2018 NBA Catch-All - LeBron Fallout Edition

The basic premise of the article is flawed, writers and show hosts and other media people talk about that decision all the time. Seems like the writer got an idea in their head and just went with the premise to get an article out even though it is not true.

Not as much as they could considering it's seemingly broken the NBA.

I don't agree it broke the NBA. We were a Chris Paul injury away from Houston beating them. We've seen dominant teams come and go, the Warriors are the latest.

Also, this series could easily be 2-1 Cleveland with a handful of lucky bounces. If it was, I doubt everyone would be talking about Warriors dominance.

Part of what that article addressed is that the Warriors can win in spite of being sloppy. When Durant decides to play crisp and take good shots it's basically over.

Funny things certainly do seem to happen after the third year. If something breaks the NBA for 3 years, it didn't break it and it certainly didn't do any irreparable damage.

The thing that probably broke the NBA is not letting Chris Paul go to the Lakers amidst all of the stuff that went in all around it (a few years before to a few years after)

The Bulls comparison is really weird. The Bulls got Jordan back after his Baseball retirement/exile for the full season, and they managed to trade for Rodman too.

fangblackbone wrote:

The thing that probably broke the NBA is not letting Chris Paul go to the Lakers amidst all of the stuff that went in all around it (a few years before to a few years after)

You'll have to explain that one for me. That was at the peak of the LeBron Heat's dominance and I doubt adding Paul to rickety Kobe and Pau would have changed that. Not sure they would have made it past the Thunder either, considering this was pre-Harden trade and the Lakers getting the gentleman's sweep.

Has sticking "The" at the beginning of a movie title become the new thing?

Good first quarter. And without Klay

Rat Boy wrote:

Has sticking "The" at the beginning of a movie title become the new thing?

No, it's just a new thing.

Congrats to the Warriors. I always wish teams would win a series on their own home court as the celebration after is much better.

Next year will be pretty interesting. What happens in Toronto? Will Boston be a juggernaut? Is Philly for real? Does Houston do anything big or just count on health? Does Kawhi come back to the Spurs and how good are they? Who is Lebron playing for, does he go after a ring or money?

Swaggy P is an NBA champion.

Observation: McGee was the most consistent of the Warriors during the finals...

Fun fun fun.

Rat Boy wrote:

Swaggy P is an NBA champion.

Dude's a born reble.

Gratz to GSW. Fun team to watch. Love how the individual egos get subsumed for the team.

This was the most boring playoffs I can ever recall. Thankfully even a boring NBA is better than every other sport to me, but I hope someone can crack the code and give GS a series next year. Houston came close, but even that series was trading blowouts almost to the end.

ESPN reporting that Lebron injured his hand punching the chalkboard in the locker room after game 1. Been wearing a soft cast and in pain the last 3 games.

Wow. Usually it's Steve Kerr that punches out chalk and/or white boards during the postseason.

Stele wrote:

ESPN reporting that Lebron injured his hand punching the chalkboard in the locker room after game 1. Been wearing a soft cast and in pain the last 3 games.

Was J.R. Smith's face on it?

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/s0Y18IP.png)

Couple thoughts:

1. I don't think the playoffs were bad or boring. Seeing two young upcoming teams push the Cavs to 7 games was thrilling. Seeing star studded OKC get dismissed by a fundamentally sound team like Utah was satisfying. Boston-Milwaukee was fun. I am again more bummed by not having real basketball til October.

2. Nobody in the media (that I've seen) is questioning this thing about LeBron breaking his hand on a chalkboard, Amar'e style. Secrets like that don't tend to last a week in the NBA. It kinda seems to me this might've been thrown out there purely as damage control for the sweep.

Blind_Evil wrote:

2. Nobody in the media (that I've seen) is questioning this thing about LeBron breaking his hand on a chalkboard, Amar'e style. Secrets like that don't tend to last a week in the NBA. It kinda seems to me this might've been thrown out there purely as damage control for the sweep.

Yeah, that crossed my mind too. How "convenient". I looked it as a (weak) attempt to save face.

How fast did it take for the soup tossing incident to go public?

Blind_Evil wrote:

Couple thoughts:

1. I don't think the playoffs were bad or boring. Seeing two young upcoming teams push the Cavs to 7 games was thrilling. Seeing star studded OKC get dismissed by a fundamentally sound team like Utah was satisfying. Boston-Milwaukee was fun. I am again more bummed by not having real basketball til October.

You’re right. I actually forgot about the Jazz and those earlier series. I don’t give credit for the Houston series since most of the series was blowouts, but you’re right that there were some exciting moments. I retract my earlier hyperbole.

Still overall more boring series than not too me. I think maybe I’m just burned out on Cleveland and maybe LeBron as well.

I believe Lebron’s injury. He was great this series, no one was sitting there saying why didn’t Lebron do more. He has no real reason to lie.

I still don’t get how KD avoids getting the grief LeBron got (gets) for going to Miami. This guy choked away a 3-1 lead and then bailed and went to a 73 win team to win 2 championships with a team of 3 all stars. He is 1000 times worse than LeBron IMO.

Oh and he’s played for the exact same amount of teams LeBron has in his career.

Part of it is he didn’t put on a TV show. Part
of it is fans have grown up. I know I was hard on LeBron back then, but in hindsight I wish I had been more mature. People deserve the opportunity to be happy and ply their trade wherever they want. Even if they’re athletes. Leagues can set rules, of course. Players, through their union, can agree to limitations on movement. But outside of that I don’t begrudge someone plying where they want to play. Life is short. Athletic careers are even shorter.

For the sake of competition I wish that OKC team had held together. But I don’t think what KD did was “wrong” or “bad”. It just made the NBA slightly more predictable.

And it turns out the problem in OKC was Russ. Also the coaching, but I don’t blame KD for wanting to play with Steph instead of Russ.

I'd say Kevin Durant got far more grief than Lebron and still does. Lebron got grief for The Decision being made into a tv production. It mostly went away after his first season with Miami.