NBA All-Star Weekend

HomeRunBaker

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I love the ultra casual adult person who claims they don't watch the NBA because nobody plays defense. It's like they heard this from their uncle in the 70's/80's and still believe that to this day. That's a pic of two of the games best who are also two of the games best defenders.......doing this in an All-Star game!
 

bankshot1

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I watched the last 5-10 m minutes of the game, and was a little sorry I had not watched more. And even discounting for the immense talent out there, I'm going to assume in a 148-145 game, defense was secondary. But the the 2-way play in the 4th qtr was fun to watch.
 

pjheff

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The fact that he has followers? That's the basic definition of a leader.....to have followers. He's been at the forefront of social injustice for years, his foundation spends over $1m a year on educational initiatives including hosting a technology boot camp for 3rd graders, he earmarked $41m for 1,100 Akron students to attend college, and for all the criticism his "Decision" got it is forgotten that the show raised $6m for the Boys and Girls Club of America.
I didn't realize that Dejesus was referring to Lebron's leadership off of the basketball court. I'm also not certain that philanthropist is a synonym for leader.

Did you see the game?
I didn't. At the same time, meaningless exhibitions are rarely the occasion in which true leadership is called for or demonstrated.
 

Reverend

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I didn't. At the same time, meaningless exhibitions are rarely the occasion in which true leadership is called for or demonstrated.
Indeed. That’s what made it so striking.

Great fourth quarter. Well worth watching.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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I didn't realize that Dejesus was referring to Lebron's leadership off of the basketball court. I'm also not certain that philanthropist is a synonym for leader.
I don't want to get into politics in this forum because I despise them with the heat of a billion suns.

Simply put, though, James has used his platform to speak out on issues that he deems important. Whether you agree with his views or not, he is incurring a potential cost (in actual dollars) in doing so by scaring away sponsors and other opportunities by speaking up.

It doesn't hurt that the NBA, unlike most other professional sports leagues, supports its athletes in speaking out. However, most modern professional star athletes, and especially those who are the faces of their sports (e.g. Peyton Manning and more recently JJ Watt from the NFL) tend to "stay in their lane" so as not to anger the fanbase and advertisers. James, and Kevin Durant to a lesser degree, chose not to play it safe. And while they are both rich enough that the opportunity cost of sponsorship money is relatively small, they are clearly risking financial upside in speaking out.

That defines leadership to me though I am curious what your thoughts are. Do you think that James is unworthy of being called a leader?
 

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Getting Kyrie to play better D than Brad Stevens has so far ain’t nothing neither... ;)
 

HomeRunBaker

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That defines leadership to me though I am curious what your thoughts are. Do you think that James is unworthy of being called a leader?
A leader is one who gathers followers toward his purpose. Off the court, LeBron has a ton of volunteers working on his charitable endeavors.....that is a leader. On the court, LeBron drafted his team, told us they were going to compete and defend. There was no better example than that final possession when LeBron's TEAM wouldn't allow any of the Steph's to get a 3-point look.....that is a leader.. Kids follow LeBron, he gives more than nearly anyone to charitable causes, and doesn't get in trouble. His greatest guilt is saying "Me" and "I" more than people would like and working the refs which he is extremely effective in doing. To me he really shouldn't be a polarizing figure he should be revered for all the good he does which is a massive amount......but for some reason he is. Whatever.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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A leader is one who gathers followers toward his purpose. Off the court, LeBron has a ton of volunteers working on his charitable endeavors.....that is a leader. On the court, LeBron drafted his team, told us they were going to compete and defend. There was no better example than that final possession when LeBron's TEAM wouldn't allow any of the Steph's to get a 3-point look.....that is a leader.. Kids follow LeBron, he gives more than nearly anyone to charitable causes, and doesn't get in trouble. His greatest guilt is saying "Me" and "I" more than people would like and working the refs which he is extremely effective in doing. To me he really shouldn't be a polarizing figure he should be revered for all the good he does which is a massive amount......but for some reason he is. Whatever.
He’s polarizing because of the ‘taking my talents to South Beach’ tv extravaganza and colluding with other guys to try to get a championship by joining together as ringers. I think he mitigated it when he went back to Cleveland, to an extent, but then proceeded to act as player/coach/GM and demand every move he wanted made. I’m not sure why thats difficult to understand. You can certainly disagree with it, but it should be easy to see why he leaves a bad taste for some people.
 

Kliq

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I don’t think LeBron is a bad person at all; but he is a tremendous villain in the realm of basketball. There is a difference between complaining/rooting for someone to fail and genuinely disliking them as a human being.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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I don’t think LeBron is a bad person at all; but he is a tremendous villain in the realm of basketball. There is a difference between complaining/rooting for someone to fail and genuinely disliking them as a human being.
Yeah, I don’t think anyone he’s claiming he’s Greg Hardy. But I don’t find fault with anyone taking issue with him being dislikable.
 

Doug Beerabelli

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He’s polarizing because of the ‘taking my talents to South Beach’ tv extravaganza and colluding with other guys to try to get a championship by joining together as ringers. I think he mitigated it when he went back to Cleveland, to an extent, but then proceeded to act as player/coach/GM and demand every move he wanted made. I’m not sure why thats difficult to understand. You can certainly disagree with it, but it should be easy to see why he leaves a bad taste for some people.
This reminds me of the comments from one of my son's teachers on his recent report card.

"Exhibits Leadership Qualities. Tends to Distract Others."
 

DannyDarwinism

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This article does a good job laying out what I took to be the main thrust of DeJesus's leadership comment:

https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/2/22/17039428/lebron-james-imprint-nba-michael-jordan

Regardless of whether opposing fans find him dislikable, or an easy villain to root against, Lebron is unquestionably the leader among players in the NBA, both in terms of being the on-court alpha dog, even in a environment like the All-Star game, and, as Jaylen's comments indicate, with respect to being the off-court model of success that the younger guys aspire to.
 

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Does anybody know a good way to rewatch the game, or at least the fourth quarter?

I can only find highlights and that's not going to cut it for the last half quarter, yeah? Too much transition and flow which, given the weirdness of seeing it in an All Star Game is precisely what I want to see!

Edit: Never mind but thanks in advance and all the same!

(That was easier once I fired two neurons sequentially...)
 

Reverend

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OK, so this is totally worth it and I think some of the uber-basketball geeks would love it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nbastreams/comments/7y62xs/archive_thread_allstar_weekend/

You can basically listen to the first three quarters like a podcast and the foreshadowing is amazing--they start debating about whether or not there really are flashes of defense happening as early as the beginning of the third and talk about whether or not defense will appear in the first half. Plus you really see some of the flashes of brilliance that portend what's to come.

Without the interminable commercial breaks, it's actually a very entertaining game in its entirety, especially viewed through the lens of knowing where it's going.