Basketball/NBA

KingLeo10

Senior Member
You sure seem to be dying for the opportunity :lol:

Swept by Spurs 07 (not his fault but still on the record)
Massive chokejob v Dallas 2011
Destroyed by Spurs 2014 4-1
Gentleman sweep v GSW while having Kyrie and Kevin Love
Swept by GSW

That's too many holes already in his resume in a sport where 1 man can indeed make a considerable impact.

This would be the cherry on top though.
 

KingLeo10

Senior Member
At age 35, Messi will be struggling to go for a 1 km jog at that age

Let me know when Lebron's peak performance comes near Messi's peak. Or when he holds the individual award records like Jordan's 10 straight scoring titles.

It's amusing you take shots at Messi fans yet are more than willing to cartwheel LBJ with "fuck all of you haters" :lol:
 

Richard.H

Senior Member
Let me know when Lebron's peak performance comes near Messi's peak. Or when he holds the individual award records like Jordan's 10 straight scoring titles.

It's amusing you take shots at Messi fans yet are more than willing to cartwheel LBJ with "fuck all of you haters" :lol:
Lebron by far has a ton more haters than other top athletes like Messi, Federer, and jordan. Not just you but even Twitter and Reddit. Ridiculous. Even lakers forums have a ton of Lebron haters because he will always be compared to Kobe there.
 

KingLeo10

Senior Member
Lebron by far has a ton more haters than other top athletes like Messi, Federer, and jordan. Not just you but even Twitter and Reddit. Ridiculous. Even lakers forums have a ton of Lebron haters because he will always be compared to Kobe there.

There's reasons for that.

"The Decision".

Started the player controlled super-team era. Team hopping/ring chasing.

Plus, he has the same leadership issues as Messi (on the court) of being passive aggressive.
 

El Gato

Villarato!
Started the player controlled super-team era. Team hopping/ring chasing.

Eeeeeeeeeh

Dunno about that

Decision was a daft thing to do. But it's mostly fuckwits like Cousins and KD that ringchased in the era following it. Nor should LeBron really be held responsible for it. He did go back to Cleveland even though he didn't have to, coulda just stayed in a better market with a better GM and attracted players there. + after winning that ring in 2017 he picked another goal and stayed hungry while Love sat nicely on his max.

I'm not a massive fan of the man, hated him in 2011 and loved my Mavs handing his ass to him. But you seem to be holding him responsible for a bit much IMO
 

Sailor Mars

Well-known member
No one has ring chased like Lebron did in his prime. Dont fault him for leaving Cleveland because they didnt surround him with a good team.

But he decided to team up with another top 5 player and top 15 player. And the Heat had a good coach and GM, but Lebron decided to leave once he saw the Heat title window close.

And he didn't go back to the Cavs out of the goodness of his heart, he went back because they had tanked for 4 years and amassed some good young players.

Kept Kyrie to be his Robin.
Tristan Thompson was a solid starting C.
Flipped Wiggins and Bennett for Kevin Love.
Packaged Dion waiters for jr smith and iman shumpert.
Thats pretty much the Cavs championship team.

And he left another team again once he saw their title window close and jumped to another team with good young players.

Went to the Lakers and had them trade Ball, Ingram, and a bunch of picks for AD.

Ultimate opportunist. No other great switched teams as much as Lebron via free agency.
 

El Gato

Villarato!
No one has ring chased like Lebron did in his prime. Dont fault him for leaving Cleveland because they didnt surround him with a good team.

But he decided to team up with another top 5 player and top 15 player. And the Heat had a good coach and GM, but Lebron decided to leave once he saw the Heat title window close.

The initial Decision was prime cuntishness and made him the most unlikable franchise player in history, only since surpassed by Durant, maybe rivalling Melo but there's a Knicks caveat on him.
Pretty sure if he wanted to stay he'd have stayed if Pat ever suggested they'd trade Wade and got someone to phase out Bosh who was going to go down in time.

And he didn't go back to the Cavs out of the goodness of his heart, he went back because they had tanked for 4 years and amassed some good young players.

Kept Kyrie to be his Robin.
Tristan Thompson was a solid starting C.
Flipped Wiggins and Bennett for Kevin Love.
Packaged Dion waiters for jr smith and iman shumpert.
Thats pretty much the Cavs championship team.

Obviously he didn't. But that's not ringchasing anymore. The goal was to bring the championship to Cleveland. Didn't go there just because there are all these all-stars who might just get him another ring.

And he left another team again once he saw their title window close and jumped to another team with good young players.

Went to the Lakers and had them trade Ball, Ingram, and a bunch of picks for AD.

Again, that's not fostering the ringchasing culture at all. Ball and Ingram are scrubs AFAIK. It's a standard trade/FA operation that's been done for years. Boston assembled their big 3 in the same fashion by acquiring annual all-stars to join another (even brought Shaq in as role player).

If anything the Cleveland departure was because they banked on permacrocked defensive scrub in Love who was just about good enough for the needs and rather barren market at the time IIRC, got comfortable once they won it and the 1 championship was the project fulfilled. No plans for it to be a dynasty, even if Kyrie trade suggested it.

Ultimate opportunist. No other great switched teams as much as Lebron via free agency.

And that, the period after Heat, is completely fine by me. Major difference between this and ringchasing is that he's the commodity who is looked at as the piece that will bring a title. A bit like Shaq was when moving to Miami. Not just 'hey, let's get together cuz we got a better chance that way rather than duke it out "on our own" '.

There was an Open Court show about it really and teammates themselves are split about it.
While I agree most of the iconic teams have done it through draft, FA opportunism is pretty normal, especially with the Lakers who are a standard destination going back at least 30 years. Shaq, Pau and Howard all gone there because of Kobe +- role players (Rob Horry, multiple all star with Rockets, Nash ringchasing etc).

LeBron has these clear goals that start with him. He's not the same degree of clutch as Kobe, but what he's done since Heat is more like what you'd see if Kobe ever said "where do I want to go win the title now". They're his projects.
Durant by comparison is massive mug and has a LOT to prove in Brooklyn.
 
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Sailor Mars

Well-known member
The Miami Heat were still a team that made the finals in 2014. Pat Riley has shown enough in his career to be trusted with revamping the team around Lebron. Lebron didn't wait and went to the best positioned team in the East.

And when Lebron went to the Lakers, the Lakers had space to sign Lebron, another max contract free agent, and also trade for a max contract star.

Lakers missed out on signing PG and trading for Kawhi the first summer, and missed out on signing Kawhi last summer. Lebron had every intention of forming another big 3 in LA.

None of the other alltime greats before him jumped around so much in their prime to try and form multiple superteams.
 

El Gato

Villarato!
Shaq played for 5 teams packed full of talent, trying to leech off Nash & Amare in the West, then tried doing the same with LeBron in Cleveland and even signed for big 3 Celtics late on. First one through draft. Other 2 with clear intention of big team assembly. LeBron played for 3 teams too.
Big teams forming around him post Heat is clear goal of franchise in Cleveland who went all in on the project one more time and then Lakers where it was “come, win 1-2 rings, ride off into sunset at age of 36 as the other max contract players take over”. Wouldn’t have put a player option on it next summer if that wasn’t the case.
Nothing to hold his feet to the fire over and certainly not ringchasing like most average all-stars are.
 

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