MJ: "I would never have called up Larry, Magic & say lets get together."

Lebron himself played really bad in the last three playoffs games. If he had dominated and his teammates didn't show up I might agree with you. People bring up that he had a triple double in the last game but he was real close to a quadruple double with the 9 TOs he had that game, not to mention that he shot 38% that game. Lebron tried to use Kobe in game 7 by saying that his team still won when he had a bad shooting night but Kobe didn't have a bad shooting night and compound it by turning the ball over 9 times. When your best player's stat line is 38% with 7 TOs, 21%, and 38% with 9 TOs it's hard to say that isn't the real reason the team lost.

 

Oh and I forgot to put this at the end of my post above

 

And this is essentially what all the fuss is about. He never cared at all. Which is even worse than "quitting". The fact that he quit, and especially the manner in which he did so, is confirmation that he never cared. And that is the reason he will only sniff Jordan's jockstrap and nothing more. Ever.

The big 3 are taking the easy way out, and that is why they will ultimately fail. They don't have the discipline or the balls or the brains or the desire to build a legit championship team from top to bottom. Pat Riley took care of the brains part, but there will always be more holes than swiss cheese in the house of Diva.

There will be plenty of dancing and drinking and partying. And then the freight train of reality will come crashing in. And that's just fine for the 3 amigo's. Because they don't care.

 

Why the hell should we care what MJ thinks. Different times ....different players.

 

You do realize Wade has won a ring, and lebron has been in the finals. They joined to win rings, and have fun. You can do both you know. It's like people here just work hard and don't know you can have fun as well.

 

Well played sir.

 

Lebron didn't sign with the Celtics or the Magic, the last two teams to beat his. He also didn't sign with the champion Lakers. He signed with a team that has been worse than his the last two years.

 

This may be the stupidest post I've ever seen on Clutchfans. You're really using season scoring averages from two teams twenty years apart to decide who had a better supporting cast?

OMG, everybody! I just discovered that Lebron should have come to the Rockets this offseason. We would have had the greatest team in NBA history. Look at these numbers to support that:

(1996 Chicago Bulls supporting cast vs. 2010 Houston Rockets)

Pippen 19.4 < Martin 21.3
Kukoc 13.1 < Brooks 19.6
Longley 9.1 < Scola 16.2
Kerr 8.4 < Ariza 14.9
Harper 7.4 < Lowry 9.1
Rodman 5.5 < Buddinger 8.9

Clearly, Lebron would have had the greatest supporting cast in the history of the NBA if he had come to Houston. I haven't even mentioned Yao Ming!

 

Well, L.A. is pretty far south, so I guess you didn't really quit.

 

Winning a lot of games in consecutive seasons with a mediocre cast also means that you were probably healthier than a lot of other teams. James never missed a large chunk of games the last two years, and he's the only essential player on the team. Orlando had Nelson out for a while, the Celtics were missing KG, Bynum was always out for LA, Yao missed an entire season.

 

Lebron is much bigger and stronger than the perimeter players he's matched up against. Allowing hand checking would help his defense more than it would hurt his offense, I think.

 

Unless he was on a 10 year rookie contract, he re-signed before winning the championship.

 

MJ would say who he wanted and who he didn't, and Jerry Krause would make his own decisions. If it was up to MJ, the Bulls never would have acquired Bill Cartwright. If it was up to MJ, the Bulls would have brought in a washed-up Walter Davis. MJ didn't want Scottie Pippen or Horace Grant on his team. That's some ability to scout talent.

 

Against who though? most small forwards? yeah probably, but then i'd figure hand checking would benefit RonRon more than probably anyone in the NBA.

 

By the way, since there are only 63, I just browsed Octavianus's 1.25-yr posting history on Clutchfans... and he pretty much only posts to defend Lebron (or recently to name other Heat signings.)

He joined this site, one of the largest, (I hear), NBA fan forums in the country, in 2009. And seems to repetitively defend Lebron, underline his successes and tell other people "so much hate for one of the greatest blah blah blah." Since this was before and after the Cavs/Heat move... is it fair to ask if our friend is part of Lebron, Inc.? Not that there's anything wrong with that. Is just seems the poster has no other interest in the entire league (or Clutch's site.) And... no other interest in the league seems to define the business model for Lebron, Inc. :grin:

My personal favorite:
"Did Lebron touch you or someone in your family? You seem to be taking this to heart."

 

Are you serious? How about...

More of a challenge.
Patience.
Uncertainty.
Paying your dues.
Loyalty to fans/city.
More incentive to get better.
Shaping the team in your image.
Building your teammates up through your example.

I could probably go on, but the simple answer is their is a substantial difference in the difficulty of "the journey" between those two methods.

 

The nice thing is that this argument will be easily testable. Jordan's teammates won 50 games in the year he left. We can see how many Cleveland wins this coming year, and that will provide us a pretty good comparison of how good the two supporting casts are in relation to each other.

 

I suppose that's one way to look at it. But WITH LeBron, this team was a championship contender. They had the best record in the league 2 years in a row. Any argument that he just HAD to get out of Cleveland to get a title is completely betrayed by that point.

I don't need to see anymore or what they'll do without him to know they were a legit championship contender, to the point of having the best record in the league over the last 164 games.

 

Going back to Emjay's quote on the thread title, I don't think his ego would allow him to call Larry or Magic to even have a friendly game of 21. He would probably expect them to call him.