The 3 biggest myths of Lebron's career

[3ba11]

1) He makes teammates better - he has bad fits with everyone except elite shooters - every other player type becomes a bum alongside him

2) He can "do-it-all" - there's an entire branch of superior basketball that Lebron can't play (ball movement, high team assists, movement), so he ties a coach's hands into playing a weaker brand of ball-dominance that needs more help

3) He carries teams - Without Lebron's super-teams, guys like Horford, Paul George and Oladipo would've been winning the East as 1-star teams, just like the 1-star winners of the previous decade (Dwight, Iverson, Kidd and 07' Lebron)... Lebron played in the only conference in history that was routinely won by 1-star teams, while he had a SUPER-team most years.

[Airupthere]

If you go through his career and watch him actually play without any outside noise or narrative being pushed on you, you will not get a sense that any of these is true.

[HylianNightmare]

He's clutch is another one

[Shaquille O'Neal]

If you go through his career and watch him actually play without any outside noise or narrative being pushed on you, you will not get a sense that any of these is true.

Agree completely. These are NBATV / ESPN myths, 100%.

[RRR3]

sob sob sob make it stop
:lol

[John_Connor]

it's pretty obvious lebrons entire career was a product of the leastern conference and having multiple prime hall of famers that can carry him. whenever he has to actually do most of the work he fails. he could never get a kobe or jordan ring carrying 1 other basic star sidekick and scrubs in a conference that makes you go through 2 or 3 teams with 50+ wins just to make it to the finals

[ShawkFactory]

Fun fact: the 2018 Raptors were the #2 SRS team in the NBA.

Doesn't really matter in this discussion but I found that interesting.

[BarberSchool]

I disagree with 2. LeBron can play this brand of ball, but he can’t get the stats he wants while doing so. We’ve seen him play this way on Olympic teams sometimes, and during all star weekend. Oddly enough, if he incorporated more of that style onto his teams, he’d have a few more rings, but significantly lower overall scoring averages.

I think the biggest myths are as follows:

0. Raymone never used or abused performance enhancing drugs.
-Ask the jaw tumor he had removed a decade ago, the staff at biogenesis, and his horrific cramping when the AC broke in SA. SA knew what they were doing, and knew the drastic change in temp wouldn’t harm their players calcium and potassium channels, since their players were clean.

1. Raymone makes teammates better
-He racks up some great assist numbers, and makes some highlight reel passes, but this is illusory to the true barrier of what he turns established all star talent into: spot up shooters and late cutters during double teams.

2. Raymone cares about winning more than stats.
The end of this season shows this is false quite clearly.

[Airupthere]

I disagree with 2. LeBron can play this brand of ball, but he can’t get the stats he wants while doing so. We’ve seen him play this way on Olympic teams sometimes, and during all star weekend. Oddly enough, if he incorporated more of that style onto his teams, he’d have a few more rings, but significantly lower overall scoring averages.

I think the biggest myths are as follows:

0. Raymone never used or abused performance enhancing drugs.
-Ask the jaw tumor he had removed a decade ago, the staff at biogenesis, and his horrific cramping when the AC broke in SA. SA knew what they were doing, and knew the drastic change in temp wouldn’t harm their players calcium and potassium channels, since their players were clean.

1. Raymone makes teammates better
-He racks up some great assist numbers, and makes some highlight reel passes, but this is illusory to the true barrier of what he turns established all star talent into: spot up shooters and late cutters during double teams.

2. Raymone cares about winning more than stats.
The end of this season shows this is false quite clearly.

2011 also support your #2

[BarberSchool]

2011 also support your #2Are you referring to the 2010-11 regular season or playoff run ? IIRC, LeFraud had shockingly horrible 4th quarter stats in the 2011 finals.

[3ba11]

Fun fact: the 2018 Raptors were the #2 SRS team in the NBA.

Doesn't really matter in this discussion but I found that interesting.


Love didn't wet the bed against the Raptors - he averaged 21/12 on 48%

So again, Lebron never beat a top 5 SRS team with bed-wetting teammates.

Otoh, Jordan beat tons of good teams with shit from Pippen..

In addition to Jordan's many carry-jobs against good teams (to Lebron's none), Jordan also defeated maximum defensive attention (carried scoring load), which Lebron never did in the Finals

[tpols]

Love didn't wet the bed against the Raptors - he averaged 21/12 on 48%

So again, Lebron never beat a top 5 SRS team with bed-wetting teammates.

Otoh, Jordan beat tons of good teams with shit from Pippen..

In addition to Jordan's many carry-jobs against good teams (to Lebron's none), Jordan also defeated maximum defensive attention (carried scoring load), which Lebron never did in the Finals

Dang... that's better than prime Pau. And people act like LeBron had no help when he had a 2nd option who was a multiple time All Star and All NBA team selection, while shitting on Kobe for winning with Pau.

Its amazing how Pau never reached Loves 26/14 peak yet people disregard one guy and hype the other. I'm getting Pippen vibes. *shudders*

[ShawkFactory]

Love didn't wet the bed against the Raptors - he averaged 21/12 on 48%

So again, Lebron never beat a top 5 SRS team with bed-wetting teammates.

Otoh, Jordan beat tons of good teams with shit from Pippen..

In addition to Jordan's many carry-jobs against good teams (to Lebron's none), Jordan also defeated maximum defensive attention (carried scoring load), which Lebron never did in the Finals

I wasn't implying anything by it. I'm just willing to bet that most people didn't know that the Raptors were that good. I certainly didn't.

[ShawkFactory]

Dang... that's better than prime Pau. And people act like LeBron had no help when he had a 2nd option who was a multiple time All Star and All NBA team selection, while shitting on Kobe for winning with Pau.

Its amazing how Pau never reached Loves 26/14 peak yet people disregard one guy and hype the other. I'm getting Pippen vibes. *shudders*

There's plenty of reasons for this.

[3ba11]

I wasn't implying anything by it. I'm just willing to bet that most people didn't know that the Raptors were that good. I certainly didn't.


Exactly.. DeRozan carried them because it was a bummy East - everyone was doing that - Lebron did it in 09/10 and failed... Then he made it a couple times in 15' or 07'...

In 2018, He had the best sidekick and the only 2-star team in the conference in 2018 - his 3-time Finals veterans had a massive edge on the newbie, 0-star peers in the East..

Love dominated the #2 SRS and then the KD Warriors in the Finals..

[SouBeachTalents]

There's plenty of reasons for this.
I always laugh when the Kobe > LeBron crowd uses stats to determine which players better :lol

[ShawkFactory]

Exactly.. DeRozan carried them because it was a bummy East - everyone was doing that - Lebron did it in 09/10 and failed... Then he made it a couple times in 15' or 07'...

In 2018, He had the best sidekick and the only 2-star team in the conference in 2018 - his 3-time Finals veterans had a massive edge on the newbie, 0-star peers in the East..

Love dominated the #2 SRS and then the KD Warriors in the Finals..

Not at all. They were a very well-balanced and deep team with a top 5 defense.

Lowry was their best player.

But it's funny. We've always had you saying Lebron cratered Love but now you're saying he dominated. Interesting.

[3ba11]

I always laugh when the Kobe > LeBron crowd uses stats to determine which players better :lol


Kobe was better than Lebron because he had elite jumpshooting skill that could defeat max defensive attention (carry scoring load in Finals), which requires less help than the all-time elite scorers that Lebron requires as teammates.

Kobe's elite jumpshooting skill included producing off-screens, which allowed the best teammate fits, strategy and team ceilings/Finals records.

It's important to have the best teammate fits and strategy because the best brand of ball is required to win organically, like the 04' Pistons, 11' Mavs, Spurs, Warriors or 90's Bulls.

So in addition to defeating max defensive attention, Kobe knew how to win (brand of ball.. organic), while Lebron only learned how to team-hop (talent-based winning.. all-star team strategy).

[tpols]

There's plenty of reasons for this.

Plenty of reasons Pau never reached Kevin Loves 26/14 peak on great efficiency? I wouldn't say that. The main reason is he wasn't as good of a shooter or rebounder. Better defender, slightly.... because Pau was never a great defender either, but overall in the absolute worse case they were comparable talents.

Pau never made an All NBA team with Memphis. He only made them under LAs winning spotlight. Love made All NBA with the timberwolves. One of, if not the worst basketball organization ever. But we know that Pau and Kobe fit tremendously like peanut butter and jelly while Loves game was cratered by LeBron.

The issue of teammate fit is HUGE for winning. This is a team game. If you can't fit with a ton of guys its going to impact winning tremendously even if you your self produce well.

[ShawkFactory]

Plenty of reasons Pau never reached Kevin Loves 26/14 peak on great efficiency? I wouldn't say that. The main reason is he wasn't as good of a shooter or rebounder. Better defender, slightly.... because Pau was never a great defender either, but overall in the absolute worse case they were comparable talents.

Pau never made an All NBA team with Memphis. He only made them under LAs winning spotlight. Love made All NBA with the timberwolves. One of, if not the worst basketball organization ever. But we know that Pau and Kobe fit tremendously like peanut butter and jelly while Loves game was cratered by LeBron.

The issue of teammate fit is HUGE for winning. This is a team game. If you can't fit with a ton of guys its going to impact winning tremendously even if you your self produce well.

Perhaps I should have narrowed the bolded before. There a plenty of reasons why Pau is more hyped/considered a better basketball player than Love.

Your last paragraph is one of them. Even though I know you were thinking about Kobe/Lebron and not Pau/Love when you wrote that.

[Akeem34TheDream]

I'd say Pau Gasol, Chris Bosh and Kevin Love were same caliber of players in their primes. If i were to pick one of them as a gm i'd look at the fit with my team since none of them stick out talentwise.