Tiller Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 You guys who were talking about John Stockton being overrated and not capable of playing in today's NBA are killing me. Sure, he wouldn't be able to defend someone like Westbrook, but there are tons of bad defenders in the NBA right now. He would shine on offense, though. We're talking about a league that is pretty much built on pick-and-roll right now, and you guys think Stockton wouldn't be able to play? He's maybe the best PG ever in the pick-and-roll. How do you think Malone got all those wide open jumpers and dunks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zero Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Not one...Not two... not three...not four... 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cristobal Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 You guys who were talking about John Stockton being overrated and not capable of playing in today's NBA are killing me. Sure, he wouldn't be able to defend someone like Westbrook, but there are tons of bad defenders in the NBA right now. He would shine on offense, though. We're talking about a league that is pretty much built on pick-and-roll right now, and you guys think Stockton wouldn't be able to play? He's maybe the best PG ever in the pick-and-roll. How do you think Malone got all those wide open jumpers and dunks? No doubt. If the league was as offense friendly in Stockton's day, his defense would be ok. His skills would be compared to Steve Nash at his peak but for a longer period. Stockton played at an incredibly high level for 15 years. Oh, and that was hard for me to type because I hate that mother fucker but he would have been a legend in this era. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Out of respect for jae, I will not ban you !!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 I hope the NBA moves on from Jordan some day. His legacy casts too big a shadow over the league. I doubt Jordan would have beaten the Spurs with this Heat team. He may have made things more competitive and he would've eaten his teammates alive, but do the Heat suddenly start playing amazing team defense because they're terrified of Mike? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cristobal Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 ...ok, when you say "doubt Jordan would have beaten the Spurs with this Heat team", are you swapping Jordan and Lebron, or just plugging Jordan straight into the existing Heat side? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgundy LaRue Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 I hope the NBA moves on from Jordan some day. His legacy casts too big a shadow over the league. That's the biggest problem for me with Jordan's legacy. As much of a psychopath as he was, I could deal with that. I'm not the teammate he punched. But his legacy has been artificially inflated by the media--I'm not saying that Jordan himself is artificially inflated, but how the media has draped his career in mystique. They're asking players to compete against a ghost, essentially. And I'm not sure that the media's MJ actually even existed. Oh, and for one of the two Celtics I admire: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 ...ok, when you say "doubt Jordan would have beaten the Spurs with this Heat team", are you swapping Jordan and Lebron, or just plugging Jordan straight into the existing Heat side? Jordan for Lebron. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greggulator Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 LeBron on Cleveland leading the team in those goofy pre-game photo shoots was awesome. It was the same when he would do the whole pre-game baby powder toss. That time the whole Quicken Loans Arena did that in unison with him was really awesome.I absolutely loved LeBron in Cleveland. He came off like he was a fun-loving kid with a group of teammates he loved.I get why he left. Dan Gilbert's obviously a turd and he never had a particularly good GM or coach (although their defense was nasty). He had okay talent -- Andy Varejo is a warrior -- but nothing special.But he had a fun spirit and was so much fun to watch.After The Decision,and that ridiculous "Not one... not two..." victory celebration before they even won a thing -- where he flat out said that games would be easy for them after their practices against each other -- the LeBron I loved was gone. He went from having his own team in the metropolitan area he grew up in to play with two other superstars in a city with the best weather in the country and some of the lamest fans.My whole opinion of him would have been so much different if he didn't have that dumb victory party after the signing. LBJ said those words. No one else did. He screwed up his own legacy with that awful, awful statement. (And the remarks he made about his critics after the Dallas loss weren't much better.) If he came in humble and kept that whole goofball thing he had going for him, people would love him. But instead he boasted from the get go and then lost his smile when he played. I know some of it's on me and it's ridiculously subjective of me, but I have never had fun watching the Heat as their own entity. I've had fun rooting against them or seeing them in a tight game. But they've never left me awestruck, save for that stretch a few years ago. But when I'm sitting down with League Pass, my list goes something like this: San Antonio, Golden State, Phoenix, Portland, Memphis, Clippers, Houston, Indiana, OKC, Toronto and Dallas before I get to the Heat. The team with the best player of his era is just so criminally uninteresting beyond the whole "They didn't win the title" issue. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 You know - the footage of MJ is out there... pretty much all of it. Yes, there wasn't the same 24/7 news cycle but imagine if there was? He was a six time champion with six finals MVPs. I doubt very much they'd be criticizing him. He'd probably be even more heavily praised. ESPN would have just created a Jordan station. He would have been Tiger Woods times a hundred. Hey, did you know there were other golfers in this tournament? Bah, who cares about them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mco543 Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Michael Jordan, with the 24 hour news cycle and everyone knowing everything, would be all at once the most beloved, hated, admired, and despised athlete of all time. He would be the sports version of Charles Foster Kane. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgundy LaRue Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 If LeBron was still too much of a goofy-loving guy, some folks would chastise him about that. I know several people that hated when he danced during the All-Star Game introductions one year. It's really that crazy. And yet, it's still there, if you look. Some grandma tries to take a photo of him on the floor? He stops and poses. Some fan hits a contest-winning shot? LeBron bear hugs the guy at midcourt. He plays catch with some random fan who caught a loose ball. The problem for LeBron is the problem many athletes face--at some point, it becomes a business. And Jordan would roast under the news cycle of today. Gambling, club hopping, mistresses, punching teammates, possible league suspension? Not to mention dealing with his father's tragic end. You can't tell me the hot take shows wouldn't devour him whole for every little thing he did. Not everyone. But more than a fair share. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougN Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Oh, you're totally right and I don't think anyone's here is ever going to disagree. Jordan would be totally dismantled by today's news cycle and he may have been affected by it similar to how LeBron may be affected by it today (may be, who knows). But we can't sit here and play what if and we can't sit here and always talk about the problem with LeBron is the 24 hour news. In my opinion, that's not the problem about LeBron which I've gone into detail many, many times over now and don't feel like rehashing. No one here will ever deny that he's fuckin' amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cristobal Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 I love how people in here are talking about media in the 90s like it was the Murrow era and not the era which produced Monica Lewinsky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LooseCannon Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Who doesn't wish we had Twitter-era journalism in the 90s constantly speculating about Jordan's baseball vacation being a secret suspension? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 OK, we had the River Parade. Here is the Alamodome celebration from last night. I hope to be posting a very similar video next year... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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