LABron James Discussion: The Final Year?

…. or ever again playing it through injuries like Kobe Bryant.

 

kobe played through s*** that would sideline guys for a month these days

these pansies are sitting games for literally being sore. and sometimes, "soreness" is just an excuse for load management. imagine how kobe would've reacted if they tried to load manage him

 

I've heard people claim that on here and I don't understand that take at all.

 

I was a “Lebron isn’t skilled” guy.

While I do think earlier in his career he was much more reliant on his athleticism and didn’t have the skill and touch he currently has, it was always a bad take.

The reality is that this take stemmed from my insecurities as a Kobe fan. “It doesn’t matter if Lebron is putting up crazy numbers and physically unstoppable, he doesn’t have as skilled and pure of a game as Kobe! He won’t have anywhere near the longevity!”

 

What do you mean with the last sentence? Remembered for his “level” of all around skills?

 

I saw Kobe as being supremely skilled, being able to swish extremely difficult looking turnaround fadeaways from the midrange post. Plays that required finesse and you know a lot of work went into finetuning his touch and footwork. In comparison, a freight train going down the lane for a dunk just didn’t seem as “elegant” or “pure” from a basketball perspective to me.

I thought Lebron would have a significant decline in his 30’s, almost akin to what we’re seeing from current day Russ. I thought he was too reliant on athletic “bully ball” and wouldn’t have the shooting touch to translate his game as his athleticism declined.

I thought Kobe had one of his best seasons at age 34 right before the Achilles. At the time, I would have guessed that Lebron was going to be a shell of himself by age 34.

 

I agree, he has plenty of skill, it's just his game is "ugly" compared to the gracefulness of Kareem, Hakeem Kobe and so on. Shaq kind of had that same knock, even though Shaq's footwork was exquisite, he had a solid jump hook and was an excellent passer out of the post. Lebron has a spin move towards the basket like Worthy, he can do the Dirk shot, he can do the step back jumper, he can do a sweeping hook in the paint, although he has gone away from that lately. He has the spin move when driving to the basket, he can do the turnaround jumper, it's just ugly compared to Kobe's turnaround jumper. Lebron has also improved his jumper quite a bit over the years, but for some reason he's struggling from 3 this year.

 

Holy hell HJ …. I am jaw dropped sitting by myself at the bar having a big beer in the lobby just outside the Universal CityWalk IMAX after seeing “images wise” the most amazing movie presentation I’ve ever seen with Avatar W o W in 3D from dual GIANT screen, high lumens laser HDR projectors …. and a hell of a ride …. thanks to your post in Open Court.

On an empty stomach and with the beer buzz kicking in, these 3 posts all struck me in succession, boom boom boom …. as really outstanding, talking objectively about the differences in types of skill levels of two of the all time greatest players in the history of the game. Descriptive, nuanced and fair. Props!!!

 

oh you mean leBron is ugly. Got it.

I won't argue with you, but yes, others had a much more aesthetically pleasing game to watch. Players we could relate to more than the incredible hulk genetic freak bowling through people.

he has done exactly what was expected of him - which is hard to do, but he had those genetic gifts from the beginning. It's more impressive when a Austin Reaves type of body pulls it off. Or a Giannis that filled out his frame through hard work.

 

I don't buy that Reaves or Giannis works harder than Lebron.

 

Yeah LeBron’s not a likeable guy …. often … but the not much skilled and not tons of work to maintain the body and athleticism doesn’t fly.

 

i think lebron has absolutely maximized his physical gifts on a basketball court. imo, his fine motor skills aren't fantastic (for an nba perimeter player), you can tell when he dribbles (compare it to more natural ballhandlers). so all of his shooting has had to be just hours and hours of work. and he's obviously taken better care of himself than basically anyone this side of malone.

my only on-court issues with him have been that as he's aged, he's been less invested defensively and less interested in creating better looks on offense (he's been better about the latter recently). both of these are because he needs to conserve energy, and i get that. i'm old, too. but you can't pull the big salary and do that. and if you do, you can't complain about what anyone else is doing (coaches, teammates, front office) with respect to helping the team win.

my only off-court issues with him are that he's always centered himself. and maybe that's just how pro athletes tend to be (not dirk or duncan, though). if he wanted a say in how things were run, he needed to literally put his money where his mouth was. but he didn't. so the mouth needs to stop running. you got your money.

 

Nothing more predictable than this fanbase finding a way to discredit LeBron. "He dropped 48 on 26 shots, how can I cope with this pain?"

 

Don’t broadbrush because of the “several” …. and he’s “NOT” my favorite player.

…. but on that note, “Players we could relate to more than the incredible hulk genetic freak bowling through people.” …. sounded like another guy we had as well.

 

Has to drop 48 and play heavy mins to beat a Houston team.

I'm sure this is how he visualized all this...

 

I agree with this post almost 100 percent. I'll say that his dribbling looked a lot better when he was a young player in Cleveland. Maybe the bulky muscle affects that a bit?

I get what your saying about his contract also, especially with him needing load management at his advanced age. However, one could argue according to the market he's still worth that much if not more.
Guys like Bradley Beal, Russell Westbrook, Damion Lillard, Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, Klay Thompson all make around the same (give or take a few million), so from an on court standpoint that's just the market. When you factor in he's still the most popular player in the league (all-star votes, shoe sales, jersey sales, media coverage etc.) there's no realistic way he couldn't command that salary.

 

You guys will miss him when he's gone