LABron James Discussion: The Final Year?

I think the Finals MVP is actually a pretty fair assessment with this: your team was great and you were the best player in the most important series. Doesn't always work like that (i.e. Tony Parker beating Duncan) but it's a reasonable proximity to who was the main dog.

The one obvious issue with this is still is a team game and winning the title can be very hard even if you're the best player in the league but over time it should translate to titles. Wilt was always thought of as a guy who wasn't that tough by his contemporaries and the reason he didn't win as much as Russell

 

So why wasn't he the 5x Finals MVP? Why was Magic regarded as the best player for those Lakers teams? I mean, I'm not going to go back 30 years and argue about how good KAJ was. He simply wasn't carrying those teams the way LeBron has had to do for his four rings.

The year after KAJ retired and Lakers get Divac and Thompson becomes the starter, they go 63-19. The next year, they go 58-24 and reach the NBA Finals. So in which seasons did you think KAJ was the first option over Magic? Which seasons of the Showtime Lakers would you say KAJ was definitively the guy? Because even Worthy had games where he was the best player and Magic was the ultimate thriving force behind the Lakers as well as B.Scott running alongside them.

 

Dudley said Lebron was a huge fan of MJ .

The " I want my respect" thing was about Bron wanting everyone to recognize there is a gap between him and the rest of his "generation" .

 

I’m only 26 years old so it’s hard for me to speak on legends like MJ, Magic, Kareem, Bird, Russell, Wilt, etc. I will say this I was blessed to witness great players like Shaq, Kobe of course, Tim Duncan, Jason Kidd, Kevin Garnett, Allen Iverson, etc.

LeBron to me is the best player I’ve ever seen. Kobe will always be my favorite player, but as far as being an all around player LeBron is at the top of the list for me.

 

Yes sir!! Even though, it was way before my time ( I was 8 when he retired), he has won at every level. Not only won, but dominated. He has the most unstoppable move ever in basketball, period! He has the longevity, as well played and won in the 80s, which I think probably was the most hardest era to play. Dude played 19-20 years and was still killing it. Cap is and always will be my favorite player. But more importantly, he is one of the coolest cats around. Extremely intelligent and humble.

 

LeBron is amazing man - the fact that he's still this great this late into his career is INSANE.

Best part is? I think he's got 2 great years left...just enough time on his Laker contract.

We will get him help this off-season too to mitigate his load further so he can chill more next season.

Best part is that he averaged like 37mpg throughout the playoffs...that's how you "load manage".

 

I can't (sadly) put Kareem as the GOAT because I think Wilt was the better player than Kareem and Russell. They just happened to be better winners.

But then again, who really cares. It feels great to know that several of the best centres in history were Lakers, and they are considered part of Mount Rushmore, if not, in GOAT discussions.

 

As I've probably said somewhere else, for many sports fans (basketball fans in particular), there's a time in our lives where we enjoy our favourite sports or music (perhaps around our late teens and 20s). Whoever was the best at that time in our lives becomes the best ever to us, and we will subconsciously find reasons to not enjoy, or we will even criticise, those who come later.

Using music as a metaphor, I personally idiolise and still listen to Sam Cooke, and I find it hard to like any music as much as the music of Cooke. I heard Sam Cooke's music since I was young, I am aware he was a pioneer of soul and rnb music, and I subconsciously will not allow myself to be persuaded that anybody after him could ever be better.

 

This is what always gets me. Jordan ONLY played in the finals 6 times. The other years, his teams were not even good enough to come in second place. I am not going to argue rings, because rings is rings and the best player with the most rings wins. I will not argue ultimate success.

But Jabbar won 6 rings too and he came in second 4 times, Jordan won 6 rings and came in worse then second 9 times!!! At least 4 of those times, his team was worse than Jabbars second place teams. He doesn't get a complete pass for not making the finals 9 times. That is pure hypocrisy and absolute BS!!

If Lebron wins 3 rings in LA, he will have won 6 rings and come in second 6 times. That will be outrageously good and a much better career mark than Jordan ever had and even better than Jabbar's. If he does that while earning the all time scoring leader in NBA history and a top assist man in his years with the Lakers. Dude, anyone talking s*** about him will just be one of the frigging stupidest people in the world.

 

Nobody thought Wilt wasn't tough, I was there, nobody thought that. They might have thought he was a ball hog, they might have thought he had bad teams around him. They might have thought a lot of things, but they NEVER thought he wasn't tough. Give me a break.

 

I like the idea of who was the best winner. Russell wins that every time but Jordan, Jabbar, Magic, Kobe and Lebron are not far behind. Russell would never have the same level of success today that he did back in his day.

 

Wilt has numbers on and off the court that may never be broken lol

 

People talk about Russell's defence on him, but that's like saying... I kept him to 30 instead of 50 lol