He wouldn't have shown up. He would be at the gym working on his game still.

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LeBron was the only player that showed up to play for the Heat last night. That 1st quarter was as good as it gets. He just couldn't sustain that level of play when everyone around him was sucking. After 4 years I'm finding it hard to be tough on him. The only thing I can say is he should be a selfish player when his teammates suck. With Wade playing at that level I am not sure how many more championship opportunities they will have.

_________________
Be well

GO BEARS!!!

I'm not really gonna rip LeBron either. He's not the ever going to be the greatest of all time. That's ok. He's an all time great player and his team did kinda suck, but he chose them so he's not even absolved from that really either. This summer will be interesting.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

He did just enough to not be blamed for his team getting destroyed. I'm not sure that isn't a pretty damning statement on its own.

One of the greatest players of all time couldn't do anything because Dwayne Wade was bad.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I really can't believe how bad Wade has become at his age. Complete nose dive off a cliff. The Heat won't win another title with this nucleus.

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Spell it right! It's Dwyane! His mother was dislexic, jerk!

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I wouldn't say he couldn't do anything. This Spurs team might be the best since the early 2000 Lakers. He couldn't beat a great team by himself.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Jordan would have guarded their entire team by himself if needed.

_________________

When did Jordan become the basketball equivalent of Chuck Norris?

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Don't tell me that you have now bought into the fact that the Heat are a one man team too.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Maybe he should have hand-picked a better superteam.

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The Bulls haven't done anything wrong, and they're not going to do anything wrong.

FIFY

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When he dominated the NBA?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

You don't think they are? Bosh is a worse version of Ryan Anderson nowadays and Wade played worse defense than Harden does in the Finals and didn't give them a lot offensively either. I don't know if I'd say it's a one man team but I didn't expect them to beat the Spurs and I think they got lucky last year. They're not a great team. LeBron could have played better. I don't think there's anything he could have done to swing the series.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

You always predict the Spurs to win though.

This is still roughly the same team that beat them last year. Wade had a pretty terrible series. I guess it shows just how important Wade was. Bosh was roughly the same as he was last year. His numbers were slightly lower but that can be a function of the way the games became blowouts. Ray Allen provides his role.

This was one of the most lopsided finals in history and this was a team that beat them last year. Lebron is the greatest of all time if your analysis is correct and he beat the Spurs without any help last year.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

They aren't. Bosh should have been made the 2nd option earlier in the season. In this series Wade was Ginobili bad and without LeBron being selfish the entire game they didn't stand a chance. That probably wouldn't have been enough either though.

He went to the Finals 4 years in a row BUT a player that is 2-3 in the Finals can't be compared to a player that is 6-0. He's arguably the greatest SF of all-time (I'm still taking Bird) but Jordan's legacy is safe.

_________________
Be well

GO BEARS!!!

LeBron has proven he can't be a solo act. He needs help around him and after Game 2 no one else on the Heat showed up for work because the Spurs ripped their hearts out.

_________________
Be well

GO BEARS!!!

This Spurs team is better than last year and this Heat team is worse. Wade was significantly better last year. Ray and Bosh were better. Battier was still alive. Miller was a better option than Rashard. And the spurs should have won in 6 last year. They choked. Kawhi choked. Him and Manu redeemed themselves this year.

I'm not even sure what we're arguing though. We both agree LeBron could/should have played better and that he won't ever be the greatest of all time. But outside of averaging 50/10/10 for the series he wasn't going to be able to do enough to win this series. They were badly outgunned all over the floor.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

He simply played well enough not to be blamed. It's a pretty common theme with him.

They got blown out and he was powerless to stop it, and didn't even really put in an effort that would have done anything but given him what he always does. I think you put too much faith into what he did in the first quarter yesterday.

The Heat looked horrible but I can't believe a team that beat the Spurs last year became so much worse that Lebron was powerless to even stop it from being one of the most lopsided in history. I only watched parts of it but James often seemed to be losing his matchup with Leonard. If the team regressed, Lebron did too.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

In Game 4 he scored 19 in the 3rd quarter in an attempt to spark his team but everyone else on managed to score 2. Last night he damn near had 20 and 10 in the first quarter but everyone else sucked.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

LeBron's level of play certainly regressed. I still think he's just as good of a player as he was last year but like Nas said he also needs talented offensive teammate to facilitate too. He doesn't like taking over by scoring or having that pressure. Leonard is also a better player now than he was last year.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

He played great at times, and disappeared at other times.

I'm not saying he should have scored 50, but maybe not score 20 in the first quarter and finish the game with 31 points?

11 points in the final 3 quarters of an elimination game is pretty bad.

_________________
You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Agreed. This is a major flaw in his game. I don't care about "right" basketball plays.

Imagine your mindset as a teammate of MJ vs a teammate of Lebron's. With MJ, you just knew that you were going to win or that he was going to die trying and probably shooting 40+ times. You would have KNOWN that you would go down swinging. All you had to do was play your role. We can sit here and talk about "the right basketball play", but in the end, the best player on the planet has to start scoring nearly at will. He's capable; he just doesn't do it.

Basketball is the one sport where one player can compensate for everyone else to a certain degree on one end of the floor.

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Maybe I am a basketball dope but the biggest thing I noticed especially last night was his lack of energy or aptitude for defense.

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Elections have consequences.

I don't think at this point you can even say that Lebron is better than Kobe.

_________________
You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Yeah, he's not Jordan and he never will be. We knew that before this series though.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Agreed. He doesn't know how to be selfish on the court. That's the biggest flaw in his game. We saw him takeover but then he would go back to making the right basketball play. Like I said earlier he is more Magic and Scottie than MJ and Bird.

_________________
Be well

GO BEARS!!!

It's a weird legacy. Lethal on both ends on the floor to eliminate the bulls in 2011, unstoppable against the Celtics to come back and advance in 2012, two rings, but doesn't repeat those performances in 2014, which takes us back to the elbow controversy in Cleveland and a sense of giving up when things aren't going his way. Even his contentment with two rings out of five chances struck me as odd for a player of his caliber. It's all very mixed.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

I agree. Thus far Kobe is probably rated higher on all time best lists.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

I agree. He's more talented and a stat machine but he doesn't have the intangible that guys like Bird and Jordan had. Bird said if he wanted to have fun he would play with LeBron but if he wanted to win Kobe would be his guy.

_________________
Be well

GO BEARS!!!