Russell to LeBron: "Thank you for leaving me off your Mt. Rushmore."

[QUOTE=Magic 32]Using eras to demean a player will ultimately come back to bite you in the butt.

Kids in 2050 will be rolling their eyes when you mention Lebron.[/QUOTE]

It could, but progression levels off after a while. The league was trash back in the 60s compared to now. If you compare the league now vs the league in 30 years the gap between them will be much smaller than the gap between now/60s. Ex. In a span of 40 years the 100 meter record went from 10 to 9.58. 40 years from now will the record be 9.18? Absolutely not. It will be maybe 9.49 or something like that.


Kids in the future can at least see video of today's stars and freaks like Lebron at 6'8 270 running 4.4 speed against other freaks..they can see 6'5 230 pound 4.3 speed Calvin Johnson torching people...unlike back then when the grainy film shows a bunch of regular 6'9 black guys dunking over slow small short white guys.

Do I think the league will get better in talent over time? Yes I do. The talent pool just keeps getting larger and larger. One of these days I think a prospect is gonna come out with the size and athleticism of Shaq with the passing ability of Lebron.

[QUOTE=Pointguard]That is just so disrespectful to the game. So basketball is the only sport where you don't need skill to be the best? One of the few things on the planet you don't need skill to excel in. You are only insulting the game when you say something like that. It says that anybody can come along and be the best in the game. You work on your craft you become better at it. The distance between two players usually isn't great at all as any ten different fans will usually have ten different top tens. But if one player is very skilled, and the other isn't, is there every really a conversation.

Whatever you take for granted you pay for it. And Russell rested on his laurels. MJ worked at his game tirelessly. And for every natural advantage you name me that Russell has I will most definitely name you two that Jordan has. Lets say Jordan didn't have to do develop skills. Did it make him better or worse? Every player could use it in every sport or endeavor in life.[/QUOTE]
Bill Russell thought outside the box, he probably had the most clarity in his mind of just exactly what needed to be done to win out of any NBA player. All that hard work towards polishing skillsets might literally be a pointless endeavour and a distraction when it is done beyond a certain point. Pistol Pete was infinitely more skilled than Bill Russell, but what the hell did he ever do as far as winning goes?

Sorry you feel it is a disrespectful conclusion but it might just be true. Bill Russell didn't need to shoot 1,000 shots a day from 20+ feet nor shoot another 1,000 turnaround J's, nor dribble between cones with oven mitts on his hands to be the best player ever. That shit, though it might result in looking pretty out there on the floor, might be a whole lot of work for little to no reward compared to all the little things HE was aware of on the court and what HE figured out he had to do to control the outcomes of games. And let's not act like he didn't work. He did work, on rebounding, and on defense, and offensively he fed his teammates and scored a lot of cleanup and backdoor points. The level that he refined all those things might just be all it takes to reach as close to basketball [I]perfection[/I] as possible. It is quite possible that polishing 'skills' to the degree that some players do is culminating to nothing more than an isolated distraction away from winning. The objective is to win. The objective is not to become more skilled.

[IMG]http://s17.postimg.org/q309lba9b/phil_jackson_would_pick_bill_russell_over_michae.jpg[/IMG]

[QUOTE=NumberSix]Right.[/QUOTE]

Whether I (or anyone else) agrees with this or not, it is still funny.

I have to admit, I am getting some genuine laughs tonight.

:applause:

Funny is still funny...

[QUOTE=secund2nun]Coincidence that they all dominated the league full of financial consultants back then? Nope. Kwame Brown probably would have averaged 50-30 back then. Joakim Noah would have averaged 35-35-15 back then and would have been etched on the NBA Mount Rushmore. Crazy how the date when you were born can affect your NBA legacy so much.

Btw the 100 meter record was 10.00 seconds in 1960. Now it's 9.58...imagine Bolt racing the record holder from back then :roll:[/QUOTE]

:facepalm

[B]Kwame Brown is not even remotely close to Bill's level of skill, plus IQ and other intangibles, he's not even close to him as an athlete lmfao. Noah is not a better athlete than Russell and although really good too in things like skill and intangibles, doesn't compare to Bill

No, better yet imagine Bolt running on some ****ed up track/floor with some wack-ass shoes and overall equipment, not having all of these modern luxuries, everything you can account for (and I won't even mention more, yea you know what I'm talkin about)... He wouldn't be even be close - considering 100 meter standpoint - to 9.58.

Ban these ignorant-ass children.[/B]

[QUOTE=9erempiree]I usually don't get upset on here but it is pretty sad that people are disrespecting Russell.

:facepalm[/QUOTE]


This. I mean the guy had 11 rings. I don't care if it was filled with unathletic 6'1 guys (it wasn't) but 11 Championships, in [I]any[/I] sport, irrespective of era is extremely impressive. Be real now. If you have 11 rings, and Russell's HOF teammates had 7 or 8 rings, that shows you Russell was the reason for victory, period. 11 of anything whether it be superbowls, world series, gold medals in the 1500m it doesn't matter, 11 championships is just insane

[QUOTE=Pointguard]Russell didn't realize that Lebron picked guys with all around games, smart and had immaculate skill. Russell isn't remotely in that conversation. If Lebron were to name a center it would have been Wilt or Hakeem.

Lebron's intention was obvious as hell.[/QUOTE]

And thats why hes dead wrong.. Russell may not have been an elite scorer, but he certainly had elite ability in every other facet and it was enough to form an all time great package.


Is there ANYONE that would take bran over Bill Russell?? That guy would literally make bran shit his pants.. Lebron is so damn coddled and sheltered all his life compared to Bill fcking Russell lol the Malcolm X of the NBA. He would get MURKED.

[QUOTE=oarabbus]This. I mean the guy had 11 rings. I don't care if it was filled with unathletic 6'1 guys (it wasn't) but 11 Championships, in [I]any[/I] sport, irrespective of era is extremely impressive. Be real now. If you have 11 rings, and Russell's HOF teammates had 7 or 8 rings, that shows you Russell was the reason for victory, period. 11 of anything whether it be superbowls, world series, gold medals in the 1500m it doesn't matter, 11 championships is just insane[/QUOTE]

yep.

It doesn't matter how many people try to say he can't score or he can't do this but the fact of the matter is, he is the team's best player.

If people watch games from the past, they would know the Centers were the team's top dogs back in the days. They were like the QB directing traffic on defense while their teammates had their back turned.

Bill Walton was like this too.

[QUOTE=secund2nun]It could, but progression levels off after a while. The league was trash back in the 60s compared to now. If you compare the league now vs the league in 30 years the gap between them will be much smaller than the gap between now/60s. Ex. In a span of 40 years the 100 meter record went from 10 to 9.58. 40 years from now will the record be 9.18? Absolutely not. It will be maybe 9.49 or something like that.


Kids in the future can at least see video of today's stars and freaks like Lebron at 6'8 270 running 4.4 speed against other freaks..they can see 6'5 230 pound 4.3 speed Calvin Johnson torching people...unlike back then when the grainy film shows a bunch of regular 6'9 black guys dunking over slow small short white guys.

Do I think the league will get better in talent over time? Yes I do. The talent pool just keeps getting larger and larger. One of these days I think a prospect is gonna come out with the size and athleticism of Shaq with the passing ability of Lebron.[/QUOTE]

Wilt ran a 40 yard dash at 4.6 seconds.. he was a damn seven footer with elite strength and size. :oldlol:

Bill Russel guarded Wilt Chamberlain.. he was an olympic level athlete himself. The guards back then honestly do look less athletic, but the big men back then were flat out just as big and fast as todays but they actually had skill.

Overall you're severley overestimating todays athletes in favor of those only 30- 40 years ago.. human evolution simply doesnt happen fast enough for there to be that big a gap in genetics between than and now.

Give Russell equivalent players from today's era and Russell being Russell, he can carry a lot of teams in this era.

[QUOTE=tpols]Wilt ran a 40 yard dash at 4.6 seconds.. he was a damn seven footer with elite strength and size. :oldlol:

Bill Russel guarded Wilt Chamberlain.. he was an olympic level athlete himself. The guards back then honestly do look less athletic, but the big men back then were flat out just as big and fast as todays but they actually had skill.[/QUOTE]
Why can't people just admit that the NBA back then was a D-League in comparison to today's talent? It's ok. We all know it to be true, but most people have this aversion to admitting they know it.

[QUOTE=tpols]And thats why hes dead wrong.. Russell may not have been an elite scorer, but he certainly had elite ability in every other facet and it was enough to form an all time great package.


Is there ANYONE that would take bran over Bill Russell?? [B]That guy would literally make bran shit his pants.. Lebron is so damn coddled and sheltered all his life compared to Bill fcking Russell lol the Malcolm X of the NBA. He would get MURKED.[/B][/QUOTE]
This is very true, MJ and Dirk had flue games right? Impressive, Wilt a broken hand game, also impressive.

Bill Russell? He got STABBED in a bar fight during the Finals one season and the opposing Lakers center deliberately was hammering his stab wound all game. I haven't looked into which game/series that was yet. But Russell still won, and apparently went at the opposing center hard after he started targeting the wound.

[QUOTE=CavaliersFTW]This is very true, MJ and Dirk had flue games right? Impressive, Wilt a broken hand game, also impressive.

Bill Russell? He got STABBED in a bar fight during the Finals one season and the opposing Lakers center deliberately was hammering his stab wound all game. I haven't looked into which game/series that was yet. But Russell still won, and apparently went at the opposing center hard after he started targeting the wound.[/QUOTE]

He just seems like an absurdly fierce competitor.. grew up in a tough area, had to deal with shit Bran could only dream of in terms of the times..

Bron is a spoiled prodigy.. weve seen how he reacts to moments of extreme stress or pressure. He cracks. He hasnt been through adversity like Bill Russell. I remember him and Wade mocking Dirk being sick, fake coughing in the Finals laughing at the mavs when they were about to go up 3-0:oldlol: Hes a frontrunning pos and immature as they come.

Russel was on another plane mentally, discipline wise and would just absolutely destroy bran

branities=delusional clowns

Bill Russell wouldn't even make the playoffs if you replace Lebron with him on the Heat team.

At best a Nene-like player and impact.