NBA Playoffs Thread

He's not being a meanie. He's being a self-reverential ass, and is deserving of all he's catching.

 

That is awesome.

oh, and PIOTR - Digging up that old NBA thread was certainly interesting for a few reasons. One, can't believe how unbelievably shitty I used to act towards some things. 2) Can't believe how dumb I was for even getting into it with idiots like ROKski or Rambo.

Anyway, interesting all around.

Woke up today and thought last night was all a dream. Glad to know it wasn't.

 

That's Deadspin's ministry, to call out the douches.

Especially the ones we've known are douches for years.

 

TMZ took a bunch of pictures of the Mavs partying -- ironically they partied where LeBron's mom was arrested last year.

Check out the pic of Dirk and Lil Wayne: http://www.tmz.com/2011/06/13/dallas-mavericks-miami-heat-nba-championship-party-liv-nightclub-dirk-nowitski-mark-cuban/

 

Didn't see it posted already but also on TMZ's site

http://www.tmz.com/2011/06/13/lebron-james-deshawn-stevenson-dirk-nowitzki-tell-me-how-my-dirk-tastes-tshirt-photo/

 

Calling out the douches is one thing. Being a douche about it is another.

This does seem to border on blind hate. This series has been seen as a rejection of everything LeBron but that's completely not the case. As I noted before, he's further along at this point in his basketball life (26) than Jordan was at the same stage. People who put words in James' mouth are defended because James' own words weren't clear enough for them (I never found James particularly eloquent, but he's hardly alone in that regard).

If you look back, you'll find that earlier in this thread I was talking about how much I was pulling for Dallas because I hated the way Miami's team was "built." But now I'd finding myself defending LeBron James.

Hopefully this is the last time I'll feel compelled to do that. I mean, I don't like the guy to be honest. But he is what he is and when you remove the pep rallies and the premature proclamations of greatness and the hate and rejection of the other side, you get this:

A 26-year-old who already has two MVPs and has already been to two NBA finals with two teams and is, otherwise, like tons of other mindless jocks whose thoughtless, ahem, thoughts, we tend to ignore.

 

No argument there, and I don't care or intend to change anybody's mind over it.

The rant was a bigger piece of shit than even he is.

 

Yes. A fanboi that saw not one minute of the Heat-Bulls series and spent most of last night's game watching "Inglorious Basterds" and taking Rosetta Stone lessons. What I know about the series I know by watching pieces of it on my nights at work because my work, you know, happened to depend on knowing what happened.

But keep throwing shit against the wall. :

That is closer to my feelings than any of the 180-degree opposites that have been presented so far. But since James has not --- to our knowledge --- been on a police blotter or hit a woman and has done some nice things for charity, I rate him above many other jocks.

 

Yep, regardless of how much weight you give plus/minus stats, that's a shockingly large minus. And here's the kicker, it wasn't just that game, Lebron had the worst plus/minus on the Heat roster throughout the entire series. Can you imagine the Lakers or Bulls doing markedly better as a team whenever Jordan or Kobe were on the bench. Yet that's exactly what happened with Miami this series. Such a bizarre stat for someone who's widely considered the best overall player in the game.

Agreed. And I found it telling how he finally stepped up and drilled a fourth quarter three pointer with confidence in the closing seconds AFTER the game was out of reach. Once there's no longer any outcome pressure attached to the shot, suddenly he can shoot again. Somehow I suspect he wouldn't even have attempted that three if it had meant something.

I know this theme is beaten to death, but the most startling thing about Lebron's series was not that he played so poorly, but that he did not even seem to by trying throughout so many of the most important parts of each game. He'd hide from the ball, wouldn't move without the ball to get open, wasn't taking the defensive chances like he did in the early round series, often wasn't blocking out (only getting 4 rebounds last night was inexcusable), and often looked afraid to drive the ball--how he HELL does under-6 ft can't-jump J.J. Barea have more success driving the paint these last few games than Lebron?

And, again, just SO frickin reminiscent of what happened in that Boston series last year. And as I'd forgotten, but was reminded of in this Wojo piece a couple days ago (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-wojnarowski_lebron_james_dwyane_wade_nba_finals_game6_061111) also reminiscent of his Olympics performance. As you might recall, Lebron looked dazzling in the early round games when they were blowing teams like Germany out by 50 pt margins, but in the one high pressure game that was tight, the gold medal game against Spain, he disappeared and had folks wondering what happened to him in the second half (as I recall, Wade and Kobe were the ones who stepped up in that game). So similar to that Boston series last year, so similar to the Finals this year.

Even the one example people cite where Lebron DID step up in the 4th quarter, that 07 performance against Detroit, is easily differentiated on pressure grounds. Detroit was the favorite in that series, all the pressure was on them, none on Cleveland. Without those high pressure expectations on his shoulders, young Lebron was able to play loose and free and put on a show. But once he he started being the favorite he also starting becoming a much more timid and passive looking player when the pressure was on.

He might be the most physically talented player ever to live, but something's still missing between the ears. He plainly does not like playing under pressure. I think he wants to a win a championship the way he did in high school, by easily steamrolling over the competition without real challenge. Perhaps he thought teaming up with Wade and Bosh would allow him to do that again. If so, he thought wrong.

 

I was driving so I couldn't take notes or get exact quotes, but within the last hour on his radio show, LaVar Arrington said that LeBron:
-is not good looking
-was probably made fun of as kid because he wasn't good looking and because he has a big nose and looks like a Sesame Street character.
-said what he said last night to get back at the above people who made fun of him.
-needs to grow up.
-needs to stop biting his nails on the bench ("get a nail clipper or something.").

As for me, I need to stop listening to LaVar Arrington's radio show.

 

Hard to imagine.

But it's also hard to imagine the Mavs being a markedly better team with Brian Cardinal (+18) on the floor than Dirk Nowitzki (-4). But it happened in Game 6.

And those fourth quarters against Boston and Chicago this year . . . never happened?

Look, I KNOW he sucked in the fourth quarter against the Mavs. But to extrapolate that to "he never comes through in the clutch in the fourth quarter" by ignoring all the times he DID . . . just smacks of the piling on I've been railing against.

Criticize to your heart's content. He deserves it. But at least attempt to be fair about it. He deserves that, too.

 

You did watch the game right? Dirk didn't exactly have the best of shooting nights. When Cardinal was in there, I'm pretty sure Barrea, Terry or Stevenson were knocking down some 3s. Hell, even "the Custodian" had a 3-ball in the game.