2014 NBA Playoffs thread

Titles won without Scottie Pippen:

LeBron James 2
Michael Jordan 0

QED

 

OK, nothing then?

 

There is nothing wrong with, on a scale of 1-10, saying Jordan is a 9.8 and LeBron is a 9.6.

But this "and it's not even close" --- meaning Jordan is a 9.9 and LeBron is an 8.7 (and maybe below Durant, too!) is just ridiculous.

Oddly enough, the game BEFORE the "flu" game is a Jordan stinker.

11-27 shooting, 0-4 from 3-point range, DID NOT GO TO THE FREE THROW LINE AT ALL, 4 rebounds, 0 steals, 0 blocks.

This shit really happened, even if it has been wiped from everyone's memories.

At least LeBron went to the line 12 times in his signature stinker vs. the Celtics in 2010.

 

He also asked out for cramps in that game, something Lebron bashers said Jordan would never do.

 

He's better at every aspect of the game except scoring. Magic was deified for defending against 5 positions in one game. Lebron does it all the time and is great at it. At all times he's his team's best scorer, rebounder, passer & defender. He guards the opponent's best player for any big play.

I can't see any argument that Kobe is better than Jordan because he was the same type of player so it's apples & apples.

 

As much as I loved the Jordan rise to the top, I recognize that its not without dispute that Jordan was the GOAT. Changing eras brings different rules and different challenges.

As for greatest team, its hard for me to not think about the 80's Lakers as the best; they had to beat the Bird Celtics at least a couple of times.

The Bulls teams and those before it are above the current teams to me because of the paucity of big men these days. I believe that the Cartwright/Grant and Longley/Rodman combos would have killed a front court of Bosh/Lebron/Birdman or even Duncan/Splitter. Likewise for Kareem/Rambis/Green McHale/Parish.

 

Not only that, but he did so at the END of the free agency period and did it on a nationally televised special. But people want to give him a pass for this.

I want to point out a few things about "The Decision" and why what LeBron did was unlike any other player moving on to a different franchise in pursuit of a title.

Cleveland was his home. The whole "Akron is not Cleveland" thing is bunk. These towns are 20 minutes down I-77 apart...ask anyone in Akron who their "home" team is, they will tell you it is the Cavaliers.
People also talk about Dan Gilbert and Danny Ferry, how they never put talent around LeBron. This is also bunk. In 2005 they signed Larry Hughes and Donyell Marshall. Hughes, in the year before signing in Cleveland, scored 22.0 points per game for Washington with 6.3 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 2.9 steals per game. Those are very strong numbers. Marshall averaged 11.5 points and over 6 rebounds...not bad for a complimentary player. Also, what free agent would sign a long term contract to play with LeBron when LeBron refused to sign a long-term deal? He turned down the max contract to sign a three-year extension prior to the 2007 season. He did not show a commitment to the future with Cleveland, so why would a top-level free agent?
LeBron also shut down all communication with the Cavaliers front office during his final season with the team. He knew full well he was leaving. Think about this for a second...Carlos Boozer, Joe Johnson, Dirk Nowitzki, Rudy Gay, Wade and Bosh were all free agents in the Summer of 2010. Don't you think LeBron, the reigning MVP, could have convinced one or more of them to join him in Cleveland if he would have tried? He didn't because he already had his agreement with Wade and Bosh to go to Miami...and he did not have the decency to announce it early during free agency to give the Cavaliers time to recover.
This is why I think a fair amount of Cavaliers fans would never welcome LeBron back...he stabbed them in the back and did so on national television.
As for the question about would you take LeBron or Jordan to start your team...Jordan 100X. Jordan had a killer instinct unlike anyone I have ever seen. LeBron passes off or hangs in the corner when the game is on the line. He is a guy that passed to Damon Jones with the season on the line. Jordan would have driven to the hole, dunked on the entire team and let them know all about it before and after he did it.

 

It's hilarious how much bad analysis there is in one thread. Longley/Rodman killing Duncan/Splitter - LOLZ.

 

Nope. I wasn't making the claim that James definitely > Jordan.

 

You're crazy. Next you'll be telling me that Jordan's teams lost a playoff series at some point after they "learned to win" or whatever against Detroit.

 

OK ... but you did say "there is virtually no chance of convincing those people no matter how much evidence or logic existed."

I was wondering what it was. I think a discussion of who is a better player is pretty clearly an opinion exercise, so I am not even sure what "evidence" or "logic" could settle that matter in the first place.

 

What kind of pass does he need? It has exactly *nothing* to do with how good he is at basketball.

What is it about Michael Jordan (besides the "7-16" hypothesis I posted earlier) that causes people to just completely forget *what actually happened on the court* in favor the Nike commercial/Space Jam mythos.

Here's Jordan passing off the ball and doing nothing on the play with 10 seconds left in a crucial situation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnAr4I3-Z48&feature=kp

This shit happens.