The lakers didn't have a third star which is a testament to just how dominant shaq was.

Rodman was one of the best players of the decade, easily. It's not a coincidence that every team he went to won a huge amount of games

6/12/2012 3:40:05 PM

one of? he was THE best rebounder of the decade

unfortunately thats about all he could do

Quote :

"The lakers didn't have a third star"

holy fuck

face just backhandedly admitted that kobe used to be a star player

[Edited on June 12, 2012 at 3:47 PM. Reason : this is a momentous day on TWW]

6/12/2012 3:41:51 PM

Rodman was a stud on defense too. Rebounding was not his only elite skill.

[Edited on June 12, 2012 at 3:48 PM. Reason : er]

6/12/2012 3:47:04 PM

You don't need three superstars to win. See Nowitzki, Dirk.

Just because Miami gave Chris Bosh a max contract does not mean the dude is a superstar (although he is a really good player). Riley+Wade recruited Lebron+Bosh. Lebron gets to have a bromance with Wade and play with Bosh, a great player.

The best basketball situation for Lebron was Chicago. The best narrative was Cleveland or NYK. He's still the best basketball player on the planet by a wide margin. He'll remain the most compelling figure in sports until he wins a title.

6/12/2012 3:48:00 PM

ibface convinces us that Tyson Chandler was the sole reason Dallas won it all

^^true

but his offense was always garbage

[Edited on June 12, 2012 at 3:50 PM. Reason : .]

6/12/2012 3:49:08 PM

Quote :

"he was the best rebounder in NBA history"

Zombie Wilt Chamberlain is going to fuck your girl and then eat your brains for saying that. Rodman was a great rebounder and a hell of a defender. Not the best ever, but definitely of his generation.

Lakers had vastly superior role players on the Shaq/Kobe teams. Robert Horry, Glen Rice, Derek Fisher, Ron Harper, and Rick Fox are a damn site better than anything Lebron ever had in Cleveland and are essentially on par with the Horace Grant, Steve Kerr, Tony Kukoc, Luc Longley level players that Chicago had during the Jordan and Pippen years.

Oh, and Shaq just completely destroyed the competition in his 3 titles in LA, dude was averaging 30 and 15 during the playoffs and had multiple 40 point 20 rebound games.

[Edited on June 12, 2012 at 3:53 PM. Reason : fasdf]

6/12/2012 3:50:23 PM

Look I'm not about to get sucked into your trolling here. Rodman is one of the NBAs all-time greats.

Statistically he is the owner of the two GREATEST seasons in NBA history ('95, '92) per minute since 1978 and seven of the top 100 (only beaten by barkley with 10 and magic with 8.

He owns 5 rings, 7 rebounding titles, his regular season win % when playing 30 minutes is 70% which equates to 58 wins per season (about the equivalent of a 1 or 2 seed every year). His playoff win % is 72.5%. Shaq was 66% reg, 60% playoffs (when playing 30mins).

Phil Jackson called rodman the greatest athlete he's ever coached over mj, Kobe, shaq, pippen, etc.

[Edited on June 12, 2012 at 3:59 PM. Reason : a]

6/12/2012 3:56:57 PM

Rodman partied harder than anyone and still dominated on the court ~12 hours after getting in from the bar

6/12/2012 3:59:09 PM

Quote :

"Zombie Wilt Chamberlain is going to fuck your girl and then eat your brains for saying that."

if Rodman was 6" taller like Wilt and played in Wilt's era, he would have outrebounded Wilt...he just had a knack for getting the ball

Quote :

"Statistically he is the owner of the two GREATEST seasons in NBA history ('95, '92) per minute since 1978 and seven of the top 100 (only beaten by barkley with 10 and magic with 8."

the 2 best seasons in NBA history? since 1978? of the 100 best seasons in NBA history since 1978?

6/12/2012 4:04:15 PM

Quote :

"if Rodman was 6" taller like Wilt and played in Wilt's era, he would have outrebounded Wilt...he just had a knack for getting the ball"

truth

6/12/2012 4:06:41 PM

Completely unprovable, but I'll play your game.

If Wilt was 6 inches shorter and played in Rodman's era he would have outrebounded Rodman.

6/12/2012 4:15:40 PM

Quote :

"One time we played in Washington. We played a five game series against the Bulls. It was the year they won 72 games. We lose all three games by a total of 18 points. I saw Michael Jordan come into our locker room with a cigar, while it was lit, and said, ‘Who’s going to check me tonight?’ And we looked at Calbert Cheaney and we were laughing like little school kids knowing that Calbert Cheaney was going to get him, we knew it wasn’t a game for Mike."

Lebron needs to pull this stunt

6/12/2012 4:16:24 PM

This is a really tough finals to call with Bosh back.

It really all comes down to Scott Brooks not destroying the Thunder as he has the best team but he's really struggled in the postseason at playing optimal lineups.

The series is pretty much a wash in the backcourt. Westbrook has fallen off the wagon again so slight edge to Miami , but okc has a slight edge with harden over wade bc wade has been a little hit or miss.

Lebron is a clear advantage over durant for Miami, but Lebron usually saves his worst performances for the NBA Finals so stay tuned.

Ibaka is the big advantage for okc in this series, but brooks has been hell bent on benching him for some reason. On the flip side Perkins is the obvious liability (along with fisher) for the thunder and brooks is like one of those guys with a mouth ulcer who keeps flicking it with his tongue to feel pain by continuing to play this chump.

My ever so slight lean toward the thunder comes from the fact I believe brooks will stop the madness against a team like the heat who really don't have big men. And that if Perkins does play against the heat maybe he's not COMPLETELY useless and forces Miami to play bigger (which obviously makes Miami weaker as they are best with Lebron as their PF).

I've bet $300 on okc to win the series at the moment, but I won't hesistate to switch gears if brooks rears his head again.

A lot of sharps like Miami in 7... Conventional wisdom has this thing going 7 either way. But if the thunder optimize their lineup and put in sefolosha for Perkins they could run right through miami. These are the type of series that are so tough to call, because the coaches can sometimes out think themselves or a guy like Westbrook can singlehandedly tank you by going 7-23 every game .

6/12/2012 4:18:07 PM

6/12/2012 4:20:00 PM

who wins in the intimidation department?



vs.

6/12/2012 4:21:02 PM

^^hahahahahaha

6/12/2012 4:25:51 PM

I don't know why it took me this long to realize this, but it looks like the 4 of them get their fashion ideas from Russell Brand

6/12/2012 4:31:25 PM

6/12/2012 4:34:01 PM

I like it when the Kurtis636's wander into Sports Talk for a little dumbing down. It always brings a laugh or two. Wilt was like a foot taller than every player he was playing against. lulz

[Edited on June 12, 2012 at 5:17 PM. Reason : .]

[Edited on June 12, 2012 at 5:18 PM. Reason : .]

6/12/2012 5:16:40 PM

Put $50 on Miami in 7 as a hedge for my thunder to win series bet. 6:1

For my wolfweb call ill take thunder in 6.

Oh tree, I guess you still believe your theory that whatever you called on page 1 is most important right?

I guess my thunder vs heat call looks slightly better than your celtics vs spurs.


I hit pretty big last series on the celtics, but I coulda won a small fortune if they hadn't blown game 2. Game 6 was hedgemania for me. I let all but $200 ride on game 7 second half unfortunately. Enough to offset my spurs debacle at least. Wish I'd laid them off up 2-0, but the odds just didn't look right.

[Edited on June 12, 2012 at 6:51 PM. Reason : a]

6/12/2012 6:51:31 PM

most important as far as being like "i told ya so" on the wolfweb, yes

boston at least made it a series versus miami, but i never expected the spurs to lose 4 straight

6/12/2012 6:54:23 PM

from what reading i've done in this thread i have concluded one thing: TreeTwista10 watches the nba in exactly the way that david stern would have him watch the nba.

6/12/2012 7:08:11 PM

i don't know if thats a compliment or a diss or something else entirely

6/12/2012 7:11:18 PM

its no Inside the NBA on TNT, but Jimmy Kimmel's pre-game shows are much better than ESPN's

6/12/2012 8:01:52 PM

Many team have had three stars but they were mostly organic besides boston. Not a lot of cases of teams importing two superstars to win a championship. The that did happen fuck them as well and yes Bosh was a superstar in toronto but was in toronto so you didn't hear about him and his game went downhill in the chemistry clusterfuck of the heat. Kinda like Kevin Love is a superstar right now but most people don't see him that way.

6/12/2012 8:04:41 PM

This year seems to be a big game, bigger than other final games since I came to US.Probably Laker vs Celtics can compare with this one.

[Edited on June 12, 2012 at 8:16 PM. Reason : grammar]

6/12/2012 8:14:13 PM

i heard celtics heat was the highest rated series in cable history

6/12/2012 8:18:26 PM

I watched it online.
That's crazy. They didn't include TNT overtime on nba.com and free websites broadcasting games.

6/12/2012 8:20:15 PM

Sticking with my pick in the op of this thread. Heat in 6.

6/12/2012 8:21:17 PM

It's gonna be high scores, but may not be very strategic.

[Edited on June 12, 2012 at 8:24 PM. Reason : ;]

6/12/2012 8:23:42 PM

Good point. I'm putting a big chunk on Kevin Durant not to win the MVP at plus 115. Seems like ridiculous odds for a player who is no lock to get it even if his team wins.

6/12/2012 8:33:36 PM

The algorithm I follow has Miami in 5. Basically the thunder beat two weak teams and then a great team who played terribly.

I gotta fade the math here, but I'm admittedly a little nervous after how well the math has performed and how much of a liability brooks can be.

The thunder have never been here before and Westbrook has already entered his annual playoff collapse mode.

Hopefully the thunder win tonight and I can hedge back to Miami after the public writes them off after a game 1 loss.

6/12/2012 8:55:22 PM

i'm guessing OKC will win it all (miami didnt have any competition up to this point), but i wonder if OKC will come out nervous tonight.

[Edited on June 12, 2012 at 8:58 PM. Reason : is there a model that shows both teams losing?]

6/12/2012 8:56:04 PM

Quote :

" Seems like ridiculous odds for a player who is no lock to get it even if his team wins."

KD isn't a lock to get Finals MVP if the Thunder win? come the fuck on now

Heat in 6.

6/12/2012 9:01:27 PM

my algorithm predicted Rose to tear his ACL

6/12/2012 9:06:14 PM

Battier is on fire! First final for him?
HEAT weakest point is probably the coach. They play so loose.

[Edited on June 12, 2012 at 9:23 PM. Reason : 1]

6/12/2012 9:22:53 PM

I like how Anthony asked Battier "why'd Coach take you out" and Battier was like "lol I don't know"

6/12/2012 9:28:22 PM

Quote :

"Despite growing up in Ohio, LeBron is a Yankees, Bulls, and Cowboys fan."

Go figure...

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ktlincoln/21-things-you-didnt-know-about-lebron-james

6/12/2012 9:37:49 PM

Quote :

"Battier is on fire! First final for him?"

Yes, this is his first finals.

^hell, i give him credit for sticking with the cowboys this long.

[Edited on June 12, 2012 at 9:39 PM. Reason : d]

6/12/2012 9:38:41 PM

is it safe to say that if the Thunder lose this game they'll lose the series?

6/12/2012 9:42:24 PM

I think it is. I said earlier heat in 7. I would like to change it to 5.

6/12/2012 9:45:30 PM

LBJ is like in his peak now.

6/12/2012 9:47:12 PM

Quote :

"Miami face-eating victim Ronald Poppo pulling for Heat"

6/12/2012 9:50:22 PM

westbrook has never met a shot he didnt like

[Edited on June 12, 2012 at 9:59 PM. Reason : . and they cant win with him shooting every trip down]

6/12/2012 9:59:20 PM

OKC can't win with Battier and Chalmers playing like they are.

6/12/2012 10:00:50 PM

Westbrook and Harden are lost.

6/12/2012 10:01:04 PM

lol @ the immediate change in predictions after less than a half of ball

you guys need to take your adderall

6/12/2012 10:02:43 PM

^

you guys remember when the Thunder were down 0-2 to the best team in the NBA and their season was all but over? lol

6/12/2012 10:03:19 PM

Perkins is such a waste of space

6/12/2012 10:05:01 PM

this is what Battier just saw on the baseline

6/12/2012 10:07:40 PM