LeBron James had a poor series against the Celtics and a disappointing game last night as he turned the ball over nine times. The Cavs lost, their season is over. Think Alex Rodriguez is over-analyzed? What’s-Wrong-With-LeBron just bumped you out of the top spot, Papi.
James did record a triple double. Guy I know called it “hollow” this morning. How 19 rebounds are hollow I don’t know but James didn’t shoot the ball well and played tight (and he could well be injured).
Anyhow, the loss puts the LeBron-to-the-Knicks-Hype Machine at center stage round these parts. It might be a longshot, but it sure would be great to have a star like James playing in the Garden every night, wouldn’t it?
I won't be surprised if he goes to the Nets. Either way, it would be great to have him in town.
Frank White : Bron Bron :: Jimmy Jump : Chris Bosh
lets all light a candle for the next 47 days
please, please, pretty please!!!
I'm not a LeBron expert and I mainly watched the second half, but he didn't seem as commanding as I've seen him before. He certainly didn't "take over the game".
I could see him leaving Cleveland. It seems like they put in the effort to get him a good supporting cast but it just hasn't really coalesced for the big moments. That could be James's fault too though, leadership-wise.
James just finished his 7th season, which is the year in which MJ won his first title. Lebron remains 2 years younger due to skipping college.
However, James has never played with a cast nearly as good or as complete as the first round of Bulls’ champs. You could argue that Ilgauskas has been the best player he’s been teamed with- an efficient but one dimensional center. Meanwhile, the Bulls really started to win when they had Jordan, someone to clean the boards (Grant), clog the middle (Cartwright/Perdue), shoot the lights out (Paxson/Kerr), and the prototype for today’s players who get drafted because they have a great wingspan and do enough things well enough to be tantalizing (Pippen.)
Obviously those teams were all-timers, as complete as they get, but Lebron has never had anything remotely close to a squad that fills those roles adequately. His versatility creates problems though in filling a roster. When you have a Point Forward. What do you surround him with? The Knicks screwed up bigtime by not drafting Stephen Curry. Him, plus Lebron, plus Gallinari, plus an athletic shot blocker (like a Camby) would be a great start. Throw in a Wilson Chandler for some energy and Bill Walker to get hot off the bench every once in a while, and you likely have a team that could dismantle the current iteration of the Cavs, out-run the Celts, and (with another big body in there somewhere) have a chance to push the Lakers around a little bit.
But alas, when James looks to the bright lights of Manhattan, he’s going to see an orange and blue version of the “Lebron and 4 Schmoes” show, get an uneasy feeling that anything but an immediate return to the Finals is a failure, look at the dollars from Cleveland, all his buddies back in Akron, and stick around the Cavs hoping against hope that the right cast of characters comes together within the next couple years.
There was some talk that the addition of Shaq actually HURT the Cavs this year. Shaq at 35+ y.o. doesn't get up and down the floor for the up-tempo Cavs, and having him in the game means a lot of low-post, slow-it-down offense, which doesn't benefit LeBron.
6) I agree with that. Cavs best asset was their athleticism vs the old Celts. Playing Shaq as much as they did definitely clogged up the middle. The fact that 'Twan Jamison disappeared didn't help much either.
yeah, I guess they are prepping him for the Apple by giving him the A-Rod treatment. A "hollow" triple-double, that's like one of those "me-first, selfish" grand slams.
Any chance that he goes to Nets who play him in their new Brooklyn stadium? That would be as good as it gets.
9) Chance, yes...Jay Z connection there. But Brooklyn is still a few years off and even though BK is hip and Yuppied out and all these days, Brooklyn is still NOT Money Makin Manhattan.