Does Lebron James have to......

[bugatti]

I'm not sure how to rank Lebron right now. The East has been historically bad ever since hes been in the league. They might have been a 7th or 8th seed in the West this year and possibly out in the first round.

 

Same for last season with the Heat. I thought Miami was the 6th or 7th best team in the league. Cleveland took off with their mid-year acquisitions and found the defensive prowess to compete at a high level. We are all prisoners of the moment and case-in-point being why this thread has been started, but LeBron has not played - by his standards - that great during the playoffs, or this season for that fact. Kevin Love being hurt has also helped.

 

With that said, I love watching LeBron with the ball. Best passer/PG in the league. He has such a gift and what I feel is his greatest strength. Him scoring is kind of boring because he is just physically superior.

[Jumper_Dad]

Rings are as much or more about the organization and the team assembled around the star than just the star player alone.

 

That said, I think LBJ will need to win one or two in Cleveland to ever get his due from most around the country.

 

I don't know if LBJ is the best ever, but he is definitely on the short list with Jordan and Wilt.

[mexitucky]

I feel like he is a hair better than MJ. Rings be damned. If MJ's 6 rings make him better than Bill Russell then Lebron gets the GOAT title for me. I've never seen anyone do what he does on the court.

 

Not yet. His early failings in big games will always haunt him when comparing him to Jordan. This is really unfair to him. The East has been SOOOOOO bad while he's played that it was much easier for him to make a final at a younger age than Jordan and he wasn't ready. He also didn't have a very good team and the Spurs were awesome. Where Jordan had to scratch and claw past the Pistons for 3 years which kept him from getting to a final, Lebron only had to beat the Pistons as they were the class of the East while he was with Cleveland. Then, when the C's got together, he really really looked bad in that playoff series clincher.

 

Additionally, that first Finals loss w/ the Heat will hurt him as well. Jordan and the Bulls do not lose to those Mavs.

[UKMustangFan]

 

I don't know if LBJ is the best ever, but he is definitely on the short list with Jordan and Wilt.

 

You misspelled Kobe....

[mexitucky]

That actually bring up an interesting topic....If he hadn't had his two "fake" retirements, how many straight would they have won?

 

I would love to have watched the '94 Bulls play the Rockets. Hakeem would have been a matchup issue for the Bulls, but they had enough big bodies to throw at him. The wildcard of Vernon Maxwell v Jordan and whether he would hit 7 3s in a row or throw a punch and get suspended would have been an interesting side story.

[HammerTime]

You misspelled Kobe....

 

And we're off... :lol2:

[NKY Bandit]

Jordan is the better of the two guys. He played tougher competition and never backed down from a challenge.

[8th Region Warrior]

Im going with the Big O over both of them, averaged a triple double, enough said...

 

MJ and Larry Legend best that I watched, didnt see the Big O, but that is all my uncles talk about when this topic is brought up

[MentschTrachtGottLacht]

I do think he is the most dominant player. He's so darn good and impossible to guard.

 

Wilt Chamberlain on line #1 .

[MentschTrachtGottLacht]

I look at todays NBA and other than Lebron and Curry, I don't see Top 50 talent in this era. (Excluding Kobe whose era has passed).

 

Tim Duncan and Kobe are in the small room at the back of the Hall of Fame reserved for the best of the best. They are no longer at the peak of their game, but LeBron's career has over-lapped with theirs quite a bit.

 

LBJ is certainly at the very top of the conversations with MJ and Kobe from the modern era.

[8th Region Warrior]

LJ plays in the East and right now its just bad basketball. Probably has a losing record in the finals, chokes at times, turns it over a ton. Physically really gifted, almost as much as Wilt was. What he did this year in the playoffs up to this point has been fun to watch. That does not make him the best ever IMO. If the Celtics dont lose maybe one of the best college players ever to an overdose they probably win 6 more championships and we are saying Bird has 8-10 rings

[PurplePride92]

How about LeBron just has a winning record in NBA finals? That can't be too much to ask for, can it?

 

I'm not going to penalize one player in a team sport. We do way too much of that. Charles Barkley never won a ring and only went to the Finals once but I'd take him as a PF over just about every PF to ever play the game.

[PurplePride92]

This sounds too much like Stephen A. Smith, so I dislike it.

 

And two words that put this piece of the discussion to bed in my opinion...Pat Reilly.

 

Lebron never played under Pat Riley.

[PurplePride92]

Couldn't you also say Phil never won a title without Jordan or Kobe, 2 of the best 3 players of all-time? How good of a coach is he really? :idunno:

 

That has been said. That's why many say Popovich is better than Phil.

[PurplePride92]

And arguably one of the best rosters ever assembled... So that negates the Spoelstra argument, IMO.

 

Huh? That Heat roster has nothing on the 80s Celtics, 80s Lakers, The Bad Boys, 90s Bulls, 94-95 Rockets and the Shaq/Kobe Lakers. Hell, the Popovich Spurs championship teams have had better rosters than those Heat teams.