[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

JFC. I never said he wasn't anything short of phenomenal in the playoff run. Stop with the bullshit putting words in my mouth that I've said he's done "nothing at all for his team." But really? Greatest postseason performances the sport has ever seen? If we're talking about the NFL, Big Ben, Eli, Brady, Montana, Elway have had some of the most dominating performances even if statistically underwhelming because they had ice-in-their-veins 2 minute drills.

Yes, one of the greatest postseason performances the sport has ever seen. See here (http://www.basketball-reference.com/..._yearly_p.html) and here (http://www.basketball-reference.com/..._yearly_p.html). Unless you think statistics are somehow biased in favor of LeBron, I don't see how somebody could come to a different conclusion.

He is basically the NBA's Peyton Manning. He barreled through very underwhelming competition and beat a finals opponent that was woefully immature and unprepared. In that, LeBron's 2012 postseason was a dominant performance that was mediocre in the closing minutes of games. So I don't understand your standard.

First of all, I love how calling him Peyton Manning is supposed to be some kind of an insult. Peyton Manning is going down as one of the greatest QBs to ever play the game. If LeBron has a 2nd half of his career as dominant as Peyton Manning's 2nd half was/is, you're going to be very upset (unless of course LeBron rejoins your Cavs in two years which he very well could, at which point, you'll jump right back on his bandwagon like all of the other Cleveland whiners).

Second of all, unlike Peyton Manning, LeBron James is one of the greatest playoff performers of all time (3rd in WS/48 behind only MJ and Mikan: http://www.basketball-reference.com/..._career_p.html). LeBron has actually shown the ability to raise his game in the postseason unlike many of his peers (Kobe, Carter, McGrady, etc.), which is not something that Peyton Manning has ever been able to do in the playoffs. This ridiculous, baseless narrative that he can't perform in the playoffs because he couldn't lead garbage Cavs teams to titles over far superior teams like the Spurs and Celtics is just that...ridiculous and baseless. Now that he led a team to a championship it's that he didn't hit or take enough shots late in games that the Heat ended up winning? Games that they ended up winning largely to his dominant play both offensively and defensively? It's ****ing absurd.

We are talking about an elite player here and where he belongs in the conversation comparing him to Kobe and MJ. If you were wondering... MJ is 9/18 (50%) on game winning/tying shots in the 4th quarter of the playoffs. LeBron is 5/15 (33%). Kobe is 8/29 (28%).

So basically we're talking about the difference of three shots between LeBron and MJ and a total of 15-20 over both careers. In essence, if he hits a few of them this April, he'll be right there with the supposed greatest of all time at game winning shots. Yeah, trying to take any meaning from this kind of sample size is exactly the problem.

Here's the story. LeBron doesn't come close to touching MJ here. If we're talking about Kobe vs. LeBron, answer one question... in the playoffs, who is the closer? In Miami, it's Wade. In LA, without question it's Kobe. The Heat attempted 7 game-winning/game-tying shots in the 2012 playoffs. LeBron took only 2 and one of them wasn't even the final shot in regulation (Haslem of all people took the game-winning shot). Two years ago, LeBron didn't take a SINGLE game-tying shot. Wade was the closer.

Taking more shots in such situations doesn't make either Kobe or LeBron better players. In fact, the willingness of elite players to defer to others for open, higher percentage shots often gives teams a better chance to win than to have somebody like Kobe or LeBron take a low-percentage, pressured jump shot. And win the Heat did (which makes the criticism here especially odd). It's like watching a star and a team dominate on their way to a championship and then being upset at the end about the way he/they did it because they didn't fit your own personal idea of what a star and a team should look like. It's such bunk. Of course, attempting to ascribe any meaning from a sample size as small as seven shots is again a major problem with this hypothesis.

You were the one that is grandstanding about what a dominant playoff run LeBron has had. How can you rate a performance as legendary if he wasn't even taking shots with the game on the line? That is very unusual.

If grandstanding is defending LeBron's incredible 2012 postseason from your utter bullshit and these hilarious comparisons to the inferior Kobe Bryant, then sure, I'll do that. There's far more to success in basketball than taking (and in Kobe's case, often missing) late game shots. Really, even bothering to engage in this nonsense gives more credence to your bullshit theory about LeBron than it deserves.

Only you would celebrate LeBron's passing ability with the game on the line. What does that make you, then?

Somebody that isn't a butthurt Cavs fan with the ability to objectively watch, understand, and respect the game of basketball and one of its greatest players without blind hatred and criticism, I'd say.