I remember that game. I also remember the Dallas and Boston series where he didn't step it up when he needed to (though your Mike Brown statement is on point...throw Lebron the ball, have everyone stand around and watch him create. Amazed that man gets head coaching jobs). Not questioning his talent and ability...just his early mentality, which is obviously not a problem anymore
Do you remember Bird fading against the Bucks or Lakers or Sixers or Pistons or Bulls or Pacers or whatever? No you don't - because it was a different time and those failures are largely forgotten, were barely even broadcast at the time, and he didn't live under the microscope the way LeBron does/did. In the old days sportswriters created heros in print to sell papers - now the few remaining ones get paid to go on TV or twitter and pick them apart in order sell cathartic journeys of redemption in order to get ratings/twitter retweets.
Volume stats on on terrible efficiency on big minutes means nothing. Hayes is the Iverson of power forwards ( complete with being a failure on intangibles like Iverson), and to me is ranked around where Iverson is on my all-time list, which to me means that ignoring the guys I mentioned earlier, I'd take McHale, Bob Pettit, and even Pau over him. There is no way he's above Garnett, the single best defender of the last 15 years, Dirk, who pretty much has made Dallas a playoff team single handedly for the past 12 years and won a championship with no one as good as Unseld, or Barkley.
It was a problem in the Spurs series. They got in his head by playing off of him and he couldn't hit open jump shots or take guys like Splitter and Diaw in one on one situations. LeBron was a beast in the 2012 finals but there were several moments this year where he seemed completely shook up.
Charlie P ran down some of Michael's bad playoff performances that nobody remembers recently when guys on 790 were killing Lebron for "choking" early in the Finals this year. Kobe also. He's had plenty of bad games in big moments. It doesn't matter though because he's had great teams to help carry him to 5 titles. Also, there wasn't 24/7 sports news media in the 80s and 90s to help create "choking" narratives. There weren't websites where you could check statistics as easily.
Another word about mentally tough - imagine if LeBron quit the Caves out of intimidation at age 19 to drive a garbage truck? Because that's what Larry was doing at age 19rather than play at iu. Meanwhile LeBron was in the finals 2 years out of HS....weakling!
Can you remember as many moments in the finals where Jordan or Kobe weren't being aggressive and trying to play their game? Watching LeBron play in 2011 and at some points this year made you wonder where that dominate player we had seen all year had gone. Why isn't he attacking Boris Diaw but instead settling for long jumpers? You just watch him play sometimes and shake your head in disbelief with how passive he is being.
Bird won an NBA title his second year in the league, btw I say this agreeing that Lebron will end up a better player than Bird when the dust settles
On a team with 3 other Hall of Famers. If LeBron had been on a team with Duncan, Dwight and Nash when he was drafted he'd probably have a few more rings right now.
Maybe you should start watching? Larry is, was and always will be the pinnacle of SF. Period. Lebron will cement the number 2 spot, he came up small in many a situation.
It was two other superstars at the time. Archibald was well past his prime. Hmmm...a title with two other great players. Sounds familiar Regardless, I'm not the one saying Bird was tougher than Lebron. Just stated that Lebron didn't get that true killer instinct until later in his career. At this pace, he could well retire as the GOAT
No because Kobe wasn't good enough to get his team there. His hissyfits were in the context of early playoff flameouts. Like refusing to shoot at all in the 4th period. against the Suns in game 7 in 2006 At least he didn't quit to haul garbage #mentaltoughness.
Here are the playoffs stats of Lebron and Bird over their first 10 Seasons: Code: Rk Player From To G MP PER TS% eFG% ORB% DRB% TRB% AST% STL% BLK% TOV% USG% ORtg DRtg OWS DWS WS WS/48 1 Larry Bird* 1980 1988 145 6176 21.9 .555 .489 6.4 21.6 14.2 23.5 2.2 1.3 12.6 25.0 114 103 13.0 10.6 23.6 .183 2 LeBron James 2006 2013 138 5954 27.3 .567 .507 4.6 19.5 12.2 32.7 2.2 1.8 12.4 31.4 115 101 19.5 10.0 29.5 .238 Lebron has a better PER and WS than bird. He even has a higher TS%. Using playoff stats you can't say Bird is a better player than Lebron.
Kobe played in the finals 3 times post Shaq. With a good squad around him LeBron has played in the finals 3 times. Acting like you can't compare their finals experience because LeBron has gotten there so many more times as the lead dog is silly.
Kobe has never gotten to the finals where he was the only all-star on the team. Lebron did. I'm not going to knock Kobe though. The guy is a great player and so is Lebron. Kobe had some stinkers in the 2010 finals though. Games where he was 10-30 with 7 turnovers.
