LeBron James performance

[gideon]

For the last 45 years I have been a serious fan of basketball. I have seen some amazing games and some tremendous individual performances. I have seen nothing that came close to what LeBron James of Cleveland did last night in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference championship series.

James simply became the team for much of the later stage of the game. He scored his teams final 25 points in a row. He scored 29 of his teams last 30 with one teammate sinking a single free throw. He scored on amazing dunks, very long three pointers and everything in between. He simply put the entire team on his back and carried them against a very good Piston defensive team.

I remember being at Cobo Hall in Detroit on April 9, 1978 when the Pistons played their last game on the final day of a season before they moved to the Silverdome. David Thompson of Denver caught fire and scored 53 points in the first half. If there had been a 3 point shot then it would have been 60. He ended up with 73 because he "only" got another 20 in the second half. That was astounding.

What James did may have been even better given the importance of the game. It was something far more than I have ever seen Michael Jordan do, or Larry Bird do, or Oscar Robertson do, or anybody. I live in Michigan but Cleveland deserved this win and they deserve a spot in the finals. I hope every hoops fans appreciates what happened in this game.

 

[DannieDarKo]

Meh....

Not impressed, he nor the Pistons won't last against the Spurs.

 

[Darth Loki]

Watch out, this guy's gonna be good

I find myself pulling for him and the Cavs this year. I don't know why but he reminds me of Jordan and how I fell in love with basketball watching him as a kid.

 

[gideon]

Not impressed, he nor the Pistons won't last against the Spurs

You may be right. The Spurs have no-so-secret-weapon Robert Horry who can eliminate the other teams star from the game giving his own team a huge advantage.

Spoken like a true homer. Its one thing to love your own team but another to hide your head in the sand and not recognize a truly beautiful thing when it occurs. Its sad that you cannot do that.

 

[Lembas Eater]

I am not a sports fan but I have to admit it was amazing and its pretty exciting to live in Ohio right now (thats quite a unique thing to be able to say).

I live near Akron where James is from. I have a couple of friends that know Lebron and once in awhile, back when I worked at the movie theater, the team would come in to catch a movie and we all sort of made sure no one bothered them; it was pretty cool. My father would adopt him if he could!

And don't let Mr. Darko fool you, Much Fear I Sense In Him!

 

[DarthNeil]

Isn't it sad that we won't see a LeBron James (Cleveland)/Steve Nash (Phoenix) final due to thugs and Stern's incompetence to think logically?

 

[Bannister]

You may be right. The Spurs have no-so-secret-weapon Robert Horry who can eliminate the other teams star from the game giving his own team a huge advantage.

Spoken like a true homer. Its one thing to love your own team but another to hide your head in the sand and not recognize a truly beautiful thing when it occurs. Its sad that you cannot do that.

While I have always agreed that what Horry did was a cheap shot, he didn't make Amare run off the bench. I would understand people griping about this if this rule was new but it has been around over 10 years and players have been suspended because of it for less. If Duncan had been suspended for what happened earlier in the game I would not have been happy about it, but I would have accepted it because in the end, it is the individual player who is responsible for his actions. As far as last night goes, what James did was amazing. I don't know if it was the greatest thing I ever saw. Michael Jordan had some amazing games, but this was right up there. I still don't see either the Pistons or Cavs beating the Spurs in a 7 game series, even if the Spurs didn't have Robert Horry to level the other teams star player.

 

[gideon]

What made the James performance even more incredible that anything I have ever seen from Michael Jordan was that he did it and carried his team to a win. Scoring 25 straight points and 29 out of 30 for his team was unheard of. They were behind 7 with 3 minutes left and he tied it up. In both overtimes he was the decisive fctor. When Jordan scored his famous 63 in a playoff game against Boston - HIS TEAM LOST THE GAME 135 to 131. The whole point is to help your team win.

Regarding Horry/Nash/Stern: The commish office could have just as easily defined the "bench" as the area where the skirmish was held. After all, the players were within feet of it. The fact that they did not define it that way predetermined their ruling. Its not like Stoudemire ran into the stands... or across the court ... or onto the court ... the whole thing took place just on the sidelines where the benches were. The league could have called it that way but they did not.

When the letter of the law favors your position - you claim the letter of the law.

When the spirit of the law favors your position - you claim the spirit of the law.

When neither of those is available - claim common sense or tradition.

When none of that works - claim termporary insanity or illness.

 

[Bannister]

What made the James performance even more incredible that anything I have ever seen from Michael Jordan was that he did it and carried his team to a win. Scoring 25 straight points and 29 out of 30 for his team was unheard of. They were behind 7 with 3 minutes left and he tied it up. In both overtimes he was the decisive fctor. When Jordan scored his famous 63 in a playoff game against Boston - HIS TEAM LOST THE GAME 135 to 131. The whole point is to help your team win.

You are right about that one. I always love how they always talk about Jordan's 63 in Boston Garden and neglect to mention the Bulls lost that game. My favorite Jordan performance was probably the game he had against Utah in the finals when he had food poisoning. As far as last night goes, when Webber completed that 3-point play, I said to myself Lebron James is going to go down the court and hit a three pointer and sure enough he did. I still don't know how he managed to throw up that air ball in the midst of all those other amazing shots.

 

[Bannister]

Regarding Horry/Nash/Stern: The commish office could have just as easily defined the "bench" as the area where the skirmish was held. After all, the players were within feet of it. The fact that they did not define it that way predetermined their ruling. Its not like Stoudemire ran into the stands... or across the court ... or onto the court ... the whole thing took place just on the sidelines where the benches were. The league could have called it that way but they did not.

When the letter of the law favors your position - you claim the letter of the law.

When the spirit of the law favors your position - you claim the spirit of the law.

When neither of those is available - claim common sense or tradition.

When none of that works - claim termporary insanity or illness.

The league doesn't exactly have a track record of making smart decisions with regards to this stuff, so I don't know why anyone was surprised when they weren't smart about this one either. Seriously though I personally hate it when my team wins because of something like this. It seems to cheapen it and then you have to listen to all the people saying they would not have won had it not happened. It is as if it was a foregone conclusion that Phoenix was going to win had this not happened. That series would still have been up in the air even if Amare and Diaw had not been suspended.

 

[Bannister]

If anyone missed this from after game 4, check it out.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOA4nITEQTc

 

[DannieDarKo]

You may be right. The Spurs have no-so-secret-weapon Robert Horry who can eliminate the other teams star from the game giving his own team a huge advantage.

Spoken like a true homer. Its one thing to love your own team but another to hide your head in the sand and not recognize a truly beautiful thing when it occurs. Its sad that you cannot do that.

Damn sounds like you have a Robert Horry fetish to me gideon.

Don't feel left out though, I know lots of girls that would LOVE to be hip-checked by Horry too.

 

[The Josh]

My favorite Jordan performance was probably the game he had against Utah in the finals when he had food poisoning.

That's one of my favorite moments of him as well.
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What Lebron did last night was really amazing. If this had been done against some nobody team then I could see it being downplayed. However, the Pistons are a very solid team and to see someone do this type of thing against a team of that caliber is special.

 

[Vader AL]

please stop using LeBron and Jordan in the same sentence...LeBron has a LONG way to go and his performance wasn't the "greatest ever". that is crazy talk. it was impressive though.

i can't believe Horry and Sprewell played on the same basketball team in college.

 

[gideon]

Vader - you are right that it is not right to compare Jordan and James right now. MJ has a long and wonderful career. James has a few years. Having said that, and having watched the NBA for the last 45 years I must say that I have never seen one man take over a game for an extended length of time the way James did last night for a full 18 minutes. For 18 minutes not one other player on his team scored a basket, he led his team from behind, and they won the game. I know of no single performance in the history of the NBA that ranks with that.

 

[piccolodaimaoh]

I think what the great thing about last night's game and Lebron and his NBA career in general is that he is so young. Lebron James is 22 years old yet he is expected to be the best player on his team and the best player in the league.

The comparisons to MJ are not fair, not from Lebron's point of view or from Michael's. Lebron is playing at a level that MJ did not reach until he was in his 5th year in the league in 1989. That year the Bulls lost to the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Championship. As well as in 1990, but the Bulls got over the hump in 1991 by sweeping the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Championship round then beating the Lakers for Jordan's first NBA title.

Lebron is 22 years old, when MJ was that age he couldn't get out of the first round, let alone make it to the Eastern Finals. But, in MJ's defense, at that time in the league Larry Bird's Celtics and Julius Erving's 76ers dominated the Eastern Conference with Isiah and the Pistons pulling up the rear.

Now I admit the league today is not as competitive as it was in the mid-80's were Jordan had plenty of ground to make up, but come on, the Cavs are not a good team without Lebron. At best they are average, who is the second best player on this Cavs team? Are there any other all-stars besides Lebron?

At 22, for Lebron to dominate the Pistons; not only a great defensive team but an expereinced team with a lot of pride makes this truly a great accomplishment.

For that, Lebron James, I salute you.