Lebron Hate Is Too Extreme

I get it, I'm not suppose to like Lebron. I'm a Bulls fan, he plays for the Heat. That's cool. But honestly, why hate him? Because The Decision was possibly my generation's Kennedy Assassination? Because he left a team that has a well-documented history of having a terrible owner and a terrible GM? A team that had one of the worst coaches in the league? (Sorry, Lakers fans, I really feel for you there. Shaw's looking really good right now, ain't he?) Lebron may have not made the right decision in going to Miami. Dwyane Wade looks more broken down every time I see him. Chris Bosh is streaky, and can be fantastic at times, but his play can be absolutely deplorable at times. What else does the Heat have? James Jones? Mike Miller? Mario Chalmers has improved, but he definitely should not be their answer to play point guard. Spoelstra might be a worse coach than Mike Brown! But despite all of these things, Lebron turns this team into a legitimate title threat. Without him, they aren’t nearly as dangerous. They just aren’t.

It even seems like Lebron is beginning to understand all of this. Recently, he talked about a possible return to Cleveland. I know, it doesn’t mean much, but he talked about it, and that’s what matters. Besides, listen to the way he talks about players around the league. You can question his heart, you can question his confidence, but you cannot question that this guy tries his hardest to think the best of the other guys around the league. Ever hear him talk about Derrick Rose? He sounds like he’s the little brother trying to get acknowledged. And he doesn’t just do that with D-Rose. I’ve heard him do it with Kobe, Kevin Durant, Steve Nash (who knows? Maybe the Heat’s point guard next year. By the way, if he is, I want them to win. Steve deserves a ring.), and several other players around the league. He wants to be accepted. He wants to be loved. And it just isn’t happening.

Everywhere I read online is full of people bashing Lebron, saying how he quits, saying he’s a jackass, saying he’s this, saying he’s that. I don’t think he’s a quitter. In fact, the numbers show he isn’t. Sure, I have come up with a LOT of 4^th quarter jokes, but it’s all in good fun, I have no extreme amount of hate for him. I do find his “celebration” party at the beginning of his first Heat season ridiculous and unforgiveable, but you have to remember: Lebron has the mentality of a child. He wants to be accepted, he wants to be like everyone else. His mind isn’t built like MJ’s, Larry’s, Magic’s, or even Clyde Drexler’s. The only player I can think of that had a similar mentality was Chris Webber. Lebron is never going to develop a killer instinct because he won’t need one. Dwyane Wade has it, he’s the guy who will take the last shot. People can get upset all they want that Lebron doesn’t want the last shot, but he doesn’t need to take it, so why should he? Maybe once Dwyane Wade retires, Lebron will understand. Honestly, the way Lebron gets run ragged throughout the season, I’m more worried about him turning into an extremely rich man’s Grant Hill. Please hope I’m wrong. I hate the Heat, but I don’t want to be robbed of the chance to see a once in a lifetime player. Hate the Heat, don’t hate Lebron.

Boston Celtics All Time Team Series

Boston Celtics

PG Dennis Johnson
SG Sam Jones
SF Larry Bird
PF Kevin McHale
C Bill Russell

6th John Havlicek
7th Bob Cousy
8th Robert Parish
9th Paul Pierce
10th Rajon Rondo
11th Tommy Heinsohn
12th Antoine Walker

Dennis Johnson

There’s a very big reason that I have 3 players in the starting lineup from the 86 Celtics: they were arguably the greatest team of all time. Why change anything? DJ was a great defender, a serviceable scorer, and a pretty good passer. He gets the nod over Cousy and Rondo solely because of the chemistry he would already have with Larry Bird and Kevin McHale.

Sam Jones

Sam Jones is one of those guys that I know very little about, but I know enough about him to know that he’s an all time great. He was a great scorer for his time and a good fit with Bill Russell.

Larry Bird

If I were to make this list and leave Larry off of it, I would be a laughing stock. And I would deserve to be. He’s a top 5 player all time, and the greatest player in Celtics history, unless you want to make the Bill Russell argument. Great scorer, great passer, he’s a man who truly revolutionized the game.

Kevin McHale

This man had some of the best footwork and best post moves of any player ever, along with being a good defender. He’s a perfect compliment to Larry, and I could see him and Bill Russell being an awesome duo to watch together.


Bill Russell

One of the greatest of all time. He won 8 (eight!!!!) rings as a player, and he’s known as one of the greatest rebounders ever. He was an elite defender, and his showdowns with Wilt Chamberlain are legendary. Bill was truly an amazing player for his time.

Bench:

PG: Rondo and Cousy are too very good backups. I really wanted to start Cousy, but I could not justify it. He played in a broken era, and wasn’t what I would consider dominant. Rondo didn’t get the nod mostly because there are rumors of him being a headcase. With his play as of late though, he could easily change my mind and make me look dumber than I already look.

SG/SF: Paul Pierce and Hondo will have to man these two slots, as I could not find anyone I could deem deserving of these two spots. Both players are great scorers. Antoine Walker is there only for a spark. In his prime, he was a player that would definitely help this team a lot.

PF/C: This team is DEEP at these 2 positions. Russell, Parish, Heinsohn, and Walker? 3 of those are Hall of Famers, and one of them is a coke dealer! Sounds like the winning formula in my book.

All Time TEAM Series

The Chicago Bulls

PG Derrick Rose
SG Michael Jordan
SF Scottie Pippen
PF Horace Grant
C Artis Gilmore

6th F Bob Love
7th F Toni Kukoc
8th SG Reggie Theus
9th SF Luol Deng
10th PG Kirk Hinrich
11th C Joakim Noah
12th C Tom Boerwinkle

Summary:

You would think the Bulls would be an easy all time team to do. They have to of the greatest players of all time in MJ and Scottie, then they have one of the biggest stars of today in Derrick Rose. Horace Grant made the starting lineup because with him in there, nobody scores on this starting lineup. The only defender there worse than “elite” is Derrick Rose, and he is definitely a serviceable defender in his own right. The bench is where things get a little sketchy. The forward position is strikingly strong until you realize that of the 3 forwards on the bench, one of them was a shoot-first-defend-later Bob Love, whose PER never peaked 17, while the others are the notoriously soft Toni Kukoc and the always-defending and always-streaky Luol Deng. That said, beyond that, the only major hole is at backup point guard, but that happens when a team has had all of one elite point guard throughout their long and illustrious history.

Player-by-Player Analysis:

Derrick Rose

This is a player that I have been watching since he was in college. I’d be lying if I said I knew he’d be a Bull from his days in Memphis. The Bulls were a fringe playoff team without a hope of getting a top pick in the lottery, until the unthinkable happened: they actually won the lottery with a 2.7% chance to get the number one pick. At the time, the decision between D-Rose and Michael Beasley seemed like a tough one, but now, it seems that Derrick was the obvious choice. Beasley has turned into a burnout who is the bud of many “getting high” jokes around plenty of NBA fans, and Derrick Rose is now an MVP. Rose’s career has taken off fast. He won his first MVP at age 22, becoming the youngest MVP in NBA history. He has never seen his PER dip below the average of 15, and has improved his scoring drastically with each season, unless the current season is counted. This year, he has been injured very often, although he should be returning soon.

Michael Jordan

What else is there to be said? The man is the greatest of all time. He led the league in scoring an astounding 11 times, he won the MVP award 5 times in the regular season, and won the Finals MVP award for each of his 6 rings. He is regarded as one of the best perimeter defenders of all time, and was able to put up a career points-per-game average of 30.1. I don’t need to argue for Jordan, but I know somebody who has never seen him play will argue his vulnerabilities with me.

Scottie Pippen

Any list that has MJ on it has to have Scottie Pippen on it. Scottie IS the best defender of all time, and he was a great offensive player too. Those two years Jordan took off to play baseball? Yeah, Scottie carried those teams. Scottie was legit.

Horace Grant

It was debatable as to which team Horace should have been placed on, but he fits in perfectly with the style that this Bulls team would play on defense, and he’s not so inept on the offensive side that he’d be useless like Joakim Noah can be at times.

Artis Gilmore

I can honestly say I do not know much about him, I was unable to watch him play due to him playing in the 70’s. But what I do know about him is that he could score well, as he averaged 18 ppg throughout his career, and 24 ppg a few times. He also averaged 12 rebounds per game throughout his career. That is quite an impressive number. He was also a prolific shot blocker, averaging 5 blocks per game during his rookie season in the ABA. 5 blocks per game! I find that extremely impressive at any level.

Commentary on the bench will be provided on a later date.

Apologizing For Our Disappearance- Mike

So, its safe to say that it has been awhile since Joe or myself have posted anything of note on this blog. To any of our loyal readers, I would like to apologize. I have been under the weather quite a lot recently, and with allergy season in full effect, I will probably be under the weather a lot throughout the spring and summer. Joe has been busy with work, so he hardly has time to post anything anyways. But I would like to announce that the two of us are working on a huge project. We are working on creating All-Time teams for each NBA franchise. This will be unlike any you have ever seen. Instead of focusing on who the best players were, we are going to focus on the players that would create the best team. For example, because the Lakers would already have Kareem and Wilt, Shaq would get relegated to the Orlando Magic. I hope this example is understandable. I truly believe that this series will be one worth reading, so stay tuned.