If Lb makes Finals but Loses Again, is it time his legacy starts taking hits?
- Thread starter Playa With Tha Passport
- Start date
sportscribe
Superstar
He has two rings so is ahead of guys like Malone and Barkley on the ATG lists as it is. 
triplehate
Superstar
His legacy is already set in stone.
Lived up to the hype from high school not the greatest ever
More wins or losses would still be the same result
Lived up to the hype from high school not the greatest ever
More wins or losses would still be the same result
GoddamnyamanProf
Countdown to Armageddon
He's top 10 regardless and can only move up
He needs that ring this year. When u look at all the factors against him this ring would mean the most to his legacy. If he wins this year
- He could possibly beat the team with the best record in NBA history in the finals
- He would finally have won one for Cleveland which would basically make him a basketball god in Ohio
- He would take the league back from Curry and have the media back on his jock. I'm getting sick now thinking about how bad the ESPN dikk riding would be
- He would shut up some of the naysayers who claim he disappears in big moments. If they beat the Warriors in the finals this year, LeBron is gonna have to hit some big shots in crunch time it's no way around that. A ring this year would take LeBrons career to top 5 levels
Good points
Don't mean shyt
Still top 10 ever, but the skip bayless types will still bring up Jordan 6-0 record and compare the 2...
Still top 10 ever, but the skip bayless types will still bring up Jordan 6-0 record and compare the 2...
Bilz
Superstar
I've never heard anyone talk about Kareem's finals losses in one of these discussions.
Bilz
Superstar
Yep. It was bad enough when the discussion was just whether or not you had a ring. Then people started saying that players should be further ranked based on the number of championships they had been a part of. Now it has devolved into even being a black mark on a players career if he makes it to the finals and doesn't win.
He wont be considered the greatest ever in anyway if he doesn't get another couple of rings. And that loss against Dallas will always be held against him. But to even get to 5 (about to be 6) Finals in a row is something we probably wont see for a while and we should embrace the greatness that is LeBron. It's not his fault that he has come up against the better team each year he has lost except the Mavs.
What a dumb fukking thread. It starts from the very top with the idiotic assumption him making the Finals will somehow be a bigger hit on his legacy than if he just lost earlier to a weaker team.
Yup, there are.
Take my advice from earlier today.
Yes, yes he is.
Notice that the Kobestans have no problem with promoting both of these narratives simultaneously.
The East is historically weak and sucks so bad that winning it isn't even an accomplishment.
But if you win the East, your team is clearly good enough to beat the West and it must be Lebron's fault if you lose.
The fact that they can even think this is logic is astounding.
2007, not counting Lebron
- rookie Boobie Gibson was 1st on the Cavs in minutes, 2nd in scoring, and 1st in assists in the NBA Finals.
- Sasha Pavlovic was 2nd in minutes and 3rd in scoring
- Drew Gooden was 3rd in minutes, 1st in scoring, and 2nd in rebounds
....and that team, according to Kobes Middle Finger, was good enough to beat the Spurs.
2015, JR Smith and Delly took the most shots of anyone not named Lebron, nailing 31% and 28%, respectively. Shump came in not far behind at. 26%. The corpse of James Jones was playing 20 minutes/game to the tune of 32% shooting too.
But because Lebron helped lift those guys through Chicago and Atlanta, that automatically means that it's all on him if they can't beat a Warriors team with 6-8 players better than their 2nd-best guy?
Just completely nonsensical.
Really?
2015: 36-13-9 on 40% shooting....no, "throttled", "chooses to shut down and disappear" really don't apply.
2014: 28-8-4-2 on 57% shooting. Those are better than Kobe's career playoff numbers against the Spurs, when he supposedly "destroys" them every year. But since it's Lebron, 28-8-4 on sick shooting is "throttled, shut down and disappear". Guarantee he's the only player in history who has been accused of underperforming with a stat line like that.
2013: 25-11-7-2-1 on 45% shooting. Pretty sure this wasn't the one you were talking about.
2012: 29-10-7-2 on 47% shooting. Nah, prolly not this one either.
2011: 18-7-7 on 48% shooting. The closest to your narrative because of what happened in Game 4. But then you have to forget that he played well in the first 3 games (even with Dallas working to keep him off balance as much as possible), and that he had a triple-double in Game 5 and led the Heat in scoring (and equaled Dirk) in Game 6. The idea that he "shut down and disappeared" is greatly exaggerated.
2007: 22-7-7 on 36% shooting. He didn't "shut down and disappear", he was still the best player on the court in Game 3 (24-8-7) and Game 4 (25-6-10), and the Cavs came close to winning both those games with Lebron scoring 24 points in the two combined 4ths. But the Spurs were completely focused on shutting down a 22-year-old Lebron when the next 3 most played guys on the court were named Boobie, Sasha, and Drew. He did his best under the circumstances.
You seriously put Dirk, Oscar Robertson, Shaq, Hakeem, and Kobe all in there and acted like it would be hard to find someone for Wilt to replace.
Wilt's in the 2nd tier there in the mix with Bird and Lebron and Duncan and Magic, just ahead of Shaq and Hakeem. Russell the wild card.
Name a serious basketball expert putting Wilt outside the top 10.
Yup, there are.
Who says this?
Are you really going to play this stupid game like you've never seen people cite "Kobe's 5 titles" when talking about his legacy? Especially when they try to compare Kobe to other players?
Take my advice from earlier today.
Yes, yes he is.
Notice that the Kobestans have no problem with promoting both of these narratives simultaneously.
The East is historically weak and sucks so bad that winning it isn't even an accomplishment.
But if you win the East, your team is clearly good enough to beat the West and it must be Lebron's fault if you lose.
The fact that they can even think this is logic is astounding.
2007, not counting Lebron
- rookie Boobie Gibson was 1st on the Cavs in minutes, 2nd in scoring, and 1st in assists in the NBA Finals.
- Sasha Pavlovic was 2nd in minutes and 3rd in scoring
- Drew Gooden was 3rd in minutes, 1st in scoring, and 2nd in rebounds
....and that team, according to Kobes Middle Finger, was good enough to beat the Spurs.2015, JR Smith and Delly took the most shots of anyone not named Lebron, nailing 31% and 28%, respectively. Shump came in not far behind at. 26%. The corpse of James Jones was playing 20 minutes/game to the tune of 32% shooting too.
But because Lebron helped lift those guys through Chicago and Atlanta, that automatically means that it's all on him if they can't beat a Warriors team with 6-8 players better than their 2nd-best guy?
Just completely nonsensical.
Really?
2015: 36-13-9 on 40% shooting....no, "throttled", "chooses to shut down and disappear" really don't apply.
2014: 28-8-4-2 on 57% shooting. Those are better than Kobe's career playoff numbers against the Spurs, when he supposedly "destroys" them every year. But since it's Lebron, 28-8-4 on sick shooting is "throttled, shut down and disappear". Guarantee he's the only player in history who has been accused of underperforming with a stat line like that.
2013: 25-11-7-2-1 on 45% shooting. Pretty sure this wasn't the one you were talking about.
2012: 29-10-7-2 on 47% shooting. Nah, prolly not this one either.
2011: 18-7-7 on 48% shooting. The closest to your narrative because of what happened in Game 4. But then you have to forget that he played well in the first 3 games (even with Dallas working to keep him off balance as much as possible), and that he had a triple-double in Game 5 and led the Heat in scoring (and equaled Dirk) in Game 6. The idea that he "shut down and disappeared" is greatly exaggerated.
2007: 22-7-7 on 36% shooting. He didn't "shut down and disappear", he was still the best player on the court in Game 3 (24-8-7) and Game 4 (25-6-10), and the Cavs came close to winning both those games with Lebron scoring 24 points in the two combined 4ths. But the Spurs were completely focused on shutting down a 22-year-old Lebron when the next 3 most played guys on the court were named Boobie, Sasha, and Drew. He did his best under the circumstances.
You seriously put Dirk, Oscar Robertson, Shaq, Hakeem, and Kobe all in there and acted like it would be hard to find someone for Wilt to replace.
Wilt's in the 2nd tier there in the mix with Bird and Lebron and Duncan and Magic, just ahead of Shaq and Hakeem. Russell the wild card.
Name a serious basketball expert putting Wilt outside the top 10.