'timschochet said:
'bostonfred said:
Im not one of the ones criticizng lebron, but I think its totally valid to say that a player with his talent should want to be the best, and if you want to be the best, you have to want the ball at the end of the game, and yes, you have to make those shots.
remember that commercial/poster/tshirt/quote where jordan talked about how many game winning shots he'd taken and missed? Lebron needs to read that. Because if he wants to leave a legacy as one of the best ever to play the game, it wont be because he made a sick pass to haslem when he was triple teamed. and he wont cure his reputation as a shrinking violet by refusing to take shots, or by missing them.
If lebron wants to be compared to jordan, he needs to take them and hit them. Otherwise, he will be compared to guys like shaq, who were great and may even have won multiple championships, but had a fatal flaw in their game. Personally, id like to see him push kobe down the list. I think he's more talented and has done more for his teams through the same point in their careers. But he needs to become a closer to do it.
I'm not even a LeBron James fan in particular, but this is just too much. I don't recall ever seeing an elite athlete take this much undeserved crap- not even Peyton Manning in the years before he won a Superbowl, and HE took a whole lot of crap too. I'm not sure what James has to do. If he wins 3 rings with the Heat, and is the key to victory each time, will that shut up his critics? I strongly doubt it. I don't think at this point anything will.
How is this undeserved crap? Im not giving him crap at all. I'm already putting a young player who has never won a championship in the same conversation with one of the greatest players who ever lived. How is that "too much" criticism? Im sorry if im not hyperventilating with hyperbolic claims that he's the best ever, but so far, he isn't on pace to be jordan, or even kobe. Id like him to be. If lebron gets to the end of his career without a ring,
and without signature game winning shots, then you'd be crazy to say, yeah, jordan was good, but give me lebron any day. If lebron gets a ring or three, and hits some game winners in the finals, he can move into the conversation. The more of that he does, the further up he will move.
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Peyton is a fair comparison, actually. early in their careers, people said, brady has the championships, manning has the numbers. Brady supporters could claim that brady would have better numbers with mannings receivers, and manning supporters could claim that manning would have as many or more rings if he'd had bradys defense and head coach. Then manning set the td record, and finally won a championship, despite throwing 3tds and 7 ints in a horrendous individual effort during that playoff run, and the manning supporters crowed that manning could do everything brady could do and more. The next year, brady broke the td record, then the int record, and broke marinos yardage record, taking his team to two more superbowls and compiling better stats than manning, and has rightly earned his place in the conversation of greatest of all time, while manning hasn't done quite as well. When all is said and done, some people may claim that manning was the greatest of all time, just like people may claim lebron or shaq deserve mention. But when they do, some people might point at russell, or montana, and make the rings argument, while others may point at chamberlain, or marino, and make a stats argument, or at manning or shaq themselves and make a choking or hack a shaq argument. When people talk about jordan or brady, the argument becomes more of a personal preference debate. You might like kobe or wilt or russell better than jordan, but you have to concede that its because you think jordan was just ahead of his era, or played a less important position than wilt or russell. You might like marino or montana over brady, but you have to explain why bradys statisitical accomplishments aren't as meaningful as marinos because of the era, or why montanas 4 for 4 in superbowls is better than bradys 3 for 5. It gets harder and harder, the more these guys accomplish.
In other words, I think lebron has a chance to be the best ever, no questions asked. But if he wants that, then he has to answer all the questions.
Classic parody of an insane Boston sports fan. Top notch.
The Boston team that was on the court at the end of the game is a >.500 team. The Miami team that was on the court at the end of the game would be tanking by mid-March.
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I really don't care about the NBA once the Lakers are eliminated (candidly, I barely care about the NBA even when the Lakers are still playing), but these two series have been fantastic. I love it when two teams meet at a point in time when there is only a sliver of difference in talent. That's what this series feels like. The other series has more of a talent disparity, but it's interesting nonetheless because an old, proud team refuses to bow out without leaving their blood and guts on the floor.
