LABron James Discussion: The Final Year?

Awww geez here we go with the ancient god thing again .....

 

What I can't stand about the LaBron discussion is that Laker fans aren't willing to be a team player cause they rather player hate.

LaBron on our team makes us better and dem just facts. But folks rather give the dude a phantom injury and ignore our young core's injury plagued careers just cause dude congratulates himself and his inflated stats threaten the the legend of Kobe.

Meanwhile Kob ain't thinking twice about how much chasing off Phil and Shaq may have cost him titles as he looks in awe at his Oscar.

Lakers come 1st....players come 2nd. Folks that rather stick with our "soft" youth than go get the best player in the game cause they're concerned his injury is about to happen, need to become team players rather than player haters.

 

Hey .... easy with the broad brush there. Check my sig ... reluctantly got with the program due to realdeal laying out the chance to win now and our young guys are ready on their own after learning from him in the playoffs and in general ... when he needs a rocker. Don't like him but can't argue much with that. But looking at RW's salary over the next 5 years in that illustration was frightening and confirming for me. Hell no with blowing some more of now we're talking the creme de la creme of our remaining best young talent out to try to buy a new title team with 3 MAX ******* salaries at the top of our roster. Otherwise fine here.

 

Just watching Lebron out there, the guy is still such a beast. So his age/mileage aside, I'd gladly sign him knowing we can get probably 3 more superstar years out of him and another 3 solid starter/fringe All-Star years out of him. This might defy all we know about the battle athletes have with father time but Lebron has always been an anomaly in that respect. I don't see him breaking down the way Kobe did. As long as the Lakers have young talent on the ascent while Lebron is on the descent, it'll work out just fine.

 

Actually, I'm a Laker fan over any player fan...get that straight before you take shots at my intent.

Dude gave everything to us except his ego. Had he given that, we'd be talking about trying to create a superteam this summer to get 20+ titles as a franchise with those other guys on the other coast being an afterthought. Instead, we're still chasing them dudes.

I'm not taking shots...I'm stating facts. He chased off Shaq and Phil and possibly cost us titles in the process. Do to his off the court shenanigan, he obviously couldn't dedicate his entire focus in that '04 season and Piston's series as well.

Magic is the guy that first drew me to the Lakers and through loyalty I'm a stan of his, but I still think dude cheated us out of titles for stuff he did off the court as well. So you think I'm going to avoid a Kobe topic on a Lakers discussion forum cause his legend shouldn't be tarnished by Bron? Kobe ain't thinking about Laker fans and the Lakers franchise bypassing those C bags when he says s*** like this...

...while not wanting to help recruit for the franchise. And you know what, that's his right. But as a fan, I ain't going to tip-toe a Laker legend cause its considered blasphemy by his fans....that's my right as a Laker fan.

The Lakers need stars and need to get back to the postseason. I couldn't care less about Shaq vs Kobe and whose a** tastes better....What annoys me about all of this is that we're still talking about trying to get 17 instead of gunning for 20+ next season and the near future.

I follow the mantra of the best Lakers fan ever....



The reason those dudes are even relevant is cause they're sitting on #17 right now. I can't wait to get to the point where I don't even have to think about those guys any longer and the Good Doc can RIP.

 

I’m a straight up douche hater.

And I don’t feel the need to explain or justify myself.

Spoiler

Especially to some dude with a girly word like sash in his name

 

Kobe critique is now Kobe hate...cool story bro. I've commented on Kobe favorably numerous times, but for your sake, I'll try to do it a little more.

Bron has gone to the Finals without finishing. Bron is struggling with the current iteration of the Cavs and it looks like an 8th straight Finals appearance isn't a lock.

He needs us (2 max slot allows him to pick a young crew as well as recruit a fellow star to play with all while trying to earn titles for 3 organizations and play with a pass first PG to try and get KAJ's record) as much as we need him. It doesn't seem like the Lakers are going the mercenary route.

Spoiler: Haters gonna hate

Ain't all of us trying to be tuff guys online. Anywho, you'd be amazed at all the things a dude can do with a sash...

 

I didn’t say anything about Kobe though, so maybe that part is directed elsewhere



I’m running out of things to give you a hard time about, but I REALLY don’t ever want to se LLLLL in P+G. If it makes me a hat-ah, then sign me up every day and twice on Sundays.

Stats and fans desperation to win now be damned. I won’t be swayed.

 

^^^The post was directed at Weez, but the spoiler was just for you haha.

But Weez allow me to clarify this further... I love and appreciate Kob to the fullest for the 5 titles and what he gave to us in his P&G armor. But imho, he did leave titles on the court. Kob, as he matured, redeemed himself by wanting Phil to come back and wanting the FO to get him some help (ie "Do something and do it now"). But had he swallowed his ego earlier, dude probably has more titles than MJ and then the conversation of excluding Kob to discuss LeBron being better than MJ doesn't really even matter, cause Kob woulda been far beyond that conversation. Meanwhile his titles gives the Lakers more titles and the C bags are in the rear window. That's my biggest gripe of Kobe...that he coulda had more titles.

With haters like me, who needs friends..ey Kob.

 

Look what i found on the interwebs!



So. Weird. I mean, what are the chances?

 

@vasashi17

i agree that kobes ego did get in the way in a certain respect (taking max $ when in theory he could have taken less like other stars), and also with him wanting to be the man at all costs.

but i resent the thought that he ran shaq outta town. shaq ran shaq outta town. and if anything the man you seem to revere most in Dr. Buss even said himself that he knew he had to make a choice. of course this isnt to say that kobe is without fault in the feud but he shouldnt shoulder the blame in my opinion. shaq could have put his ego aside as much as kobe.

all in all i think many are upset at what could have been. @Weezy is right too that almost all players have left titles on the table, it just sucks because there could have been more for kobe, for shaq, for phil, and of course by extension the lakers

 

it's obvious to me that Snaq was the issue, and I really feel like he's admitted as much. If he could have taken second chair, they'd have continued their run.

He wanted the credit, but wasn't the one putting in the work. He was getting by on natural talent instead of hard work.

 

Exactly. Shaq has even said after Kobe took over in the Pacers finals when he fouled out he knew kobe was the "best player ever." and that was their 1st title!

kobe played "2nd fiddle" (ha) for 3 years where shaq got much of the glory and 3 finals mvp. it was more than overdue for shaq to play a robin role after this and his stubbornness and lack of work ethic prevented something truly great

 

@Weez thx for clarifying your position, but I stated in the past that Shaq and Kob were both to blame for the breakup, but at that particular time only one was leveraging to stay while the other leveraged to leave. Shaq wanted an extension (Ie "Pay me") while Kob was a free agent that leveraged the cLips out of all teams against us before we canned Phil and traded Shaq away. Phil fired within a week after Finals defeat to the Pistons (June 10th). Shaq gets traded on July 15th to Miami. Kobe decides to re-up with the Lakers on July 16th. It could be a mere coincidence, but seriously, we should all know better.



Other than Shaq and Kob being ridiculously petty and immature, I blame Mitch just as much, if not more, than anybody. All he had to do was take what the Logo built and prolong it...instead he didn't do anything of importance in adding to that championship duo (Malone and GP don't count cause they came at the request of Shaq) and when time came for the critical moment of summer 2004, he broadcasts to the world (a time when social media was not even popping yet) that Shaq was available, while they would do anything to keep Kobe. This is the same guy that is bland AF and keeps everything to the vest, yet surrendered any leverage we had with that announcement and then immediately after that presser, Shaq demands a trade and limits the destinations to his liking.

Shaq was asking for a 3 year 90M extension, but "settled" for a 5 year 100M contract instead. Considering that during that time frame he was an All-star 4 times and won a ring, probably 2 if Wade wasn't injured in the ECF of year 1 with Shaq, then we missed out on a window where Shaq was still dominant and Kobe was just entering his prime.

Titles are left on the floor, but none so obviously from clearly the most dominant duo at the time that had prematurely shut that window.

@jbiggs Shaq and Kob were such a dominant tandem that they changed the rules because of them and they both never got serious MVP consideration cause they would cancel votes out from each other....but there's a reason there are the sayings of you "never trade big for small" and "wings are a dime a dozen in the league". KAJ was the man and still is the man in alot of regards because of his particular skillset as a big. Look what Bill Russell did in a league that just couldn't match him genetically and even a scoring powerhouse like Wilt had trouble playing against. Its why Embiid is getting so much love, why Gobert makes Utah look so formidable and why NO believes AD and Boogie could change the recent trends in the league...its why picks of Bowie over MJ and Oden over Durant were justified at the time (damn Portand...blaze away).

Kobe was awesome in his youth, but 3 titles without Shaq during that time is a tough sell to me. If anything Shaq expedited Kob's development. Prime Kob without Shaq had a tough out with the Suns. It was Kobe's relentlessness that led to a 3-1 lead against them in the 1st round, but then that all came crashing down once the Suns adjusted.

The Piston Finals is a tough one for me to accept as well since Kob clearly had alot of distractions that season and if he just applied his laser focus on the game, I think we overcome the Malone injury (which was a huge blow too of course).

Bottomline is that those 2 were dominant together. A legit wing-post duo that could stomp out the competition (if healthy) and it got cut short due to ego. Stupid...and frankly it tarnished his legacy cause he could have easily won more than MJ or at the very least gotten to 6 and tied the publicly renowned GOAT.

As much as I "love" talking about Lakers history and how funny Shaq is on TNT while how dope it is that Kob got an Oscar, I rather talk about how the Lakers could advance to the 2nd round during this time next year....and that LeBron guy might help us achieve it.

#DoneWithSeekingComfortFromOurBanners