LeBron James Discussion: Not Returning To The Lakers

He returned late in the season, it was obvious he wasn't ready to go full throttle. Athletes can't complain about injuries or people will blame them with excuses. Lebron was clearly hindered by injuries

 

Are people forgetting the context to this: they were down big and time was running out with less then 2 minutes to go. Schroeder missing that layup cost us the game: the lakers weren't done 1 or 2 possessions at that point. They needed that bucket to make it to have even a chance at the game.

Lebron isn't perfect with his body language but he's a smart basketball player and he knew that missed layup was it

 

LeBron was not healthy and is aged 36. The team shouldn't be that dependent on him to begin with. Other people had to step up and they did not. Look at where the Lakers came from pre to post LeBron. The Lakers future is better because of LeBron. Just because he quit on a few plays doesn't mean he quit on the Lakers. The game, and we all know it, was over.

 

Go to work LeGM

 

He asked to be subbed with 7min to go and the team down 13. Then he came back and with 3m left, spent 14(!!!!)sec to return to defense in one play and 10sec in the next one.




We lost game 6 because of his leadership, he didn't set the example the whole game. He doesn't have the mentality of the greats, that's the true. Even Booker came to this game with only one goal. LeBron needed to take this game by himself, he has the ability to do that, even if hurt. His mentality wasn't just there
We would probably lose game 7, but yesterday the team and himself should have proved a point and win without AD at the Staples. That's what the greats do

 

Such an absurd take... LeBron is #2 on most NBA fan's list of GOAT's. Doesn't have the mentality of the greats? Everyone in the league speaks highly of Bron's dedication to his body and game. You don't make ten straight NBA Finals by not being great or being strong mentally. Booker had a great game but if you swapped LeBron with Booker, Lakers would have zero chance if AD was out. Talking about what the greats would do... if you don't think LeBron is an all-time great already, I don't know what to tell you. Lest you forget, Magic Johnson was once called Tragic Johnson. Everyone has a bad game or series. He won the title for the Lakers last year and has completely changed the Lakers franchise. No respect from you guys.

 

I like LeBron. I do believe he is one of the 3 best players to have ever played the game. I think he has a physical and BB IQ advantage over everyone else. But he is not perfect.

He has a tendency to whine a lot, I think we can agree on that. He also has some kind of ego that forces the recognition of others. The Decision, saying he is the goat, the way he expresses himself, you can see that he really needs exterior validation. He also has a tendency to hide in tough moments. His Finals against the Mavs remove him of any goat conversation. He does have, I believe, the most points or something like that in clutch time. But watching him since year 1, in the eye test I never trusted him to get the last shot, like I did with Kobe, or Curry, or Durant. He started the big 3 era, spent too much time in a weaker conference with star-filled rosters. He load manages a lot in-game, which is ok, I prefer that than Leonard, but he spent the whole 1st year in LA not defending at all. He absolutely gutted every team where he has been, that automatically become the worst in the NBA when he leaves without any assets, that doesn't happen so blatantly with other stars. There's just too many flags. He seems a different material compared with Kobe or MJ.

He quits too soon, felt it in the year 1 with us and this season. Maybe he is older and he doesn't want to leave it all there when the % of success is small. Maybe that's the secret for his longevity. As a fan, I want my superstar to lead and set the example every game, so that it can transpire to others. Imagine you're KCP or THT and you see LeBron not coming back on defense, feeling defeated since the start of the game, not fighting for rebound in a win or go home game. That's just terrible and it happened Thursday.

I wouldn't care at all if we lost against Phoenix in game 6, as long as we had tried our best. We were gutted, season was tough and without AD and LeBron still not at his best it was understandable to lose against a very good Phoenix team who was playing better. But to lose without giving your best effort is where I draw the line. That's the least you can do, and it starts with LeBron.

 

The whole team gave up fast after AD injury in the 1st half of Game 4 ( from Vogel to the players).

It looks/sounds like they couldn't wait for the season to be over as they were spent both physically and mentally.

They didn't fight and it started with Lebron .

 

Agreed ... I'd add this to illustrate what you're saying . Lebron never 3peated and only went b2b once in his 18 years career .

He's not obsessed with success as MJ or Kobe was

 

I don’t think this would ever happen because we are essentially married to Klutch Sports, but would you trade LeBron for Dame straight up?

Dame is younger and his career arc would fit AD’s.

 

Since the 1990's, there have only been three teams that have three-peated... Since the Lakers Shaq+Kobe three-peat, it never happened again. Heat couldn't do it because Wade got old and was constantly injured. Warriors couldn't do it because KD+Klay got injured. Kobe+Gasol's Lakers couldn't do it because other teams became better. With free agency and player movement being too common, it's tough to build a championship team for multiple years because any other team can sign multiple stars with their cap space and the ease of player movement. Stop making this more than it really is. Winning a three-peat in ANY sport is difficult to do and a lot of variables have to be perfect.

 

this is just wrong: For all the hate towards Krause MJ and Kobe went to franchises that got talent and developed it. I mean looking back at the Pippen and Grant picks were huge hits (Pippen at 5 and Grant at 10). Lebron got stuck in Cleveland who before Grant became GM traded 1st rounders for Jiri Welsh, Sasha Pavlovic while drafting luke jackson and loosing Carlos Boozer for nothing. I grew up in Cleveland and while the Decision was unnecessarily harsh to a downtrodden fanbase it was the correct thing to do because as a team there weren't going to be successful.

It's just nuts to me that a guy coming of an injury with just 2 regular season games before going against the number 2 seed w/o AD is taking flack for this.

 

What's nuts is before the 90s you had to go to the 60s to get another 3pt. It's extremely hard to 3 peat: the Bad boys, birds C Bags, magic's lakers couldn't do it. Three of the most iconic and great teams of all time yet I guess we should be questioning them somehow?

 

It doesn't matter the injury. Nobody is saying he played badly or wtv. It's just the effort. Injured or not it has to be there in a leader. I have not seen it in game 6. Have you?

 

He played 41 minutes in a game coming off an injury as a 36 where he clearly didn't look his conditioning was off where the team was able to come back and make it a game after being down huge. Somehow that isn't effort?

They were able to come back because they put him at the C because AD was hurt and none of the other bigs were doing squat so again your asking your 36 yo forward to guard a 22 yo 7 footer and that isn't given effort?

 

In the Q1, Cam Johnson misses a 3 and LeBron is just looking while Cam gets his own rebound almost without moving to score the 2nd time. Right in the beginning when we started to lose big in a decisive game at home.

There's bunch of examples throughout the game. It is what it is.

I can see we are not going to reach an agreement here, all good

 

Needs to develop a post game or become a better shooter