BREAKING NEWS!!!! LeBron James signs with Cleveland Cavaliers!!!

OMG too funny!!

 

Good for him. I hope he does well there and doesn't have another 'situation' between mother and teammate. He did a great job in Miami and I, for one, am grateful. And I'm glad Bosh is sticking around.

No matter what, I hope that the Heat, Bulls, Magic or Knicks do something this year.

 

Correct'ish on the Spurs team. They had David Robinson, though on the decline of his career and a young Tim Duncan. I'm not sure that I can look at the rest of that squad and consider them very good role players.

Also, yes... that Pistons team was loaded with talent, but nobody looks at that team and identifies a 'big 3'.

 

Well, I would count Steve Kerr, Mario Ellie, Sean Elliot, Avery Johnson (went on to be a successful coach) as high quality role players that year for the Spurs. As far as the Pistons, yes no true hall of famer on that squad, but they were all All Stars at the peak of their careers, I would argue that they are the exception to the rule, of needing at least 2 and probably 3 truly great players in order to contend. Whether it was Magic, Kareem, Worthy, or Bird, McHale, Parish, or Pierce, Garnett, Allen, remember, Wilt Chamberlin (arguably the most dominant player of all time) did not win a championship until he got with Elgin Baylor (hall of famer) and the Logo (Jerry West, also a hall of famer).

 

The 1999 Spurs played an an eighth seeded New York Knicks team for the championship* that year. That Knicks team was one of the worst squads to ever make the finals, and when they got there Patrick Ewing couldn't play due to injury. The 2003 Spurs had a young but effective Tony Parker, who took home Finals MVP honors in 2007.

Wilt won a championship in Philly (1967) and Baylor retired a few games into the 1972 Lakers season. Gail Goodrich was the third All-Star on that team after Chamberlain and West, but he was no Baylor.

 

Ah, you are correct, I always thought Wilt only had one Championship.

 

One of the reasons Wilt allegedly sought to play here is because he felt that dating white women would play more favorably in L.A. than Philadelphia or elsewhere. Quentin Tarantino says that his mother dated Wilt for a bit when he was Laker.

Anyway, rotating back to LBJ, I've never seen a league superstar conduct himself like he does. The part that I endorse is in how he is attempting to assert greater control in the league. Power in a capitalist society finds its greatest realization in ownership, but he's definitely doing what he can to push himself forward as a player.

I don't foresee him achieving the same greatness you saw/see in Magic, Jordan, or Kobe. His washy-washy level of commitment in what separates him, in a bad way, from those who've come before him.

 

Steve Kerr averaged 4ppg that year., and half that in the playoffs.
35yo Mario Ellie averaged less than 10ppg that year and was 2 years from retirement.
30yo Sean Elliot averaged 11ppg that year and was 2 years from retirement.

Even 33yo David Robinson averaged just nearly 16ppg, a shell of his former high 20ppg average.

I am a huge Spurs fan, and I would not match that team favorably against any other championship winning NBA team that I've seen play during my lifetime. As Saty mentioned, they played an extremely weak Knicks team... the stars aligned for the Spurs that year.

Also... Popovich.

 

Agreed, that the Knicks were weak that year, but being an effective and very good role player does not always equate to big numbers on the stat sheet. Those support players knew their role and did them well, Duncan was really starting to emerge and he was carrying most of the scoring load, and averaging 16 pts is still VERY good for an all star on the downside of his career. They may have beat a weak Knicks team in the finals but had to beat Garnett (Minn.), Kobe and Shaq, and a balanced Portland team to get there.

 

As a die hard Knicks fan, y'all are killing me by reminding me how bad we got dominated in the '99 NBA Finals. Thanks for bringing up those memories, I tried blocking them! Lol

 

we didn't do that bad....we didn't have patrick and that's what made the difference. lj couldn't handle robinson. plus it was a lockout year and many of our players were new- lj, camby, kurt thomas, houston, spree. they had to develop chemistry quick.

 

You lost 4-1. Put Patrick into the series and the Knicks still lose, and apparently he was so valuable to the team that they traded him during the offseason.

 

I was SHOCKED, didn't think he was going back.

 

he would have evened out the matchups.....
old ewing vs old robinson
camby vs duncan
put larry on a small foward, then rotate spree and houston, or play a big lineup, plus dudley and thomas as subs.