LeBron is always going to be weak in the clutch, until he wins a championship. Then, he will 'have needed teammates to bail him out' in order to win, unlike Bird (multiple HOF'ers), Magic (multiple HOF'ers), or Jordan (multiple HOFers).
LeBron sucks cuz we hate him. We don't hate him cuz he sucks.
Our opinion of Lebron is definitely fueled by our hatred.
At the same time, the dude deserves most of the criticism he gets. He has truly carried some teams on his back... until the spotlight shines the hottest. Then, he shrinks under the weight of expectations.
I have never seen a "great" player play as passively as Lebron did in last year's finals. It knocked him down a historical notch or two in my book. As much as I hate Kobe, he was never scared of failure. He might not always come up big in the clutch, but he's not afraid to keep shooting.
Player A: Carried some of the worst collections of talent in the entire NBA to multiple 60 win seasons, 2 finals appearances, multiple MVP awards, best all-around talent the NBA has seen since Magic Johnson, and most physically gifted player to ever don a jersey. Epic philanthropist, and attracted more new fans to the NBA than anyone since Jordan.
Player B: LeBron James.
Player B makes me wanna throw up, player A seems like a first ballot HOF'er and the best player of a generation.
I think you're underrating Jordan's all-around game pretty severely. Early in his career, Jordan put up a 32.5/8/8 season. Lebron has only matched one of those numbers, once.
Also, Player A isn't an accurate description of Lebron. You can't only emphasize the good, while failing to mention the bad. In evaluating Lebron's legacy, you have to look at his failures as much as his successes. In each of the last three seasons, he's lost in the playoffs to an underdog. In his two trips to the Finals, he's come up very small, and he was widely accused of quitting in another playoff series.
When you look at all of that, I have a hard time putting Lebron ahead of Kobe, or really, even Wade.
No the Cavs and Heat lost as favorites, but let's not kid ourselves, the Cavs were a horrible team outside of Lebron. They really were. And Lebron was by far the best player in that Magic series. I mean seriously he averaged 38.5 points, 8.3 assists, and 8.0 rebounds a game in that series. Even against Boston, the Celtics had the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th best player in the series (and you could argue the 6th and 7th pretty easily). Even the game Lebron supposedly quit, he put up a horrific stat line of 27 points, 19 rebounds, and 10 assists. There is no question he was less then stellar against the Mavs (though he still ended with an ok stat line), but he wasn't assigned to stop Dirk from scoring whenever he wanted, nor assigned to stop Jason Terry, etc. And if Lebron is taking all the shots, then Wade isn't and Wade had a great series (the reverse was true against the Bulls where Lebron did the heavy lifting and Wade was less then stellar). It is always a give and take with that team.
Lebron gets killed for hogging the ball so when he doesn't he gets killed for not being selfish enough. He gets killed for not playing in the post, he plays in the post (and isn't quite as successful) and gets killed for doing that. He just can't win because people just don't like him, but the simple truth is Lebron James is the best player of his generation, is the most complete player since Jordan, and is perhaps the most athletically gifted person in the world. And for all his faults off the court, he isn't a gambler, he isn't **** to the fans, he has never been in trouble with the law, he has never had an affair come to light, etc. which makes him stand out amongst most of all of the other all time greats.
Topic: 2011 CB draft: How does my team look?/division rankings (Read 589604 times)