Gary Payton: LeBron wouldn't be as good in our era

[JellyBean]

http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2013/0...#ixzz2MO3ME5ut

I am pretty sre Lebron would be able to hold is hi ow if he played in the lat 80s and 90s era

[secund2nun]

Biased thinking. Payton is jealous. Lebron gets hacked all the time here and gets few foul calls these days. Imagine how good Lebron's defense would be if he could hand check. It all equals out. He is a lot stronger than most NBA players. His defense would be insane if he could be more physical.

[tikay0]

Lebron stans:

[Nash]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQAdKkh5CJo

Funny Bruceblitz video on the topic. He's right though.

What happened to Bruce Blitz? He used to be the biggest Lebron fan?

[stax]

[eurobum]

lebron could also use his hands to ward of defenders like mj use to do

This is such a bad counter-argument. Hand checking, constant elbow/lower arm on offensive player and physical defense were allowed, while this "MJ move" wasn't thus was done at not nearly the same rate, obviously. Homer argument.

Lebron stans arguing that MJ did this every time down the floor .

Accept that Lebron James is the greatest in this era and would be great in ANY era, but maybe, just maybe, he would have a tougher time in Payton's era.

[pauk]

[eurobum]

Because of the rules, the defense of Payton's (or any) era is a constant while that MJ move is an anomaly, breaking of the rules. You can't seriously argue that the anomaly has equal bearing/weight as the constant. That's what you're doing when you say, "b-b-b-b-b-b-but if in that era he could thwart/manipulate defenses like MJ." Yeah, like once a game if even that.

Logically and rationally looking at it.

[DMV2]

To be fair, he didn't say LeBron would be average or a scrub. Just wouldn't be as good.

What he said could be true based on how hardnose the league was when Payton was playing and seeing how players have gotten into LBJ's mind numerous times before, I say could see LeBron having a 2011 Finals moments if he was in the Jordan era.

Some people compared his strength and body to Karl Malone and look at how he shrunk when it mattered most.

[24r2]

lol @ all ******gers getting all defensive

[Bandito]

[STATUTORY]

we all saw what happened to Lebron when he went full speed driving entire court against Kobe's handcheck in the all star game

shot blocked

[Ne 1]

Eh, the same "soft, not as physical" complaints people have about the league now, people had back in the '90s. I saw old timers from the '70s on half time segments making fun of how you couldn't guard Jordan because of all the favorable rules for him (isolation, lack of physicality etc). I'll gladly upload video of couple of them talking about this because I think I saved it somewhere. And the same "hand-checking" complaints were going on in 1993, in fact here's an NY Times article:


Published: March 28, 1993

The increase of flagrant fouls and violence between players in today's National Basketball Association is a direct result of the elimination of the defensive hand check from games. Physical contact has always been a part of modern professional basketball. But when the N.B.A. abolished a defensive player's ability to use the hand check as a way of slowing down the offensive player he was guarding, players began finding new ways to keep their opponents from going to the hoop. As a result, the hip check has replaced the hand check, as frustrated players try to limit their opponents' scoring chances.

It is time for the N.B.A. to reinstate the use of the hand-check.

[Haymaker]

Lebron wouldn't survive a playoffs series against the '88 Pistons or the '92 Knicks. He would fake another cramp just to get out of the game.

[BlueandGold]

Lebron vs "the Jordan Rules" Pistons with Chuck Daly as their head coach?

Series already over (swept) ala Popovich's 07 Spurs vs Cavs