In Defense Of Lebron James' Finals ( Editorial)

Yeah, exactly. LeBron is bigger, stronger, faster and jumps higher than Bird. But Bird was the killer LeBron will never be.

 

And for anyone saying LeBron has passed Kobe, or is nearing Jordan, I mean, he doesn't even have as many rings as Bird does yet, let's not go overboard.

 

Remember, the East in Bird's era was a meat grinder. He had no free passes to the Finals like a certain Kang has had.

 

Or loses his special "supplements".

 

Bird talked a whole lotta mess...then backed it up. Bird was John Wayne. James is Wayne Brady.

 

Yes, James' game is like Lite Beer...doesn't do anything for me either.

 

Great player, tremendous physical talent. But, he is not a great clutch performer, when he needs to take over and put the team on his back. For all his accomplishments, Bron needed a team with two additional all-stars to win, and even then was saved by the HoF veteran Ray Allen, who hit a clutch 3 we still remember.

Yes, Bron is an efficient player. Until he needs to take over and carry the team. And what happened? Welcome to the numbers Kobe and Iverson were criticized for (selfish, volume shooters they were ). So, I'm not going to criticize him for that... that's just how it is.

Great editorial though. I enjoyed reading it!

 

It's the worst volume shooting in the history of NBA finals, and the worst turnover numbers since 1985.

 

I know i am a hater in the truest sense of the word reguarding LaBrinz, but i believe with all my heart that LeBronz is the greatest role player in history of the game. He doesn't have that true, I'm going to rip your heart out and impose my will on you mentality. He's so self concious and insecure that he shrinks in the moment if he doesn't have a crutch, like a Wade, or Bosh to take and make the shots when they count for championships. This is why any comparisons to the true greats is ubsurd.

No doubt he was tired... but this is how LaBronz performs all the time in the finals if he doesn't have someone else to take the big shots. I was laughing last night because JR Smith was taking and missing those shots, but he had to because LaBronz won't even take them. LaBronz is built for the regular season. He will get you empty meaningless wins in a weaker than weak conference, but championships take having an alpha. He is not that dude.

 

For what it's worth, after Game One (in which he was the epitome of the shrinking violet when it mattered most - overtime), Lebronze did impress me there for a few games. He really wanted it and showed some serious mettle. I had never seen him actually do that before. He stopped caring about stats there and just did whatever it took to win, shooting percentage be damned. So I'm the same, I can't rip him too hard in those few games because for the first time I saw him discard all that stuff and just go hard. It was pretty amazing to see. So I totally get therealdeal's editorial in that respect.

But this last game was pretty bad. He reverted back to shrinking violet Lebronze who is just too scared to take over and force his will. This, after declaring that he's the best basketball player in the world. That makes me feel that so much of his play and failing to deliver is tied into his massive ego. When he's egoless and just goes for it without holding back, he's one scary competitor. But then he plays these mental games with himself about being the best evah, and he just chokes hard.

He'll always be a second tier "great" in my opinion. There is no way to deny his talent, nor his numbers, so he will undoubtedly be in the discussion of greatest of all time, but to me he will probably end up around the top 15-20 in my opinion rather than the top 10 because of his lack of heart. He's a little like Chamberlain in that respect. Massive skills to match a massive ego. But ultimately not the fierce competitor that truly leads his team all the way ala Magic, Bird, Kobe, Russell, Jordan, Kareem, West, or TD.

As mentioned, he's just not the killer. He's the guy who is very proud of himself. With the guys previously mentioned you felt like they would rather die than lose. They left everything on the floor. Other than those few games, I have never felt that fire from Lebronze. It's mostly been about having fun with his buddies and having gaudy numbers to back up his claims of being the "Chosen One." His egomania is completely off putting. And ultimately it may prove his undoing in terms of his legacy. Two wins out of 6 Finals sucks by the way.

 

Awesome summary lakerjones

 

I think it was @JSM who said it in the other thread. This series epitomized what LeBron is: a beta.

I said years ago that I thought LeBron would go down as the best "2nd-best" player on a team of all time. He NEEDS Wade and Bosh there because he can't take the last shot. When the criticism from missing comes flying he gets defensive. When Kobe takes and misses the last shot he says "It was a good look, I should have made it, I'd take it again and I'd make it 9/10 times". That's what an alpha says and that's the way an alpha thinks.

LeBron putting aside his FG% was amazing. He was a monster in those two wins and he deserved some praise from it. @lakerjones' comparison to Wilt is apt in this respect: Russell has been viewed historically as the "Wilt Stopper" but Wilt still put up enormous stats on Russell. The difference is Russell won the game. All those stats were groundbreaking performances for LeBron maybe, but Iguodala won the game.

When it's all said and done and you're ranking the best players at their positions, it's almost impossible for me to say LeBron. He may end up being the most talented wing player that ever played, but he's not strong enough mentally to win games. How do you pick him over Bird? I'd put LeBron in the next tier down with Scottie, Worthy, and Elgin. All great, great Hall of Fame players...

Not the greatest though.

 

^^ Totally agree realdeal. I didn't get to hear it on the radio, just a summary afterward, but apparently writer Roland Lazenby was on 570 AM and said something very similar to what we are: that you can't put Lebronze in the top tier with guys like Magic, Jordan and Kobe. He just isn't there.

Also I completely agree with that assessment about Lebronze being the ultimate beta. That's where I see him as well.

 

When building an All-Time team, the only excuse for putting LeBron there is if you've already got Kobe, Jordan, Bird, or even Kareem on the squad and that there says everything you need to know. He can get one of those killers an open look, but he can't be the one that puts the dagger in. Not consistently enough for me to fear him. If he had that killer instinct the way those guys do, he'd have at least one more ring, probably two.

 

Game wise, 100%

But I could see LaBronz being incredibly jealous if he isn't regarded as the best player on the team at all times though.