Michael Rosenberg of SI absolutely NAILS it with article about Cleveland and LeBron

• Manhattan Buckeye

  lhslep134;587702 wrote:1. Jordan was joined by Pippen and then started winning
  
  2. Bird was joined by McHale and then started winning (and had Parish)
  
  3. Abdul-Jabar was joined by Magic and then started winning.
  
  
  So why the fuck wouldn't James join his Magic, his McHale, his Pippen by playing with Wade? James didn't have anyone as good as those mentioned above or Wade in Cleveland.
  
  I'm soooo sick of the "those legends didn't leave their team" argument. Well no shit, because they had hall of famers on the same team as them, and Lebron didn't, and no one was going to come to Cleveland for him to stay.
  
  Anyone who uses that argument is upset that Lebron left from a BASKETBALL standpoint and not from a deuchebag (The Decision) standpoint, and THAT is psycho ex-girlfriend ish.

  
  
  I don't understand a single word of this post, particularly the poor spelling of douchebag. So Larry Bird drafted McHale? Magic did what exactly to get Jabbar? What about psycho ex-girlrfiend? What the fuck are you talking about?
• enigmaax

  Manhattan Buckeye;587897 wrote:I don't understand a single word of this post, particularly the poor spelling of douchebag. So Larry Bird drafted McHale? Magic did what exactly to get Jabbar? What about psycho ex-girlrfiend? What the fuck are you talking about?

  
  Quite simply, which megastar ever won a bunch of titles without that "other" megastar? The Cleveland argument is that LeBron should have waited until Cleveland got him that other guy. They had 7 years to do it and it never happened. So he went and found his missing piece somewhere else. The reason none of the top guys ever did that or would have ever done that is because their franchises got them the pieces they needed.
• Manhattan Buckeye

  "Quite simply, which megastar ever won a bunch of titles without that "other" megastar? "
  
  Quite simply, the person I responded to screwed up Magic with Jabbar. Read the thread again.
  
  Back to the point, it is possible for a player to lead his team to a championship without a "megastar" teammate - such as Olajuwon or even Duncan. I can't believe people are talking about psycho ex-girlfriends, when it is psycho fanboys that are missing the point. At some point even the biggest LBJ fan has to realize that he sullied his reputation...Cavs fan or not.
• enigmaax

  Manhattan Buckeye;587919 wrote:"Quite simply, which megastar ever won a bunch of titles without that "other" megastar? "
  
  Quite simply, the person I responded to screwed up Magic with Jabbar. Read the thread again.
  
  Back to the point, it is possible for a player to lead his team to a championship without a "megastar" teammate - such as Olajuwon or even Duncan. I can't believe people are talking about psycho ex-girlfriends, when it is psycho fanboys that are missing the point. At some point even the biggest LBJ fan has to realize that he sullied his reputation...Cavs fan or not.

  
  Okay, maybe I still misunderstand. Jabbar's first title team acquired Oscar Robertson, who is an example of a major star who switched teams to win a title that no one talks about. Am I right on that? And then Jabbar bolted for L.A., didn't win anything for a few years and then his team grabbed Magic for him.
  
  Rockets/Olajuwon? Clyde Drexler?
  
  Duncan-Robinson? And I guess we'll just have to see how history treats Ginobli and Parker.
• Manhattan Buckeye

  "Okay, maybe I still misunderstand."
  
  I mentioned Magic, Bird and Jordan....dude somehow missed that and inserted Jabbar instead of Magic.
  
  As for history, I doubt people 100 years from now will remember Ginobli.
• karen lotz

  

  I'd be willing to bet 100 years from now no one will remember LeBron, Kobe, Jordan, etc...
• Manhattan Buckeye

  karen lotz;587932 wrote:I'd be willing to bet 100 years from now no one will remember LeBron, Kobe, Jordan, etc...

  Agreed, after all no one remembers Ty Cobb. It isn't as if people's grandparents talk about him or that his name is synonymous with baseball greatness.
• karen lotz

  

  Who?
• jordo212000

  

  karen lotz;587491 wrote:Maybe your friend got butthurt because you anally raped him?

  
  Wow. Was this a jab at Notre Dame? Definitely out of bounds
• karen lotz

  

  jordo212000;587980 wrote:Wow. Was this a jab at Notre Dame? Definitely out of bounds

  
  
• jordo212000

  

  karen lotz;587987 wrote:

  
  I thought trep was a Notre Dame fan. There was something in the news recently about Notre Dame players being suspects in a rape case.
• karen lotz

  

  jordo212000;587991 wrote:I thought trep was a Notre Dame fan. There was something in the news recently about Notre Dame players being suspects in a rape case.

  Is this sarcasm? I don't believe trep to be a Notre Dame fan, but I am. I wouldn't joke about that rape case or any other. He was talking about his friend being butt hurt, I gave a possible explanation for the pain.
• jordo212000

  

  karen lotz;587995 wrote:Is this sarcasm? I don't believe trep to be a Notre Dame fan, but I am. I wouldn't joke about that rape case or any other. He was talking about his friend being butt hurt, I gave a possible explanation for the pain.

  
  I wasn't being sarcastic. For some reason I thought trep was a Notre Dame fan. I guess I could be wrong. I don't troll Notre Dame threads.
  
  I wasn't the one taking rape lightly. You were. You accused him of anally raping his friend?
• karen lotz

  

  wow really?
• hoops23

  

  Get him jordo!
• dtdtim

  enigmaax;587384 wrote:Doesn't really matter. The whole country is watching him and talking about him. He's more popular than ever, so this sense that Cleveland fans were more intimately in love with him somehow doesn't mean a thing.

  
  You are confusing 'popularity' with 'notoriety'.
  
  The vast majority of people talking about him, watching him, and whatever else is doing so in the hopes that he fails miserably and falls flat on his face. Americans love underdog stories. What do we love more? Watching someone full of arrogance and self-aggrandizement with the world at their fingertips lose everything.
  
  Winning will not fix this problem. In today's society success breeds more contempt and polarization than it does adoration. This isn't the Jordan/Bulls era anymore and the American public has a very different psyche when it comes to sports stars/celebrities in general. LeBron most definitely has an image problem that's going to take more than winning and a PR team headed up by crackpot Maverick Carter to fix.
  
  I find it hard to believe that he 'welcomes' the role of villain. No one willingly accepts the role of villain. He might not acknowledge it publicly but I think odds are he is VERY bothered by his downturn from America's sports hero to one of the most hated athletes.
• lhslep134

  

  Manhattan Buckeye;587897 wrote:What the fuck are you talking about?

  
  You are obviously ignorant to your history.
  
  Magic wasn't the Jordan in the situation, he was the Pippen. The Lakers already had their Jordan (Abdul Jabbar) when Magic joined them and led them to the promised land.
  
  Hence, I was using your example of Magic and showing the REAL example of the point I'm trying to prove that enigmaax clearly understood yet it flew right over your head...
  
  Lebron wasn't going to get his 2nd superstar in Cleveland, so he decided to form a superteam in Miami. It's been proven you need a 2nd elite player to win a championship, such as the examples I mentioned that you have yet to disprove.
  
  My point has nothing to do with Lebron's ego or his loss of reputation, but merely that from a pure basketball standpoint leaving was the right thing for Lebron to do if he truly cares about winning titles only and that Cleveland fans are acting like psychotic ex girlfriends if and only if they think something like "oh well Lebron will miss us, he'll never be treated the same." Who gives a shit, he's with a new team he doesn't give a flying fuck about us anymore, and he shouldn't. I think people took the whole "The Decision" a lot more personally than they should of because they were blinded by pure love of Lebron and couldn't see past their love of him to see the egotistical maniac (I will include myself into the category of those who were blinded by pure adoration).
• HitsRus

  

  Lebron wasn't going to get his 2nd superstar in Cleveland, so he decided to form a superteam in Miami. It's been proven you need a 2nd elite player to win a championship, such as the examples I mentioned that you have yet to disprove.
  

  That is where your arguement fails, because of the false assumption that another star wouldn't come to Cleveland under any circumstances, and that is not necessarly true. I don't recollect many NBA stars actually coming out and saying that Cleveland is a sucky place to play.. Moreover that one could not emerge from a trade is another assumption. If the NBA is going to allow tampering and collusion, ..well your arguement may be more valid so we can cross of at least another 8 or 10 NBA cities off the list.
  
  What is true, is that the unique history of Cleveland as a sports town, and Lebron's relationship to it, provided him a unique opportunity that he may one day miss. That is the point of the authors article.
  That James didn't see it or didn't care is obvious.
• KR1245

  

  HitsRus;588160 wrote:That is where your arguement fails, because of the false assumption that another star wouldn't come to Cleveland under any circumstances, and that is not necessarly true. I don't recollect many NBA stars actually coming out and saying that Cleveland is a sucky place to play.. Moreover that one could not emerge from a trade is another assumption. If the NBA is going to allow tampering and collusion, ..well your arguement may be more valid so we can cross of at least another 8 or 10 NBA cities off the list.
  
  What is true, is that the unique history of Cleveland as a sports town, and Lebron's relationship to it, provided him a unique opportunity that he may one day miss. That is the point of the authors article.
  That James didn't see it or didn't care is obvious.

  
  I agree with this. The Pistons didnt have "elite" players when they won the title.
• lhslep134

  

  KR1245;588164 wrote:I agree with this. The Pistons didnt have "elite" players when they won the title.

  
  True, but they had the defensive player of the year and 4 other really really good players at the prime of their careers, Cavs had no one else besides Lebron and it showed, especially in the 2007 finals.
  
  I will say this, however. I firmly believe that had Lebron TRIED last year in the playoffs, tried his damn hardest, we would have won the championship. Last year we didn't have another elite player, but we had solid enough role players that if Lebron had the transcendental playoffs he's capable of, we win. But I guess him not trying was all part of his exit strategy.
• KR1245

  

  lhslep134;588268 wrote:True, but they had the defensive player of the year and 4 other really really good players at the prime of their careers, Cavs had no one else besides Lebron and it showed, especially in the 2007 finals.
  
  I will say this, however. I firmly believe that had Lebron TRIED last year in the playoffs, tried his damn hardest, we would have won the championship. Last year we didn't have another elite player, but we had solid enough role players that if Lebron had the transcendental playoffs he's capable of, we win. But I guess him not trying was all part of his exit strategy.

  
  Theres no doubt in my mind that Lebron quit in the playoffs last year. The dudes not a very good actor.
• Thinthickbigred

  whatever ..He isnt going to miss anything.......He got his money ...Just hope he doesnt get them 7 rings ..not even one of them ....
• Y-Town Steelhound

  

  Um...apparently some people on here haven't heard of a guy named Hakeem Olajuwon. I would suggest google
• enigmaax

  Y-Town Steelhound;589810 wrote:Um...apparently some people on here haven't heard of a guy named Hakeem Olajuwon. I would suggest google

  
  What about him?