Another whirlwind year.
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Tag: LeBron James
All of the Greats Take Losses
“I never thought of losing, but now that it’s happened, the only thing is to do it right. That’s my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life.”
— Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali was “The Greatest.”
Everyone knows that, but there’s something that seems to be lost in the deification of the man born Cassius Clay: he wasn’t unbeatable.
LeBron Has Spoiled Us with His Greatness
“You say ‘LeBron’s playing well,’ and then you look at the stat sheet and say, ‘Oh my goodness’…LeBron James is at a level that’s just impossible to achieve. Only a few guys have gotten there or will ever get there. We should stop taking him for granted.”
— Kevin McHale
2017 NBA Finals Bullet Points
Just as I did last year, here are my quick-hit thoughts on the 2017 NBA Finals:
Starting Five to Save the World
If there was a single basketball game to determine the fate of the world, who is the starting five?
My Favorites
It’s Friday. (More than) half the country is in a funk. Thanksgiving is next week. Work is crazy. So, instead of obsessing over politics or reading another essay about how to hack your way to greatness, I thought I’d just go light today and run down a list of my favorites.
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I Was There: Carmelo, LeBron, CP3 & “The Battle of I-95”
They are the NBA’s version of the Super Friends.
Continue reading “I Was There: Carmelo, LeBron, CP3 & “The Battle of I-95””
2016 NBA Finals Bullet Points
There will be countless essays and analysis on the 2016 NBA Finals, so here are my quick-hit thoughts:
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The Fallacy of the LeBron vs. Jordan Finals Argument
Sports punditry and analysis is always full of bad arguments and poorly thought-out opinions. The roster that Fox Sports 1 is assembling is proof of that. But the worst sports argument, at least at the moment, concerns LeBron James.
LeBron is playing in his sixth consecutive NBA Finals and seventh total. And he’s going to lose. Again.
That means that his record in the Finals will be 2 – 5. And that means he sucks.
[Author’s note: I was obviously – and happily – wrong about this, but it’s not like I was the only one.]
Forget the fact that he’s in the conversation as the greatest all-around player most of us have ever witnessed. Forget that he’s been under a microscope since high school. Forget that he drags teams full of CYO players and D-League castoffs to the final round every single year. Forget that he’s done it in two cities with two completely different sets of teammates. Forget that in those seven years, he’s had the lesser team at least four times. “In fact, LeBron never played for a team that entered the finals with more than a 2-in-3 chance of winning.”
None of that matters. Because he sucks.
He’s no Jordan.
Continue reading “The Fallacy of the LeBron vs. Jordan Finals Argument”
The NBA Was Not Better in the ’80s
I just turned 36. For my generation, the 1980’s were a glorious time. We had Small Wonder and Mr. Belvedere, slap bracelets, and Skip-It. How could you not love the 80’s?
