LABron James Discussion: The Final Year?

Lebron was the 4th leading scorer this game. He finally has some help and doesn't have to do it all himself. This bodes well for a decent length playoff run if it continues.

 

Durant is the most flexible superstar, just plug and play blah blah blah.

Guess what other stars can do that too when you have good teammates. Great game on defense and the glass and played the off ball outlet when the other guys were going.
HIm and AD really shut it down on defense

 

his 3pt shooting still stinks n careless TO

 

Dude was about 2-3 lazy passes away from giving this game away until Reaves took over. Gotta do better Lebron

 

His conditioning and "legs" are still not there. Looks 2 weeks out

 

LeBron deferred to AR when he saw he was feeling it. He hit a couple of big 3s and got some key 3s. I have no issues with his performance tonight.

 

He provided some solid rim protection . Offensively he was a jumpshooter , had to do with JJJ presence I guess

 

The numbers actually say that Bird was not a great 3 point shooter. I have to admit that as someone who watched he play since he came into the League. It damn sure didn't seem that way. He hit a lot of big shots in his career though. Bird was a baller...GOAT level...No.

 

Good leadership

 

Aside from those weird four years where he was below 30%, he was a 40+% 3 pt shooter. He was basically close to a 50/40/90 player most of his career. That’s elite shooting. I don’t mean to resort to arguments from authority or ad populum, but just Google “greatest shooters in nba history” and Bird is always on those lists.

 

One of the greatest mid range scorers ever..but his 3pt volume, doesn't place him as a great 3 point shooter though. Anyway.. Larry Legend was a great one...not a GOAT but still a great one. I'd still take Lebron over Bird as a player though. James would have been an absolute monster in the 80's...better than pre knee injury Magic. And pre knee injury Magic was a very bad man. Post knee injury was still an All Time great. The Magic man was the truth.

 

Right, Bird clearly doesn’t have the volume to stack up stats wise to the greatest 3pt shooters but that’s just because no one shot many threes back then. I admit it’s speculation, but I see no reason to think if we had a Time Machine to transport mid 80s Bird to present day and tell him to shoot 10+ 3s a game, he couldn’t do it as efficiently. Defense today is a joke and offensive stats are inflated. Bird would be a monster today.

As for Lebron in the 80’s, yes he certainly has the physical gifts to be elite anytime, anywhere. He’s the most physically gifted athlete in professional sports history. Again, just speculation on my part, but if we took prime Lebron (he was a massive flopper in his prime) And time machined him to the 80’s, I think rough, dirty, physical play absolutely breaks him. He’s a smart and strong willed player, but that’s not the same as being able to handle being bullied and abused. He’s physically strong enough to handle it, but not emotionally imo. He’s a great man and a god role model. I like him as a person, but I think he’s very emotionally fragile. He’s always cared about his public perception and been very sensitive to criticism. He cried to the press when Draymond trash talked him in the finals. He called himself the goat. There’s a huge list someone posted years ago with all the douchey things Lebron has said. I mean a 6’8 265lb specimen that resorts to some of the worst flopping the league has ever seen is a b****. I honestly think Rodman, Xavier, Lainbeer, Oakley, etc would absolutely have him crying.

 

I think the players adjust, to the way the game is played in their era. Larry would have had problems guarding today's players too. He's said that himself. He said that a lot of guys that were in the NBA, when he was coaching the Pacers, would have been superstars in his day. He's one of the few old school guys to acknowledge that. He would still score today though, he's one of the great ones.

Lebron would have played with a different persona in that era. A guy that big, strong, and athleticly gifted? He's bigger than those guys you listed, he would have ate them up IMO. Nobody would have been looking forward, to seeing that dude coming down on them with a full head of steam. He's bigger than a lot of centers of the 80's. Lol..Rodman, Lambeer, XMan, Oak...they couldn't guard Magic...they wouldn't have been able to do anything with Lebron James.

 

Bird certainly wouldn’tbe a defensive stopper in the modern nba. No argument there lol.

I’m not saying 80s thugs would shut Lebron down with defensive skill. They’d break him emotionally with fear, intimidation and dirty play. Psychological traits are deep parts of us, not something someone can adjust to fit the times.

 

Elgin, Wilt, Kareem...they would score big in today's game. Yet Shaq, Jordan, Kobe..they would have been unstoppable back in the day. It goes both ways.

 

I don't think he's mentally weak at all...he just plays the game, the way its played in his time. I hate this flopping s*** too, but I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end, of a Lebron elbow either. That guy could hurt somebody unleashed..I think folks would have treaded softly with Lebron, it wouldn't all be one way. Folks feared those guys back then, because of their size, and willingness to wack you. Nobody punked Earvin and he faced them all, I don't think they would have punked Lebron either.

 

really liked that after he had those two terrible TOs in the second quarter, he got his a** in the post after the timeout, dlo found him, and he converted. statement play.

 

Just because Earvin had a million dollar smile doesn’t mean he wasn’t a killer. He was in the middle of those cbag scrums back in the day too. I just don’t see Lebron like that. I consider myself a pretty good psychological profiler, but I’m not infallible. It’s all speculative opinion anyway, so you might be right. There’s nothing either of us could say to definitively make our case. Why am I defending a cbag scum and trashing a lakers champion anyway, lol?