Magic Johnson: "We didn't think about it 'cause that's not what we were about"

Are you saying that Wade hasn't played in any games that counted since he was in the Finals several years ago?

 

Of course, Lebron, Wade, and Bosh have never been rivals. Those players have never even faced each other in the playoffs. Their teams have not been good at the same time. They are just three really good players in the eastern conference. Sort of like Yao, Kevin Durant, and Steve Nash.

If anything, Lebron's rivals would be Orlando and Boston.

 

You sound delusional my friend. Theres NO WAY IN HELL anybody in their right mind can argue the east has more elite teams. Who were the "elite" teams Cleveland played to get to finals? Who are the so called "elite" teams in the East now?

BTW.......How did the Laker's have it easy against Boston??? Didnt Boston BEAT them a few season's back lol. Didnt this year's series go 7 games??? Please explain ur theory

I actually AGREE with this. Which is why Wade has shown he's the better player than Lebron. Lebron puts up better REGULAR SEASON numbers but there are players who compete at a higher level when it counts (Kobe, Wade)

 

I'm saying he's known for coming thru in the playoffs period, when it counts. A "sore" elbow wouldnt ever be a excuse for losing

 

I really miss the Magic Johnson Show, "Magic Hour." Really miss those types of late night show back in the day!!!

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Either way it's dumb because he hasn't come through in the playoffs the last 3 years.

 

Boston, Orlando and Cleveland (now Heat) have all been in the running for the finals every year.

In the West, it has been the Lakers and.. Spurs? Who are now old as hell and breaking down?

Top to bottom, the West is better without a doubt. But just at the top? You can certainly make an argument for the East.

 

Considering the team he had, and the effort he put forth his last playoff series against the Hawks. I think it's actually "dumb" for you to think otherwise. But then again, I actually watched the series.

 

What were you saying about LeBron after the Orlando series?

 

The argument is "ELITE TEAMS". With the exception of Boston, there are NO elite teams in the east. Denver, Dallas, Portland, Houston, OKC are all teams that can realistically BEAT any of the team 5 teams in the east outside of Boston. For example, if Lebron played in the West he'd never had got to the finals. His finals run was strictly a numbers game in who he played that year.

 

The same thing after the Boston series, "good player, still not great"

 

Uhh... okay.. that was four years ago. Stop living in the past.

Boston & Orlando are both legitimate title contenders. Each has been to the finals in the last three years (Boston 2x), which by definition means "title contender." Orlando made it the ECF this year before bowing out to Boston.

On the other hand, the West has only had the Lakers go the last three years. The year before that is the Spurs, who have only gotten older and more injured since then.

Denver, Dallas, Portland, Houston, OKC probably couldn't beat the Magic in a 7 game series right now.

You're bashing the East for ONE team that got swept FOUR years ago.. it's time to come to terms with today's reality.

 

No matter how logical and factual you are, some people won't listen.

Don't waste your time folks.

 

So Wade gets a free pass when his team doesn't show up because of the effort he put forth against the Hawks, but Lebron doesn't get the same pass when his effort was probably even more impressive against Orlando?

 

Dirk could have sealed Game 3 if he had made some free throws. Wade knocked down his.

 

this was what magic had to say WHEN HE WAS PLAYING:

Magic Johnson would have returned to Michigan State rather than play for the Chicago Bulls.

"I'd have stayed in school," he said here Tuesday, standing alone outside Gate 3 1/2 of Chicago Stadium, the house that could have been his. "A coin toss changed the course of my whole life." Chicago called heads in a 1979 coin flip with Los Angeles for the No. 1 pick in the NBA college draft. It came up tails.

Johnson signed with the Lakers after his sophomore year of college and proceeded to win five championships. The Bulls picked second, took UCLA's David Greenwood and have won no championships.

"I wouldn't have played here," Johnson said on the eve of Game 2 of the NBA finals between his team and the team that could have been his. "The only reason I came out was to play with Kareem and the Lakers."

FYI: kareem was 4th in MVP the year before magic came, and was MVP the year magic was a rookie.

78-79 (year before magic) he was all-nba 2nd team, and all-nba defense 1st team. he put up 24, 10, 4 blocks on 58% shooting WITHOUT magic. playoffs: 29, 14, 5 on 59%fg.

so since when did this quest to play with other great players a "really bad thing." this has started a long time ago.

in hindsight, MJ and magic can say whatever they want. magic and bird were drafted onto teams with HOF players. MJ was the only one who got drafted into a bad/average like lebron and he stuck throughout (but they had pippen later on).

none of these guys had the free-agency advantage lebron and the newer generations have. we wouldn't know what they would do if they went 7-8 years without winning a championship.

magic and bird experienced championship success earlier in their careers so it's stupid for them to comment b/c they didn't go through what lebron did.

MJ can say b/c his career paralleled lebron until this point. both were considered the best player prior to winning a championship.

i don't know. magic is pretty hypocritical and trying to slam lebron.

just b/c we have expectations of lebron that he could become GOAT, we're going to bash him for this decision. his career IS NOT OVER. we don't know how his career will play out. let it play out before we're bashing him.

this was a guy who gave up 30 MILLIONS to try to win. who does that nowadays?

 

like i said, lebron has the higher standards b/c he's the better player. there's a reason nobody is bashing wade or bosh for teaming up with lebron.

what lebron has to do to stop all this dumb criticism is go out there, continue to dominate and rack up MVPs like he's been doing, but finally he has to win. if he can do that year in and year out from now on, all this talk will end.

 

just to add onto my magic rant:

like i said, kareem was a top 5 player when magic joined the team. that's unquestioned.

magic also had:
michael cooper - 3 times all-nba 1st team defense (including DPOY), along with kareem

kareem, nixon, worthy, wilkes were all all-stars at some point. THAT'S A STACKED TEAM.

kareem, cooper, worthy, wilkes, nixon, ALL GOT SOME MVP votes at some point in time during magic's first seven seasons as a laker. HOW CRAZY IS THAT?

like i said, how the hell is magic going to talk? why the hell would he need to consider leaving the lakers when his team is arguably the most loaded team of all time?

 

Magic has no business to say all these simply because he played with a talented and stacked team. Both Magic and Bird were on a stacked team and together they both won 8 championships among them between 1980-1988. Of course neither one of them will contact each other about the ideas of playing together.
MJ of course won't call either Magic and Bird about the idea of playing together because he knew that both Magic and Bird were winning and neither of them would one MJ to join the party.
Maybe players like Ewing, Malone, Barkley, Stockton were smart enough back then they could have formed a team.

Back to today, all players know that Lakers will be winning the next 2-3 championships because the team are simply too talented for any other 29 teams in the league to beat. Why are nobody complaining about Lakers domination?

Why is so many people complaining about Lebron joining the Heat? If it was because the Decision show? Then the hate is justified. If it was worrying about the Heat will dominate the Heat then why no one complaining lakers domination? The heat yet to win a single NBA game, why worry about it? We all know that a team with 3 Stars and a bunch of scrubs won't win it all, why worry about it? It will hurt the NBA? Nope, i think is great chance for younger players like Rose, Durant, Wall to shine because if they lead their team to beat the Heat then they will get all the attention.

Is it because the players deciding their own fate then some people are not happy with? Because they know the team can't do much to improve and beat the Lakers, that's why they took less money to play together to win it all. What's wrong with that? Why is all the former greats whining about? Because Lebron is tarnishing his own status? Again the Heat yet to play a single game, who knows Lebron will be dominating as usual and Wade willing to play the Robin role?

 

When you become the top of your profession and known as as such amongst your peers, you deserve a little leeway in how you address the young bucks below you. I'd like to think you've earned that respect.

Is Magic a bit of a hypocrite in saying what he said? Sure.

But you know what? I personally don't want to hear Magic say "Yeah I would have done what Lebron did. Sure I wanted to play for the Lakers, not Bulls. I can see where Lebron is coming from..."

That's lame and boring. And that would be also betraying what Jordan said earlier about this, and of course Magic is going to side with his fellow NBA legend over some young buck trying to go the easy route to where him and MJ are at in the historical NBA GOAT pecking order.

Keep that pimp hand strong, Magic and Mike.