LeBron James Discussion: Not Returning To The Lakers

So f***ing glad we got off of that train.

 

they have always attempted to control the narrative. This is nothing new.

 

well, as pika was saying, there's controlling the narrative, and there's lying. and too often we use the former term to blanket the latter.

 

A couple nights ago I woke from a dream to pee, and the last thing I could recall was someone saying, "You knew it back then but wouldn't admit it: Lebron is playing at age 50...in the NBA!" As I stood there in the dim light of the bathroom, half asleep, hoping I'd go back to sleep with a better dream, I thought: how ridiculous. No way. Even if you keep spending a million every off season on conditioning, diet, and all that crap: we're talking about something that's about basic human limits.

Then I thought...if anyone could possibly pull that off...it would be this guy.

Obviously, I thought enough about that dream to recall it enough to remember it and spew it here. I think the idea is insane. What part of my nervous system was so apparently convinced this was a thought about human physical possibilities and Lebron Em Effing James? He's had quite an impact on me, I guess.

The very idea is crazy. And I wish him the best in PHI, where I expect him to close out a career aged 43? 44? In his final year he'll average: 11/6/4. will he get another ring? Man, I don't think so, but ya never know with this cat.

I'm very cool with the Lakers moving on from him though. Very cool.

 

yeah, i know it's been amazing, but i feel like people--especially laker fans--have memory-holed a very important analog: karl malone.



i see people saying lebron's got three more years or more (though i feel like his agent was implying 2), but man, when it ends, it can end abruptly.

malone averaged 21/8/5 the year before came to us, and played 81 games at 36mpg!!

 

He “might” have come back from the knee and played longer, don’t know. But he had that blow up with Kobe over Vanessa at the end of the season and his mom had recently died IIRC, who he said was his main inspiration for continuing to play the game. Just sayin’. He looked pretty great with us too until the knee got hurt and also IIRC our staff rehabbed him incorrectly and too soon.

 

sure, maybe. but also...maybe not. i just see a lot of well, he could roll out there at 45 and average 11/8/7 in 20mpg, and i just don't think there's any way on god's green earth that's happening.

as it stands, to get another ring, he's going to need to play his 60ish regular season games and then stay upright for four complete playoff series. the odds are not in favor of this.

 

malone held his own against prime KG and duncan on one leg in the 04 playoffs. guy was an absolute tank. but he was already 40 and that knee injury he suffered because of scott williams's dumb a** didn't do him any favors. he might've had another season or two in him, but he wouldn't have been very effective. kind of like the version of him in the 04 finals where he was just too banged up to do anything

lebron's on his own when it comes to longevity + production. i think wilt's the only NBA player who even comes close to lebron when it comes to freakish athleticism. guy was still getting offers to come back to the league in the 80s when he was in his 50s, but even his numbers took a dip his last few NBA seasons

 

but this is kind of my point--people have forgotten that karl malone was a freakish athlete who was the model of health for almost his entire 20-year career. until he suddenly wasn't.

 

Yep. I don't like saying stuff like this, but I will: it's gonna be borderline tragic-hero stuff when Lebron goes down badly and limps off the court with a serious injury, because that's it: the capper to an unreal career. I hope it's not like that for him, but how can a guy like Lebron know his own limitations? I don't see it. I think he thinks he can still do stuff like when he was 24.

Wilt: accepted his role as a low-post rebounder/passer with the 1971-72 Lakers who went 69-13, with a 33 game wining streak: Goodrich and West were the scorers; Happy Hairston was the Lakers' leading rebounder. Wilt knew his role. And his body. Which was indeed amazing. There was a year where he averaged 48.5 minutes per game for a season. That's 'cuz he never rested, and played in OT games. 1961-62. One of the more insane stats. No one will ever come close to that jit. Man...

 

maybe a freak injury like malone's is the only thing that'll stop lebron. father time caught up to him a while ago, but he's still somehow playing at an elite level despite losing a step and some of his athleticism. just shows how freakishly good he is that he can compensate for those things

and talking about malone still irks me after all these years. they probably still fall short in the finals because of how good that pistons team was on defense, but they would've made it a lot more competitive with a healthy malone

 

or it's possible that the same freak play doesn't shelve malone when he's 34.

i actually think we win that series with malone. they were loading up on kobe away from the paint in ways that you basically shouldn't get away with and counting on us not to have the release valve. i think it completely changes the way they have to defend if malone is 100% there.

and this is how i foresee philly's season ending, too, btw--great play from lebron to get them to whatever their last playoff round is, only for something to go wrong physically and philly to have zero available counters.

 

idk, the way kobe was chucking that series....i'm not sure they win even with a healthy malone. he was shooting them out of the game. and detroit's defense was historically great

would've been a lot closer than it was though. rasheed had his way with slava and that wouldn't have happened with malone at 100%

 

kobe was "chucking" because shaq couldn't have his way on the interior, and the rest of our offense was kobe or malone. then malone died.

 

yeah, everyone acts like that season was some tremendous bust, and i'm like...we were actually awesome when malone was healthy, and it was pretty fun to watch. again, i think the same will be true in philly. nearly unbeatable at full strength, not banking on them being at full strength for 16 playoff wins.

 

03/04 was a rollercoaster ride with the kobe trial looming over him and the shaq drama. but even with all that, everything was going as planned until malone's injury. the lack of a bench and payton not buying into the triangle hurt, but they still managed to knock off some great teams en route to the finals. they just ran into the worst possible opponent