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Lebron James (Los Angeles Lakers)

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Tlangs;1731582; said:
Still could be. No one knows how this is going to play out. If the Heat win multiple titles and LBJ is dropping triple doubles in the playoffs like crazy...who knows. Lebron still could be the leading scorer for the Heat. He could average double digit assists and get assloads of triple doubles. Does drawing a double team and kicking it out to Wade make him less of a basketball player?

Was Jordan less of a player because he kicked it out to John Paxson instead of shooting it himself?

History will see this based on how many titles he wins. Win 0 or 1 Title in Miami...this will be considered a bad move. He has to win multiple titles in Miami for history to view this move as success. He even said in his interview that this is about winning multiple titles. He isn't being a bitch or taking the "easy way out". Leaving his hometown and knowing that he has to win 2,3 or 4 titles is taking on a lot of pressure.
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Anything could happen, but logically his numbers will go down. He's already conceeded his PPG will go down by playing with Bosh and Wade. If for some reason his PPG goes up, that can't be a good sign for the Heat. And kicking it out to Wade, or penetarting and letting Bosh finish DOES make him less of a player in my eyes. Teams have to give Wade much more respect that a guy like John Paxson or Will Perdue. LeBron decided legacy wasn't as important as living in South Beach and expanding his brand.

Here's how I see it. LeBron wanted to expand his brand, so he wanted a sexier/larger market. He felt teaming with Bosh and Wade would expand his brand by playing on an ultra-exciting team with tons of press. He set-up a HUGE announcement ceremony to launch his new brand and get it kick-started. But he missed the boat on just about everything...

Nationally he's getting ripped for taking the easy route to a title, he's cheapening his brand by moving to a market where a super-star is already established, and the announcement was one of the most ill-conceived ideas ever. His decesion making process was backwards IMO. His legacy will forever be having to leave Cleveland to join an all-star squad in Miami to get his ships'.

Thats a fail in my book.

And he could have never won a championship in Cleveland, but hed still be a hero. The city needed him and he would have stuck by their side. Instead he moved to a sexier place, where most likely his relationship with his family suffers, if he wins titles he gets ripped for being Robin to D-Wade, and if he loses everyone points their fingers and laughs. And in the end, I really don't think it was about championships for him...it's about living in Miami, playing with friends, and making a lot of money. Maybe a 35 year old LeBron would have made a different decesion...
 
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Tlangs;1731659; said:
I don't care who your teammates are. Winning 2,3, or 4 titles is harder than winning 1.
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OK, put down the keyboard. You've officially made, quite possibly, one of the most outrageous statements I've ever seen on BP, bending over backwards trying to defend LBJ.

Not to mention the arguments on this thread talking about how Cleveland already had the best record the last two years and was on the cusp of winning a title and how Miami isn't that great of a situation since they will have to fill the roster out with table scraps.
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So you're saying that a lineup of Varejao, JJ Hickson, Mo Williams, etc. is more appealing than playing with DWade, Bosh, Haslem, Z, and whomever else Miami is able to sign? OK. :roll2:

I'll go out on a limb and say that Lebron probably had equal chances to win titles next year at either location.
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:lol:. Riiiiiight.
 
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billmac91;1731674; said:
And he could have never won a championship in Cleveland, but hed still be a hero. The city needed him and he would have stuck by their side. Instead he moved to a sexier place, where most likely his relationship with his family suffers, if he wins titles he gets ripped for being Robin to D-Wade, and if he loses everyone points their fingers and laughs. And in the end, I really don't think it was about championships for him...it's about living in Miami, playing with friends, and making a lot of money. Maybe a 35 year old LeBron would have made a different decesion...
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Or 35 year old and ring-less LBJ makes the exact same decision but gets a pass because he's now past the prime of his career and the fans understand that he desperately wants to win a championship. Leaving like this, he'll never get the Ray Borque treatment in Cleveland.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone remember how Karl Malone was received when he played as a Laker in Utah?
 
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Ok, that was admittedly phrased very poorly. My point was that Cleveland (for the most part, maybe not quite to the extent they have) was going to lash out at LeBron for leaving regardless of how he did it. I live with 2 guys from Cleveland and am friends with many others..it was already clear that many were going to attack LeBron if he left no matter what the circumstances. I wholeheartedly agree "The Decision" and all that crap was stupid and the hate stemming from that is justified. At the same time, there's no denying (and even reading back in this thread before all those shenanigans went down, you can see it) that many were going to despise LeBron solely for leaving. That, I think, it somewhat uncalled for. While he may have said he wanted to bring a championship to Cleveland, etc the reality is he was a free agent and as a neutral observer who cares very little about the NBA, I think it's unfair to demonize someone who has lived in the Cleveland area their whole life for wanting to experience something else. The people I referred to earlier -- those who were going to make him out to be the worst person ever even before he turned this whole thing into a shit show -- would certainly jump on the Z signing as another opportunity to bash him. Hell, one girl I know already has something about it in her facebook status. I agree with the people directing vitriol his way for how he handled the announcement that he was leaving, but anyone claiming there aren't a ton of people that were going to bash him regardless of how it went down is full of it.
 
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They were going to hate him for leaving because he told Cleveland he'd bring them a championship and he wouldn't stop until he reached that goal.

He always took his trophies to Akron to accept, he invited other teams to his home to sell their team to him, he said Cleveland had the upper-hand in the offseason.

Then he left in such a way that was like spitting in the face of Cleveland.

It's unfair to Cleveland fans to say they're/we're demonizing him for just leaving, because there's a lot more to it than that. You can't just ignore some things that happened.
 
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X Buckeyes07 X;1731720; said:
Ok, that was admittedly phrased very poorly. My point was that Cleveland (for the most part, maybe not quite to the extent they have) was going to lash out at LeBron for leaving regardless of how he did it. I live with 2 guys from Cleveland and am friends with many others..it was already clear that many were going to attack LeBron if he left no matter what the circumstances. I wholeheartedly agree "The Decision" and all that crap was stupid and the hate stemming from that is justified. At the same time, there's no denying (and even reading back in this thread before all those shenanigans went down, you can see it) that many were going to despise LeBron solely for leaving. That, I think, it somewhat uncalled for. While he may have said he wanted to bring a championship to Cleveland, etc the reality is he was a free agent and as a neutral observer who cares very little about the NBA, I think it's unfair to demonize someone who has lived in the Cleveland area their whole life for wanting to experience something else. The people I referred to earlier -- those who were going to make him out to be the worst person ever even before he turned this whole thing into a shit show -- would certainly jump on the Z signing as another opportunity to bash him. Hell, one girl I know already has something about it in her facebook status. I agree with the people directing vitriol his way for how he handled the announcement that he was leaving, but anyone claiming there aren't a ton of people that were going to bash him regardless of how it went down is full of it.
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Well yeah, people were going to be mad simply for him leaving no matter how it went down. That's because he spent the last three years before that holding the possibility over the Cavs' heads, making them mortgage their future to try to make him happy enough to stay when in reality he never had any plans to do so.

This is what neutral observers seem to not understand about the situation. We're not simply upset about what happened last week. What happened last week has made us upset about the last three years and call it all into question. Athletes of his stature change teams all the time. Few of them scam their team's fans like he seems to have.

I can't speak for anybody else, but if he had acted with some decency and some respect through most of this - if had been courteous to his former employer and fans in his announcement, if he hadn't been subversive in planning his exit - I wouldn't be happy but I'd still respect him.

That's the reason you'll see a different reaction for the most part when it comes to Z. He's handling his business like a man. While Cavs fans may not be happy with his decision, he has gone about it respectfully and that respect will likely be returned.
 
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When it came time for LeBron to go to college, Ohio State was one of his choices if he was going to play college ball. Like it was actually a something he wanted to do. I almost thought he was considering about not turning pro. Then OSU basketball coach Jim O?Brien told me that he called LeBron and told him a full scholarship was all his. James just had to say the word and a full ride was his. But, he wasn?t going to waste any recruiting time on LeBron. Funny thing is O?Brien knew that if he landed LeBron the NCAA would drop the bomb on Ohio State for the recruiting violations that happened to LeBron while he was in high school. The NCAA and Ohio State fired O?Brien later in his career, but those infractions were child?s play compared to what James had coming to him if he attended Ohio State.
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Baskin's Blog: Reflections and revelations on covering LeBron James
 
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