Asclepias
Diamond Member
Anyone that doesnt realize just how insane what Lebron does is not fluent in basketball. Practically the only person to come out of high school and somehow surpass the expectations. He was billed as the next great thing and he delivered. You knew he was something special the first game he played in the NBA.Yeah, he turned it into a 1-peat after making what was considered a stacked team at the time.Thats fine. I am saying I disagree. I've only seen one time when Lebron failed to dominate and that was because of a deficiency in his game that Dallas exploited which is not his lack of will. As I pointed out the next year Lebron corrected that deficiency and won a ring. Thats some serious evidence of a will to win. Lebron went back and looked at film. Lebron spotted the shortcoming, worked on it, and turned it into a strength.No, I'm saying that in the NBA - the player that's considered having the most dominant size and talent combo fails to dominate, often, when it's time for the Chip to fall at the end of the season.No I just pointed out that the topic isnt about will to win. Its about greatest athlete. If youre talking will to win then you have no way of measuring that unless youre there to document the work that person puts in to be the best and the drive they display to make it so. I can have the will to pick up a one ton rock and work out constantly trying to achieve that goal. Are you saying that me never being able to pick up a rock that weighs one ton means I lack the will?No, you engaged me and my remarks on the topic at the time you engaged me were about the will to win.
Lebron has the best talent WITH size proportions we've ever seen and with the level of control he's had over choosing teammates he's lost more chips than he's won.
This game is all about x-factors, and I've seen a fully pussified Lebron when it matter most and his legacy was having all kinds of speculation at the time and he knew it and he admitted he felt the pressure.
And lost.
And so for that, he's out of GOAT contention on my list because his talent/size proportions didn't make up for the lack of will power.
That's literally all I'm saying - and any and everyone is free to disagree with me and I'm comfy about it. I've seen him give up with my own two...you require him to say "I give up" verbatim to intuit that he gave up. We have very different standards in that regard. It''s quite alright, by me.
Funny thing about the nba now, too...is that that Miami team isn't so grossly stacked anymore by our new standard
Yup they won 2 finals. And that stacked team sure didn't play like a stacked team. Bosh was what? 13ppg -7rpg in the finals after that Dallas series? Basically a shell of Pascal Siakam this past year. Who's saying "man Toronto is stacked with Pascal". Wade was 17-4-4 an the only guy to show up with any consistency.
That Spurs series once down 3-2, sure Ray Allen hits a HUGE 3. But he was 3-12 shooting in that series in their two elimination games. Bosh was 5-17 there. In game 7, Bosh/Wade/Allen score 23 points on 11-30 shooting. Lebron scores 32 on 12-23 shooting.
The Spurs rematch, Lebron goes for 31-10-5 on 10-21 shooting and just 1 turnover in the elimination game. Going against Kawhi, one of the best wing defenders in the game. Bosh/Wade/Allen go for 29-15-5 with 7 turnovers in that game on 11-34 shooting.
In elimination games that "stacked' teams big 3 outside of Lebron each scored an avergage of 9.4 points per game in the finals after Dallas. Lebron outscored them on his own. To put that in perspective, when people talk about how ruined the Warriors were this post-season. Curry got 63 points from his next big 3 without Durant in game 7 (Iggy, Klay, Green).
In Lebron's "Big 3 era" with Cleveland and Miami, his teams are 13-39 when he doesn't play. On pace for a 20 win season, which would have been dead in the league 2 of the past 3 years.
So inside track for the #1 pick in the draft without him playing. With him, 3 championships in 8 years. That's impressive.