Jump to content

NBA playoffs 2018: Will the Celtics be Raptored?

Red Tiger

By Red Tiger,
in Entertainment

Recommended Posts

Rhom Council Member

Rhom

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, sperry said:

The bums that LeBron carried to the finals tonight is unreal.

Agreed.  I don’t know if it’s a worse team than 2007, but it’s close.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Jaime L Council Member

Jaime L

Posted
Posted
11 minutes ago, Rhom said:

Agreed.  I don’t know if it’s a worse team than 2007, but it’s close.

He's now taken teams with Jeff Green and Larry Hughes as the 2nd best option to the Finals. It's nuts.

There's no way Durant or Harden could've done this. Those guys can still be derailed for stretches at a time with good defense. And the Celtics threw a ton of good defenders at Lebron all series long: Smart, Morris, Brown, Horford. You'd think they'd make things tough for him but he was completely dominant night in, night out. The only thing that contains Lebron at all is the limits of human stamina. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DireWolfSpirit Council Member

DireWolfSpirit

Posted
Posted

Boston will certainly have a strong chance at taking the E next year if they can get their full first team on the court, that they were able to get this close w/ two starters sidelined was impressive. And that playoff experience for the younger guys only makes them even more dangerous for 2019.

But tonight was all about a legend refusing to step aside yet. You gotta go through Lebron and he's gonna bring a war to you. I didnt care what any of the stats or pundits predicted, I wouldve been surprized to see this game 7 ending with any different outcome. Next year, thats gonna be a quite different story though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
davos Council Member

davos

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, briantw said:

The GOAT.

This post-season may go down as James' best performance, carrying a mediocre team to the finals.  Still don't buy him as the GOAT though.  I still have to give the nod to Jordan, though James is making a case. Its easy an easy trap to fall into to overvalue a player's place historically when you've just watched one of their best moments in a long run of dominance.  Its also just as easy for the impressiveness of past dominance to fade.  Its been two decades since the end of the last Bulls' run.  I suspect many for many of those in this thread, its a historical occurrence rather than something they actually observed, or if they did, that they were young enough that their memories of it are fuzzy at best.   Its certainly understandable, even for those of us who are old enough (somewhere around 35 or so I would guess) to have seen that time in the NBA first hand, just how scary MJ was.  He could do things on a consistent basis that no one in the game has been able to do before or since.  And he was intense on both ends of the floor.  9 time all NBA defensive team and a NBA defensive player of the year award.  This is on top of 6 MVP awards  He never stopped, never slowed down, never let up.  Yes, LJ has a lot of hardware to support his case and, like, Jordan has been one of the flew players through most of his tenure to be strong both offensively and defensively.  

So lets talk championships.  Jordan has 6 of them, James 3.  But, many will point out that James has 7, soon to be 8 finals appearances in a row for 2 different teams.  Yes, its damned impressive.  Its one of the big reasons James even deserves to be in the GOAT conversation.  But that's not the whole story.  Jordan won 3 in a row, walked away from Basketball for two years, came back and won 3 more in a row.  He never lost a finals appearance.  James doesn't even have a winning record in the finals (he can bring it to .500 if the Cavs win this year).   What's even more telling is how far the bulls sunk during MJ's two year hiatus.   They were a solid team without him, but only that.  Jordan only played with two other hall of famers, Pippen and Rodman, the latter of which came to the bulls at the tail end of his career, with his best years well past him.   Pippen frankly, was a decent player was elevated to greatness by having the fortunate of playing most of his career with Jordan.  The bulls, though, were a team of roll players who were elevated by being on a team with MJ.  He made them special.  He was gone and they sunk back to the pack, he returned and they resumed their dominance.  When James went to Miami Wade already had a championship and a legacy of his own and Bosh would join them as an established all-star.  Ray Allen, who will likely make the HoF, would join them latter (while his best days were well past his contributions were significant).

There are arguments about how this is a different era with better overall play than back in Jordan's day, that the league has changed, playing styles have changed, ect...  I'm not going to dispute any of that except possibly that play is better now.  Its different but I'm not sure better.  Yes, Jordan, even in his prime, would have to adjust his style to be able to excel in today's game.  James would have to do the same if transported back to the mid-ninties.  They are different players at different positions.  LeBron is a bigger man, both in height (by just a few inches still) and build that allows him can play a power game in a way that Jordan's slimmer stature never could.  Jordan had speed more speed than James has. We're talking who's the GOAT, though, not who was the best player, though the latter is a component of the former.  They both are the best of their respective eras and on the short list for best ever.   For the Greatest Of All Time, though, I have to go back to Jordan's absolute dominance in the finals especially compared to James' record, and to how much he elevated to greatness what would have been a mediocre team.  

*For the record, I think Tim Duncan, Kareem Adul Jabar (sp?) and possible a few others should remain in the GOAT discussion.  I don't think MJ and LJ are so far above everyone else its only them left to debate.  Its just that at this point trying to make a solid case for someone else would be too much effort to not have it treated seriously.  With only the two candidates in the field, though, I have to go with MJ.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Slurktan Council Member

Slurktan

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, davos said:

So lets talk championships.  Jordan has 6 of them, James 3.  But, many will point out that James has 7, soon to be 8 finals appearances in a row for 2 different teams.  Yes, its damned impressive.  Its one of the big reasons James even deserves to be in the GOAT conversation.  But that's not the whole story.  Jordan won 3 in a row, walked away from Basketball for two years, came back and won 3 more in a row.  He never lost a finals appearance.  James doesn't even have a winning record in the finals (he can bring it to .500 if the Cavs win this year).   What's even more telling is how far the bulls sunk during MJ's two year hiatus.   They were a solid team without him, but only that.  Jordan only played with two other hall of famers, Pippen and Rodman, the latter of which came to the bulls at the tail end of his career, with his best years well past him.   Pippen frankly, was a decent player was elevated to greatness by having the fortunate of playing most of his career with Jordan.  The bulls, though, were a team of roll players who were elevated by being on a team with MJ.  He made them special.  He was gone and they sunk back to the pack, he returned and they resumed their dominance.  When James went to Miami Wade already had a championship and a legacy of his own and Bosh would join them as an established all-star.  Ray Allen, who will likely make the HoF, would join them latter (while his best days were well past his contributions were significant). 

Dude come on, I think Jordan is still the best but seriously.  He went and played baseball and the team won 55 games when they also missed Pippen for 12.  Was that team stacked like Golden State is now?  No.  But they were still really fucking good.  And calling Pippen a "decent player elevated to greatness" when in his sole complete year on the Bulls without Jordan he went for 22, 9, and 6 a night and was the leading vote getter for both First team all NBA and All NBA Defensive team, is basically ludicrous.

EDIT TO ADD: I'd also say that Scottie Pippen is better than any player LeBron has played with in his career thus far.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...