2017-18 NBA Thread

[33anda3rd]

Also re LeBron and his team/close friends, check this out, it was recorded last year at the All-Star Game at a NOLA barbershop.

If you're not familiar with the cast besides the ballplayers and 2 Chainz:
Maverick Carter--LeBron's business guy
Rich Paul--LeBron owns a sports agency with him
Randy Mims--the fourth of LeBron's "four horsemen" with LBJ, Mav, Rich Paul, a sports agent (all four are long-time friends)
Steve Stoute--former manager of Nas and Mary J Blige, huge music exec, now heads an international marketing group w/ clients like McD's
Paul Rivera--behind the scenes guy at Beats By Dre and manages the LeBron line at Nike

The entire half-hour is compelling, highly entertaining and insightful, but the basketball talk is DAZZLING. If you don't want to watch the whole thing, the big stuff is from 8:20 to about 17:30.
-Culture of winning/losing (how LeBron opened up Kyrie)
-Judging good players on bad teams, what change of scenery can do, how people are either a reason for a good outcome or just part of a team outcome
-LeBron and Oakley talking about a player's role on the team and the value of coaching/leadership
-Coaches that don't wanna coach
-Rich Paul on talking to Tristan about his role on the Cavs, putting pride to the side.
-Rich Paul trolls Russ a bit for Russ's social media post saying he wasn't watching the playoffs, saying guys don't even watch basketball to study the game. It's just all really great stuff.
-Bemoaning all-star players who don't know how to play basketball--volume scorers who can't win games.

After 17:30 there's some music biz stuff, then it goes back to sports. LeBron makes his case for why his job is harder than Brady's, argues that Belichik is the genius, Mav Carter argues for Brady, it's kinda fun and not basketball related but still well worth watching.

[MrCrowesGarden]

The other aspect of the debate that is consistently lost is that MJ always gets the nod in the area of mental fortitude and competitiveness, and yet he's the one who literally walked away at his peak to go on a walkabout. LeBron grinds it out year after year with increasingly suspect rosters around him and he does it with dignity and respect. MJ would have threatened to kill Dan Gilbert and gotten coach after coach fired if he had to put up with it.

I do wonder what it would look like if MJ played in the Twitter era... or even played the bulk of his career just in the Internet era.

[33anda3rd]

Because of how MJ would have used social media, or how our perceptions of MJ would be different based on the huge hivemind of social media?

[33anda3rd]

By the by, this is the first MJ/LeBron conversation I've had with anyone that's gone more than 14 seconds without someone demanding that their choice is the right choice, and an example of when I really like GRB. I'm enjoying reading everyone's posts on this.

[MrCrowesGarden]

Because of how MJ would have used social media, or how our perceptions of MJ would be different based on the huge hivemind of social media?

Moreso the latter, but I guess also would he hold up as well as Lebron has given the scrutiny is exponentially greater? Or would he be thought of as some talented but annoying try-hard?

[Transmogrified Tiger]

The other aspect of the debate that is consistently lost is that MJ always gets the nod in the area of mental fortitude and competitiveness, and yet he's the one who literally walked away at his peak to go on a walkabout. LeBron grinds it out year after year with increasingly suspect rosters around him and he does it with dignity and respect. MJ would have threatened to kill Dan Gilbert and gotten coach after coach fired if he had to put up with it.

I'm a LeBron guy, but he's done more than his share of roster/front office manipulation too. From making the Heat get Shabazz Napier and then not coming back, to the influence he has on teammates and who the coach is in Cleveland, there's more than a few examples.

[CardsofSTL]

Lebron is pretty full of himself...but if any athlete has earned the right to be full of themselves it is probably Lebron.

Lebron vs. MJ is sort of like Rocky Balboa vs. Mason the Line Dixon....magical.

[33anda3rd]

The other aspect of the debate that is consistently lost is that MJ always gets the nod in the area of mental fortitude and competitiveness, and yet he's the one who literally walked away at his peak to go on a walkabout. LeBron grinds it out year after year with increasingly suspect rosters around him and he does it with dignity and respect. MJ would have threatened to kill Dan Gilbert and gotten coach after coach fired if he had to put up with it.

I'm a LeBron guy, but he's done more than his share of roster/front office manipulation too. From making the Heat get Shabazz Napier and then not coming back, to the influence he has on teammates and who the coach is in Cleveland, there's more than a few examples.

On the roster of clients at his his sports management team:
JR Smith: 4 years / $57 million
Tristan Thompson: 5 years / $82 million
Does Cleveland pony up that much money for those two mediocre players if LeBron isn't pulling strings?

[lukethedrifter]

Curiously, LBJ has never played under a coach considered one of the brilliant minds of basketball unlike MJ.

[Socnorb11]

The other aspect of the debate that is consistently lost is that MJ always gets the nod in the area of mental fortitude and competitiveness, and yet he's the one who literally walked away at his peak to go on a walkabout. LeBron grinds it out year after year with increasingly suspect rosters around him and he does it with dignity and respect. MJ would have threatened to kill Dan Gilbert and gotten coach after coach fired if he had to put up with it.

To be fair, Jordan was coming off of 3 straight championship seasons (yawn) and his father had died, when he decided to walk away. It's possible that he wasn't feeling challenged anymore, and chose to "grind it out" on a bus with a bunch of minor league baseball players in order to prove something that he hadn't proven already, repeatedly.