2013 NBA Playoffs thread

If we're getting technical and into a GOAT debate, Kobe and Lebron have been the best player on a championship team twice each. That's not to say Kobe wasn't great for the three peat, but he wasn't the best player on the team.

 

Reeks. You fucking dumb twat.

 

Heat won. Good game by LeBron. Painful to see Parker sitting on the bench for so long. Battier outscored the Spurs bench by himself.
Stat of the night - Gary Neal, Spurs PG - 26 minutes, 1 assist.

 

Sorry to be so harsh, batman, but you have to think of Lebron now as 1992 Jordan, not 1998 jordan

 

Wow, wade is drunk

 

And for the record, batman, you're absolutely right about the yankees and cowboys fandom, but it's ridiculous to think one great player and a bunch of donyell Marshall's/Daniel gibsons/ no one else good can win 16 playoff games. I think anyone would rather have multiple titles than keep winning no. 1 seeds and getting bounced before the finals for 15 or 20 years

 

Kobe has more of the "it" factor than LeBron does, though. At least at this stage of his career. He morphed from excellent second banana to Shaq to the guy who is widely recognized as the hardest-working, most competitive SOB in the game today. Like Jordan, he's adapted his game to his eroding skills. Some of that might be intentional, some might be a favorable narrative, some might be playing the same position as Jordan, which will inevitably draw comparisons. He's also an elder NBA statesman at this point, which makes people wistful.
What Kobe did do, however, is meet the challenge. The criticism was he couldn't win a title without Shaq, and that he was a whiny bitch. He then won a title without Shaq and changed the public's perception of his attitude by becoming a basketball machine.

LeBron will have to do something similar -- maybe more -- to change the public's perception of him. Not only does he have to overcome the disastrous PR from "The Decision," he's got to overcome a string of other missteps (the Jordan Crawford tape fiasco, the "global icon" declaration, the hubris at the welcoming ceremony, general douchiness after the Heat lost in 2011, a general sense that he's more naturally gifted than having to work hard on his game).
Hardest of all, he's somehow got to escape Jordan's shadow. It's not fair to compare him to a guy who hasn't played in 10 years, I agree, but it is a vicious cycle he's helped perpetuate with his boastfulness. The more he wins, the more the comparisons come, the more he has to live up to. Until he matches or surpasses Jordan, he'll have more grudging respect than acceptance and appreciation.
He's got time. Five years from now he might have his seven titles in a row and we'll be having a different discussion. Right now? Feels like his GOAT argument is being shoved down our throats, and we all know how much the public in general hates that. They reject it. Sort of like the general public rejects LeBron.

 

I love how there's no amount of rewriting that people won't do to fit the Jordan Myth.

 

How much people like someone doesn't have a ton to do with how good they are at basketball.

 

I'm watching this press conference with LeBron right now and it's downright embarrassing.
Do people covering the NBA ever ask real questions or just lob happy softballs all night? Are most of the good questions done in the locker room?

 

"Talk about how it feels to be king of the world again."

 

He also said he thinks 23 should be permanently retired because of how much he respects jordan. And he hasn't been accused of rape (though I think Kobe was innocent of rape). He has a different psyche, we can all agree, but if the question if whether he's been too selfish or not selfish enough, it's silly comparatively to say he's too selfish