OT: Lebron hits another buzzer beater for the win
Minus his years with the Heat, LeBron’s supporting casts have been anywhere from okay to awful. He has dragged Cleveland through the playoffs and to the Finals all by himself. Without him, Cleveland is a perpetual NBA cellar dweller.
Jordan had the advantage of having a fairly stable core at the peak of his career, and had some nice complementary parts, but there are reasons to think that over the course of both of their careers, they've been surrounded by a similar level of talent. You may or may not agree with the analysis, but this FoxSports article makes the case that Lebron had a stronger supporting cast for eight of his first fourteen seasons:
https://www.foxsports.com/nba/gallery/proof-that-lebron-james-had-bette…;
Kyrie is a better offensive player than anyone with whom Jordan played, and he seemed to be the Cavs' best, most clutch scorer during any number of playoff games over the last few seasons. Kevin Love has never fit all that well in Cleveland but had two 26 and 13 seasons before arriving. J.R. Smith is somewhat erratic but hit clutch shots for the Cavs in the playoffs.
I'm not using this as an argument for either Jordan or Lebron being the better player, I'm just not sure that the supporting cast is such a strong argument in Lebron's favor.
You know it's not five LeBrons vs. five Jordans, right?
You know it's a team sport, right?
You know that the supporting cast matters ... right?
Thank you, finally someone else who thinks Robert Horry is one of the 10 greatest players of all time. Steve Kerr also knocking on that top 15 door.
and no salary cap either.
I’d always say and argue that he was the best player in any sport at his sport.
Lol
Trout's career of dominace over the others in the league is 2nd to none in any sport and he's just going into his prime years. Unfortunately one baseball player doesn't have the same impact.
So Robert Horry is better than both of them with his 7 NBA championships.
This argument is idiotic in any team sport.
Kobe #3? That is comical.
Not only can Lebron do freaky things on his own but also he gets the rest of his team going. His basketball IQ is insane. One example is the second he is double teamed, he knows exactly where to go with the ball. It’s just unreal.
Play after 1980 apparently.
I have no idea what your point is. By this logic, Jordan shouldn't even be considered, since he hasn't played any professional basketball in years and his last two Wizards teams couldn't make the playoffs (or finish about .500) in a terrible East.
The dirty secret about Jordan's run is the league was down due to expansion and bad luck, so you had him facing a broken-down Lakers team for a title, plus some deeply flawed Blazers and Suns teams that couldn't come close to sustaining their brief moments of success. Then he came back and he battled some Heat teams that were Pay Riley's poor attempts at creating "tough guy" teams. Oh, and a Magic team that would have been a terrible matchup for them had Penny been able to stay health and co-exist with Shaq (something that turned into a running problem with him). Jordan was still great, but there's this tired argument that Jordan's era was full of amazing super-teams mostly because guys who grew up watching the game then became bloggers and writers and fail to have perspective.
MJ most definetly did no face better competition, not even close. I've never understood this logic whatsoever. So you're trying to tell me that players have gotten bigger, faster, stronger and more skilled but yet the old timers were better players? I just don't buy it. Golden State would absolutely mop the floor with any of the Jordan Bulls teams and it wouldn't be particularily close.
I liked Jordan Poole's buzzer beater better.
I started watching the Cavs with my SIL who is a Cleveland sports fan. I become a Cavs fan myself and a huge fan of LBJ. He's unbelievable. (FWIW the Cavs are the ONLY Ohio sports team that the SIL has managed to convert me to. We take him to a home fb game each year to try to convert him...)
This year? He already went through Golden State the year that they set the wins record. The expectation level for Lebron has far surpassed any level of sanity.
Could you imagine if Lebron had a supporting cast like Jordan had for, what, a decade? It wouldn't even be fun to watch.
I could never bet money against Jordan.