duh, it's obviously the first answer. liddle danny beer-stine will muster all five foot three of his magnanimous strength to point out that are a pure basketball specimen lebron IS the best player in the game, however, he just hasn't developed that championship level killer instinct yet.
even tho michael won his first title in his 7th full professional season, he did so at age 27-28 methinks and lebron will be entering his age 27-28 type season next year, therefore lebron going directly from HS to the NBA means he didn't get any chances to play for the NCAA title against lesser competition, getting game-7 type experience for multiple games in the tournament over the span of 1-3 years, experience which michael jordan accrued during his UNC days.
it will be pointed out that ~7 years ago in HIS SECOND SEASON IN THE NBA, he singlehandedly led a group of bums to the NBA finals, only to get beatdown by the spurs. i can picture THE GOLF likely chiming in that lebron led a bunch of bums to the finals in his 2nd year, seeing as THE GOLF is always quick to mention "bums" as it's a throwback to oldschool white-guy vernacular/slang that gives him street cred in the mean streets of woodfield, perfectly complementing his inner-city cred by virtue of his blackness, which also lends itself to international cred by being able to play the belize card. basically, the goff doesn't need a little card-sized hunk of plastic with a magnetic strip on it to have credit with every walk of life: he just walks in and gives "the nod" and the recipient of "the nod" goes SLAP MAH FRO, THAT THERE BE THE GOLF!!! and he's a veritable american express black card in this game of life.
so yeah, basically, they're gonna say that it's a different game than it was in the 90s, defenses are different athleticism is different and lebron has basically led or helped to lead a group of bums to the finals twice in his first ~8 seasons in the league, and keep in mind he started right out of highschool, and MAYBE, but not likely short of moses malone (who joined a team with Dr. J and world b free amongst others, IIRC) nobody has come str8 out out of high school to singlehanded lead a group of bums to the finals in his second year in the NBA. it just doesn't happen.
so aside from arguing that lebron is younger and being that even jordan didn't have the kind of meteoric pressure the expectations thrust upon him by the BOO-YAH!!!! hype machine from his junior/high school days onward (raise your hand if you remember lebron's high school games getting aired nationally on ESPN2 back in the day) so lebron is in a situation where he can't win... if he ends up developing a clutch jumper that kills everyone and he's the best ever it'll be like "ho hum, we expected that from day 1, so what?" and if he does anything short of that he's going to have varying levels of relative haterade creeping up on him, much more so than michael jordan ever had.... keep in mind michael jordan was the #3 pick in the draft, as houston thought hakeen olajuwon as a HOF-talented big would be a better long-term investment than a shooting guard, and sam bowie was picked before him, whereas with lebron there was no doubt he was #1, and that was straight out of high school.
so from there, they'll defend his all-around game... they'll say he's more like magic as opposed to michael and once he adapts and adjusts to the otherworldly pressure on him he'll win titles. you'll be ASSURED that he will win multiple titles by an indignant danny beer-stine (in fact, i'd bet cash-money on that, along with goff chiming in to point out that lebron led a bunch of bums to the finals in his 2nd year, complete with incredulous pauses to ratchet up the dramatic emphasis on his point--- a technique covered in his personal bible, the book "sports talk radio show hosting for dummies") and from there you'll just get the different player / different era / different game arguments, talk about how while you do need at least 1 superstar and 2-3 super/stars overall to win a title you also need quality role players and the mavericks had that, then you'll hear about how dirk is unstoppable and jason terry had the playoff run of his life and the mavericks shot crazy good and had a historic playoff run and it was a fluke and they won't win it next year, and yeah.
in the end, no matter what, as always you know that dan beer-stine is right and you're wrong. he's not tuning into your sports-talk-radio show for insight/opinions/entertainment, you're tuning into his... and while he'll never say something like that directly, it's always inferred. terry will stumble around to agree with him, and THE GOLF will chime in and mention a tbeam chock full of bums and combine his statements with incredulous dramatic pauses that convey a message of "if you disagree with what i'm saying right here you're an idiot plain and simple" and then life will go on.
in other words, it will be business as usual in the 670 the score / dot-com universe.
_________________ Curious Hair wrote: Les Grobstein's huge hog is proof that God has a sense of humor, isn't it?
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