Lebron gets plenty of hate, but people would hate Magic too if he teamed up w/ Bird

[StrongLurk]

I'm glad I started watching b-ball and developed a love and understanding of the game before social media era narratives and manufactured criteria for judging a players' greatness was the norm. Magic was my favorite player growing up and is possibly still my favorite player of all time, maybe only behind Penny. But anyways, all of that is to say the following:

In a 1991 LA Times article, Magic said that had the Bulls won the coin toss for the number one pick in the 1979 draft he would have stayed in school because he didn't want to get drafted to a losing franchise. So he gets drafted to the team with the best player in the league, by far, in Kareem who was the MVP of the league that year. Then, the Lakers pick up the Hall of Fame c/pf in Bob McAdoo as a backup. I remember Magic bragging in a post game interview during the 1982 Finals that the Lakers had three MVP caliber players on their team. Then after winning the 1982 championship they were fortunate to have the number one draft pick again and drafted another Hall of Fame player in James Worthy. The 80s Lakers that Magic was on were so loaded that they had the 1987 DPOY, Michael Cooper, coming off the bench.

Why would you go "team up" with somebody else when your front office has just stacked your team with arguably the most loaded roster of the era?

But again, that takes absolutely nothing from Magic's greatness to me, and I'm so glad I was able to develop an appreciation for the game and greatness before fully understanding those things and they meant anything to me.

Exactly, so many of these other GOATs had far better situations than MJ and Lebron right out of the gate in their careers. Plus the free agency restrictions/lack of modern day money incentivized players to stay where they were.

[John8204]

Bird walked onto a 20 win team and instantly made them a champion. McHale was a scrub in the Celtics 1st title win.

Bird walked onto a team with Cowens, Archibald, and Maravich

by 1981 they had Parish and McHale

by 1983 they got Dennis Johnson

in 1985 they got Bill Walton to come off the bench

That's seven franchise/elite/HOF players in 7 seasons....Cleveland didn't do that

[GimmeThat]

to stay on topic, yes, the sun gets plenty of hate, but if natural resources, similar to the sun, contributes to the power used by society for human expansion, the earth itself would be hated as well.

[mr4speed]

Bird walked onto a team with Cowens, Archibald, and Maravich

by 1981 they had Parish and McHale

by 1983 they got Dennis Johnson

in 1985 they got Bill Walton to come off the bench

That's seven franchise/elite/HOF players in 7 seasons....Cleveland didn't do that

Need to put some context on these players = Cowens and Maravich were on their last legs and only played 1 year with Bird and retired. Nate Archibald played 4 years with Bird and Nate's productivity declined every year and then he only played 1 more year after being traded. McHale did not become a starter until the 84-85 season. Bird went to a 29 win team and was instrumental ( along with new coach Bill Fitch) in winning 61 games for a 32 game turnaround. Magic and Bird would have never teamed up as they wanted to beat each other on the basketball court more than anything.

[Phoenix]

[red1]

GOAT james

[Lebron23]

1-9

[baudkarma]

Pretty much every successful player gets hated on. Fans just have to find a reason to justify their hatred for player X. If Magic had joined the Celtics then Lakers fans would have hated him. If Bird had gone to LA, same thing in reverse. Dirk and Duncan have haters, and they're both class acts who have been loyal to their respective franchises. If fans want to hate, they'll find an excuse. Hell, Pat Tillman probably has haters.

[3ba11]

Shannon referred to Lebron today as "top 5 all-time", so the post-prime reduction in ranking is already starting, just like it did for old Kobe

[3ba11]

Pretty much every successful player gets hated on. Fans just have to find a reason to justify their hatred for player X. If Magic had joined the Celtics then Lakers fans would have hated him. If Bird had gone to LA, same thing in reverse. Dirk and Duncan have haters, and they're both class acts who have been loyal to their respective franchises. If fans want to hate, they'll find an excuse. Hell, Pat Tillman probably has haters.

Fans won't find an excuse if there's nothing to hate on like Bird of Magic staying with their original teams.. Otoh, if they started teaming up with opponents and opposing franchise players and cornerstones, then everyone would rightfully hate them for stacking the deck and teaming up with rivals.

[Phoenix]

Shannon referred to Lebron today as "top 5 all-time", so the post-prime reduction in ranking is already starting, just like it did for old Kobe

[GimmeThat]

Pretty much every successful player gets hated on. Fans just have to find a reason to justify their hatred for player X. If Magic had joined the Celtics then Lakers fans would have hated him. If Bird had gone to LA, same thing in reverse. Dirk and Duncan have haters, and they're both class acts who have been loyal to their respective franchises. If fans want to hate, they'll find an excuse. Hell, Pat Tillman probably has haters.

there's really no reason for the term 'context' to exist, since it's just a lie.


the origin of the all the "why"

[StrongLurk]

Fans won't find an excuse if there's nothing to hate on like Bird of Magic staying with their original teams.. Otoh, if they started teaming up with opponents and opposing franchise players and cornerstones, then everyone would rightfully hate them for stacking the deck and teaming up with rivals.

It all depends on what team they are leaving and what team they are joining.

Lebron had every right to leave Cleveland after those 7 years because he couldn't get any real talent around him. Kawhi and KD both left MUCH better situations multiple times (as have other superstar over the last 15 years), but I haven't ever seen you complain about them. We know damn well Kobe would've left the Lakers eventually of they never got Pau.

Magic was drafted to an incredible situation, Bird was drafted to a good one (Celtics top 5 org for the NBA), Duncan caught a great break with David Robinson missing all of 1997, Kobe got prime/peak Shaq and good Lakers players right out the gate, Shaq himself got Penny one year later on the Magic, Hakeem was drafted to a bad team but they at least had an elite talent already with Ralph Sampson.

Pretty much only MJ and Lebron were drafted to dogshit situations.

[And1AllDay]

1-9

[Axe]

No pip?