MexSoxFan#1

Phil Jackson would do wonders for LeBron, instead he has had Mike Brown and Spo.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 09:04 PM) Lebron with a choke job so far. You almost gotta feel bad for him...

QUOTE (Brian @ Jun 17, 2013 -> 05:01 AM) The next Spurs W is going to be the toughest W ever. I just want Lebron to be 1-3 in the finals. With the 1 being a weak title in a shortened year where Rose and Noah got hurt, even though I don't think the Bulls wouldve beat Miami. Just want to be able to say that so I could sleep better. If you look at LBJ's overall Finals performances so far, hardly GOAT level.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Jun 14, 2013 -> 09:04 AM) Can you really see the Spurs losing two in a row to Miami? That's pretty much what Miami has to do win this series. If the see saw continues, the Spurs win. I sure can. I would absolutely love to be wrong but I said Heat in 7 before the Finals started and I'm sticking to that

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jun 14, 2013 -> 12:02 AM) There's an article out on ESPN Chicago how Rose is feeling 100 percent! Wooooooo!!!!!!!!!! Unreal. Still not at 110%

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 13, 2013 -> 11:54 PM) Well, the Mavs did go up 3-2 and finished 'em in game 6. Game 5 is the Spurs' season. No way in f***ing hell they lose game 5 and take two in Miami. Big dif is that in 2011, LBJ was still a p****. Present day LeBron now at least attacks the basket when his j isn't falling.

I've seen this effing movie before... Spurs win game 5, go up 3-2 Miami wins game 6, ties it 3-3 Heat blows out Spurs in 7th game (yawn)

Dammit, the Heat are gonna win this one

"LeBron is shooting 52/211 (24.6%) outside the restricted area through 18 career NBA Finals games" Yeah, right up there with Jordan

QUOTE (Boogua @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 11:11 PM) I just don't know what happens with him. He shows the ability to absolutely dominate, but this is his second finals where he is severely underperforming. It seems like he has lost a decent amount of confidence in his jumper. Pop is daring LeBron to shoot, they are sagging off him big time. I've always though that if you had to pock your poison, take away his driving lanes to avoid him going to the hole, I'd much rather have him shooting 18 footers. I have no idea why LeBron just doesn't go in the post though.

Spurs just need to keep it close

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jun 9, 2013 -> 05:21 PM) This is accurate. In my lifetime, LeBron is the 2nd best I've seen. He's a monster. It's between Magic and LBJ for me but James gets the nod because of his defense.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 9, 2013 -> 12:03 AM) LMAO. Not ONE reply? This thread is awful. I'm sure you have nothing to do with it being awful...

QUOTE (Boogua @ Jun 8, 2013 -> 03:49 PM) 1. Wilt played a few eras before Michael. This is different. Hell, Rodman played against and with some current NBA players (Kobe, Duncan, Allen, Garnett, etc). His opinion, while it may be wrong, should hold more weight than WIlt's based on that. 2. What rule changes would he force? He would do well in the 80s for sure because it was uptempo, but why would he do better than Mike? The dude asked to sit out the in the beginning of the fourth quarter because he was tired. This was in a FINALS game and the tempo wasn't what it was in the 80s. He would probably have to slim down a bit to keep the tempo in the 80s. 3. The 91 Bulls went 15-2 in the playoffs and lost their 2 games by a combined 4 points. They needed 5 games to beat a team with Ervin (people call him Magic) Johnson in the finals and the one loss was by 2 points. 4. It's harder to score against the handcheck. You can dislike it all you want, but this much is true. 5. Jordan would do fine against Bowen. Early 90s Mike would have torched Bowen because Bowen wouldn't be quick enough to guard him. It also depends on what rules we're playing with. Parker and Ginobili would have problems with the physicality those late 90s bulls played with. The 08 Celtics had to face 08 offenses so it's different. They changed the rules after 04 because offenses were so bad against the handcheck. Just because they didn't use the handcheck in 08 doesn't mean they're a better defense overall. The offense could have just been worse. Yayyy. Pierce? Seriously? Jordan put up 25-13-7 his last game against Pierce and this was with handchecking. Mike was 40. I think he would be okay. I just don't understand how your name is "Jordan4life" yet you don't give the guy the respect he deserves. I'm sure you'll say something like "He just gets overrated and I'm just trying to be real!111!", but you're not dude. Old Jordan played against most of the guys that Lebron averaged 18 PPG against in a finals (Marion, Kidd, Dirk, Chandler) and he did fine. There are youtube videos of old Mike torching Marion, Kidd, and Pierce (among others). Come on man. Great post

It's also boring the way J4L dismisses the early 90s Knicks. That team was built around strong interior defense and rebounding. Offense wasn't how they won games. They were also coached by a pretty damn good coach. It's hard to judge across eras but they would be a match up nightmare for this year's Heat. If Indiana could push Miami to 7 games while making Hibbert look legit, imagine how NY's FC of Ewing, Oakley, X, Mason would fare. They would obliterate Miami on the glass. Plus Starks, as much as J4L makes fun of him, was a pretty good defensive SG (of course he was no match for peak Jordan but who was?), I could see him easily locking down current Wade. Oakley would have Bosh in a fetal position. Bron would get his because, well, he would be great in any era but that Knicks team matches up pretty well to this Heat team purely based on match ups.

The "today's era is the best ever" crowd are every bit as bad as "my era > any era" crowd IMO. Every era had it's weaknesses and strengths and it's really hard to compare across eras. For me, MJ was the best player I have ever seen and that includes peak LBJ, Kobe, Shaq, Duncan, Olajuwon, Barkley, Malone, Bird and Magic. I can't say for sure that he was better than KAJ, Wilt, Oscar, Elgin and Russell (much to your chagrin, J4L) because I never saw them in their prime and I'm not against the notion that they were as great as Jordan if not better. From the time I started watching the NBA (mid 80s) to now, MJ is clearly the best player in that time frame, IMO.

Brian Scalabrine would be the undisputed GOAT in the WNBA. Neymar would score 10 goals a game in women's soccer. Women's sports is terrible except when it's hot tennis players involved.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 4, 2013 -> 03:52 PM) That would be terrible. Here's a more interesting argument: how much higher in the list of greats would Duncan rise if he manages to win another title? Or if he wins another title AND wins finals MVP (unlikely, but possible)? Of course it would be terrible but this is ESPN we're talking about, Hyperbole Central. It's the network that kept shoving a garbage QB like Tebow down our throats FFS. About Duncan, if you're scenario plays out, of course he should move up the GOAT list, that would be 4 FMVPs and undefeated in 5 Finals series, he would even crack the top 6 IMO (MJ, Magic, KAJ, Wilt, Bird and Russell...in no particular order).

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jun 4, 2013 -> 02:32 PM) It's over guys. Miami beat Indiana. The better team won. Stop re-hashing it. I don't see how the Heat could ever hope to have a chance against a team with the depth of the Spurs. Splitter is the type who is just going to dominate them them off the bench, and the Spurs have weapons all the way down the bench. Spurs in 6. God I hope you're right. I'll go the "team that has the best player wins" route. Heat in 7. Bosh has a "good" series (can't be worse unless he's hurt?), Wade continues to be garbage and LeBron wins his second FMVP in a row and ESPN starts touting him as GOAT.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 4, 2013 -> 08:56 AM) They were an inbounds play away from not making the Finals this year. Let's not go overboard. I totally disagree. If Indy wins gm 1, it doesn't necessarily mean Indy would've won gm 2 like it played out. Miami always had control of the series, either one game up or tied and Indy's best chance at taking control, gm3 going home tied 1-1, they got destroyed. I never had the impression Indy could win this series, TBH.

Well that sucked but it's not like I really believed the Pacers would pull it off, a few thoughts... 1. Every time I see Pat Riley's mug I want to punch my TV, it stills irks me that he and Wade have gotten away with breaking the rules the way they landed LeBron. 2. I can't see the Spurs beating LeBron this time around. They punked him in his first Finals but this LeBron > 07 LeBron. Plus, the Spurs are a veteran team which is a nice way to call them old. 3. Get used to seeing LeBron in the Finals over and over again. Wade and Bosh played like garbage most of this series but it didn't matter, LBJ willed them to victory. Nobody is beating this LeBron until he declines and who knows when that'll happen. I know a lot of people here give J4L a hard time for his predictions but he nailed it on the head when he was telling us back when the Big 3 got together that nobody was beating Miami in the near future. I was a skeptic so I gotta give him props. LBJ gonna destroy the NBA like Shaq and MJ before him.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 3, 2013 -> 05:32 PM) Not if it's Pacers/Spurs. I'd watch it, but yeah, a Heat/Spurs Finals is way more appealing.

QUOTE (balfanman @ Jun 3, 2013 -> 01:06 PM) This is precisely why I don't give much thought to the NBA anymore. The last time I cared at all about the NBA was during the Jordan years, as entertaining as they were (it was a pleasure to root for a team that you knew were going to destroy an opponent before the game even started) the NBA playoffs were always fixed. The NBA made sure that most every series went 7 games, or at most 6, just to stretch out revenue. Most of the teams that the Bulls played had no business taking them that far. The Bulls - Nicks series ticked me off the most. The Nicks had no business winning 1 game against the Bulls, let alone taking a series to 6 or 7 games. I can garuantee you the Heat will win the series because that's what the NBA wants. I know it's nitpicking but it's Knicks (Knickerbockers) not Nicks.

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Jun 3, 2013 -> 01:07 PM) He was awful the second half of the year. He's been running on fumes for a few years now, but coming back for the remaining two years on his contract would have been hilarious. It's pretty amazing how much he accomplished for a guy with marginal scoring ability. Not the greatest athlete either but he could see the floor like few before him.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 3, 2013 -> 12:47 PM) I fully expect a Heat victory by about 20 points. It will start off as a close one, a couple of bad calls will go against the Pacers, Miami will take advantage, and the blow out will be on. That's what the NBA wants. Last thing they want is a close game going down to the wire where the ref's calls could be scrutinized. With both Wade and Bosh playing terrible, the role players and the refs will need to step up. LeBron will do his thing but he can't do it alone. The pressure is fully on Miami, not many people thought the Pacers could beat the Heat 4 times. It would be funny if Bron has a stinker though.