LeBron Is Not A Ring Chaser

[Bladers]

lol
kobe's level of play has not been good enough to crack the top 8....let alone the top 3 dude.

you can't be a career 41% shooter in the finals and have your teammates make all the big shots and plays and go down in the top 3

its not a rings race. rings matter....but level of play matters more.

But Lebron hasn't even won a Finals game? LOL.
and has played beyond terrible in every finals game.

But yet you have him booked for 4 rings and top 5.

Your logic doesn't hold water.

Kobe has 5 and is currently going for a 3-peat.
Kobe is the favorite in not only cracking, but shattering the top 3 before he retires.
and arguably Top 2 or even GOAT if he has superb performances..

[eliteballer]

The Miami Cheat are a farce and disrespect to the competitiveness of the game. They still can't matchup with us.

[tpols]

Bro....this is the last time I'm posting in this thread. Too many of you are wrapped up in the whole "LeBrons legacy is ruined" thing. It's all false.

He looked pretty damn competitive when he was dominating the league for so long averaging 30/7/7 for basically 5-7 years. He looked pretty competitive when he was going crazy in the playoffs for so long. Seriously....you see how intense he plays. Anybody that plays that hard has to be competitive. There is no need to question that.

Sounds like you don't know what the term competitive means.

holy shit man learn to read properly. He doesn't mean competitive as in how hard he plays on the court. He means Lebron should have led a team like the bulls or knicks against the heat instead of joining them.

What would a competitive person do:

Fuel a rose/lebron or lebron/amare team rivalry versus wade/bosh or cave at the possibility of being beat and just join them?

[amfirst]

Nothing is guarantee, but this team has a 99% chance of winning it all, especially with 3 superstars all in their prime teaming up. How many times have u seen that that in the history of basketball. People team up when they are old and mere bench players. This is a whole different beast, it's gonna be sick.

[ginobli2311]

lol at this dude's argument saying the current bulls or magic can compete with this heat team coming up. You go from saying they'll win a bunch of titles to saying that all these teams will challenge them. You're flip flopping everywhere to try and prove everyone wrong but its all contradictory.

what? so if the magic improve a little they can't compete? why? i said this heat team will win 3 titles in the next decade with lebron. i don't think that is going way overboard dude. thats very probable and realistic.

there are other teams in the league that can challenge them in the near future.

the lakers are better right now for starters. the celtics could give them fits if healthy and they make some moves. same for the magic and bulls.

the bulls and thunder have great cores to challenge for the next decade as well. the mavs could be deadly if they add al jefferson.

three titles is realistic.

[ginobli2311]

But Lebron hasn't even won a Finals game? LOL.
and has played beyond terrible in every finals game.

But yet you have him booked for 4 rings and top 5.

Your logic doesn't hold water.

Kobe has 5 and is currently going for a 3-peat.
Kobe is the favorite in not only cracking, but shattering the top 3 before he retires.
and arguably Top 2 or even GOAT if he has superb performances..

totally disagree about kobe. unless he starts so play much better and put up better numbers. i don't want to talk about it though.

[thejumpa]

holy shit man learn to read properly. He doesn't mean competitive as in how hard he plays on the court. He means Lebron should have led a team like the bulls or knicks against the heat instead of joining them.

What would a competitive person do:

Fuel a rose/lebron or lebron/amare team rivalry versus wade/bosh or cave at the possibility of being beat and just join them?

Yes, I'm sure that LeBron was sitting home like "Damn, I could be beat by Wade/Bosh if I go to the Bulls. **** it. I'll just join them.....yeah that's it.

These 3 guys came up with a plan to play together because the opportunity was presented to them. They obviously don't give a shit about being "competitive"(still don't understand your definition but whatever) or doing everything by themselves. All they want to do is win and win soon. Face facts.....LeBron,Wade,Bosh....they don't care as being remembered as the #1 guy or alpha dog as much as you think. They feel like they can make it work like Bostons big 3 did(and people doubted that too).

[JustSaying]

Barkley: "When you are 25, you shouldn't be piggybacking on other players"

Trying to get a ring the easy way shows how mentally-weak LeBron is. He's a great basketball player but he will never be an "NBA great".

[Poochymama]

Ginobli

Overall, I agree with you on some things, and disagree on other things.

I will say this, I do think Lebron has hurt his potential legacy, but in all probability hasn't hurt his actual legacy. What do I mean by that? Well, if Lebron had stayed with Cleveland and won 5 or six titles and maybe improved his defense a bit, he would have a legitimate case for the G.O.A.T or at the very least #2. He's very close to being as good as Jordan on the offensive front(ie a few ppg less), he's a better passer and rebounder, the only thing Jordan has over Lebron is defense,rings, and a slight offensive edge.

By going to the heat, he has basically ruined his shot at G.O.A.T or even top 2 in my opinion. It doesn't matter how many championships he wins with the heat, there will always be the question of how much was because of Lebron, and how much was because of Wade/Bosh. This would be the equivalent of Jordan teaming up with Malone and Hakeem and winning 6 championships. Ya, he would still have 6 rings, but overall those six rings would mean a lot less considering who he got them with.

While I do think he has tarnished his POTENTIAL legacy, in actuality, I think this will improve his REALISTIC legacy. By this I mean, winning several championships with the heat, questionable as his role in said championships may be, is still better than winning no championships with Cleveland. I see it kind of like a game show in which a person has $25,000 - he/she answers a question right and has two possible rewards to take: 1 - a 25% shot at $100,000, and 2 - a 100% shot at $50,000. In my eyes, Lebron just chose option 2.

One other thing I will say, and I'm sure many on here will disagree with me on, is the importance placed on number of rings when it comes to ranking players. Sure, rings do matter, but you can't just say player x is better than player y because player x has more rings, it's all about context. Sure really great players usually end up with one or two rings, but overall, rings are so much more about how good the rest of players on the team are as opposed to how good an individual player is that I'm a little confused why they seem to be a standard on here for measuring greatness. Why do we place so much value on a team stat when trying to determine individual greatness? Sure it has some value, but just not as much as we seem to give it, at least in my opinion. For example, (and no I'm not trying to hate on Kobe, I do think he is one of the best players the league has ever seen) Kobe Bryant is on the verge of surpassing Michael Jordan in the ring count. If that happens, I'm sure there will be people on here hailing him as the G.O.A.T. simply because he as more rings. This is a case where I think that too much value is given to ring count. Michael Jordan is literally better than Kobe Bryant at everything other than 3s, he puts up more points(and does it with a higher %), gets more rebounds, passes better, defends better, gets more blocks, and gets more steals. Now Kobe has been surrounded by a better team than Michael, which might allow him to win more championships, but why should having a better team factor in to who is the better individual player?

In a few more years, Derek Fisher might have more rings than Jordan, does that mean he is a better player than Jordan? No, because he is literally worse than Jordan at every aspect of the game other than 3 pt shots. Same thing with Kobe, he might end up with more rings, but just like Fisher, he is literally worse at every facet of the game than Jordan orther than 3 pt shots(sure he is closer, but the logic still applies), so why would we rank him higher?

[nashisbest]

think about the situation...

what are lebron's options:

1. stay with cleveland with no one else to sign means he will lose to one of these east teams in the playoffs - Heat, Celtics, Magic

2. Move to NYK to play with Amare - I don't believe anyone thinks they will be contenders

3. Move to Chicago - I actually think this is the best outcome cos he will still be the MAN but boozer is injury prone

4. play with Wade and Bosh to win now


at the end of the day people will remember lebron if he wins 7 or 9 rings. sure he will not be THE man on Heat but maybe being remembered as a winner is more important that being the MAN. he will not be mentioned alongside real piggbackers like fisher and horry for sure

[john_d]

notice how soundwave never came back after ginofools started posting.. alt account

[macpierce]

theyre lebron riders so arent they all the same anyways? boy can do NO WRONG

[Kiarip]

i would agree with you if the the lakers/mavericks/celtics/bulls/magic/thunder did not all exist.

the mavs are going to get a lot better in the coming days. the celtics are going to make another run. the bulls are looking very strong. the magic might add some more pieces. they thunder have a great core.

and the lakers on paper are still the best team in the league. he didn't join a title team or even a title contender. he joined a team with 4 players that is trying to build something. its far from the most stacked team in the league currently or all time.

i just don't care how a team is formed. what matter is what the actual team has and what the team is.

But individually speaking... Lebron just teamed up with the second best player in the league, and thus can no longer compete against him... what is that?

Yes I know the at kobe and shaq at some point in their careers were both in top 3 during a portion of their 3-peat, but Kobe always dreamed to play with the Lakers and when he demanded his trade from the Hornets no one really knew how long Shaq was planning to stay, and Kobe still had to develop.

Here you have the #1 player deciding straight up that he doesn't want to compete against the #2 player... he'd rather team up with him... I would understand if he had no other good team choices to go to, but the Nets were ready to build around him, the Knicks were ready to build around him, and the Bulls already had a solid core of players, and the Cavs finally got a decent coach... but with all those opportunities he goes ahead and teams up with a top3 and top10 players, there isn't even any guarantee that this heat team is better than what the bulls would have been with Lebron... there isn't...

He only cares about winning, he obviously doesn't care who he wins against, and that's my point. Is he really a true competitor, or does he just want to feed his huge ego by appeasing everyone's expectations of him to win.

[gilalizard]

The Miami Cheat are a farce and disrespect to the competitiveness of the game. They still can't matchup with us.

Seriously mate, the Lakers are pretty loaded themselves. Not as ridiculously as the Heat are now, but they're still plenty stacked.

There was a smaller version of this uproar when LA initially pickpocketed Gasol from Memphis.