Magic
Michael
Bird
Russell
Kareem
C'mon people, LBJ is not better than Larry Bird.
This was cemented the moment he had to team up with his rivals to win a ring. Lebron also benefits greatly from the new hand check rules. Sure he's a supreme athlete, but will never be the shooter that Larry was.
LBJ playing in the 80's = Dominique Wilkins.
Can we really blame Lebron that Cleveland in his 7 years there couldn't even get him a top 50 player in the league to play with? To sum up how bad Cleveland's management was, they had Carlos Boozer. They tried to pull a fast one with the rules and let Carlos Boozer leave. People want to blame Boozer for that, but that was all on the Cavs management. That is what Lebron was dealing with. Lebron also suffers from being just so darn good almost immediately that he made Cleveland too good to have realistic shots at giving him talent in the draft. The Cavs didn't linger in the lottery for awhile like Durant's Thunder. The Cavs also didn't pull a Scottie Pippen out of thin air. The Cavs didn't luck into a top 3 pick the year after Lebron was drafted like the Celtics did (in order to draft McHale). I mean the Lakers landed Magic Johnson to a team that had a top 5 center of all time.
Had Lebron James been drafted to a well run organization, he wouldn't have had to leave to win a title. But the simple reality is the Cavs were a horribly run franchise that made horrid free agent decisions and drafted atrociously bad. The new owner and management seems to actually be drafting fairly well, but they certainly did not when Lebron was there.
My feeling was LeBron was always pressuring the team to make big moves to bring in more talent if they wanted to have a chance of him sticking around. He basically used his ability to leave the team to hold the franchise hostage and the results were fairly predictable.
My feeling is that the alternative (quietly waiting while Cleveland fails to get him much help) wouldn't have been all that palatable a solution. It sure didn't work for KG.
exactly. Lebron didn't really start making a stink until the 08-09 season (when Cleveland lost to Orlando). You know his 6th year there and after he had already re-signed the first time.
The problem was quite simply, Cleveland is not a desirable free agent location and Cleveland did a horrible job of drafting so they had very few good players and almost no one that they could trade to bring in a good player.
Everyone loves to pile on Lebron for intentionally teaming up with Wade and Bosh, but some how Shaq+Kobe, Magic/Worthy/Kareem, Bird/Mchale/Parrish/DJ feel more "organic," even though the endgame is identical. It's just the latter three were due to smart management and the first was due to smart players.
Glad to see some reasonable heads on this. Tired of that LeBron bashing.
This is all you need to say: Larry Hughes (LARRY HUGHES) was brought in by management and was billed literally as a "Pippen".
The organization was terribly incompetent. KG says he wished he came to the Celtics before instead of staying in Minny. No one likes to waste away. If we are all going to hold players to this "ring" measurement of success, please, save the criticism of them taking the best opportunities to win. You don't win without multiple stars (the only exceptions being at times when the league was pretty bad).
Also I don't think it holds weight. People always say Bird, Magic, and Jordan didn't have to switch teams, while ignoring the fact that Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Shaquille O'Neal, Moses Malone, Charles Barkley, Kevin Garnett, Rick Barry, and countless other "greats" demanded to be traded or left for a better situation in free agency.
But because "Larry and Magic" never did it and were in great situations for their entire career, any other stars are automatically looked down upon for doing it.