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

His reasoning is he wants the easiest way to win titles, but it is what it is, i don't really have any problem with it, Cleveland's ****hole status and poor management undoubtedly contributed to it, possibly to the point where demanding a supporting crew like Jordan, Kobe etc had done in the past would have got similar results to KG in Minnesota.

As for his series being better than Kobe's vs the Celtics? I didn't really see it, one of the major reasons I thought Lebron was a better player during the season was that he is typically less turnover prone than Kobe, but his turnovers were Artest ball handling bad in that series, whereas Kobe would have probably deserved a Jerry West had the Lakers lost (that series was the most physically brutal I've seen this century mind you, particularly the last game driving that terrible shooting %'s on both sides).

As for the Lakers team being stacked, no doubt, that's what happens with a soft salary cap when a team can generate $50m a year more on just ticket sales, not to mention the other facets of the market they have (and of their $90m odd salary, only about $6m is wasted but they have bargain value Ron who probably deserves 3-4 more), they win an nba title with their $13m centre on 1 leg, says it all really, quite simply you get what you pay for.

 

That's why this article is silly BS. Another media member coddling him. He wins jack and all of a sudden, bandwaggoning with 2 other stars redefines traditional concepts of greatness? Lol.

 

that's why i don't get why people talk about kobe and jordan demanding better supporting casts. it doesn't mean anything. everyone wants a better supporting cast. it's not like kobe said "get me better players" and mitch kupchak said "oh damn, i've been trying to get terrible players this whole time, thanks for reminding me what my job is kobe. you could've been winning titles this whole time if you'd just brought this up sooner. hey, here's pau gasol, go get 'em kobe." the whole purpose of lebron's 3 year contract was presumably to keep the pressure on to get better players. didn't work out, what else was he supposed to do? unless MJ scouted scottie pippen out of central arkansas, i'm just going to say he was fortunate that his GM started finding championship caliber supporting players.

i don't really see how it can be argued that lebron had the better series. even with lebron doing a bad job with turnovers, averaging 4.5 per game, kobe wasn't much better at 3.9 TO per game. lebron averaged 27/9/7/2.2/1.3 with a 55.6 TS%. kobe averaged 29/8/4/2.1/0.7 with a 52.7 TS%. not that lebron had a way better series, but he had better numbers and a higher efficiency. kobe certainly didn't have a jerry west MVP on a losing team level performance. the only reason he could have been considered is that the celtics just had no one stand out at all and basically spread everything around.

 

Who the hell cares.. legacy and basketball don't go together anymore. Lebron will have a great career and make tons of money. I wouldn't go so far as to call anything he does a 'legacy'--unless you believe marketing gimmicks and take them for truths.

Tiger Woods had a legacy; Roger Federer had a legacy; Michael Jordan had a legacy.

Lebron was great and used the marketing tools associated with legacies previously established to create a 'legacy' before it was even there. He wanted to reap the rewards of what other's have sewn. Only thing is, the other 3 named above worked hard, produced results time after time, and were labeled as great and winners long before they established a 'legacy'.

What Lebron is doing is business. And I will never associate that with a great sports star.

 

Personally, I never really liked LeBron, and his actions only give solid arguements to the feelings I already had. I never really like Jordan or Bird either, but I did like Magic. I was a fan of his team. That said however, I have great respect for all 3, though maybe less for Magic since his career got cut short.

I suspect that many of the posters have similar feels towards him. Seriously, how many of the LeBron haters were really big fans of his before the decision? I doubt there are many. Whether or not LeBron has a legacy or gains respect will be determined after his career is over, when haters and fans a like can sit back and be more objective about it.

 

maybe Lebron ISN'T as good as some people make him out to be. He's not a CHOSEN one. The media did that to him.