Soxbadger

No the difference is that this is a Chicago fan site so Rose can do no wrong, and everyone is pissed Lebron didnt come to Chicago. I mean the fact people are pointing to Lebron's tattoos just shows the absurdity of the argument. Plenty of people have ridiculous tattoos for one reason or another.

J4l and I may have our differences, but on this one we are in complete agreement. Pierre right now just does not bring anything consistently to the table, and while I am not sure if Lilli can play this well an entire season, you have to give the guy a chance because he has earned it.

I think its because Beckham is young and Pierre is old. If you are going to have a guy out there not doing well, Id rather it be the young guy who hopefully can get his s*** together. At minimum you would hope this would encourage Ozzie to use Lilli as a LF defensive replacement late in games, because the Sox would have a few more wins if they had a LF who can catch average fly balls.

The only silver lining is that US can still advance and hopefully its a wake up call. The PK was the killer because it was a stupid foul by the US. There was no intent to take the guy down, just a sloppy play.

Rock, Um of course this is my perception. Every single post I have ever made is my perception. The entire world as we know it, is nothing more than our perception. Im giving my opinion, of course its my perception. Ive never said that anyone has to agree with me, Im simply posting my opinion. In fact all of my posts clearly use the term "I" and half of them include "think" which means its just my opinion.

No, Im not going to bury a guy who doesnt want to be the man. Not everyone wants to be the alpha, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I have no problem with people who want to be team players. /shrugs Go back and read my posts, I crucified James for leaving Cleveland and destroying his legacy. But its over, he has shown that he is willing to sacrifice scoring and dominating the ball, if it means winning games. It may not make him the best ever, he may not get a statute, but theres absolutely nothing wrong with it. Being a good teammate does not make you a bad person in my mind, being a good teammate makes you likable in my mind. Lebron was my favorite (current) player before the decision, I seriously thought he could challenge Jordan in terms of all time achievements, but he chose against that. If he can sleep at night with that decision, who am I to second guess it. I think he made a mistake hitching his wagon to Wade and that in the end it will severely hurt his legacy, but I think Lebron was to loyal to Wade and he couldnt get away from a promise he made years before. I reserve calling a player a "bad guy" for guys who go out and actively try and ruin careers, for guys who take cheap shots, guys who go out and do stupid things, etc. Lebron isnt a bad guy

Exactly, Lebron isnt a bad person, hes just a douche on the court.

Lebron has sacrificed his own game to try and win a title. Lebron has done everything thats asked of him. Lebron shows up and plays every day, he plays more minutes than anyone. (edit) Why do I think Lebron isnt a bad guy? What has he done to ever hurt anyone? He doesnt get duis, he doesnt hurt people. Hes a "villain" in basketball, I guess I dont get caught up in the face/heel thing, thats just all how the media portrays it.

I really dont think anyone was as hard as Lebron over the summer, but honestly Lebron has earned my respect over the entire season. I get that piling on Lebron is the in thing to do, but Lebron is not as bad of a guy as people are making him out to be.

I responded to that already, its like saying Rose is Merlin because he has got a wizard on his arm. Im also pretty sure that Lebron got that tat when he was 18, a lot of us grow up after then.

Look at my progression of posts: 1) Lebron will never be the greatest of all time if he goes to Miami. 2) People are being to hard on Lebron after game 5, because Miami didnt lose because of Lebron. 3) People are expecting to much out of Lebron because they are trying to compare him to all time great players, when Lebron made decisions to take himself out of the running. 4) I dont care what Lebron does in the 4th quarter of a few games, he clearly did a ton of things in the 4th quarter against the Bulls. Its annoying how inconsistent writers are. After the Bulls series Lebron is the best ever, now during the Mavs series Lebron isnt that good. People need to quit making knee jerk reactions, if Lebron scores 100 points in the next 2 games, it doesnt make him the best ever, if he scores 0 it doesnt mean he wont be in the Hall of Fame. The point of all this is that Lebron's role with the Heat is not to be the primary scorer, his role is to do everything else because that is what they need. Its just absolutely annoying to read a writer say Lebron is the best ever 1 week and then torch him a week later. It makes no sense, and that is my beef. If you are going to bag on Lebron, be consistent and bring up the fact that if it was not for Lebron, the heat arent even in the Finals. I guess I dont care about all the hyperbole and nonsensical knee jerk reactions, I just want to talk about basketball and have legitimate conversation about games

Against a player the Sox have never seen expect the Sox to score 0 runs

Simmons is just stating the obvious, what made Lebron in Cleveland was that the entire offense went through him. Some games hed drive, some games hed make shots, some games hed post. But no matter what happened the guy was going to be able to take 20+ shots and get his game going. In Miami there is a tension between Wade/Lebron. When one of them is going its hard to decide, do you get the other guy going or do you stick with the hot hand. Its hard to have a team where there are 2 players competing to be "the man" and Lebron seems to the player most affected by it. I dont think its because he didnt develop his game, I think its because Lebron is thinking to much and trying to make everything work. He seems to second guess himself, whether he should take over the agme or whether he should facilitate. That is just not a good place for him to be. He will never be the player he could have been had he stayed in Cleveland, he will always be something different. You can say he is in his 8th year, but this is his first year being on a team where its not Lebron and his merry men. There will be an adjustment period, its just a matter of what is the adjustment. The problems are further exasperated because Wade is streaky too. Some games hes hot (Dallas) some games hes cold (Bulls), it puts a lot of pressure on Lebron to try and work everything out. The Heat were a poorly designed team and the only reason the design could possibly work, is if Lebron can fill all of the different holes. Lebron has become a jack of all trades, master of none, but its not really his fault, its the system he has been placed in. Hes still the same guy who won back to back MVP's, he just doesnt have the ball in his hand every possession, so he isnt in the flow as he once was. Wade/Lebron is always going to be hard to coexist. I dont think its a negative that Lebron is being Pippen, its just the role that hes been given. Which goes back to my original point in this thread, that when Lebron went to Miami he never was going to be the greatest of all time.

I just think that with no cba player movement will be limited outside of draft picks being traded for other picks. With so much uncertainty im not sure it would make sense to take a large risk, unless all of the salaries were equal.

Im pretty sure there is a moratorium on trades anyway, so if there is any talk it would have to be pretty limited, especially with the CBA. I could see the Bulls doing a deal where they give up Boozer + picks for Ellis. Some rumors say Golden State would be interested in Nene, so maybe you can convince them that Boozer+ picks would be a great deal!

Jenks, Well I can agree that Lebron is supposed to be better, but after the decision i stopped caring about what he could have been. After this year I just have a different opinion of Lebron. I truly believe that Lebron was thinking about going to those teams and that Wade threw a fit. Lebron just always seemed like a guy who wanted to have fun while playing the game, since hes been in Miami he seems to have lost that fun. He has all the physical tools, he could have potentially been comparable to the greats, but that is not the path he choose. In my opinion he choose to give up some of the ME awards, in a hope that he could win as a team. Part of me respects that as much as I hate it at the same time. I understand why people expect more from Lebron, but thats why I started off by saying "Its a little unfair". Steve, Lebron didnt give himself the nickname "The King" it was actually given to him in High School in reference to "King James". I am not sure that Lebron would even understand the reference, but it is back when he was in school in Ohio. So its not a scenario like Shaq, Dwight or Wade giving themselves nicknames its more like Air Jordan, where people gave him a nickname. As for the decision, I hated it to, but had he come to the Bulls Id have gotten over it, so its a tad hypocritical for me to hold it against him forever. As for quotes, once again I post the way Ive posted for in excess of 10 years now. Old habits die hard, whatever you want to say, Im generally at work posting so 9 out of 10 times the fast reply just sits open while I jot things down and then I make edits etc.

Jenks, Go back and read this thread where I go after Lebron for weeks about the decision and how he ruined his chance to be the greatest of all time. But that was his choice, he chose not to have those expectations, so I dont see what is wrong with him not being the best player ever. When he went to Miami, he made the decision that he was just going to be another great player.

Why? You can be the chosen1 and fail. Not to mention I think Lebron got that tattoo in High School, it would be like bringing up things I said as an 18 year old and expecting that I have to stand by them.

haha fair enough, but others have said that for the next X years the championship goes through Miami, or whatever other statements proclaiming Miami unbeatable. To start the year people were saying Miami would win over 72 games, etc. I did pick the most ridiculous comment though

Oh come on tattoos? Rose has a tattoo of a wizard, does that mean he thinks hes Merlin?

Look Lebron is a cocky guy. But Im never going to hate on a player for wanting to win more championships. Ive yet to see anywhere in a clip where Lebron proclaims himself the best player. People said that he deserved more criticism because he calls himself the greatest ever (its just not true).

Drunk, I dont care what Miami did. I just dont understand why people on this board, act like Miami is unbeatable. Posters have said that Miami will win the next 5 championships. And so when Miami starts to lose, they dont want to admit that Miami maybe isnt the best team, they instead want to blame Lebron. I just have been one of the few all season who has consistently stated that I did not think Miami was as good as most in this thred.

Rock, Im not sure you can compare Kareem and Wade, because Wade needs the ball in his hands to iso/drive, where as Kareem was being fed by Magic. In fact if Lebron had Howard instead of Wade, we wouldnt be having this conversation because most likely your looking at team that would be far better as Lebron could dominate the possession with the ball in his hand and give it to Dwight when necessary.

Jenks, And as of 2005, was the statement made by Lebron true or false? In High School he was the best player on his team, in Cleveland he was the best player on his team. Nothing in that statement implies hes the best ever. I get that people dislike his attitude, but hes got the same attitude 90% of NBA players have. Rose is the exception, not the rule. As I said, people are trying to impute things on Lebron that just are unfair. Over the summer I was one of the hardest people on Lebron but even to me this has gone beyond the point of sanity.

Lebron is a superstar, Lebron is probably going to be a hall of famer. I dont care if he never scored a point in the 4th quarter of an NBA finals game, there are players in the Hall of Fame who never even played in the finals. All Ive said is that Lebron didnt have a bad game last night. (edit) Or more correctly, all I said was that people were being to hard on Lebron, because Lebron wasnt the reason Dallas won. It takes away from the Mavs when people act like there was more that Miami could have done. Miami does not regularly score 110+ points, Dallas beat Miami, they won the game, it wasnt about Miami beating itself. Im not sure why people have to put the Heat on such a pedestal, that it cant possibly be that Dallas is better.