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Thanks JJJ, loved it."Nathaniel Butler (official NBA photographer): We were sitting on the baseline. Magic is backing a guy down, and the guy on defense is yelling at his bench, "Now! Now!" And on the bench, one guy's pulling a camera out of his sock and taking a photo of his teammate."haha

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can't you go five minutes without putting black people down?

Jeff Stotts ‏@RotowireATC Hear me out. Mavs sign Seth Curry, Jason Thompson, & Gerald Green. Then roll out a lineup of Curry, Thompson, Green, Barnes, & Bogut.

have to love JR Smith   J.R. Smith apparently drives a $450,000 armored truck around New York City now    

If MJ played today, he would be picked apart for his gambling and general dickishness.
No he would not, because he would not allow it. You don't think people tried to tear him down back then with gambling and being a dick? It was universally known. Gary Payton was the biggest trash talker in the history of the NBA, next to MJ, people knew he was a dick. The thing was, he was great to the media, came off as very likeable AND he could back up that trash talking dickishness.
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No he would not, because he would not allow it. You don't think people tried to tear him down back then with gambling and being a dick? It was universally known. Gary Payton was the biggest trash talker in the history of the NBA, next to MJ, people knew he was a dick. The thing was, he was great to the media, came off as very likeable AND he could back up that trash talking dickishness.
The media is too big now; they can't all write the same thing. There would be plenty of haters. He would also be far less likable now with the 24/7 access and the destruction of privacy.
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No he would not, because he would not allow it. You don't think people tried to tear him down back then with gambling and being a dick? It was universally known. Gary Payton was the biggest trash talker in the history of the NBA, next to MJ, people knew he was a dick. The thing was, he was great to the media, came off as very likeable AND he could back up that trash talking dickishness.
You leave out Larry Bird. Maybe not the biggest, but probably the best trash talker
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Cliff notes: Middle aged men are bigger babies than a 24 year old who made the bad decision to listen to his manager and later apologized.
This is the first comment I've "Liked" since FCP switched over to the new format. Grats.
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so NBA tv is replaying a bunch of famous finals games. Tonight was Jordan's 'sick' game, which they called epic. Game 5 1997 finals.A couple comments.Anyone who quickly dismisses the "Lebron is just as good if not better than Jordan" fact is an idiot. Lebron's game 6 against the Celticcs was easily a more dominate perfomance then this Jordan game that's well remembered.Dennis Rodman is incredible. the dude can't shoot to save his life, and yet his heart and hustle allowed him to be a great asset to an NBA team. Rodman got SCREWED by the refs in this game. He got his 3rd, 4th, and 5th foul for absolutely no reason. on two of the plays he didn't even touvh the player that he 'fouled'. I expected him to go craxy, but he just shook his head or pointed at the video board and clapped his hands. he handled it really awesome.Flopping is not a new thing, Stockton was flopping the entire game. Marv Albert even said, "Stockton is flopping again, taking a page out of 'so-and-so' book.".Karl Malone was not good in this game. He was making terrible decisons the whole game. How does he not foul with 15 seconds left? Idiot.I've become a big NBA fan this year. Until this season, the NBA was just a step above hockey for me. No more.ps. I watched the Kings-Devils game tonight. my first hockey game of the year.

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Look at the way Jordan got ripped for what I thought was a harmless and funny Hall of Fame induction speech. He got shredded for that. Also, Jordan WAS hated on, at the time. People have this glossy vision of him and yes, kids my age LOVED Jordan. But our fathers all hated him. Or at least, hated ON him. Said that Dr J was a better jumper, was a prettier player. They said he was too fundamentally selfish to ever win a championship. That a player who played like that, that dominated the ball, that wasn't a "team" player would never win. He's score alot, he'd be fun to watch, but he'd never win. This was said by a generation of curmudgeons. But, if you take pre-91 Jordan to today, you'd have people screaming about it 24-7. Skip Bayless would shout himself horse about what a selfish, team killing player he was. You'd have people blogging about it. Bill Simmons writing 2000 word essays about why he doesn't get " the secret". There would be SO much shouting about it, that huge chunks of the population would buy it. Hell, Simmons DID write that in the book of basketball. But then, Jordan "got it" and became a team player. Which is the biggest ****ing fiction of all time. Jordan didn't change ( in the sense that he became more of a team player). His team got better, but he was not suddenly a pass first, get the team involved player during the championship run. But that truth doesn't fit into the narrative of the BoB.Anyway, things haven't changed that much since the 90s, except for the volume. Jordan was hated on till he won, and after he won he was worshipped. And the more he won, the more his legend grew. That will happen with Lebron too. Once he starts winning, once he proves his greatness, people will be completely unable to hate him, and will begrudgingly ( at first) respect him. And if he keeps winning, they will worship him. It's a very predictable cycle.

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Anyone who quickly dismisses the "Lebron is just as good if not better than Jordan" fact is an idiot. Lebron's game 6 against the Celticcs was easily a more dominate perfomance then this Jordan game that's well remembered.
Um.. it's well remembered not because it was jordan's most dominate game. He was past his physical prime at that point, even when he was healthy. The game remembered for the heart and will he showed in that game.... because he had the god damn flu. He had to be literally carried off the court when the game was over. It's his will to win that's remembered, not the total dominance of the performance. If you want examples of him at his most dominant, I recommend the 1993 finals, where AVERAGED 41 pts (on 51% shooting(lol)), 8.5 rebounds (lol), 6.3 assists, 1.7 steals and 0.7 blocks. You may remember barkley talking about that series with Lebatard, he said prior to that series he thought he was better than Jordan, and then he had to admit, even to his daughter, that Jordan was better than him after the series was over.
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Why does he have to win to be worshipped? Plenty of players have never won and aren't hated on like he is.
But there aren't plenty of players that have the level of hype and expectation that Lebron does. Alot of this is reaction to previous hype. Lebron has been heralded as the future greatest player in the league when he was a jr in high school. ESPN broadcast his games. He got this hype because he's ridiculously talented, but since he isn't winning championships yet, people are back lashing against the hype. Players that aren't as good as him, don't get as hyped as him, and don't have the expectations he does.Look, I think it's ridiculous. I think hating on him is absurd. But it will go away once he wins.
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Um.. it's well remembered not because it was jordan's most dominate game. He was past his physical prime at that point, even when he was healthy. The game remembered for the heart and will he showed in that game.... because he had the god damn flu. He had to be literally carried off the court when the game was over. It's his will to win that's remembered, not the total dominance of the performance. If you want examples of him at his most dominant, I recommend the 1993 finals, where AVERAGED 41 pts (on 51% shooting(lol)), 8.5 rebounds (lol), 6.3 assists, 1.7 steals and 0.7 blocks.You may remember barkley talking about that series with Lebatard, he said prior to that series he thought he was better than Jordan, and then he had to admit, even to his daughter, that Jordan was better than him after the series was over.
I'm well aware of why it's remembered. I'm not buyng it. He did a post game interview with Amad Rashad, and he wasn't having trouble standing. people go to work sick all the time.That being said, I'm absolutely not suggesting that Jordan wasn't awesome. He was. I'm saying that Lebron is at least his equal.
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I am a Lebron hater, and here's why:His first few seasons, I liked him just fine. At some point along the lines in Cleveland, he started Dancing, and performing all these pregame dances with his teammates. He was the biggest superstar in the league, and everyone at the time talked about how much fun he was having with his teammates. I found those actions, along with the powder show, completely disingenuous. I felt he, much like Dwight Howard were very aware that they were always being watched, and every move they made was predetermined. Then came, Noah, calling him out on it during a game while the Bulls were getting killed, then came stories about how fake the smiles were and he was a total dick when at restaurants. Compile that with the excessive flops, complaining, and the decision fiasco, he became very easy for me to hate.Anyway, I hope that reads well enough, it's 2:30 and I'm tired as shit.

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I'm well aware of why it's remembered. I'm not buyng it. He did a post game interview with Amad Rashad, and he wasn't having trouble standing. people go to work sick all the time.That being said, I'm absolutely not suggesting that Jordan wasn't awesome. He was. I'm saying that Lebron is at least his equal.
What don't you buy, exactly? That he was sick? People just made that up, did they? they made up the IV's he was taking and the voimt that he was spewing? seems likely.And LOL @ people go to work sick all the time. Most people's work doesn't involve having to perform incredibly physically demanding tasks at the highest possible level. This isn't hochman coughing into a microphone. Go back and look at that stat line from the 1993 finals. That was the SERIES AVERAGE. not a game. During the hand check era. If Lebron has a series average like that in the finals this year, then we can start talking as good as.
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I am a Lebron hater, and here's why:His first few seasons, I liked him just fine. At some point along the lines in Cleveland, he started Dancing, and performing all these pregame dances with his teammates. He was the biggest superstar in the league, and everyone at the time talked about how much fun he was having with his teammates. I found those actions, along with the powder show, completely disingenuous. I felt he, much like Dwight Howard were very aware that they were always being watched, and every move they made was predetermined. Then came, Noah, calling him out on it during a game while the Bulls were getting killed, then came stories about how fake the smiles were and he was a total dick when at restaurants. Compile that with the excessive flops, complaining, and the decision fiasco, he became very easy for me to hate.
#jayzgasface
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But there aren't plenty of players that have the level of hype and expectation that Lebron does. Alot of this is reaction to previous hype. Lebron has been heralded as the future greatest player in the league when he was a jr in high school. ESPN broadcast his games. He got this hype because he's ridiculously talented, but since he isn't winning championships yet, people are back lashing against the hype. Players that aren't as good as him, don't get as hyped as him, and don't have the expectations he does.Look, I think it's ridiculous. I think hating on him is absurd. But it will go away once he wins.
I agree.Honestly I don't think he even needs to win 6 rings to be considered one of the greatest players of all time once his career is over.
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ESPN had an interesting stat last night.Lebron has never scored more than 25 in a Finals game.
Yeah, everything that people bitch about Lebron is false/overblown EXCEPT that his 10 Finals games to date have been crappy (although counting 2007 is wildly unfair, that Cavs team had no business on the court with the Spurs).I'd be very, very surprised if that stat lasts one more game considering Lebron just went 25+ in all 7 games against Boston, a superior defensive team to OKC.
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BigD killed it in here. Totally agree with everything he said.Hey brv, I saw in the basketballforum that you predicted Miami would steal one game in OKC and win all three in Miami. Just fyi, only twice (out of 27) has the team with the middle three home games won all three. That's part of what makes home court advantage in the Finals so big. If you believe in patterns*, OKC will win in 7. They won their first series in 4, second in 5, third in 6. Miami won their first in 5, second in 6, third in 7. Both patterns lead to OKC in 7.*I don't know anybody who believes in this theory.

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If wade continues to be mediocre and Lebron reverts to last season's finals play? OKC in 4. Assuming Lebron plays to his playoff averages, I think heat in 6. I think bosh coming back is really bad news for OKC. Either Ibaka is going to have to go out into the perimeter to cover him, which is bad news as it clears the lane for lebron and wade. Or Ibaka stays home and is aggressive, and gets into foul trouble early. Either way, I think OKC has a very difficult time containing Lebron/Wade. Conversely, I think the Heat are particularly well suited to defend what OKC does offensively.

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Yeah, Ibaka/Bosh was one of the first things I thought about when this match-up was set. That's why I thought a Miami line-up with Bosh at the 5 and Lebron at the 4 would be their most effective line-up. On the other hand, I think the Thunder's best line-up is a small one too. Ibaka, Durant, Harden, Thabo, Westbrook. I wouldn't be surprised if I read more basketball articles than any other regular poster around here. But I haven't read a single Finals preview. It's like avoiding the movie previews before seeing the movie. I don't want to know anything; I just want to experience this one. Of course, after game one, I'll be reading everything again.

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Whatever, losers. I'm right. Lebron is just as good as Jordan. I DON'T CARE ABOUT STATS. I HAVE EYES AND A GUT THAT GIVES ME FEELINGS!1!1!1!111!!!

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