The greatness of LeBron

Nice post. I forgot about how good he was in those games. Damn, those games seem like forever ago.

Honestly, I remember the air balls more than when he dragged the Lakers to those other wins.

Dragged. Much better than willed.

 

So what are they?

 

Willing your team to victory is when you play well, your team wins, and Nike builds a really great ad campaign around you to convince people that's what you did.

 

I don't even mind people saying they'd take LeBron. Hell, there is a good chance I'd take LeBron. But as a Lakers fan, I'd like to see people at least argue things that actually happened as opposed to some made up, conflicting nonsense like Kobe's never willed his team to an important victory and all he did was dump it down to Shaq.

 

I agree, but part of me holds back on making declarative statments about Kobe until he wins another title.

Edit...which I realize has nothing to do with the title of this thread. However, if I were starting a team and had the first pick, it'd be LeBron, no doubt. Does that mean I think LeBron is a better player than Kobe right now? Nope. That's a tough call. LeBron puts up silly numbers, gets other teammates involved, blah, blah...Kobe, meanwhile, "wills" his team to more big wins than LeBron.

Wins > numbers...in a debate about the best player.
Age has a big bearing in a debate about who I'd start my team with.

 

As for the < or > debate...

Jordan didn't win any titles without Pippen, so that means that his merits, on their own, aren't all that impressive, right? Jordan is only Jordan because of Pippen?

 

Sheed could get a big rebound, guard a top inside player and get a good shot at almost anytime. If I recall correctly, the Pistons were jack crap one-and-done team before they traded for him.

Sheed is a very underrated player who is much better in a playoff setting than a regular season setting.

 

Way to put me on the spot, dickhead.

I'm going to go on the assumption that we're talking about overall body of work and not right now, otherwise not-even-in-his-prime LeBron >>>>>>> Kobe with 1,000 games (including playoffs) on the odometer.

1. Kobe hasn't yet shown he can do more with less. Were he a true alpha dog he would have had no problem asserting control of the team, but it took him two years post-Shaq to make his team good. He wasn't able to identify what his team needed at the time -- strong, steady leadership without Phil being around -- and provide it. It's simply not in him to be an actual leader. He lacks the personality. Jordan was an absolute prick, but at least his teammates respected him. I'm not convinced the other Lakers are there even now.

2. That Phoenix series in 05-06 damns him quite a bit in my eyes. A real leader, superstar, whatever, doesn't mail in a playoff game to make a point. I don't care what the circumstances are.

3. I can provide no actual proof of this, but he seems like way too much of an "I'm going to get (EDIT) mine and if we win, great" kind of player to me. It's like he's 87-88 Jordan and still hasn't graduated from that mindset.

 

We'll never know how many titles each would have won without the other. That's why this debate will never be settled.

 

And people killed me for stating that Shaq was the reason for the Lakers winning those titles and not Kobe.

Kobe is a great player, just great like Dominique Wilkins and Karl Malone until he wins one as the Alpha Dog.

Great post, Doc.

 

Magic never won a title without Kareem (who is 1A on the underrated list).

 

That Pistons title team should've been a Bullsesque dynasty. They were fantastic. Rasheed killed it. I don't care how hard he plays. He's the biggest mental midget I've ever seen in sports. I didn't even like Detroit, but I was impressed with how they played and wanted to see how far they could take it, keeping in mind that the Spurs were killing at the same time.

Fucking Rasheed. Such a little bitch.