Well what kind of person lies to some girl about a lost pendant and basically strong arms her into giving it back and then doesn’t even offer up a reward. I’m sure Lebron and his camp had every right to take the pendant back but it was still a douchebag thing to do. There’s a huge difference in Jordan and Lebron. Yeah Lebron probably looks like the better guy to most people because he has this squeaky clean image but there’s just too many stories about his ego and how he treats people that just make him a douchebag more than most.
This is honestly starting to become a “no matter what anyone else says, the OP won’t let facts get in the way of a good argument” scenario.
So, in essence:
The OP talks about LeBron’s “mere” 2 rings as if 2 rings aren’t impressive, and as if LeBron’s career is over and he’ll never win any more.
He criticizes LeBron for exercising the right of free agency, which wasn’t something sports owners came up with on their own, don’t you know: Many decades ago, the reserve clause was SOP: if you didn’t like the way your team treated you, and they didn’t want to trade you, too bad! It took baseball players to make modern-day free agency a thing.
He blames LeBron for getting away from an owner who obviously thought so highly of him that it took him less than a day to write an oft-mocked letter in Comic Sans MS swearing that the Cavs would win a title before LeBron did. That’s the thanks LeBron gets for turning the Cavs into one of the NBA’s richest franchises. (Incidentally, the Cavs are still awaiting their first post-LeBron playoff appearance, while LeBron has won all 4 conference championships and two NBA championships. So yeah, Dan Gilbert is an idiot; stop the presses).
The OP cites trivial examples of petty stuff from LeBron’s personal life, grasping at straws for anything he can use to support his thesis that LeBron James is a bad bad man don’cha know.
At the same time, the OP ignores more serious accusations leveled at Michael Jordan. Like the time he got Isaiah Thomas left off the Dream Team roster because he allegedly froze him out in the All-Star Game in Jordan’s rookie year. Or about how the murder of his father was suspected to have something to do with Jordan’s gambling debts. Or how his Hall of Fame induction speech was a big “screw you!” to everyone who ever doubted him. God, he even invited the his school coach who cut him from the team, AND the kid who got picked instead, just so he could point at them and say, “How do you like me NOW?!”
The OP also ignores the fact that up until this season’s surprising #7 seed, Jordan’s tenure as chief executive of the Bobcats (now Hornets) had been an unqualified failure. The 'Cats were the worst teamin NBA history just a couple years ago. And before that, back in Washington, Jordan drafted Kwame Brown at #1, for godsakes!
I make no judgments about which of them, if either, is the greatest of all time. But Michael’s no angel, and LeBron’s no devil. In fact, I think it’s closer to the other way around.
“And if, by chance, you are offended, think but this, and all is mended: We may as well be 10 minutes back in time for all the chance you’ll change your mind.” --Tim Minchin
What is this pendant story the OP is talking about? This is the first I’ve heard of it, anyone have a link?
I’m not saying it didn’t happen…It’s just the first I’ve heard of it
There’s no evidence for this and it’s a horrible thing to say.
It really wasn’t, though it did come off that way at times. Your basic point that he’s far from perfect as a human being is true, of course. He’s an insanely competitive person and as his playing career ended we’ve seen the tremendous downside to that.
He doesn’t really have to pay attention to it? If he’s comparing them purely as basketball players, Jordan’s failures as an executive are a separate issue. And the Hornets may finally be on the right track- we’ll see. Jefferson turned out to be a really good signing and Jordan seems to have picked the right coach and front office people to put in charge of the team.
I don’t know about this story specifically but there are a lot of douchey stories about Lebron floating around out there like how he’s a terrible (nonexistent) tipper, he doesn’t pay for things because it should be payment enough that the provider of goods and services (iirc specifically a birthday cake) gets the publicity of being tied to Lebron, etc.
It’s all one big shrug from me though. My dislike for Lebron doesn’t sway much either way. It’s firmly pegged at mild disdain.
Do you (or anyone) have cites for ANY of these?
This “heresay” and “a lot of stories” are just that…heresay. Is there any blog post, or tweet, or lebronisadick.com or something like that?
Did you read the cake story?
It wasn’t exactly as I described and I didn’t recall correctly. Please forgive my fallibility.
I’m fairly new to computers, otherwise I’d get you the link. But if you google Lebron James lost pendant, it’ll come up. I remember when this happened and I may have spoken out of terms regarding James on this now. I think this may have been more his associates than him. I might be blaming James for doing nothing on this one.
I don’t think his two rings are impressive at all. If Jordan had left the Bulls and joined up with Charles Barkley and Magic Johnson, I’d feel the same about his championships. Pippen was a great wingman for Jordan but it took a good 4 years for him to develop. And I would bet everything I own that if Lebron James was in Michael Jordans situation in 1987, that Pippen never would have become as good as he became. Jordan didn’t mess around with teammates, and that’s the difference between Jordan and Lebron and why Jordan didn’t lose in the finals.
My whole point is not so much that Lebron doesn’t have talent because he probably has more talent than Jordan ever had but again joining these super teams is just weak, and I notice that most here are saying that, that’s how the NBA is now, but it’s really not. The Pacers, Bulls, Spurs, Wizards all have legitimate chances of winning championships in the future and none of these teams were built as super teams.
I think we all know that Lebron will never win with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh again and I guess to compete he probably does need a Carmelo Anthony (which does seem unlikely now) but his arrogance and feeble mind has probably brainwashed him into thinking he can’t win with young talent and that the only players worthy enough to play with him are overpriced veterans.
Personally I don’t think he’s ever going to win another championship. He’s 2 years away from decline and I guarantee when he declines due to being such a diva, that he won’t be able to take being second fiddle, he’ll become more of a distraction. Actually what Lebron James will end up being like is a cancer in the same ways Sammy Sosa was a cancer for the Cubs. Big name but horrible teammate.
The Bulls were 50-32 Pippen’s rookie year, so the team was moving in the right direction. I think you’re a year or two off about his progression because his second season was really good (14/6/3.5). They won the title his fourth year.
I guess punching Steve Kerr in the face during practice doesn’t count as messing around with your teammates. I’m always learning.
The Pacers and Wizards? The Pacers just pulled off one of the great collapses in NBA history, and the Wizards have some promising guys but they barely made the playoffs in a shitty conference. They’re nowhere near winning a championship. Somehow you forgot the Thunder. Then there’s the Heat and Rockets, who got their best two players through free agency (Howard) and because of an impending free agency (Harden). And the Clippers, who got their best player because he was going to be a free agent and forced a trade (Paul) and picked up a bunch of key pieces Heat-style, by getting them to take a discount to play for a winner.
I think you should just talk about free agency instead of throwing around made-up words like “super team.” You’re right that the Heat were put together in a unique way. But they took a unique route to get where other teams are going, which is increased depth and versatility. Your view appears to be that players shouldn’t control their own futures through free agency; they should leave that to team owners and GMs who may suck. Really, why should they do that? Because you think it looks tougher and sets a better example for kids? I don’t think either of those things is even true.
We don’t know that. We do know they just made the Finals four times in a row - which Jordan could have done, but never did - and won two titles. I think they do need more depth if they want to win again, but it’s not the hardest task in the world.
Now you’re bashing him for things you think he thinks? This makes the jewelry nonsense look solid.
The Heat don’t have overpriced veterans. They’ve been build around James, Wade, Bosh, and veteran players who take a discount to play with them. Ray Allen made $10 million a year with the Celtics and signed with the Heat for $3 million a year. Mike Miller was making $8 million to $10 million a year and signed with the Heat for $5 million to $6 million a year. It’s not that you’re wrong over and over, it’s that you’re so wrong about obvious things.
Because you know what teams he’s going to play on, who’ll be on them, and who will be injured, healthy, and drafted in the future?
He’s not a diva. And when he does decline (he is 29, by the way), he will still be very good for quite a while. If you could drop the bullshit about tipping and jewelry and free agency you might notice he’s a very good teammate. He’s not a distraction in the locker room.
I see we’ve already forgotten the Pierce-Garnett-Allen Celtics, by the way.
Mentally Pippen wasn’t there yet. Jordan played a big part of his mental game.
When you had to face the Pistons, then a mere punch to a teammate doesn’t mean much.
I’m not saying the Wizards are going to be there this year but I can see them winning very soon. I think the Pacers will regroup and should be ok.
It’s their business to do what they want but as a fan of the NBA, I do think it a wussy thing to do.
I’m talking more about getting big name players like Anthony because I doubt Lebron would ever want to develop a young player. Probably because he knows he has no leadership skills.
I’m also predicting that he’ll never have his number retired by any team he plays for.
You seem like a sports guy, so you know as well as I do that when a NBA player logs as many minutes as he has, that father time will eventually catch up to him. I don’t think he can re-invent himself the way Jordan. He’ll end up like Amare Stoudamire.
I didn’t bring them up because I was only bringing up teams that weren’t super teams.
Ah, but the Celtics (the team I root for, BTW) were put together by a GM. That makes all the difference.
Look, I dislike LBJ but you have to take an objective look at the situation. He’s the best player in the game right now and to win a title you need to surround superstars with the right pieces. Some of those pieces need to be very high end talent in order to make a good run, and some of those pieces are going to be young players and veterans who’ve chosen to be there in order to go for a ring.
The only place I really disagree with **Marley23 ** is with him sitting for the last 7 minutes of the game. He should have been out there, playing hard. They scored that many points in the first 7 minutes they could do it again even if it was a big uphill battle. If he’s a leader he needs to lead even when things look bleak.
I’m still curious on why he sat those final minutes. It wasn’t even talked about in the press conference.
Everybody just read the Grantland article and then we can close the thread. 
chicagowhitesox1173, I suggest you work on using quote tags. They look like this: [noparse]
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