Lebron's Legacy

[Phishfan]

No, what I'm saying is that Jordan himself was not OMFG MICHAEL JORDAN at 26, so the talk of LeBron being a choker, a quitter, a failure... it's all premature.  At the age of 26, LeBron has done SIGNIFICANTLY more in the NBA than Jordan had at 26.  And it's not really even close.

But Jordan had done significantly more in the same amount of time in the NBA.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

No, what I'm saying is that Jordan himself was not OMFG MICHAEL JORDAN at 26,

But Micheal Jorden didn't do an hour long ESPN special declaring himself the greatest basketball player of all time at age 26 either. 

[Dave Gray]

Any talk about Lebron's legacy is premature.  It is still possible that he wins the next the several championships.

Of all the talk about a HEAT collapse, they were close to sweeping the series.  One basket here or there, and the HEAT are the champions, and this is a different conversation.  I think we're being a bit too results based, this early in his career.

[Sunstroke]

But Micheal Jorden didn't do an hour long ESPN special declaring himself the greatest basketball player of all time at age 26 either. 

Could you point me to the link of this hour long special where he made that statement? I recall one where he declared where he was going to play ball after he left Cleveland, but I must have missed the show where he made the "I'm the greatest player of all time" declaration.

[Spider-Dan]

Yet, in the same breath, you mention that Jordan had to contend with Bird and Magic.

Hate to point this out -- this generation has some amazing players as well.  While you can't compare to actual players, LeBron contends with Dwight Howard, KG, Paul Pierce, Rose...

Perhaps you should read my post.

bsmooth was saying that Jordan had to compete against hall-of-famers for his MVPs, while LeBron had to compete against chumps.  My point was that a) LeBron also had to compete against great players, and b) when Jordan was competing against Magic and Bird in their primes, he won 1 MVP to their 5.

Furthermore, I was not saying that you can't compare players to other players of a different era (in the fashion that we have been doing it; namely, how well they did against their contemporary peers).  I was saying that it is silly to ask, "What would LeBron have done if he played in the '80s?", because you can easily turn that around and ask what Jordan would have done in the '60s, or what Wilt would have done in the '90s.  It's perfectly valid to compare players on how well they did against their competition, and it's arguably the only way to compare players across eras in a league with such drastic rule changes as the NBA has had.

[Spider-Dan]

But Jordan had done significantly more in the same amount of time in the NBA.

Once again:

Does the NBA have a cap on the number of seasons one can play?

The number of seasons LeBron has played (with respect to his legacy) is irrelevant.  The limiting factor is not the number of seasons he is allowed to play, but rather his age/health.  And right now, he is exactly the same age as Jordan was at 26, by definition.

So barring an unforeseen catastrophe, LeBron has about as much time remaining in his career as Jordan did at 26.   And unless LeBron takes a 5-year break from playing basketball, he has the opportunity to do A GREAT DEAL MORE than Jordan did.

It's ironic that the LBJ haters have chosen Jordan as the point of comparison.  Using their logic, if we were sitting around evaluating a 26-year-old Jordan in 1989 and comparing him to, say, Magic Johnson (who had 3 titles and 2 Finals MVPs at age 25, including one of each in his rookie season), we would have to conclude that Jordan was a one-dimensional scorer who would never amount to anything.

[Phishfan]

It's ironic that the LBJ haters have chosen Jordan as the point of comparison. 

That isn't irony. James fans are saying he is the greatest. There is only one greatest and that was MJ and James isn't there yet. MJ supporters didn't choose this comparison the James supporters did with their claim.

[mecadonzilla]

Any talk about Lebron's legacy is premature.  It is still possible that he wins the next the several championships.

Of all the talk about a HEAT collapse, they were close to sweeping the series.  One basket here or there, and the HEAT are the champions, and this is a different conversation.  I think we're being a bit too results based, this early in his career.

And yet the Heat could also have been swept.  The Mavs led most of the way in game 1.  They led at the end of the 1st, 2nd, & 3rd, and let it slip away with 5 minutes left in the game.  All this after missing shot after uncovered shot.  Mavs probably should have won game 3 also, but didn't.  After being so dominant in the final minutes of game 1, the Heat were the exact opposite in the closing minutes of every single game afterward.  The biggest reason is that no Heat player could play in the clutch moments.  Meanwhile, Dallas was the most clutch team I've ever seen in the final moments of every game since game 4 in the first round.  They let one lead get away from them and learned from their mistakes.  The Heat cannot say the same.  The Mavs learned from their mistakes in game 1 of the Finals.  The Heat never bothered to recover from theirs.

In reality this is a result based sport.  The only thing that matters is what the scoreboard says at the end of the game.  The Heat were thoroughly beaten in this series.  Not just on the scoreboard, but in their heads...especially Lebron.

[MikeO]

Lebron is like A-Rod. Both incredibly talented athletes who have been called the greatest ever, but both are known as terrible chokers. Something snapped inside of A-Rod in 2009 and he had one of the most clutch postseasons in history en route to a title. Something has to snap inside of Lebron as well for him to get over his mental block.

As if those weren't enough comparisons, both have almost never stepped in front of a microphone without saying something stupid.

I think it was when AROD got caught for cheating and hit the lowest of lows one could hit, he took all the pressure off of himself and he just played. Lebron by continuing to speak and say stupid thing after stupid thing keeps the spotlight and pressure on him and only makes it worse. I don't see him breakingthrough like AROD did anytime soon.

I also think if Lebron breaks through it won't be in Miami either, its too toxic of an atmosphere now. I think he bails on Miami in 3 years and wins his ring somewhere else.