SI Article: "LeBron's Decision Could Redefine Greatness"

Easy, because he left CLEVELAND.......CLEVELAND I SAY!!! Which means he will fail where ever he goes forever.

Seriously, basketball just has to be played so people will shut up, LeBron will average a triple double possibly next season and I will put all the questions about his legacy to rest.

 

when he racks up another MVP, and win a ring, all this will quiet down. winning cures everything.

but it's key he continues to rack up MVPs along with winning rings if he wants to be the GOAT.

jordan basically could have won "all" the MVPs every year, and he won all of his finals MVPs. we'll see if lebron can continue to rack up reg. season MVPs and start to get finals MVPs.

 

But what happens if the Heat win a ring but Wade is finals MVP? That kills LeBrons legacy

 

When tony parker won the finals mvp in 2007 did that diminish The Great Tim Duncan's legacy at all? No, does it even matter? No

 

Tim Duncan was already a finals mvp, and it does matter imo.....but I think the Heat wont win anyway

 

I don't see the issue here. Lebron doesn't have a legacy right now - the legacy has to be earned. If Lebron isn't the best player on the court in the finals, then why should he have a legacy of being the best ever? If Wade is the better player when the two are on the same team, then Wade would and should get more attention.

 

it would.

but lebron's the better player, so i expect him to be MVP. he will put up the ridiculous all-around stats + he's a better defender than wade.

plus he's a 2-time MVP.

 

Well said.

 

exactly my point. if lebron james is truly as great as he is, if lebron isn't the best player on the court with wade, then he's not the best player on the planet as advertised.

then who cares about his legacy?

 

By making this decision LeBron knew how the media and people around the league would view him.

So basically he is saying he doesn't care what anyone thinks about his legacy and good for him.

At the end of the day if he wins Championships he will get credit for winning them and he will be a huge factor in them winning the Championships.

 

Let me state my opinion and say what I feel Lebron apologists are confusing about the core of the matter. Ultimately people keep bringing up the new "Lebron is Magic!" comparison, which I find to be completely erroneous, and I hope that through this post people can at least relate better to what many of us so called "Lebron haters" are feeling.

While some people don't like Lebron as a person and maybe his immature decision to widely publicize his move to Miami is something that only furthered this perspective, many of us (including me) feel his decision cheapens the "hard work" basketball that was indicative of the NBA prior to recent times. That is, the NBA has become far less a display of skill than it is of flash and athleticism and many players are able to get by on a lack of fundamentals. Maybe a part of this is to be blamed on Michael Jordan, but no one doubts that Jordan put the work in to develop his game and also put the work in to make his team his arms and legs and a part of his being. If you can understand people's admiration for the work that Jordan gave not just to furthering his basketball game, but also the work he gave in carrying his Bulls to the numerous championships they did get, then it should be clearer why many of us are upset about Lebron's decision.

Rather than viewing people attacking Lebron's decision as something malicious, understand that a lot of us that love basketball are more hurt than anything because we had expectations of what Lebron could become and what he could have done for the game of basketball. He is an outstanding physical specimen and is gifted with a time and age where there are no limits to what his game could have become. People are literally at his beck and call and if he so desires probably any player, former or current, would be glad to teach him their skills. He has the talent to incorporate all of it and also to market himself in such a way that he can be truly the greatest player of the post-Kobe era, even without the killer instinct that the other greats possessed. It is through the hard work of developing yourself and not of just blaming the team, the organization, etc. and deep down always telling yourself "I can get better, I'm not good enough" when faced with both loss and victory that makes a player maximize their potential completely. Frankly, the greats like Jordan, Bird, Hakeem, Magic, WHOEVER-- where not only gym rats but kept their blue-collar mentality of showing up each year better than before, hungry as ever, and most importantly: they were ready to lead their team. They had pride in their work and legacy because you know what? Their personal success came in making their TEAM the best. They were the LEADERS, the FACE, the ALPHA-DOG, whatever, of their teams. That's why so many players stayed with one team or were hurt being traded from it because their mentality was always, "I built this place. However far we get is because of the work I put in." It's not just a matter of loyalty but having some freaking PRIDE in the work they were putting in. It's a reason why many of us are happy with Durant's feelings of "Why join them when I can go after them?" He has pride in his team and what they can produce and is excited about the challenge of seeing how his hard work can pay off, of reaching ceilings he couldn't before.

Instead of trying to follow in their footsteps, Lebron left Cleveland not only in a very distasteful manner, but also after floundering in the playoffs and leaving many questioning how much he actually tried to win instead of just "shipping it in." And from what we understand, he had thoughts of leaving perhaps months prior to Cleveland's defeat in the playoffs. That is to say, he had long since given up on thinking of pushing his way uphill and figuring things out on his own. He wanted a free ride to the top with all the same benefits.

This is not to say that Lebron didn't make Cleveland his own. I'm not saying that. He did revitalize that mediocre franchise and made it a pretty damn good force. But I AM saying that his decision not to stick with it reflects badly on what others have done before him-- of not giving up on what a person views as "HIS" team and "HIS" work. And what is perhaps distasteful to many of us is not only did he have the talent to see this work to completion, but the one team he decided to go to was a team that he would NOT be the "face" of the organization and would instead be playing second-fiddle.

This brings me to the Magic comparisons. Yes, Magic had many great players on his team. Hall of Famers, DPOYs, etc. But let's also remember something: Magic didn't ditch the car he had the keys to in order to jump into that nearby Lamborghini with all his buddies. He was drafted onto the Lakers with a legend in Kareem already there and had to prove his worth. He had to earn those keys. And players that joined him-- Michael Cooper, James Worthy, etc. Guess what? They were drafted as well. They weren't alpha dogs on another team. They all had to develop their games together. If Lebron wanted to be Magic so much, frankly he should have kept furthering his game and then demanded management to bring a star player to HIS house, not the other way around. And it certainly sounded like he tried to do that before to no avail-- in the end to just give up. Maybe he saw something in the front office that none of us knew about, but many signs point to him being the spoiled child getting what he wanted, finding out they weren't quite what they wanted, and instead of waiting for his parents to get him new toys, decided to go to his buddies' house and play with what they had.

Which leads me back to why a lot of us are displeased at Lebron. A few years later, when his career is dwindling to a close, we'll all know what he accomplished. He is certainly a HOF player, partly due to the expectations and hype already bestowed upon him, but also because he is genuinely an amazing player. Maybe he might not have won a championship if he had stayed at Cleveland. But without a doubt, he could have been continually dubbed the best player of the era and would have been respected for trying, at least, to be a leader. No one doubted the people that never won a championship were still AMAZING players. They were respected just the same. Instead he decided to take the easy way out and go into a super stacked team just to pummel on everyone else in the league like a two-bit bully-- and worst of all, join a super stacked team where many view him as perhaps being the most talented among them and STILL wanting to play second-fiddle. It's just escapism from responsibility.

We know how good he is. We know how good he could have been. He will undoubtedly be a statistical monstrosity for the rest of his career. But that he would do it just to skip the work, to never completely fulfill what he could have been, is not a slap in the face to basketball and the work that the other greats put in but also to the fans that wanted to see just how far he could have gone.

 

You post more a day than DD....

 

Any sports article that manages to get an Ayn Rand reference in there gets a thumbs up from me :grin: I really like the questions the author brings and do agree that the main reason for the LeBron hate simply comes from "The Decision". It's a fascinating idea he proposes about "The Man" concept that Jordan propagated and how it was never like that before him.

 

I didn't realize how much more I disliked LeHour (Spot, and Wade) until I read your post.

 

The writer is spinning it, trying to move the goal post. LeChoke selected Miami the city over Cleveland the city. The fact he could join Wade adds the glamor he craves. He is a hollow human being and his legacy is forever tarnished.

 

Lebron leaving and going to play with a guy that has a ring changes the whole story. Magic never left the Lakers and was clearly the best player for the last 3 titles when Kareem was in his late 30s and then his 40s. On top of that Magic was the finals MVP in his rookie season. Lebron decided to go to a team that you could switch him out for about 10 team players in the league and the Heat would probably still have a good shot of winning it all.

 

You a big LeBron fan, huh?

Rocket River

 

Article is rubbish. Winning only "cures everything" for the lowest common denominator fans. Even giving that, some of these front runner scummy fans will start to realize what is winning worth when you joined with your competition?

And lebron came in wanting to be jordan, even picking his number, he is now settling for magic. Not a single person would ever say that magic is better than MJ. He simply couldn't be the next MJ so he settled for magic.


he is an immature fame w****, and I hope nothing but negative to his career.

 

Ones things for sure, if Lebron does not win a ring from this point on he will go down as the MOST OVERRATED PLAYER in the history of sports.