Honestly those 3 would only have to be: Jason Kidd Tayshaun Durant Draymond Randolph and we'd be contenders. And that's without Kuzma and Hart.
@therealdeal, your defense of the King just drove you over the edge into temporary insanity. Do the names Kareem, Magic, MJ, Shaq, and Kobe ring any bells? Because they all dominated the league more than LeBron has. That said, I agree with the rest of your point.
Yeah. I mean, 6 rings in 8 years for MJ. He probably would have had 7 if he didn't get kicked out of the league for gambling...err....to play baseball. For all of the King's dominance, he's doing it in the E-League and has only 3 rings, two of which took a royal choke job from the a 73 win team and Ray Allen bailing him out. Lebron is literally two inches and a Zen Draymond away from having just one ring for all that dominance.
Not until he passes defense 101 on the perimeter by getting close enough to his man with his hands UP to affect the shots and /or passes at least a little. Rather than getting into a stationary crouch 5' away with arms down and trying to Jedi mind trick them into a miss or bad pass with his intense glare.
They do, but outside of Kareem, none of them had the longevity that LeBron has had. MJ took time off between his threepeats. Kobe had to waddle through horrible teams at probably the peak of his abilities and then the NBA robbed him of competitiveness with their "Basketball Reasons" towards the end of his career. Shaq dominated but for a far briefer stretch than he should have. Magic and Kareem are the only ones who come close, but no one has been to 7 Finals in a row since Russell. It's insane to think about, but LeBron has 8 Finals appearances in 11 years. This year might be the first time since OUR ring in 2010 that the Finals don't go through LeBron. That's dominance whether we like it or not. Magic and Kareem in the 80s came close to that. 80, 82-85, 86-89, 91 (for Magic). Amazing. You're right though, I should have mentioned that 80s crew.
...still to come, an image of Randle with the above on his uni? The organization is building a team of players with more emphasis on character. I got the fuzzies seeing Randle having a nice post game meeting with his wife and kid on the floor last night. Much like 24 and his own family. Dallas looming as a threat this summer...?
I don't disagree, but those kinds of statements are always easier to make when it's said and done. There's fans out there that still say Kobe is a Courtney choked lob away from losing to Orlando and that Artest saved him his 5th ring as well. What can you do? LeBron got them there. Somebody else might have to take the shot. Good thing we're bringing Paul George along too!
You and I have different metrics for league domination then. I just don’t think making the Finals = league domination.
I mean over that span he also has the most points, 4th most assists (behind Paul, Wall, and Westbrook), He's 13th in rebounds (the only non PF/C in the top 20), He's 8th in steals, 8th in TS%, first in Win Shares by a solid margin, made the most FGs by more than 700... He's been no lower than 13th in the league in assists per game over that stretch, Top 5 in VORP every season over that stretch, he's been All-NBA 1st Team, an All-Star every season, won 3 MVPs in that stretch, 3 titles... I don't know man. Seems dominant to me.
It depends how you look at it. I'd say never has a player been dominated as many times as LLLLLebron has in the Finals since Jerry West.