but also had nine turnovers. “LIke I said, I make no excuses and I had opportunities to do things that I wanted to do, it just didn’t fall for me,” said James, who went 8-for-21 from the floor in 46 minutes. “I’m not using the elbow as an excuse. It limited me some. You hope to be 100 percent going into any series, but at this point of the season I don’t know if there is anybody on both teams that’s 100 percent.” When told it appeared as though the elbow limited his performance, James responded, “Well, I got a lot of time to think about it now.”[/rquoter]
Of course he's not using it as excuse, he's only hinting it. The whole story was fully blown by his team to manage his image. If his elbow was torn or broken, I'd give him a pass, but MRI said otherwise, where's the fuss coming from?
Everyone knows the difference between MRI positive and negative. Not relevant. If you want to keep bringing up Kobe's finger as an excuse, its hypocritical for you bash others when they mention that LeBron's elbow looked to have limited him. Its not even like anyone is insisting that LeBron's injury is as bad as Kobe's. That doesn't matter. To whatever extent their respective injuries might have effected their play, that has to be considered as a possible explanation for the outcomes. You either allow that for both of them, or you don't allow it for either of them. Otherwise, you're using a double-standard.
Right, and I NEVER heard anything out of LA or from the national media about all of Kobe's assorted injuries. That was really kept underwraps. I believe Kobe's fracture was supposed to heal in about month or so if he had rested it. That seems like a minor injury as far broken bones go to me, though I'm no expert. But he chose to keep playing (maybe not the wisest decision) and as a result its never healed properly. So, actually one can argue Kobe or his fans have less of an excuse to be complaining about his injury in the playoffs than LeBron's supporters, because Kobe had an opportunity to rest it and chose not to. I wouldn't make that argument, because I don't buy this whole "you can't make excuses" stuff. If you want to explain why something happened, you do so. It doesn't matter if its can be perceived as an "excuse".
So where's those Malone, Payton and Ho Grant stats at? Lets get away from the Kobe/Lebron thing. FORGET them. Lets look at team framework, team structure.... Instead of Phil Jackson, would YOU, Mr goodbug, want MIKE BROWN coaching YOUR Lakers offense? Think about that....going into the Lakers/Suns playoffs Phil steps down and you in his place Mike Brown steps in to direct the offense...No triangle. Mike Brown style offense.
I'm not taking sides here but Lebron certainly made a spectacle of his elbow considering he took a left-handed free throw in a clinched game after aggravating his "injury" and then made sure he only used his left hand in practice the following day once the media was allowed in.
What double standard? When Lakers lost finals in 08, people criticized Kobe's leadership, Lakers' toughness. I didn't hear pinky being used as the excuse. Kobe didn't purposely shoot leftie free throw in garbage time to demonstrate how much he's limited.
In the game yesterday, they panned over the the Celtics bench and you could see that four of Rondo's fingers were taped together (index to middle, ring to pinky). It's safe to assume there's some damage there, but no one mentions it... because EVERY player is injured to some degree. Yet everytime you turn on an ESPN game they have to mention Kobe's finger or Lebron's elbow, to give these primadonnas a built in excuse. Look for it again tonight in the pre-game when Kobe suddenly has some new debilitating injury to deal with despite having taking like six weeks off since the last game.
You yourself have already used it as an excuse. Shall I quote your posts where you bring it up in reference to the Celtics loss? Or where you've mentioned it to explain away why Kobe's stats have dropped off? I know I could go to any Lakers board or ESPN board and find continual mention of it. Do you ever get on them for that? Look, this loss represents a failure for LeBron, any way you want to slice it. Similarly, when Kobe lost to the Celtics, that was a failure for him. You can admit that these players failed -- they couldn't meet their own expectations or the expectations of their fan base -- while also acknowledging the factors that contributed to the failure. I have no problem with anyone bringing up Kobe's injuries as an "excuse" for why he didn't perform better. Whether or not that would have made a difference ultimately, who knows. And same with the Boston series ... maybe the Celtics are so good that they would have beaten the Cavs with LeBron at peak condition. If Boston is playing at their 2008 level, and it appears they might be, there's no shame in losing to that team. Its silly for you to demand we explain why LeBron lost, but then to dismiss any factor that doesn't fit into your "LeBron sucks and is a loser!" theory as an unacceptable "excuse." I know I didn't do that with Kobe. We all know that Kobe didn't exactly have a fantastic series when he lost against the Celtics, but sometimes players just fall short of greatness for various reasons. If you want to point out posters here that were getting on Kobe's case for that loss but aren't doing it for LeBron, then go ahead.
Kobe's a loser every year he didn't win a championship. But he did win some championships. That's my standard. And LeBron has always been a loser by that standard. I don't see any double standard here.
Agreed, then. LeBron's a "loser" (according to your definition) until he wins a championship, like anyone else.
