There is no doubt that LeBron James is one of the best players in the history of the NBA, and arguably by some the best or at the very least the most talented/gifted. -However, he does not get the “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” that Michael Jordan and other greats that have come before him have gotten. --Now the question is…why… Many of my sports fanatic friends cite all sorts of dizzying numbers and statistics to justify their position in support of LBJ…. --People have cited points, wins, number of titles, etc. So I put google to work… --Numbers don’t lie and some folks are going to have some HURT feelings if they truly rely on numbers and statistics to as indicators of GREATNESS… (folks owe Bill Russell, Karl Malone, and Charles Barkley some respect)…. But that is another topic…. To me it is simple…. IMAGINE if you will in 1989/1990 at the height of the battles between Bulls and the Pistons in the Eastern conference trying to get to the finals….and the Bulls inability to get past them…. Michael Jordan contacted (and I am not saying they would have been a good fit as a team or played well together)….. Dominque Wilkins, Charles Barkley, Clyde Drexler, Moses Malone, etc. and worked their contracts to be free agents during the same period and end up on the same team? -We would not have had the epic battles, the struggles, everything that made the string of championships and formed that Bulls team into the dominate force they were at that time. --In short, LBJ’s unwillingness to build up the team he was with, to struggle, to battle and to be a leader…. Is why despite the number of rings, the number of wins, or the number of points… I will undoubtedly respect his skill, but as a fan, I will not respect him as a player. Which by the way LBJ will NEVER match Bill Russell (and if we go by number of championships as an indicator of greatness—who knew Robert Horry was GREAT): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NBA_players_with_most_championships If number of wins and winning percentage is an indicator…well, LBJ can still catch up but right now he does not match Larry Bird, Karl Malone, John Stockton, or The Round Mound of Rebound—Charles Barkley: bleacherreport/articles/1233813-top-25-most-winningest-players-of-all-time-you-may-be-surprised/page/26 If you look at the top 10 of folks listed in ALL categories: the same names tend to keep cropping up. Not flashy….but take note and compare with the other lists. LBJ has been in the league for 9 or 10 years… I see his name on one list. He came into the NBA straight out of high school so in theory has more time to catch up. But does he really?: espn.go/nba/history/leaders
Posted on: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 04:31:49 +0000
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