2012 Finals !!

[col63onel]

I don't want to be "that guy" but his defense on Pau Gasol earlier in the season was impressive. I know Pau's soft and all but still, it's amazing how he had no motivation to do that more in Cleveland, every time he got the ball on the block and played bully ball I just recall Charles Barkley repeatedly saying during our playoff run that "LeBron needs to get easier shots, figure out ways to work less". It's a bit of a painful reminder that if he actually recruited a damn he'd have better teammates, and thus have the energy to shut down any 1-4's in the playoffs (like he did against Rose).

Meh, I'm over it. He's a great player and I wish him the worst but I'm not going to look back when we should be looking forward. Despite what LeBron thinks, not all rings are made equal.

In one of my favorite movies of all time, Cool Runnings, John Candy says, "A gold medal is a wonderful thing, but if you aren't enough without it, you'll never be enough with it."

Charles Barkley, Karl Malone and Patrick Ewing were enough without. So were KG and Jason Kidd, even though they eventually got one. #6 was enough without one, but he didn't believe so.

 

[jay_em]

Someone PM me when James starts banging in the post .vs. a PF or C who's actually bigger and taller than him. And I don't mean 12 ft away but banging and backing someone down right at the basket.
As Mark Cuban points out, James tried to post them up (what with Kidd and Barea defending him), but their zone & post defense forced him to give up the ball. Maybe Dallas was a little quicker getting out to the shooters, or maybe those guys just missed. Dunno, but it wasn't effective.

If someone keeps beating you with something, you have to change things up and make him stop. That's pretty basic strategy. Certainly LeBron never had a problem beating teams running the same play over and over.

The smart/experienced teams understand his read-react thought process and anticipate it rather than play in to it.

That would just be freaking dumb. One of the keys to the game is creating mis-matches. You take the small guys into the post and you bring the big guys outside and drive by them. So i wouldnt expect many pms on that issue.

In one of my favorite movies of all time, Cool Runnings, John Candy says, "A gold medal is a wonderful thing, but if you aren't enough without it, you'll never be enough with it."

Charles Barkley, Karl Malone and Patrick Ewing were enough without. So were KG and Jason Kidd, even though they eventually got one. #6 was enough without one, but he didn't believe so.

Being "enough" whatever the heck that is doesnt mean you stop trying to win a championship. Those guys tried and tried until they either won it or had to retire. Those who didnt win it had no other choice but to accept it, Same as James would've no doubt done if he never got it. But dont fool yourself all those guys wanted to hold that gold ball and thats why they worked so hard.

 

[Jon]

That would just be freaking dumb. One of the keys to the game is creating mis-matches. You take the small guys into the post and you bring the big guys outside and drive by them. So i wouldnt expect many pms on that issue.

James has had PF size and strength for a long time ... he's just never used it like any decent PF would, and he still isn't.

Yes, he'll try to take advantage of a size mismatch by backing that guy down. That's not new. He's just been hesitant to do so when defense was able to pack the paint.

 

[Jon]

Charles Barkley, Karl Malone and Patrick Ewing were enough without. So were KG and Jason Kidd, even though they eventually got one. #6 was enough without one, but he didn't believe so.

It's a shame everybody keeps pounding it in to them that it's not enough. Yeah, they can be HOF players, but without rings ... they just don't compare to the HOF players with rings. That's the constant message from the fans, media, and other players.

 

[caf]

It's a shame everybody keeps pounding it in to them that it's not enough. Yeah, they can be HOF players, but without rings ... they just don't compare to the HOF players with rings. That's the constant message from the fans, media, and other players.

It's funny, because the list of great NBA players without a ring is pretty long. I keep hearing Barkley, Malone, and Ewing...

But there's also Elgin Baylor, Dominique Wilkins, Pistol Pete, Reggie Miller, Nate Thurmond and John Stockton. I'm sure you can make that list larger with a bit of research.. but those are just off the top of my head.

 

[The Oi]

Speaking of Stockton...Jerry Sloan was the most over-rated coach of all time. Unreal that he was employed by the Jazz as long as he was.

 

[th1]

Come on guys. It was enough for James to choke in one game and all hell broke out. Now imagine what would happen if he failed to deliver championship years after years like all those ringless HOF players did. The media and fans would have eaten him alive. Would you manage to live under such a pressure ?

 

[Mdog1]

Come on guys. It was enough for James to choke in one game and all hell broke out. Now imagine what would happen if he failed to deliver championship years after years like all those ringless HOF players did. The media and fans would have eaten him alive. Would you manage to live under such a pressure ?

He created the pressure, or at least most of it. He was the King, and the Chosen One. Those were not things that we made up, that was all him. Him saying a LeBron James team is never desperate, him being arrogant, narcisistic, and flashy created the pressure. He wilted under it in Cleveland. The pressure that he helped fuel made him leave Cleveland to a team that he could just sit back on, or so he thought until DWade's tires fell off.

 

[jay_em]

He created the pressure, or at least most of it. He was the King, and the Chosen One. Those were not things that we made up, that was all him. Him saying a LeBron James team is never desperate, him being arrogant, narcisistic, and flashy created the pressure. He wilted under it in Cleveland. The pressure that he helped fuel made him leave Cleveland to a team that he could just sit back on, or so he thought until DWade's tires fell off.

The pressure was put on him because of how well he played the game. The names came for the same reason. Its quite untrue to say that we didnt ramp up the pressure. Say what you will now, but he was told by many fans and media alike that he was our King and our Chosen One. This franchise and many more intentionally lost games for the chance to select him in 03 and others tanked seasons to get him in 2010. There was pressure on him to make special things happen.

The franchise failed James as much as he failed them. The Jiri Welsch trade, the drafting of Luke Jackson, the Boozer Fiasco. The players who came up small in the big moments(including him), the continued attempts to build to beat certain teams instead of making teams build to handle us, the Delonte West issues (not rumors!).

 

[Mdog1]

The pressure was put on him because of how well he played the game. The names came for the same reason. Its quite untrue to say that we didnt ramp up the pressure. Say what you will now, but he was told by many fans and media alike that he was our King and our Chosen One. This franchise and many more intentionally lost games for the chance to select him in 03 and others tanked seasons to get him in 2010. There was pressure on him to make special things happen.

The franchise failed James as much as he failed them. The Jiri Welsch trade, the drafting of Luke Jackson, the Boozer Fiasco. The players who came up small in the big moments(including him), the continued attempts to build to beat certain teams instead of making teams build to handle us, the Delonte West issues (not rumors!).

I don't even want to get into all the stuff that happened that led to his departure, so I will just leave that out. Mostly because I find this franchises incompetence in the late 90's/early 00's depressing.

The boy (he was a boy when we drafted him) came to our team, and was very brand oriented, so he started calling himself the nicknames. I have never heard Durant call himself Durantula, I have never heard Kobe call himself the Black Mamba, and I have never heard Scalbrine call himself the White Mamba. However I have heard LeBron call himself the chosen 1, and I have seen his tattoo. Now we looked past that narcicism, but that certainly helped build pressure on himself. You can't go around calling yourself an all time great, or the chosen 1 without getting pressure added to you.

I guess this might be a chicken or egg type of thing. Which came first LeBron creating pressure that the media/fans reflected onto him, or the media/fans creating pressure and LeBron creating more.

 

[Jon]

What the previous generation of players went through always effects the next generation (for better or worse).

Players like KG and AI wanted nothing more than to win rings, and I think they regretted getting themselves in to the position where they took super-long-term contracts that tied them up through their prime years and in turn made it very hard for their teams to get better. When you have to bet your future on the likes of Latrell Spewell and Larry Hughes ... you're asking for trouble.

 

[jay_em]

I don't even want to get into all the stuff that happened that led to his departure, so I will just leave that out. Mostly because I find this franchises incompetence in the late 90's/early 00's depressing.

The boy (he was a boy when we drafted him) came to our team, and was very brand oriented, so he started calling himself the nicknames. I have never heard Durant call himself Durantula, I have never heard Kobe call himself the Black Mamba, and I have never heard Scalbrine call himself the White Mamba. However I have heard LeBron call himself the chosen 1, and I have seen his tattoo. Now we looked past that narcicism, but that certainly helped build pressure on himself. You can't go around calling yourself an all time great, or the chosen 1 without getting pressure added to you.

I guess this might be a chicken or egg type of thing. Which came first LeBron creating pressure that the media/fans reflected onto him, or the media/fans creating pressure and LeBron creating more.

Its not chicken or egg at all. LeBron didnt call the media to SVSM, he didnt call SI to put him on the cover. He didnt tell them to call him the chosen one or king. They gave him those names and yeah he accepted them, so yeah he didnt back away from the pressure, but his actions on the basketball court is why the pressure came.

 

[Adam]

Always been suprised there has never been talk of lebron visiting ports psychologists, there are a number of things they could do to help him cope with the pressure.

 

[KilgoreTrout]

The pressure was put on him because of how well he played the game. The names came for the same reason. Its quite untrue to say that we didnt ramp up the pressure. Say what you will now, but he was told by many fans and media alike that he was our King and our Chosen One. This franchise and many more intentionally lost games for the chance to select him in 03 and others tanked seasons to get him in 2010. There was pressure on him to make special things happen.

The franchise failed James as much as he failed them. The Jiri Welsch trade, the drafting of Luke Jackson, the Boozer Fiasco. The players who came up small in the big moments(including him), the continued attempts to build to beat certain teams instead of making teams build to handle us, the Delonte West issues (not rumors!).

Bingo, bingo, bingo.

 

[roberto alomar]

So, this means cole> irving?