I feel the same way.I would root for the Lakers in this matchup bc I’m a LeBron guy, he’s been the GOAT for several years now already and another ring with bring much pain and anguish to those who feel otherwise.
+1. I'll be rooting pretty hard for the Bucks and any non-Lakers team out west, but should the worst come to pass, Lakers it is.I would root for the Lakers in this matchup bc I’m a LeBron guy, he’s been the GOAT for several years now already and another ring with bring much pain and anguish to those who feel otherwise.
I know he's been the proverbial "straw that stirs the drink", but doesn't LeBron come pretty damn close to that criteria? DWade, Bosh, Kyrie, AD and even Kevin Love have all been 1st/2nd team All NBA at some point.Durant's career will be a hard one to judge at the end. He's spent his entire career playing alongside all-NBA guys, in three different places. Has any MVP caliber player ever played with this many stars while moving around as often as he has? Maybe just Shaq?
Does Kyrie think? He says a lot of words, but very few of them indicate a great deal of thought.Does Kyrie think I'm racist if I pick the Lakers?
[I pick the Lakers.]
At least we saw LeBron in his first run with Cleveland play with a fairly putrid supporting cast. Even getting swept by San Antonio, just dragging that Cleveland team to the finals in 2007 was a herculean achievement. Here's the rest of the roster:I know he's been the proverbial "straw that stirs the drink", but doesn't LeBron come pretty damn close to that criteria? DWade, Bosh, Kyrie, AD and even Kevin Love have all been 1st/2nd team All NBA at some point.
This. I want to see this finals because I like watching people that are really really good at basketballI hate both teams but come on... LeBron and AD vs Harden, Kyrie, and Durant? That’s must see TV. Five of the 15 best players in the world on the court at the same time? Unreal.
100%.Definitely the Lakers. KD and Kyrie are insufferable, while LeBron is the GOAT and this would further cement that.
He comes close but as mentioned above, he spent the first seven years in Cleveland and during his tenure his teammates had a total of two combined AS appearances (Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Mo Williams each made it once). Outside of his first two seasons, I don't think KD ever played with such a mediocre group (and rookie Westbrook and second year Jeff Green might have been better players than anyone Lebron played with in his first tour with Cleveland).I know he's been the proverbial "straw that stirs the drink", but doesn't LeBron come pretty damn close to that criteria? DWade, Bosh, Kyrie, AD and even Kevin Love have all been 1st/2nd team All NBA at some point.
Isn’t a pretty good portion of that achievement negated by signing with the Warriors immediately after?I think that is a good argument, but I do think Durant with the Thunder taking a really strong Golden State to seven games in the 2016 WCF, even though he had Westbrook (who is complicated), was an achievement that rivals what LeBron did with the Cavs against San Antonio in 2007.
Why? If we're talking about how good a star player is absent a super team, why would that matter? Sure, Durant then moved on to stacked teams at Golden State and Brooklyn and has been judged accordingly. LeBron was great with a decidedly unsuper team in Cleveland, but once he had a choice (like Durant), what did he do? He's pretty much been with stacked teams since.Isn’t a pretty good portion of that achievement negated by signing with the Warriors immediately after?
I’m sorry but this argument infuriates me.Why? If we're talking about how good a star player is absent a super team, why would that matter? Sure, Durant then moved on to stacked teams at Golden State and Brooklyn and has been judged accordingly. LeBron was great with a decidedly unsuper team in Cleveland, but once he had a choice (like Durant), what did he do? He's pretty much been with stacked teams since.
Edit: I know it isn't a perfect comparison. It took LeBron a year of toiling with the Lakers before he could assemble the team he wanted, but I don't think that move was a total shot in the dark.
OK.I’m sorry but this argument infuriates me.
This is the correct answerHas to be Nets. Lakers 18th title is insufferable.
Meh, the Nets were actually pretty well run in the Sean Marks era. That rebuild job was pretty good, I liked their pre-Durant team a lot. Getting Stars is how you win titles, that's just the way of things, the Nets set themselves up to have a chance to get Durant and Kyrie by opening cap while having good young talent.The problem with this horrible scenario, the thing that really bothers me, is that both of these franchises, Brooklyn and LA, are that they were terribly run, tire fire franchises that fucked up a million times, but were bailed out because star players wanted to live in LA and NY respectively. The NBA is buddy-buddy and encourages players to tank their trade value and hold teams hostage so they can be in anticompetitive situations and the result is that we have two Frankenstein teams that might make it to the Finals for franchises that have no business being there outside of the privilege of playing in markets that are attractive for wealthy young men.
People should not discount that the Lakers have EASILY the worst fanbase in all of sports. Not even close.
That was round 2 of the greatest rivalry in NBA history, and one of the greatest in all of US pro sport. Round 1 was about 60 years ago (most of the 60s) and had one of the more memorable championships in Celtic history. ('69, a mere 52 years ago, when an aging Celtic team beat arguably the first super-team).I'm not a big fan of AD, but clearly the Lakers.
I don't care that much about a rivalry that mostly happened 35 years ago, and I definitely don't care that much about counting banners (especially when like the Yankees half of ours are before anyone not on social security was alive).
LeBron is the best ever and he moved to LAL only after going back to his hometown team and bringing them a title.
I know, but I don’t feel like correcting 10 million people.13th.