NBA Playoffs Thread

The difference is, only the writers are looking for reasons to hate the copy editor...

 

Man oh man, I hope Miami loses this series.

 

"I'm taking my talents to unemployment."

 

Nah, if LeBron truly played like a copy editor, he'd be even more annoying:

Reporter: LeBron, you said you couldn't wait to get to Miami, Florida to play with the Heat. What really attracted you to the city and the franchise?
LeBron: Well, I actually said I couldn't wait to get to Miami. Miami stands alone in datelines, which you should be aware of by now since I've corrected it in my last seven press conferences.

Reporter: LeBron, there have been whispers you're unhappy with Riley and his preparation and contribution to the team. Any truth to that?
LeBron: I don't know where people got that idea. All I said was, "Wow, look who actually came to the office today and didn't just file his scouting report over the phone," when I saw him one day.

Reporter: LeBron, fifth loss in a row for you guys, what's going on out there?
LeBron: Same mistakes I see every god damn night out there. Guys being way too passive, not being active. When Wade uses air quotes in the huddle to talk about how Bosh is playing "so well," he's putting the punctuation outside the quote marks. Spoelstra's still telling the refs Dirk's getting away with murder out there, even though he's never been convicted of that charge. Same old shit. I try to tell my bosses about it but no one really wants to listen to little old me.

Reporter: LeBron, your 11th straight game with over 30 points. What accounts for the surge?
LeBron: More than 30.
Reporter: What?
LeBron: Eleventh straight game with more than 30 points.

Reporter: Lebron. Game 7, NBA Finals. The entire nation is watching, waiting for you to fail. In a way, your legacy is on the line. You've struggled all series. How do you possibly deal with this pressure?
LeBron: Pressure? Shit. You want pressure, try working slot on a Friday night during high school football season at a Texas daily on a night three other guys have called in sick. This game is nothing.

 

So far Lebron on the big stage is a bust. He is starting to remind me of George McGinness tossing up bricks for the 'sixers back in the day.

 

Brian, great post.

In other news, STG just burried a 30-footer in the journalism humor category.

 

He had a couple of tough shooting nights in later Finals series. More comparable to Kobe's Game Seven last year, though, where he still got to the line and contributed in other ways.

LeBron is not Jordan, and he's not going to be. But being one hell of a second banana, as he is to Wade's No. 1 superstar (I refuse to invoke "JORDAN!!!!!!") right now, is just fine too. The ring is the ring.

 

don't know that i yet agree totally, boom, but i LOVE me the mcginness reference. and how mo lucas manhandled him for the 'blazers in the '77 finals as the waltons bested dr. j's sixers in the finals. that potland team, by the way, from that season through two-thirds of '77-'78, were as good as ANY team i've seen since. i loved me the big red-head in the all-too-brief time his knees/feet allowed him to strut. kids today have no way of knowing how incredibly good he was from his 3 years at ucla-'78.... sigh. we often chat on this board about great players whose careers were cut short by injury (mostly in football, i suppose, due to the nature of the game), but, man, could that white boy play.

 

IMO Walton is surely the greatest college player I ever saw.

 

LeBron is like a mix of Pippen/Magic Johnson

 

nope, sorry, maybe in lebron's head he's convinced the 'ring is the ring.' but he didn't go to miami to be pippin; he went there expecting wade to be HIS pippen. this is all about legacy. we all know lebron's a tremendous player. but he's supposed to be convincing folks he is the best ever, isn't he? at the moment, if their calibre of play this series continues and the heat win, wade will be recognized as the best player on the team who had to step up after giving lebron the spotlight all season.

heck, folks like to argue now that mj didn't exactly do it alone, that pippen was also recently voted one of the league's best 50 players of all-time (which i think is nonsense, but whatever)... but not once in all their years in the finals together was there EVER any question who the best player on the bulls was. there was NEVER finals in which pippen outplayed mj. and that's what we've witnessed thus far.

emphasis on THUS FAR. should james be the best player for the hear in their third and fourth wins this series much will be forgiven/forgotten. it's up to him. he has a chance to get the 'legacy' off on the right foot in the next three games. ball's in his court. should be fun.

 

i knew i could count on at least one fellow geezer to testify on my behalf! thanks, mg....