LeBron James is hyped up crap and his team stinks!

[GForce11]

LeBomb went 4-18....He keeps talking about how he hit 11 high school 3pters in one game...Earth to LeBomb, you're not in high school anymore. And last time I checked, the NBA 3 was MUCH further than the high school 3.

[Little_Big_Man]

LeBron is overhyped. Yes he was good in high school but how many people in high school are 6'8" 240lbs playing the 2???? He had an easy advantage over the other people but now things are different in the NBA, people are taller, stronger and more experienced in the game of basketball. He isn't going to be a true shooting guard but maybe a good forward? At best he'll be a guy with stats like 18ppg / 7apg / 4rpg which is good but not as advertised. I think Melo should win Rookie of the Year though LeBron may still win because of his overhyped name. Melo is averaging the following: 3 GP, 18.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg, .500 FG%, .400 3P% which is great for a superstar yet alone a rookie. I would choose Melo any day over LeBron period. Melo is going to be a true star and I believe Denver will actually become a respectable team because of him and the offseason moves they made. Well thats just my 2 cents about things

[air gordon]

even miles has a better jump shot then james at this point. and he even hit a '3'. fun to hear steve kerr doing color

would silas really put a starting lineup on the floor that virtually has no reliable perimeter shooter?

[paul_pierce_the_truth]

Here are the teams that will appear on National Cable and ABC

L.A. Lakers 24 times
San Antonio, Dallas & Sacramento 23
Houston 22
New Jersey & Philadelphia 18
Minnesota 16
Orlando 15
Portland 14
Cleveland 13
Phoenix 11
Boston 10
Indiana 8
Golden State 7
New York & Seattle 6
Denver, Memphis, Toronto & New Orleans 3
L.A. Clippers 2
Chicago, Milwaukee & Utah 1
Atlanta, Washington & Miami 0

Dallas plays Lakers like 4 times on ESPN, TNT or ABC

I watched the Lakers and Cleveland, I do care if it's preseason, the Cavs lost to the Lakers without Kobe, Shaq, Fox and Horace, but of course they would to any team with two veteran players like Malone and Payton.
Miles and James played almost the entire game.

They will be trashed over and over, like 13 times, I hope the money is good for everyone involved, because the basketball is dogshit.

[Big Answer]

wow Washington 0 !!!!

Now U know what Jordan brought to this team.....

[paul_pierce_the_truth]

wow Washington 0 !!!!

Now U know what Jordan brought to this team.....

Yeah the same thing as LeBron James to Cleveland, hype!

[Jackal]

Yeah the same thing as LeBron James to Cleveland, hype!

Jordan also brought: A jumper, Defense, Leadership, Class, Knowledge of the game...In short, he brought a game.

MJ brought hype because he's the greatest basketball player ever, dont you forget that.

[bishibashiboy]

Wow he sure hit that rookie wall quickly!
But seriously, a little humility is always good for big egos. IMHO, he'll fail for sure this year. No matter what he does it'll never be enough to justify the hype surrounding him.

The real test will be whether or not he still shoots those 500 jumpers per day during the season and in the off-season when he starts getting his paycheques and realizes he's literally getting paid to breathe
He'll be a superstar if he works hard enough. He'll be crowned the next Kwame if he doesn't, and we sure as hell don't need another one of those!

[paul_pierce_the_truth]

Jordan also brought: A jumper, Defense, Leadership, Class, Knowledge of the game...In short, he brought a game.

MJ brought hype because he's the greatest basketball player ever, dont you forget that.

He was all those things and more at one time, but not with the Wiz.

Stand up for Michael forever, but do not confuse MJ of the Bulls with that geezer that was on every other night instead of a real contender, likewise do not confuss the fundamentally bankrupt child playing on television thirteen times over the likes of Vince Carter.

[Andrew]

I don't want to turn this thread into a Michael Jordan debate, but since it's been brought up:

01/02: 22.9 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 5.2 apg, 1.4 spg
02/03: 20.0 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 3.8 apg, 1.5 spg

Those numbers aren't exactly the stats of a washed up player, though I guess the standard MJ set during his career with the Bulls makes us view his two seasons as a Wizard as being sub-par. After all, there are plenty of players who would be considered as having had career years had they produced similar stats to MJ's two years in Washington. His own high standard means numbers that are good for other players are only average (or even below average) for him.

But back to the subject of LeBron. It's a sign of the times - the NBA is infatuated with potential. I guess they're trying to establish one big name to be the Michael Jordan (in terms of being the face of the NBA) of this era. The Lakers and Celtics (and therefore Magic and Bird) were the NBA in the 80s and MJ established himself as the marquee attraction in the late 80s and through the 90s.

The NBA needs a player or two to hype and use to promote the league, and right now there are a lot of stars but no one stands alone as the NBA's biggest drawcard. It seemed like Kobe was being primed for that position, but the allegations of sexual assault have hurt the image he needs for the NBA to market him as they did with Jordan.

LeBron already has a lot of hype, has shown flashes of brilliance and is capable of athletic feats that are crowd pleasing. Thus, the Cavs will get more exposure than their performance will probably warrant.

There are other matchups/angles the NBA could/should be promoting. T-Mac vs Pierce, Shaq vs Yao, the new look Lakers, etc. There should be a generous helping of LeBron, but it should be more selective (interesting matchups with established stars and a couple of David vs Goliath battles).

[paul_pierce_the_truth]

01/02: 22.9 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 5.2 apg, 1.4 spg
02/03: 20.0 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 3.8 apg, 1.5 spg

Andrew,

I agree that Jordan was better than your average player, he also was a dollar factory, in the end that may matter most, this is my point.

Jerry Stackhouse could have produced those same numbers with the Jordan minutes.

I think Jordan tried very hard, more so than Stack would have, but again this is not my point.

The point of my remarks are the number of games in which the sick and gross Wizards were on instead of contenders near the top.

I have always respected Jordan, but I'd rather watch the Celtics.

Call it biased, but I am not saying take off the 76ers or Mavericks, I am asking for less LeBron and last year less Oldman Jordan. Sorry but you must admit his effort was great, but his slowness was there.

It's really about showing one player and not about showing a good team.
I believe the Celtics goal is to win the East, Paul Silas and Doug Collins couldn't have thought that was possible, could they?

The people running TNT, ESPN and ABC want money, not the next Michael Jordan so much. Yeah a real threat to become that makes them all drool, but for money and nothing else.

If a woman like Lisa Leslie signed with Clippers, we would never hear the end of it, never would so many Clipper games be own, for this would be a leap for mankind (womankind) and we wouldn't want to miss that.

I could go on for days, just show the best games, forget the hype.

One game a here and there would be one thing, but 13 is a large number considering how ugly they will look.

[Andrew]

Oh, I agree. The MJ of the last two seasons wasn't the player he was during his days as a Bull. I was just saying he wasn't exactly washed up, but you are right - he wasn't the MJ of old.

As for Stackhouse...well, he actually played more minutes per game than MJ, and produced similar numbers (21.5 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 4.5 apg). But I do get your point - there were more exciting games involving better teams than the Wizards. If MJ wasn't a Wizard, they would not have had the exposure that they did. I completely agree you with there.

I have always respected Jordan, but I'd rather watch the Celtics.

That's completely understandable. I mean, who doesn't want to see as much of their favourite team as possible?

Call it biased, but I am not saying take off the 76ers or Mavericks, I am asking for less LeBron and last year less Oldman Jordan. Sorry but you must admit his effort was great, but his slowness was there.

Indeed, he wasn't the MJ of old. I see where you're coming from. I wouldn't have called for less MJ as I'm a fan of his, but I agree with you in principle.

I believe the Celtics goal is to win the East, Paul Silas and Doug Collins couldn't have thought that was possible, could they?

That could make for another interesting debate, actually. Does every team (or every playoff team) enter the season truly believing that with a lot of effort, they could achieve great things? Or do they settle for a projected/predictable result?

One game a here and there would be one thing, but 13 is a large number considering how ugly they will look.

I agree with you there. Like I said, a significant/interesting matchup should be shown, but 13 is too much.

[Jackal]

He brought all of those things to Washington too, just not at the same level as he did a few years back. I think both of us can agree on that one.

[Colin]

About Bron's shooting:
I heard that he has been working on his jumper throughout the summer and has changed his form which is why he's shooting as poorly as he is. I haven't seen any highlights to prove this though.

[nublu01]

nba's talent pool is getting weaker year after year with teams drafting players with so-called "potential". nba needs to go back to how it was before: drafting fully developed rookies who can contribute right away and put up star numbers. I mean.... several years back, we had rookies such as steve francis, iverson, vince, and duncan. now... its like eddy curry, kwame brown, desagna diop, tyson chandler, AND Lebron James..... I'm not saying that these or any other recent rookies are bad. They may have the so-called "potential", but they are not proven players who are, in certain degree, guaranteed success. Except for lebron james (obviously, he hasn't played a nba season game yet), those players haven't put up top draft pick numbers.

Gone are the years, when lottery pick meant drafting IMMEDIATE all-stars. Now its more like.... drafting all-stars in 3-4 years. I'm just sick of this new trend of drafting numerous high schoolers and international players who have potentials but still are BIG "??". I wanna tell the GM's in nba: "not all the high school players are kg, kobe, and t-mac, and not all international players are dirk, peja, and steve nash." I just wanna see some rookies who can tear it up, instead of sitting on bench trying to learn the nba game.

Now some people on the forum may disagree with my opinion about lebron james... perhaps Lebron James, who are still screaming "lebron james is the king of basketball" , but that's my view on today's nba rookie class.

[bishibashiboy]

I agree.
But it's too bad GM's are so scared of missing the "next big thing."

I personally think Melo will be better than Lebron for a while. People always say Lebron has more of an upside and will improve, but ppl always forget that other rookies will improve as well. Nothing is guaranteed, and I think it's very foolish and naive to think Lebron is the "king of basketball" right now.

[Ruff Ryder]

Here are the teams that will appear on National Cable and ABC

L.A. Lakers 24 times
San Antonio, Dallas & Sacramento 23
Houston 22
New Jersey & Philadelphia 18
Minnesota 16
Orlando 15
Portland 14
Cleveland 13
Phoenix 11
Boston 10
Indiana 8
Golden State 7
New York & Seattle 6
Denver, Memphis, Toronto & New Orleans 3
L.A. Clippers 2
Chicago, Milwaukee & Utah 1
Atlanta, Washington & Miami 0

Dallas plays Lakers like 4 times on ESPN, TNT or ABC

I watched the Lakers and Cleveland, I do care if it's preseason, the Cavs lost to the Lakers without Kobe, Shaq, Fox and Horace, but of course they would to any team with two veteran players like Malone and Payton.
Miles and James played almost the entire game.

They will be trashed over and over, like 13 times, I hope the money is good for everyone involved, because the basketball is dogshit.

Since i'm in va, They show wizards games on comcast. Probably about 30-40 games.

[air gordon]

i agree smiegle.. i mean nublu...

although the nba is flourishing (at least money wise) the system is flawed somewhat.

lottery teams get lottery picks because of their mediocrity. and now lottery teams pick project players to build the franchise around. years of mediocrity follow as the project players develop. the team may have cap to net a big FA, but not too many high profile FA's sign with lottery bound teams (see this year's Utah, post mj bulls). by the time the players contract is up, he may not even resign if he's asking for a big contract. it's hard for mediocre teams to get better in this league. also factor in the FA system makes it more lucrative for potential FA's to resign with their own teams. anyway...

i disagree the nba needs one single big drawing card. i've mentioned before this isn't like 1993 when MJ retired. the nba is fine in terms of marketing its superstars. the proverbial torch has been passed on. its not like we needed mj's word for this to go....

thank goodness i have league pass. but i'd much rather see the wiz, hornets, suns (all playoff contenders) on national tv then some lottery bound team who's best perimeter player is it's fragile foot center. i really hope cavs games wont be nationally televised on turkey day and xmas. that would be terrible since i can't avoid watching any other games since my relatives probably won't have league pass

[nublu01]

i agree smiegle.. i mean nublu...

to make a looong story short.... some of my friends call me Gollum.. a la.. Lord of the Rings

Dont ask me why

[Boyk]

I agree.
But it's too bad GM's are so scared of missing the "next big thing."

I personally think Melo will be better than Lebron for a while. People always say Lebron has more of an upside and will improve, but ppl always forget that other rookies will improve as well. Nothing is guaranteed, and I think it's very foolish and naive to think Lebron is the "king of basketball" right now.

agreed
im also annoyed how so many people say lebron has more of an upside, when there is only a year between the 2 and yet, so far, Melo is doubled his production.
Melo is only 19 and could be a great player a few years down the track. hes playing great ball so far and making james look like a little bitch

[ThisizaJackMove]

Well Cavs may not be good but Miles impressed me in the game against the Lakers.

Silas needs to lock LeBron in the gym and make him hit 15 15 foot shots in arow before he leaves.