LeBron James just broke the shotclock

[QUOTE=KenneBell]LeBron's vert and jumping ability will be the last thing to get hit as his athleticism declines IMO.

At least that's what happened to Kobe. He was still getting to that 36-38" vert range back in '08.

LeBron off the dribble hasn't been as good as it was in the past but his jumper has made up for it IMO.[/QUOTE]

Yup. Pauk is being a huge Lebron stan here. Just because someone CAN jump as high as before here and there DOESN'T make him equally as athletic. He used to do this stuff on a regular basis. Not to mention athleticism isn't all about jumping. If I had to pick the better ALL AROUND athlete 240 pound Lebron from 03-05 easily beats out current Lebron. Reality is... when you increase your weight to 260-270 it's going to decline you athletically.

Remember when prime Kobe tried 220 as a playing weight and hated how sluggish it made him feel? So he dropped back down to 210. Kobe isn't the athlete Lebron is... but don't base Lebron's athletic decline on a pick up game with wide open fastbreaks and no defense.

Part of being "athletic" is sustaining the attributes. If I can jump 45 inches once in a great while... and another guy can jump 40 inches nonstop in games and does so on a regular basis... while being more agile, quicker etc... who's more athletic?

[QUOTE=Dizzle-2k7]those rims dont look 10 feet.. why would lebron all of a sudden be head-at-the-rim level ?? he hasnt had that in 2 years..

rims probably 9 foot 10 inches[/QUOTE]

This is the first thing I thought when I watched the video. I think they lower the rims a little for these charity type of events. I mean it's just for entertainment. John Wall has never gotten that high EVER. You can watch every video of him. Hell, go check out the last 100 summer league games he played. LeBron on the other hand has gotten that high before, but not recently so I doubt the rim is exactly 10 ft.

My question is why hasn't DRose played in any of these games?
[url]http://youtu.be/peMAk1NWZPc[/url]

His dunks would be crazy.

John Wall at rim level. Durant 1 inch below rim level while doing a between the leg dunk. Wade 1 inch below rim level on a tomahawk. Pretty impressive what they can do on 8 foot rims. :pimp:

In general rims at non NCAA and NBA courts are a at least 2 inches lower because they aren't checked and maintained. I know this because... at Pepperdine and the college I went to I couldn't fully grab rim but at every street court or indoor gym I've ever been to I could.

[QUOTE=jlip][I]"WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Kevin Durant scored 48 points and Chris Paul added 39 to lead the New Orleans guard's team to a 175-146 victory over Dwyane Wade and LeBron James' team in a charity game Saturday night.

Rudy Gay had 38 points while Wade added 32 and James had 30. John Wall added 34 points."[/I]

[url]http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7048397/kevin-durant-chris-paul-lead-team-team-featuring-lebron-james-dwyane-wade[/url]

:confusedshrug:[/QUOTE]

Lol Wade had the least amount of point of all of them, outshown by KD ONCE AGAIN.

Lebron chokes in another big game, how many did he put up in the fourth?

[QUOTE=Nick Young]Lol Wade had the least amount of point of all of them, outshown by KD ONCE AGAIN.

Lebron chokes in another big game, how many did he put up in the fourth?[/QUOTE]

it looked more like a who can pull of the best dunk more so than a game. imo, wall won with his around the back slam.

[QUOTE=StephenJohnNash]This is the first thing I thought when I watched the video. I think they lower the rims a little for these charity type of events. I mean it's just for entertainment. John Wall has never gotten that high EVER. You can watch every video of him. Hell, go check out the last 100 summer league games he played. LeBron on the other hand has gotten that high before, but not recently so I doubt the rim is exactly 10 ft.

My question is why hasn't DRose played in any of these games?
[url]http://youtu.be/peMAk1NWZPc[/url]

His dunks would be crazy.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I certainly wouldn't bet my life on it, and I'm not making some kind of positive claim or anything, but that was my first thought when I watched the video as well (that the rims were just a [i]teeny[/i] bit low). And I'm not saying that as a criticism. Rather, even after watching all this summer ball in 2011 featuring all these guys before, there still seemed to be just a [i]little[/i] extra height added to a lot of those plays in the most recent video. I know John Wall is gross athletically and can throw down nasty dunks, but these seemed strangely nastier in comparison to what I've been seeing from him in other exhibition games.

And it sounds laughable to suggest the rims may have been two inches shorter, as if that'd make any difference, but I think it does more than we think. Of course, all those guys will do sick dunks anyway, but those two inches still count for a lot in terms of the ease with which they complete plays (particularly Wall in those clips). I can tell immediately when I'm dunking on a 10ft. rim versus a 9'10'' rim. On 9'10'' it feels like I'm skying instead of getting up just high enough to handle my business.

And this may sound even zanier to some folks, but the way a rim breaks away can often make a difference too. Those rims seemed pretty loose. And to be honest, I have a much easier time dunking on rims that break away a lot at a moment's notice as opposed to tightly wound rims or playground rims. On a whim, I've always thought the quick breakaways allowed for finishes lower above the rim than normal, as the bending rim tends to welcome the ball cleaner through the hole.

Regardless of whatever it was, those were still super highlights, and whether the rims were low or not, it was fun to watch.

[QUOTE=Clippersfan86]In general rims at non NCAA and NBA courts are a at least 2 inches lower because they aren't checked and maintained. I know this because... at Pepperdine and the college I went to I couldn't fully grab rim but at every street court or indoor gym I've ever been to I could.[/QUOTE]

For the record, I very much dispute such a generalization. I'll say NBA and NCAA rims are very likely to all be of uniform height (10 feet) but I don't think that means therefore that all other rims in general are [i]not[/i] 10 feet. Surely, a number of outdoor rims I've played on have been under 10 feet as you mention, and I tend to chalk it up to the pole settling into the ground or whatever other natural happenings factor. But in truth, I find those inches usually kind of even themselves out when accounting for the fact that a concrete floor is generally harder to spring off of.

But in gyms, I'd say in my experiences through hundreds of non-NCAA and NBA hoops, those rims have more often than not been at 10 feet. Occasionally a bucket will be slightly bent from overuse. And yes, occasionally some schools just seem to have not measured closely. But those are rare in my area. When I played in high school, we all knew which gym in our region had the "two-inches short" rims. We could tell because suddenly our entirely team seemed to be soaring above the rim in the layup line when usually only a handful were finishing with a dunk.

In fact, to further contradict your statement, I've always been able to dunk on NCAA rims much easier than any other regulation goal. I chalk it up to a number of factors. Their basketballs are usually clean and sticky, their floor in pristine condition (allowing for little to no foot plant sliding), and the rims are undoubtedly in great shape. It's pretty much the perfect dunking environment for me and some of my hardest hammers have come on those types of buckets. The more official a gym is (even athletic centers in comparison to all-purpose high school gyms) the easier I'm able to dunk. And unlike all those guys in the youtube clip, I need to take advantage of every factor I can.

So while your baskets don't seem to follow that pattern, I do not believe it'd be accurate to assume every other gym or hoop in the country must therefore also be two inches shorter than Pepperdine.

[QUOTE=Sarcastic]So you don't ever watch the All Star game?[/QUOTE]
That's also hard to watch.

Just enjoy the video, folks. How people can argue for four pages about seeing superstars having a great time and pulling off crazy dunks is beyond me.