Kevin ‘burner account’ Durant says hello
NBA 2020-2021
- Thread starter altodevil
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I am only talking about on-court obviously.
Bandaged-hand-gate wasn’t really an on the court thing but I get what you mean. He’s a ridiculously great player but some of the things he does……
Didn't realise this is the first playoffs for the Phoenix Suns in 11 years
He can't keep getting away with this. Moda Center gonna be empty if we don't get rid of him.
I expect it's a PR decision, so there are no pictures of LeBron on the court with the Suns celebrating, which would have been the imagine on espn.com last night and today. Not that this is a good excuse. I like the Lakers but I can support them with LeBron on the team.
I'm really hoping for a Trae - Luka final. I'm a fan of the Mavs and Luka but love Trae as well, he went through a lot of sh*t in those first 6 months of his rookie year when people where ripping him for being traded for Luka. He's grown so much since then, and the way he disposed of those cocky Knicks fans 
Those two can be the new Bird-Magic rivalry. Hell, so many encouraging young players for the next decade. Trae, Luka, Zion, Ja, LaMelo, MPJ, Ayton, even the slighter older Booker, Jokic and Giannis.
Those two can be the new Bird-Magic rivalry. Hell, so many encouraging young players for the next decade. Trae, Luka, Zion, Ja, LaMelo, MPJ, Ayton, even the slighter older Booker, Jokic and Giannis.
I have two responses to this.
First. I never thought about this before, but maybe the reason the Pistons didn't shake hands with the Bulls all those years ago was because they didn't want any pictures that would tarnish their Bad Boy image.
Second. Are you really Nick Wright in disguise.
Agreed. Surprised he didn't address your post and instead decided to go on a rant about how people just want to bash LeBron. Nobody has to look hard for a reason to criticize LeBron this time around. When you storm off the court like a diva instead of congratulating the victors, you're going to be rightfully criticised. It was true of anyone who behaved in the same way that preceded LeBron and will continue to be true of anyone who engages in the same behaviour in the future.
This seems to be the consensus among NBA fans and he has a history of doing things of similar nature, which is a shame because he is a great player. But a diva, he is.
Why should I go on a rant? I'm a Lakers fan, not particularly a LeBron fan. I just see absolutely no issue with this just because it "looks bad". Are you less of a competitor or a more sore loser if you congratulate your opponents off the court instead of on it? Honestly, what does it matter? Because it might look bad to the fans? Who cares?
Anyone drawing the comparison with MJ and the Pistons is also way off the mark, unless I missed the fact that him and Thomas were best friends and the Pistons were taking selfies with the Bulls in the locker rooms.
I think sarcasm might be lost on the younger generation.
Where's Max Kellerman going all father time on LeBron? He's about to go through what Tom Brady continually does to prove absolutely wrong.... LeBron's fine, his game is still legit.... Lakers are build on the back of two generational first picks.... one was injured and this isn't the east so that LeBron can fly solo to the finals(he could probably get past what...3rd to 8th in the east still now without AD). Is he slowing? Of course.... but he's been MVP-calibre in the last two years except the last 4 months.
They'll have some snakey plans up their sleeves for the summer, and I'm almost certain that despite all odds, they'll make a play for Kawhi in some way, the past is the past.... LeBron's a winner and he's probably opting out of that player option.
Up the Suns.
They'll have some snakey plans up their sleeves for the summer, and I'm almost certain that despite all odds, they'll make a play for Kawhi in some way, the past is the past.... LeBron's a winner and he's probably opting out of that player option.
Up the Suns.
Three things about Lebron.
1) He's chasing rings.
2) He's got no shame.
3) He's got no loyalty.
If he thinks the Lakers can help him win another Championship he'll stick around. If not, he'll be off as soon as his contract allows. He also won't care who he joins up with as long as he can keep the narrative all about him.
No player, bar Giannis, has got loyalty anymore. And neither should they, teams these days will throw away a player in an instant if it meant them having a better chance at a title, why shouldn't a player through away a team if he has a better chance at a title?
Dame?
Haslem...
Quite different as all of their prime they were on the best team in the league and one of the best 5 teams ever. Easier to be loyal when you are winning everything. Dame and Giannis have extended contracts with their hometown teams when they were disappointing.
The modern NBA is kind of a creation of Lebron though. He was the first to team up with 2 other top guys when all 3 were in their primes. People talk about the Boston big 3 being the first but they were all much older. Lebron started the Voltron ball rolling and then KD took it to a crazy level by joining the Warriors and then going to Brooklyn with Kyrie and Harden.
Lebron teamed up with 2 more of the top 5 picks in his draft class. If Michael Jordan had been able to do that, he could have been on a team with Charles Barkley and Hakeem Olajuwon. I wonder how many titles that team would have won? I’m guessing more than 2, which is all the ‘not 4, not 5, not 6’ Miami Heat managed……
Oh yea Dame too, my bad.
Don't agree on the Warriors three. They were a great team that won a title, and then added another future HOFer and won a couple more. They had no reason to leave, and I don't think Steph or Klay were considered at Dame's level before they won the title in 2015.
On LeBron creating the super team concept, I do agree that he changed the trend and made players more comfortable making these decisions. Players these days have more power in decisions regarding where they want to go, which I agree with because I have no sympathy with team owners. I don't really remember the league's best players forcing trades or moving at free agency in the 2000's.
The Boston trio were at the end of their careers and tried one final hurra to win a title, similar to when Pippen and Barkley went to the Rockets late in the 90's to team up with Hakeem, though they were probably past their peak more than Garnett, Allen and Pierce were.
That will always be held against LeBron, losing those titles to the Mavs and Spurs is sacrilege when you have Wade and Bosh with you. And then you also consider he needed Allen to hit a legendary game tieing 3 in game 6 against the Spurs, otherwise they would've lost that series as well.
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Both Klay and Draymond signed their latest contracts after KD had left and Klay had his first injury. It was obvious even at that point that the team was going to be a shadow of its former self and they still signed. (To be honest, this is exactly the time Lebron would have left a team when they were now in decline). As to Steph, they were winning but now they're not. Do you think he's going to leave the Dubs instead of signing a new contract? I don't know what he's going to do obviously but the general consensus seems to be that he's going to stay.
As to Dame and Giannis. Dame is about as loyal as you can get. Giannis is loyal too IMLTHO but since the Bucks won the last 2 Eastern Conference titles before this year you can hardly say his team was disappointing. Certainly they would have been expected to do better in the playoffs but the thought seemed to be that they were close so according to your logic why would he leave?
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Yeah obviously free agency changed things as well, but I really believe that if Lebron didn’t leave Cleveland and team with Wade and Bosch, the people who came after him like KD would have thought twice about making some of the moves they did. He’s the league’s best player or at least he has been for a long time, so he’s acted as a kind of tone setter in the game.
The genie is out of the bottle now and there’s no putting it back. Players will be forever looking to team up instead of staying where they are drafted (with a few exceptions)
Isaiah Thomas seems like the nicest guy in the world, i think athletes psyche themselves up with narratives, though in this case the performance would be for the other players in the league at the time, instead of being for people consuming NBA media.
Bill Lambiere (sp?) on the other hand is probably an a$$h0le.
Understatement
I'm gonna go as far as calling him an unpleasant bloke.Understatement
“How long should I stay dedicated? How long til opportunity meet preparation?”
This strange phenomena in basketball that changing teams to try and win is bad.
What on earth does Isiah and Jordan's relationship have to do with the fact that Jordan shook the Pistons' hands like a man and that Isiah didn't reciprocate?
What on earth does any of that have to do with LeBron storming off the court like a diva instead of shaking his opponents' hands? You keep asking who cares but you seem emotionally wound up about the fact that some have chosen to criticize LeBron for what they regard as the actions of a sore loser.
My main issue with LeBron is that he pretends he's some classy and infallible guy when in reality he's just a big time diva who throws a bitch fit and finds excuses once things doesn't go his way.
He needs to stop being a fake ass and stop doing the politically correct things in an attempt to fix his image everytime he slips up.
Hey at least he's got time to read that Malcolm X book now.
What's your criteria for considering a player loyal? Giannis's being paid the max while actually having a roster that's good enough to challenge for a championship. It's not like he's taking a paycut only to be surrounded by scrubs.
If anything, the likes of KAT and Booker should be considered loyal considering some of the g league standard players their front office has surrounded them with at times.
He chased rings almost 10 years ago when he joined the Heat and that’s it. Isn’t Durant chasing rings? Harden? Garnett? AD? Allen? Kawhi? Actually isn’t that the point of playing in the NBA?
He’s also shown plenty of loyalty to the Cavs because of the hometown connection, and I doubt he’ll ever play for another franchise again.
I’m sorry but that’s a poor post all around imo. I can easily agree that he’s a diva and does daft things and makes it about him sometimes, all true, but the points you mentioned are non-issues.
Nekias Duncan wrote a great article on this series. He thinks the bucks should keep Jrue on Kyrie, Middleton on KD and let Pat Connaughton get gashed by Harden, since he's the only one of the big 3 who won't just blow by him/shoot over and thus collapsing their entire defensive scheme
Either way, the bucks path to win this series is for Giannis to be the best player on the court. If he's not they lose, and quickly
Not emotionally wound up, I just think it’s a non issue on which way too much emphasis is being put on, but I can understand why some would be upset about it.
E.g. the “congratulations lines” in the NHL on ice are great and all but I could easily understand someone who wants to feck off, shower and congratule the opponent afterwards privately. Not congratuling or acknowledging it at all would be wrong but I don’t think LeBron did that at all.
Actually they won no Eastern titles. They had the best record in the regular season but you only win the East title if you win the East finals, which they weren’t even that close to doing. He was part of the reason though.
Klay had a torn ACL when he signed his contract. He didn’t really have that much of a choice. It was still going to be a decent team with him, Curry and Draymond (who by the way signed the contract before KD left). It’s much easier to stick around after you’ve won three titles though, even if the team has got worse. It’s much harder when you are a perennial underachiever.
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Everybody chases rings you are right but it's how Lebron does it I object to. Every time he comes to a franchise he takes over and basically manages that roster how he wants it to be managed. If he then sees a better opportunity he's gone and the team is then stuck paying high dollar contracts to players they don't really want and are shorn of most of the young players they had drafted in order to plan for the future. It's all about him, always has been and always will be.
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You're right about the Eastern titles, I misspoke, but you obviously knew what I meant. Bottom line was they had a very good team that was predicted to do well in the playoffs but didn't perform. The point is still a valid one though in terms of why would he leave.
As for Draymond:
"Only one month after losing Kevin Durant the Golden State Warriors just ensured that another All-Star won't be going anywhere any time soon."
https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/...ct-extension-with-a-player-option-per-report/
I don't know about Klay but KD had no trouble finding a new team after his injury and even though Klay is no KD he's pretty damn good so I'd be surprised if there were no takers if he'd wanted a move even with his injury.
As to staying with a team after you've won, I do agree that it is much easier to do so. That's why I gave Dame such kudos. He has shown loyalty in spades.
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