^^^

Cliff's Notes please

"Could LBJ have handled this any worse?" Haha, pretty much no!!!! He quits on the Cavs in the Boston series. Then disgraces his hometown and hometeam on national television last night on primetime TV.

Is Lebron the idiot who cooked up this whole charade or was someone advising him to this stupidity???

karen lotz;417857 wrote:What did Bernie Kosar win?

a super bowl ring. but it was the way Bernie went about his business. he manipualted the draft so he could leave south beach and come to play in cleveland . james for the most did the opposite. kosar would have loved nothing more that to win a title in cleveland and would have kept on trying had he not been forced out. maybe thats why kosar is still respected in cleveland. kosar didnt have the physical tools of james. but he had way more heart and loyalty. and he never quit, even when belichek stacked the deck against him.

Strapping Young Lad;418160 wrote:"Could LBJ have handled this any worse?" Haha, pretty much no!!!! He quits on the Cavs in the Boston series. Then disgraces his hometown and hometeam on national television last night on primetime TV.

Is Lebron the idiot who cooked up this whole charade or was someone advising him to this stupidity???

Holy shit....I completely agree with SYL....a OC first...lol

wes_mantooth;418257 wrote:Holy shit....I completely agree with SYL....a OC first...lol

LOL

thedynasty1998;417861 wrote:That was posted yesterday.

no it was posted two days ago

Hulk Smash;418025 wrote:Boston and Detroit were both in decline at the time so it's obvious that he would not have went to either. That statement also made it obvious that you either are not old enough to remember that time or were not a fan at the time.

There is just no way Jordan would have stayed on a team that was going backwards like the Cavs. Jordan's Bulls were getting little a closer year after year and really only had one team between them and their first title, an aging Pistons team that beat them 3 years in a row and it was getting tougher each time.
There is more than just one aging team between the Cavs and a championship and the Cavs were getting farther away from not closer too hoisting a championship trophy. LBJ is not in the same situation MJ was.

LOL....No, I remember those times very well. It's you who are grossly off-base on your estimation of Jordan. He would NEVER have thrown in the towel. The mercenary route is for quitters and aging vets with little time left. Jordan was a true competitor, the ultimate competitor. Please don't try to compare James to Jordan. Not in the same stratosphere of greatness. LBJ is only the GOAT of ego and self-promotion. I was just using BOS and DET as an example, if you want to be technical Jordan re-upped in '88 (when DET was absolutely primed) for 8 years at $28M - to this day one of the very, very few athletes who understand the marketing power of being the best player on the best team. There is no way, for example, that Jordan would have ever gone to play for Utah, NY, HOU or whoever you want to say.

The Cavs won 60+ games the last two years. Jordan's Bulls did not win 60+ until his SEVENTH season with the Bulls, also the year they won a championship. Remember how the Cavs were going to cruise to the finals, Boston didn't stand a chance? It's been a recurring theme heading to the postseason - the Cavs and James are so great, blah blah blah and then the tired old excuses about how Lebron doesn't have enough around him. The Cavs are (were, at this point) and have been on the cusp. He flat out quit on that team and the city, in more ways than one. A true GOAT does not chase a title, he goes out and brings one home. The greats - like Jordan - want to beat the best, not go play with them for a perceived easy path to the championship. Jordan took his lumps, he took a REAL paycut to free money to sign players, he knew his time would come. Kobe ran Shaq off, and when he couldn't lead LA to a title right away, he didn't whore himself out and jump ship to the best opportunity out there.

No I'm not blinded by hero warship.

Do you have some kind of point in saying Jordan wanted to beat the best? You do realize that is the only way for any player to get a championship right?
LBJ still has to beat the Lakers, Celtics, Magic etc. He's not going to do it for the team that drafted him but he didn't get out of it.

If he does win a championship for another team the excuses about LeBron not having enough around him in Cleveland will have been proven true correct?


Jordan came to a bad Bulls teams and they improved a little year after year until they finally won. His teams never took a step backwards, he wasn't surrounded by aged teammates, they were not hampered by the salary cap. There was no reason for Jordan or anyone else to think a title probably isn't going to happen in Chicago. An entirely different situation from the one we have been watching in Cleveland.
You're delusional if you think he would not have made a move if they started going backwards, no way Jordan would have accepted going back to getting beat in the second or third round for much longer if he had a choice.

Kobe?
The initial decline post-Shaq was expected and even if he never won again he still had three rings already as compared to none for LBJ.
Once again an entirely different situation.

No, LeBron doesn't have to beat the Lakers/Boston/Magic/etc...

LeBron, Wade, and Bosh have to.

This guy doesn't even hold MJ's jock strap now. Point blank.

Hulk Smash;419076 wrote:You're delusional if you think he would not have made a move if they started going backwards, no way Jordan would have accepted going back to getting beat in the second or third round for much longer if he had a choice.

Right from Barkley's mouth....Inconceivable at 25 that he would have joined up with Jordan or any of the other top stars instead of being the man and building a team to beat them. Jordan signed an 8-yr contract in 1988, 3 years before making the finals and winning a title. That's called making a long-term commitment. Quit trying to say Jordan would have left if the Bulls were going backwards. You're the only one who believes that and you're just trying to justify Lebron's unprecedented and cowardly move.

You're not challenging the best when you go join forces to build a mini all-star team, taking a would-be contender or two out of the equation in the process. It's called playing with a stacked deck. I get it, Barkley gets it, lots of other people get it. Why is it so hard for you to understand?

You claim to remember the era.
I suppose you have forgotten the fact that Barkley was vocal about wanting out for years before the Sixers finally traded him after his 8th season there?
He wouldn't have been in Philly that long if they had moved him when he first start pushing for a trade.
Barkley is full of shit, anybody who remembers the events of his playing days knows that.
He would have done the same thing if he had a free agent option.

Signing a contract doesn't show a commitment to shit, unhappy players can rock the boat pushing for a trade anytime they want.
It doesn't mean they'll ever get what they want. Olajuwon wanted out of Houston at one point. He rocked the boat enough that the owner once accused him of faking an injury and suspended him. They refused to trade him, he had no free agent option and in the end it turned out that Rockets management was making the right choices.
He stopped bitching when they started winning again, amazing how that works.
But only guys like Olajuwon and Barkley would do things like that according to you.......a better player like Jordan would have just accepted going in reverse.

Anyone with even a slight clue knows that a player like Jordan would not have tolerated a franchise going in reverse if he had a choice.
Given a choice(not all of them get a choice) most of the great players won't accept being on a team that is clearly going downhill or just treading water.

Mini-all star team?
I guess that fits.
As of yesterday they had all of four players under contract with no midlevel or biannual exceptions to use.
Hardly a stacked deck, the last time the NBA had a situation like this that team got run over in the finals by a team that had no future hall of famers on it's roster.
LBJ's chances may be better in Miami but it is not a given.

Hulk Smash;419394 wrote:You claim to remember the era.

LOL, rather than talking out of your ass., name me just two superstars who left their teams in their prime via FA. Nice backpedal on Jordan. Contracts don't mean jack, yeah, superstars demand trades all the time and get moved, sure. Barkley was 4 years older than Lebron and PHI had missed the playoffs coming off a .500 season the year before. Barkley would have just 4 more good years left before health became an issue.

The situations aren't comparable. LOL, CLE was going downhill in reverse. They won the most games in the league the last two years. They were primed, they were going to cruise past Boston. There are no limits to the depths of imagination for the apologists.

Lebron, unlike Jordan and others, would not make a commitment to CLE. He gave them the 4 years, and the last few years that left CLE looking for quick fixes that didn't work. With more time and less desperation, they maybe make better long-term moves. And Mike Brown was part of the problem, a guy I believe Lebron went to bat for a few years ago when there were rumblings of being fired when it was clear then he wasn't a quality playoff coach.

LOL, you're even downplaying the fact that Lebron is now on a team with 2 of the 3 best players in the league and another top-10. Oh no, they might not be able to put enough quality scrubs around him. Wow, you're already making excuses before the ball is even tipped off. Lebron thinks it's going to be so easy Pat Riley could suit up and play.

Moses Malone and Shaq............neither won a title for their first team.

Barkley had been pushing a trade for years not just the season the franchise finally moved him before he got a chance at free agency.
When did I say players push for trades all the time, I said they can do that whenever they want and that is an indisputable fact.

I did not say they would not win a championship, I said it is not a given.

I agree with you on Brown although I feel for a coach that wins 60+ and still gets fired.

They won less games this season than last, got eliminated a round earlier and this time they got run off the court they didn't just drop a tough series they were crushed by a better team and didn't really have a way to get better for next season.
You don't call that going backwards?

Quick fix?
They had seven seasons to find the right players and didn't get it done.
If he passed on his FA opportunity he would likely be on the downside of his career before his next chance and he almost certainly was not going to win any titles in Cleveland.