Bottomline: Why People "Dislike" Lebron and Miami (NBA, Celtics, Nets)

[FBJ]

Originally Posted by AstonMartinNY

I could do nothing but smile out of shock and respect for the team. Pop is gonna get on their ass hard.

They had went on a mini-run before the 3rd qtr ended which set the tone for the 4th qtr.

[AstonMartinNY]

Charlmers has so much potential to be better

[iNviNciBL3]

Keep hatin'

LeBron James' absurd block sparks Heat knockout punch in Game 2 - YouTube

[LexusNexus]

I've never been a fan of LeBron. I simply don't like his game and feel he's overexposed. I feel the comparisons to Michael Jordan are premature. I frankly find James no more exciting as a basketball player than Patrick Ewing or Junior Bridgeman or Rick Fox or Marques Johnson.

In my eyes with the way he plays, he will never be on par with Julius Erving, Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins, Shawn Kemp, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, or Vince Carter.

Not a fan of his team, and hope the Spurs prevail.

[TAM88]

Was it really necessary that he stand there and look to the crowd for a few seconds after the block instead of running down the court with the rest of his teammates? That play personifies what's wrong with the NBA to me.

[EugeneOnegin]

Originally Posted by AstonMartinNY

This is a spin-off from another post but in a legitimate direction

1. The fake fan-base and support, suddenly everyone likes them from the schoolyard up and swear that they have no weaknesses. They have been exposed mostly by the Pacers so far.

Are you posting from some alternate reality or something? The Heat are the most hated team in the NBA by far. Hardly anyone likes them. Comments on my Facebook feed about the finals are about 10-1 in favor of the Spurs. The country is clearly rooting for the Spurs.

WHO says the Heat have no weaknesses? Their lack of post players is noted by everyone.

Yeah sure the Pacers "exposed" Miami. Just like the Celtics exposed them last year before they won the championship. Just like the Hawks exposed the Celtics in the first round in 2008 before the Celtics won the championship. Just like the Nets exposed the Pistons in 2004 before the Pistons won the championship. I didn't know taking a team to 7 games was "exposing" them.

Originally Posted by AstonMartinNY

2. This team made us fans lose 2 stars.

Get over it Raptors/Cavs fans. Life's not fair.

Originally Posted by AstonMartinNY

Wade and Bosh do not play like they used to.

Wade is injured, Bosh never was that good. No one watched Bosh play in Toronto, they just saw his stats and all-star votes and assumed he was a great player when he was really just an undersized jump shooting power forward putting up good numbers on bad teams.

Originally Posted by AstonMartinNY

They are screwing up their own legacy.

Yeah, they should have stayed on their original teams and joined the Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Grant Hill, Chris Webber, Andrian Dantley, George Gervin, Dominique Wilkins, Reggie Miller, Patrick Ewing, Elgin Baylor group of players. Being known as one of the greatest players to never win a championship is such a great legacy.

Originally Posted by AstonMartinNY

No one is competitive anymore. No real winner would ask for such a thing to happen. These guys used to be going at it when they had their own team. The league has become watered down, all you hear about is Miami.

The league is watered down because there are several good players on one team?
Did the league become watered down when Parish, McHale, Bird, Johnson, Ainge were on the same team? Or when Kareem, Magic, Worthy, Cooper, and McAdoo? Or Moses Malone, Julius Erving, Andrew Toney, Maurice Cheeks, and Bobby Jones? Yeah let's pretend like teams with multiple stars are a recent invention.

Originally Posted by AstonMartinNY

3. Lebron is still not dominant when he needs to be. He hasn't proved to me that he deserved any of those mvp's with miami. He did it himself on the Cavs with a 66-16 following a 61-21 record, thats fine. Game 1 of the 2013 finals, Tony Parker looked like an mvp and he had no triple nor a double double. He is the number 1 option on his team and he came through WHEN IT MATTERED.

1. MVPs are a regular season award. What you do in the playoffs has absolutely nothing to do with the MVP award.
2. Lebron had a pretty damn good 4th quarter last night.
3. Tony Parker is a hell of a player.

Originally Posted by AstonMartinNY

4. The media is trying to make him the next MJ of this era. He will NEVER be on that level because he has bounced back in so many defining moments. Its too late, he went out his way to join 2 stars just to win. He was winning in Cleveland. Same result of losing championship series in Miami (last year was a mirage of terrible calls and the flopping was at an all-time high, in other words it was given to them. Lets all be honest, this year they are here legit)

It's too late?

Jordan at 28 years old: 1 championship
Lebron at 28 years old: 1 championship

I bet it was too late for Jordan in 1990 too.

Last year they only won because of terrible calls and flopping? Blaming the refs is a lame excuse. Did the refs out rebound OKC or was that Miami? Did the refs make Harden miss a bunch of shots and free throws? Did the refs make Westbrook jack up a bunch of bad shots early in the shot clock? Did the refs make Ibaka play like crap?

Flopping? Last year's Thunder was the worst flopping team I've ever seen in my life. Harden, Durant, and Fisher are master floppers. They actually made a rule change because of Durant's move where he sweeps the ball down low and then flings his arms up and into the defender's arms. It's no longer a shooting foul and the rule is informally referred to as "the Durant rule."

Originally Posted by AstonMartinNY

5. 3 MVP's on a team like that is ridiculous. Its guys on other teams that actually score for their teams when needed to and do it consistently to win, guess what? they also have way less productive support. KD's mvp is long overdue (the 24 year old killer on the court), Kobe was really busting his ass this year (for a 34 year old still having to put up 27ppg with that lineup),and Melo did his thing too (In order of worthiness). Shoot, even James Harden had great numbers. Im not saying LJ doesn't deserve mvp, im just saying Cleveland was the most rational place for him to get that honor twice.

Kobe Bryant had a good year and put up very good numbers for a 34-year old, but it's not the MVOP (Most Valuable Old Player) award. You don't get extra consideration/pity for being past your prime.

Carmelo Anthony? Please. All he does is score in isolation and rebound. He plays no defense and doesn't make his teammates any better.

James Harden? That's so absurd I'm not even going to comment.

Originally Posted by AstonMartinNY

6. Lebron and the whole damn team flops. That is not respectable basketball. I play ball and I wouldn't ever have the nerves to pretend that somebody made me fall. That is not manly at all and that is poor playing of the game. When did MJ , Kobe, or Magic for that matter flop? (the guys they compare him to). Even MJ mentioned that he would take KD and the question was "Lebron or Kobe?" in an interview.

Kobe has flopped a hell of a lot in his career. MJ and Magic not as much, because flopping wasn't as much a part of the game back then. Divac was one of the pioneers that brought flopping to the NBA back then.

I hate flopping as much as the next guy, but if it's effective, why not? It's up to the league and the officials to prevent players from flopping because as long as it works, players are going to do it. You talk about players not being competitive, then complain about them flopping? You can't have it both ways.

You know who else flop a lot? Tony Parker and Manu Ginoboli. More players in the NBA flop than don't. Quit pretending Lebron is the only one who does it, or even that he's one of the worst floppers in the league because he's not even close. Your top MVP candidate James Harden is far worse than Lebron.

Originally Posted by AstonMartinNY

7. This man gets alot of the calls. Lebron was allover Tony Parker last night on that clutch play, rolled on the floor and everything. NO CALL. if it was him I strongly believe that he would have gotten a call. When Lebron has great defense on him he pleads for a foul, its ridiculous.

More whining about the refs. Funny how the refs are always out to get whichever team someone is rooting for.

People see whatever they want to see. Opposing fans can watch the same game and both think the refs favored the other team.

Lebron had some bad calls go against him last night too. For example, when Joey Crawford called an offensive foul on him for setting a completely stationary and legal pick on Tony Parker and Tony Parker ran into him and flopped backwards. Funny how these calls are never mentioned

[EugeneOnegin]

Originally Posted by Army_Guy

The sad thing is that I enjoyed watching the guy play in Cleveland but that seems like it was a different person. It wasn't the fact that he left, it was the way he did it and who he went to. It was a totally classless way of leaving. If he would've told Cleveland that he was testing free agency, people would've respected him for that. But to have a TV show about it? Doesn't matter that the money went to charity or whatever.

I'm so tired of these young kids thinking he's better than MJ. I'm 34 and grew up in Chicago when the Bulls were not only winning, they were winning big. If leflop had played back in the 90's, he wouldn't even average 20 PPG because he is just soft. Unfortunately, it's typical of this era, the kids growing up these days are like that. I shoot around at the local high school and the kids there look up to guys like leflop, whine and cry every time someone breathes on them hard. Back in my day, you'd better almost be bleeding to get a foul. The attitude of entitlement spreads to the kids these days: if you don't get your way, whine and cry until you do. Instead of working hard and build a team around you like a leader does, go somewhere else with people of the same poor attitude.

leflop is a guy who manages to succeed in a watered down league, it's as simple as that. Put him back in the 80's or 90's against some real defenses and he'd been run out of the league long ago. Him staring people down like a street thug and flexing is the attitude kids these days pick up on. Those kids aren't going to be playing pro sports and they're going to learn the real world is a cruel and harsh place that doesn't give in to cry babies and thuggery.

The Heat are an assembled team and I'm sure the NBA has a lot of financial interested vested in them winning.

Look, another "back in my day we walked to school uphill both ways" revisionist history/rose-tinted glasses post.

The sky is fallin', I must go an' tell the king!

I'm almost the same age as you and your characterization of 80s-90s defensive is flat out wrong. Go watch some complete games from those eras. Especially the 80s. Today's defenses are far better.

Originally Posted by Army_Guy

IMO, basketball in general is a shameful sport. Nothing but a bunch of tattoo'd thugs running around. What's the point of a uniform if guys are wearing headbands, long sleeves, long pants or whatever they want? What's with staring people down? How is it an accomplishment for a 6'8" guy to dunk on a 6'2" guy? Not too many of the classy players are left and that's why I'm rooting for the Spurs. They're a classy team from a classy city.

It's too bad we don't have any upstanding classy guys like Michael Jordan around nowadays. Punching teammates in the face, cheating on his wife, staying up until 2 AM gambling before playoff games, blackballing guys he didn't like from the Olympic team. Pure class!

Bill Lambier, Shawn Kemp, Charles Oakley, Dennis Rodman, Isiah Thomas, Roy Tarpley, Chris Washburn, Kermit Washington, Vernon Maxwell...all pure class!

Today's players are nothing but a bunch of tattoed thugs! They may have shaved the corn rows but they're still thugs. Look at that thug Kevin Durant! Probably carries a crack pipe and a .45 around in that backpack.

I haven't heard that one for years. Never mind that the league has very few problems off the court. I wonder what kind of jokes Army_Guy tells around his buddies.

[EugeneOnegin]

Originally Posted by LexusNexus

In my eyes with the way he plays, he will never be on par with Julius Erving, Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins, Shawn Kemp, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, or Vince Carter.

Wait, WHAT? Lebron is not as good as WINCE CARTER and SHAWN KEMP?

[EugeneOnegin]

Originally Posted by Natural510

I think one thing you all are forgetting to mention (which is also clouding many peoples' perceptions) is there was no 24/7 media in the 1980s & early 90s. I mean, ESPN existed, but not everyone had cable and there was no internet to add to the hype of Jordan, Magic, Bird, etc. It's the same reason flopping and bad refereeing appears to be bigger now than back in the day...there are more cameras, pundits, sports news stations & websites to overanalyze every move to death.

Bingo. If today's sports media existed in Jordan's first 6-7 years he would have gotten crucified.

[Army_Guy]

Originally Posted by TAM88

Was it really necessary that he stand there and look to the crowd for a few seconds after the block instead of running down the court with the rest of his teammates? That play personifies what's wrong with the NBA to me.

Yep. Personifies the me first, look at what I did mentality.