2018-19 NBA Thread

C'mon, man. This is silly.

 

I'm just saying LeBron is great, no doubt, one of the best that I've ever seen, but does he go to 8 straight Finals with Varejao and Mo Williams and those guys? I'm emphasizing that like coaches, the view of players' respective greatness is influenced by the talent around them. I guess Wilt is a prime example. You can't judge players solely by themselves, you have to consider their teammates.

 

What Championship NBA team was greater than the sum of its players?

 

And at age 33 LeBron dragged a team to the finals with JR Smith second on the team in minutes played.

He was not surrounded by great players in Cleveland.

LeBron isn't great because he went to eight straight finals. He went to eight straight finals because he's great. Large difference.

 

This is a very intelligent basketball take.

 

I can’t believe people still believe the crap that @qtlaw argues.

 

Instead of that, how about he dragged those fuckers to a final. Did MJ take Orlando Woolridge to a final?

And I still think MJ is the best ever before that bullshit starts.

 

Orlando Woolridge was too coked out of his mind to do much of anything. Fuck, half that Bulls team his first two years were cokeheads.

 

And he was was still better than Varejo.

 

I know Magic owned a Fatburger, a TGIF restaurant, a cinema and a tiny share of the Lakers. I have read he no longer owns any of these. Does anyone know what his businesses are now? I never see him mentioned in the LA Times business section.

Does he just sell his name a la Trump? If not, what is his role in his enterprises? Where does he work? What is he like as a boss? This would be an interesting long form story.

 

He was also involved with the Dodgers. I think he's mostly been a "front man" providing direction while others handle details. There might be a few instances where movers and shakers recruited him on to a project to make something happen, but I know in the case of the movie theaters and Starbucks in black neighborhoods, he was instrumental in getting better quality businesses to open shop in places they were avoiding.

 

No doubt. I have patronized his Fatburger, and his TGIF a few times and his cinema once. They seemed well managed.

La Cienega and Centinela where he had his restaurants, was always upscale urban and is now somewhat gentrified. His cinema in the Crenshaw shopping center was impressive the one time I went there many years ago, clean and secure.