NBA Playoff Thread

Piotr, your point is what I believe. TEAMS win or lose games, not stars. Hell, I grew up watching Wilt lose to the Celtics. I oughta know that's true. But stars get blamed. It's part of their duties in return for the big bucks. LeBron has not been widely blamed for the Cavs' past failures. It'll be interesting to see how he reacts to the possibility of being a big-time goat.
Even if he comes up huge, I don't think James can alter the equation that his team just doesn't have the same top performance level as the Celts do. The Celts' talent is too old to bring it every night, but when they are able to play to their top level, it's not close.

 

Bucks lost in 7 to Philly in the ECF.

 

Even over Juwan howard?

 

Ah, that's right. Thanks.

It was in Philly, right?

Also:

WojnaJersyeGuy weighs in:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-lebroncavs051210

 

Heh.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/cover/featured/11419/index.htm?eref=sircrc&eref=sisf

 

Let me ask a question I was mulling hard this morning:

Has our hatred of Kobe Bryant -- and I mean collective hatred as basketball fans, since he's probably the least likable superstar NBA player of my lifetime -- made us rush to anoint LeBron James the Greatest Player on the Planet before he's actually earned that label?

I'm a Lakers fan. I've made that clear in the past. I grew up a Laker fan and Magic Johnson will forever be my favorite athlete of all time. And I understand the emotions Kobe Bryant stirs in people. He's phony, he's weird, he lacks self awareness, his wife is a lunatic, and even if the worst thing he did in Eagle, Colorado was have sex with a girl who had numerous issues of her own, his actions after the fact were pretty unseemly. And so I get why people dislike Kobe Bryant. Even I have a hard time liking Kobe Bryant, although it bugs me that people constantly get it ass backward and blame him, and only him, for the departure of Shaq. I've laid out my reasons for this numerous times on this site and will do so again if necessary.*

But I don't believe LeBron James has done nearly enough to earn the right to take Kobe's crown as the Best Player on Planet Earth. Not even close. Not yet. Say whatever you want about Kobe, but I'll be damned if he ever played in a Game Five where he appeared to not give a shit. That was a putrid performance by LeBron last night -- listless, gutless, uninspired and embarrassing. No emotion, no passion, no fun. One foot on the court and another in Jay-Z's Upper West Side penthouse jacuzzi, if you will.

Would the Cavs have a better record, or a better chance of beating Boston, if Bryant and LeBron switched places? Probably not. Certainly LeBron is probably a better bet to win more games in the regular season. He's younger, bigger, stronger, and can carry scrubs on his team to victories easier. But when it's nut cutting time, is he the Best Player on the Planet? That's not a crown you win on paper. Instead of anointing him as such, I want him to actually earn it -- the same way I want Tiger Woods to actually earn the GOAT label from Jack Nicklaus when he wins major No. 19.

I love LeBron. I really do. He's funny, he's cool, he's charismatic, he's not a temperamental douche like so many athletes of this era (Bryant included). He'll likely reach all the heights people have predicted for him eventually. But sports isn't about anointing, it's about earning. And he hasn't earned anything yet, which is why it was so maddening to see him sleep-walk through that game last night. Yes, Jordan took awhile to win his first title and blah, blah, blah. But no one ever accused Jordan of phoning in a Game 5. He played poorly sometimes, much worse than people remember, but he never checked out in a crucial playoff game like LeBron did last night. At home.

Show us, despite whatever great obstacle it is to have sub-par teammates get in your way, that you're the best player on the planet. Because until you do, I don't care what you accomplish in the regular season, Bryant holds the crown -- even if by default.


*Kobe/Shaq Cliff Notes version: I still find it striking that most of the media took the side of the fat, lazy, selfish guy with history of petty behavior longer than his inseam over the young, selfish, but hard-working and driven loner, the guy who did everything imaginable to better his game in the off-season and had the gall to merely ask that his teammate not show up at training camp, fresh off toe surgery, weighing 420 pounds. But hey, Kobe was the bad guy here, not the guy who refused to play defense unless he got his "touches," constantly took digs at his teammates, and demanded a $33 million a year extension, even though he refused to get in shape because it wasn't as fun as driving a Super Man custom Bentley to a White Castle at 3 a.m.

 

Great read right there. Couldn't be more spot on.

 

What about Kobe refusing to shoot the ball against the Suns a few years back? I believe that was in a game 6.

 

Well said, DD.

Quickie Shaq note: Windhorst reported tension in the locker room on Sunday after the loss, including Shaq being upset with his playing time. Shocking.

One thing I got tired of hearing in the LeBron-Kobe debate was how people would be apoplectic if anyone suggested there were some things Kobe did better, even aspects of the game where he's obviously superior, whether it was free throws or a post game. And I still go back to that Cavs loss at Utah this year, when they were up late but missed three free throws in the final minute. On every one of those plays, LeBron was the inbounds passer, throwing it to Z, Parker and another guy, who all went 1-for-2 at the line. Then the Cavs lost at the buzzer. What franchise player - especially one who is considered to be miles ahead of every other player - isn't the one going to get the ball in those situations? Instead he's handling the Luke Walton role of inbounding?

One other stat: If the Cavs don't win the title, they'll be the first team in NBA history that had the outright best record two straight seasons but didn't win a title either year. Utah tied the Bulls for best record in 1998 and the Spurs in the strike-shortened 1999 season.

The Kobe game was Game 7 against Phoenix. It was the second half. Yeah, it wasn't pretty. But in the first half he scored 24, team still trailed by 12 or 14 points. Also, they lost to a superior team. The 2006 Lakers were not the favorites to win the NBA title.

 

It's interesting how a player's validation, at least the great ones, today seems so much more tied to whether they have won a championship or not. Certainly, much more so than i recall when I was growing up. Back then, great players were recognized because they played the sport, well, great--be that basketball, baseball, football, hockey. There wasn't this 'well, he's never won/led his team to a championship, so he can't be considered one of the all timers'.

And while I agree teams do win championships and great players needs others around them to do that, basketball is the sport where it's easier for one player to get a team to a championship than the other major team sports. Jordan's dominating centers during his run? Cartwright, Wennington, Perdue, Longley...

 

Captain,

Lebron isn't aspiring to be a great player, he is looking to be the best ever and willing teams to championships is part of the equation.

 

JC, as STG pointed out, that Game 7 is always simplified as "Kobe quit." Sorry, but that's not what happened.

Kobe scored 50 in Game 6 and the Lakers lost. (That entire series was maddening because if Lamar Odom had bothered to box out instead of letting the ball sail over his head, into Shawne Marion's hands, eventually leading to Tim Thomas hitting a game-tying 3-pointer with five seconds left -- and thanks Kwame Brown for the horrendous defense on the shot -- a seriously-flawed Laker team would have closed out that series. The entire series turned on ONE REBOUND.) So in Game 7, with the Lakers already down 15 at halftime, and everyone complaining that Kobe needed to share the ball (to teammates who were shooting 35 percent from the field) he said "Fuck it, let's give this a try." And when those same teammates sucked balls, the criticism, which the previous night had been "Kobe shoots too much!" suddenly shifted back to "Kobe isn't shooting enough!"

Which was it?