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But GSW was a 70+ win team before Durant showed up. And the 4 all stars on GSW are still more than that Heat team
Close doesn’t matter. They didn’t do it an now we have a sweet sweep to watch
The Heat were such a combination that not 1, not 2, not 3, 4, 5 or 6 championships were predicted. It’s basically the same thing - Lebron formed a trio everyone knew would dominate the league (4 straight finals). That Heat win 3 rings if Lebron doesn’t wet the bed in 2011.
His social media says otherwise. I’ll spare you the link of hundreds of thousands of comments with the snake icon on his Instagram. There’s a reason Durant stays off it
None of those players joined a dynasty team already solidified, a 70+ win team.
Lebron is talked about all day. He's way more hated. You're thinking of maybe the past 2 years.
Money has nothing to do with it. He had to take a big paycut to stay at GSW
To have rings and never be considered one of the greatest due to how you got them will last much longer when the money is gone
CUt the crap...Lebron did the exact same thing and got crucified for it at the time, now is universally regarded as one of the best ever. When all is said and done, history recognizes accomplishments, and highlight reels will tell the story, not Instagram trolls.
Cleveland's resilience has been every bit as impressive as Golden State's dominance. Most of the success is a credit to LeBron, but the rest of the team is fighting like crazy just to stay above water. And it's working. Game 1 was a classic. Game 2 would've been a 48-minute blowout had Cleveland not stubbornly hung around and chipped away at leads until Steph Curry went supernova in the fourth quarter. And Game 3 was great from start to finish.
I don't know whether any of this is a consolation to actual Cavs fans, but it should matter to everyone else. Just as the first two games provided high drama and real heroics, Game 3 gave us one of the best Kevin Durant games I've ever seen. It was incredible. And it was only possible because this Cavs team—Hood, Kevin Love, LeBron on a bad ankle, Tristan Thompson—somehow forced Durant to be legendary.
None of these performances will go down in history for Cleveland, and most of the details will be probably forgotten by next week. But that has its charms, too. For all the Finals moments destined to be etched into history, there are certain things you
CUt the crap...Lebron did the exact same thing and got crucified for it at the time, now is universally regarded as one of the best ever. When all is said and done, history recognizes accomplishments, and highlight reels will tell the story, not Instagram trolls.
It wasn't quite the same thing though it was still a weak move. Lebron doing "the exact same thing" would have been joining the Celtics.
From a fan perspective, KD's decision was much more frustrating because OKC would have been more than capable of defeating Golden State in 2017. I think a lot of fans were looking forward to a feisty and competitive Western Conference for years to come. KD's decision destroyed that possibility.
It's interesting when you look at total win shares of Miami's Big Three compared to GSW's Big Three.
Lebron - 65.3
Wade - 35.6
Bosh - 34.2
Durant - 22.4
Curry - 21.7
Thompson - 12.0
Here it is for the playoffs.
Lebron - 19.1
Wade - 9.8
Bosh - 8.5
Durant - 6.8
Curry - 5.2
Thompson - 2.4
Here are the win shares for the Bulls 2nd 3 peat.
Jordan - 54.5
Pippen - 32.0
Rodman - 20.0
Maybe these numbers will have no influence on the narrative in the years to come, but it seems clear Lebron has to contribute much more for his teams to have a shot at winning than KD does. This was even true in Miami when Wade's apparent decline from injuries made him less valuable than everyone thought he would be.
Just wait until this summer, when LeBron joins the Dubs, riding the bench and he gets his 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th rings over the next 4 years, as a bench warmer!
I would love to see this for the pure hilarity of it. If all that matters is that you win rings, regardless of how you win them, then Lebron could potentially win another 5-6 by joining up with the Dubs. He could enter Bill Russell territory.
Warriors were better than Cavs before Durant and when Cavs still had Kyrie. Chris Paul was injured, but so was Andre Iguodala. Kevin Love was out in ECF some, but Hayward and Kyrie didn’t play at all. The Heat won with Ray Allen who was still extremely capable, and anyone is more than welcome to go check that game 6 shot as well as his stats per minutes. If Lebron wants to win another ring anytime soon as a productive player he will have to fit into system at Golden State or Boston. Lebron on the Rockets simply won’t get the job done, and I’m not sure him on Celtics would be enough either.
Dallas was his easiest ring he never won in hindsight. He lost to the spurs a few times and obviously GSW, both of which would beat Dallas IMO. It doesn’t damage his legacy but it doesn’t strengthen it either. He needs ring #4 and time is running out.
Not sure what this means, he’s playing with 3 all-stars. He could play like crap and Curry or Klay would pick up the points. He has no presssue.
That's my point. He's even more lethal in Golden State, because he has contributors around him, along with a competent coach. I never liked Scott Brooks and I don't think Billy Donovan is any better, because neither of them know how to coral Westbrook. Like someone else posted above, Durant going to Golden State ultimately busted the narrative of competition in the West. Spurs had a shot and then came the Kawhi Leonard injury and subsequent issues that followed him, on top of a team that's continued to age.
Utah, New Orleans, either LA teams, Minnesota, Portland, etc etc are not going to be competition for Golden State. Houston is the best shot out of the West and we're talking about one team here. That CP3 injury was absolutely devastating for Houston, because now you have to make further decisions with your current squad and hope you can get back to the same situation next season. That becomes taxing on the team, the coaching staff, and the owners. To get that close and have one particular hiccup end your season is incredibly taxing.
Sure, Golden State has had its injuries, but the regular season isn't going to hurt their chances of making the playoffs. Also, none of their key contributors has missed significant time in the WCF or NBA Finals. I'm not even counting Iggy in this, because they can win without him. We have the 2016 Championship, that still went 7 games, that's the closest Golden State has been to missing key contributors. They have 4 healthy All-Stars and that changes the whole look of this team. Even if Curry isn't shooting particularly great, defenses still have to respect him on the court. Defenses don't have to respect him when he's sitting on the bench!
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