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

Magic LED the team to one victory, not to the title. Kareem played in five of the six games in the Finals. He put up a crazy stat line, too (33pts/14reb/5blk/3ast).

 

What is your opinion of Clyde Drexler and Charles Barkley? As a Rockets fan, I'm assuming you like at least one of those guys. Does rooting for those front runners make you one as well?

 

Seriously? LeBron just gets exposed for being one of them most selfish and narcissistic athletes in recent memory, but now he's suddenly the epitome of a team player? That article just wasted several minutes of my life.

I also especially like the way he retracts his evaluation of James and Wade not being able to coexist by asserting that he was:

So weak. How does he even know that LeBron is going to take a backseat to Wade? Isn't Wade going to be the point guard? Who's going to have primary ball handler duties? How are they going to take advantage of the drive and kicks when neither LeBron nor Wade can shoot consistently? Do they take turns driving and kicking to Mike Miller?

 

Barkley was definately was front running. I disliked the Barkley Trade.
Drexler - you are correct. Nothing says frontrunner like going to a team that goes 47 - 35!


Rocket River

 

I think haven't watched much of Lebron and Wade play, if you think they cannot hit sits consistently. They are worked hard on there outside game, and you wont see teams leaving them open. Go watch some Lebron and Wade games, before you comment on there play.
Also, your forgetting Bosh has one of the best outside shoots for a bigman in the game, and Chamlers is a very good 3 point shooter. Plenty of shooters for them to dish too.

 

Guess what the Miami Heat record was last season? 47-35! Yet somehow LBJ took the easy path while Drexler was teh Houston Hero, right?


Look, there is no "easy path to a championship" if you're a major player on the team. Darko Milicic, Adam Morrison, these guys are the only ones who get an easy path to a ring. If you're a major piece of the team then chances are you earned your ring, it wasn't given to you. Its not like LBJ would just lounge around sipping tea while Bosh and Wade rack the W's, chances are he'll outperform them both and get his 3rd MVP. And yet its supposed to tarnish his legacy, because staying in Cleveland and failing to win ring after ring won't?

Since when did becoming a martyr and losing again and again with your team become vogue, and its to be valued more than winning? I guess Kobe's 6 rings means squat, right? He won his first 3 with Shaq and PJ, and now he's won his last two with Gasol, PJ and Odom. Or how about when Shaq "deserted" Orlando to play in LA with Bryant? I guess that definitely tarnished his legacy!

Or how about Paul Pierce? Man, that guy didn't win anything till he had Rondo, Allen, KG and Perkins with him...what a loser!

Some people here just hold players to standards they wouldn't do to themselves

 

Clyde was traded in the twilight of his career to come get a ring. Not in his prime.

Barkley never got a ring....he was traded here in the twilight of his career...LeBron's legacy is already perceived to be greater than Barkley's.

Both Clyde and Barkley are Hall of Famers. With all the Chosen One/Witness crap, LeBron isn't being compared to guys like Clyde and Barkley. This article compares him to Magic. We've heard comparisons to Jordan.

 

The Rockets were defending champs!

By the way, the Heat were 47-35 last year. You're right, nothing says front running like leaving a team that you led to 66 and 61 wins the last two years to go to a team that won 47 games last year.

 

You make a fair point about who Lebron is being compared to, but what Clyde and Chuck did was still "frontrunning."

I was just pointing out what I considered hypocrisy. A Houston Rockets (and likely a Clyde Drexler) fan calling a player a front runner and saying that anyone who supports him is also a front runner, without realizing that's exactly what he is.

 

I've seen them both play, thank you very much. You might want to go online and stream some games for yourself if you believe that those two are good outside shooters. Neither is very consistent from outside. I'm sure they've been working hard on their respective shots, but so far the results aren't encouraging. James is the better shooter from distance, yet he only shot 32.9% from the three point line last season. Sharpshooter Wade comes in at 30% from the three point line last season and 28.9% for his career. Finally, Chalmers and his "very good 3 point shot" make an appearance at 31.8% last season and just 34.6% for his career.

Now, I don't know what league you're familiar with, but those aren't good shooting stats. Not if you're hoping that they'll capitalize on their penetration anyway. It'll be like watching Alston toss up bricks for the Rockets, only we didn't have to pay him the max salary for it. Right now, Mike Miller is their only consistent three point threat, and they're going to need more than one guy who can hit the open jumpshot if they want to make any noise in June. Fact.

I've already tackled your Chalmers assertion. As for Bosh, I agree that he's a great shooter...from midrange. He won't have as much time as a Mike Miller will have to get his shot up since the help defender won't have to cover as much ground to contest his shot. Granted, he's a great slashing bigman, so he'll have a great time playing with Wade and LeBron if he can find the middle consistently.

Miami still needs to surround these guys with shooters to be able to take advantage of their situation. They also need to determine who gets the ball on the regular, LeBron or Wade. Their games are redundant, which is why I don't see them achieving the synergy that the Celtics had.

 

Oh come on. Miami with Wade and Bosh is completely different than the team they had last year. This shouldn't even be a discussion. The Heat winning 47 games last year has nothing to do with this year because of the free agency.

 

That's not the point. The point is that the team is so stacked that there are other players you can substitute Lebron with and they would still win.

CP3, Bosh, Wade - likely championship
Dwight, Bosh, Wade - likely championship
Deron Williams, Bosh, Wade - likely championship
Kobe, Bosh, Wade- likely championship
Dirk, Bosh, Wade - likely championship

etc

 

Lebron's game is closer to Magic's than to Jordan. Like Magic, Lebron is an elite player on almost every facet of the game. What makes Magic an all-time great is his unbelievable all-around-ness.

I've always felt that Lebron is Magic on 'roid. He has Magic's skills and a stronger and more athletic body. If Lebron played on the Showtime Lakers, I am pretty sure they would have won at least the same amount, probably more, of championships.

Bosh is no Kareem, but Wade is better than Worthy. But the Lakers had the likes of Wilkes, Scott, Rambis, Cooper as role players. These weren't chopped liver. We'll see how Miami fills out their roster.

 

Paul Peirce ????
hehehehehehehe

ok . .. you want me to . . .LEAVE LEBRON ALONE!!!! :grin: ??

Rocket River

 

But then it won't affect his legacy. If he's the best player all season but Wade wins the Finals MVP, no one will think "oh, Lebron isn't all that good". Again, I still don't see the issue there with his legacy.

He'll either earn it or he won't. It will be based on what he does on the court. The idea that playing with other good players will tarnish his legacy because they might be better than him is totally messed up. If they are better than him, he doesn't deserve the legacy. I don't see a problem there.

 

How many of those threes for James and Wade were open catch and shoot opportunities created by the penetration of a teammate? Guys weren't leaving Lebron open to cover Mo Williams last year. If they leave him to stop D-Wade's driving, he's going to get the easiest looks of his career. Then we'll see what type of shooter he is.

 

Is that what you're banking on? Teams literally GIVE LeBron and Wade open 3 point shots so that they don't get into the lane. They've been shooting open three point looks for years. I don't expect their averages to suddenly climb just because they're getting assisted. Additionally, both Wade and LeBron seem to be more rhythm type jumpshooters, just like your moniker was. I don't see them improving drastically just because they're more wide open than they have been their entire careers.

 

I think the article makes some good points, and I understand both sides of the argument. I think tofu's post was spot on, and I can also respect some of the other responses.

The one part of the article I disagreed with was the part about Kobe. Yes, Kobe had a public disgracing worse than LeBron's "The Decision" when the CO scandal hit. Still, he came back to the game more dedicated than ever. After that scandal, we saw a different persona on the court. We saw the Black Mamba emerge, the killer who stuck out his ugly chin, shook his head, and dared you to beat him. I don't think it was just "winning cures all evils" at work in that case; it was the fact that we saw him dedicate himself to the game. Little things like taking the initiative to call Hakeem to work on his post moves showed he was about working to improve his game.

Now, I'm not saying LeBron can't have the same dedication to the game. But I think a lot of people hold it against him when he's seen dancing in the middle of a game. They think it's disrespecting the other team but more importantly, the game itself. I think LeBron needs to do so much more to cement his legacy than Kobe because Kobe never disrespected the game the way people feel LeBron has, especially after the decision and running away from being a franchise player (which, I also think you can't compare "franchise players" from pre-Jordan days because they were never seeing the hundreds of millions of dollars these players get but that's tangential...).

 

Championships and playoff glory CURES EVERYTHING.


The problem is that James wants Wade to be the finisher. Egos will be nasty after a repeat if Wade is getting more glory than him.

 

Here's the deal, he hasn't been playing with butter knives like Kwame Brown, Smush Parker, Luke Walton in the starting lineup. Taking the easier competition into consideration and the adequate supporting cast he's been provided, the argument that the management didn't provide him with proper help is a fail. He wanted Damon Jones, they got him Damon Jones. He wanted Boobie Gibson re-signed to a fat extension, they granted it. He wanted Larry Hughes, they got him. He wanted JJ Hickson staying at the deadline when they couldv'e dealt him and Z to Suns for Amare and they stayed put. I don't blame Dan Gilbert for being pissed in his letter. He thought Lebron can take them to the championship and they bent over for him and he failed and he bailed at the chance he got.