Can Lebron bring the NBA back to the masses? I think he can, an dlast night shows why...


Simply put, this was the best performance ever by an NBA player since Michael Jordan in Game 6 in 1998 against Utah in the finals. It’s literally been NINE years since I last saw a player put a team on his back and stubbornly refused to let his team lose. It’s probably been that long since I last had any interest in watching the NBA playoffs.

Lebron James might just be able to dig the NBA out of its current rut. This guy has the rare combination of pure skill, leadership, and maturity needed to garner the kind of widespread appeal that brings in a bigger audience. Guys like Kobe, Arenas, and D-wade are great players. They do some unbelievable things with a basketball, they’re flashy, and most importantly they sell tickets.

But Lebron is someone I think that brings in the wider audience. His character is impeccable. Lebron artfully dodged every question related to his incredible individual performance. The game was what mattered to him. He’s pulling a Jordan by taking a team full of scrubs to the promised land. How can you not respect that? Shoot, it’s been nine years since I last looked forward to watching an NBA playoff game.


True, this is an atypical performance by Lebron. He’s a triple-double, pass first, unselfish player at heart. I hope tonight he realized that he can and should take over when the game is on the line. With the possible exception of Gooden, no one else on the Cavs should have the ball down the stretch unless they’re underneath the basket all by themselves….

Guys like this bring the game to a wider audience. If Lebron can continue to step up, I think he's the future of the NBA.


Discuss.

6/1/2007 10:22:56 AM

After hearing what he did last night, I would watch the Finals just to see James stick it to Duncan and those Spurs.

6/1/2007 10:25:00 AM

0 down



6 to go

6/1/2007 10:26:27 AM

You know that the NBA set an attendance record this year, right? For the third straight year.

I don't know if I would go so far as to say they need a "savior"

And Kobe's 81 points was more impressive than Lebron's game last night, if you had said playoff performance maybe you would have a point.

6/1/2007 10:26:45 AM

Go play more baseball, pussy

6/1/2007 10:27:38 AM

Quote :

"If Lebron can continue to step up, I think he's the future of the NBA."

careful goin out on those limbs...

6/1/2007 10:27:38 AM

^^^ their ratings are also down (and have been) sharply from the late 80s/90s when magic and jordan were in their haydays

6/1/2007 10:38:01 AM

ratings will never go back to the levels they were then

There's way more channels and shit to watch now

Back then you could either watch basketball, Cheers or the Cosby Show

6/1/2007 10:43:10 AM

how come nascar and the nfl ratings are at all time highs then?

6/1/2007 10:45:08 AM

nascar's ratings have been down over the last few years

also its funny that nobody had a problem when Jordan was being his ball hog self in the 80s/90s but god forbid Kobe do it nowadays cause its soooo different

6/1/2007 10:46:53 AM

They both play once a week on the weekend when nothing else is on

The NBA usually goes up against primetime network programming like American Idol, CSI, etc.

6/1/2007 10:47:24 AM

^^ That's because Kobe isn't a baldy from carolina who can jump real high... people LOVE wince carter and he's pulled shit like saying, "I don't wanna dunk anymore." wc basically found a weakness in his game and rode it right out of town, you'll never see Kobe doing that... wince carter settling for 20-foot jumpshots is like Kobe trying to average 12 assists per game, but one fancy dunk and everyone is back in love with him. I'm not a big Kobe fan or anything but that's bullshit, imo.

6/1/2007 12:17:54 PM

Quote :

"You know that the NBA set an attendance record this year, right? For the third straight year."

Ratings are down, and basketball is losing widespread appeal. I was listening to sports talk radio and the commentators were discussing how they no longer talk about the games on the air. The radio only gets good ratings when it discussing basketball issues, like racism, the new composite basketball, ejections and brawls, etc.

Lebron, doing hat he did last night, can bring in the national audience the Jordan, Magic, and Bird did. Every other NBA player you can name either has image problems, isn't well known, or flat out isn't good enough.

Quote :

"careful goin out on those limbs... "

People have been on Lebron's ass for passing too much, not stepping up in the 4th quarter, and not having that "killer instinct." He's a great player, but he's been averaging 20-some points and not been having the breakout games like Kobe.

So yeah, if you think he's a sure thing, then say it. Plenty of people out there would have taken that argument up rather quickly before last night.

6/1/2007 12:23:13 PM

Quote :

"And Kobe's 81 points was more impressive than Lebron's game last night, if you had said playoff performance maybe you would have a point."

doubt it. this is the playoffs. It was Detroit, Not a shitty Toronto team. this is the playoffs.

6/1/2007 12:23:14 PM

YEAH YOU GUYS, THIS IS VERSUS DETROIT, THE #1 SEED IN THE EAST...NOT A SHITTY TORONTO TEAM (#3 SEED IN THE EAST THIS YEAR)

Quote :

"Ratings are down, and basketball is losing widespread appeal"

funny cause the NBA is more popular worldwide than NFL, MLB, NHL...but I guess if by "widespread" you mean "pissed off college basketball fans" instead of "around the entire world"

6/1/2007 12:26:37 PM

Quote :

"It’s literally been NINE years since I last saw a player put a team on his back and stubbornly refused to let his team lose."

AHAHAHAHA


AHAHAH

BREATHE


AHAHAHAHHAHAHHAA


9 YEARS?

MORE LIKE 9 DAYS

CHECK OUT MY OTHER THREAD

KOBE, IVERSON, NASH HAVE ALL HAD GAMES BETTER THAN THIS LEBRON GAME. AND DON'T FORGET KOBE IS ALWAYS SHUTTING SOMEONE DOWN WHILE HE'S SCORING AND HIM AND IVERSON HAD SHITFUL TEAMATES.

i mean cmon eric snow was the 2nd best sixer

[Edited on June 1, 2007 at 12:30 PM. Reason : and the 10th best cav?]

6/1/2007 12:30:24 PM

^^What was Toronto's record last year? Oh yeah..



[Edited on June 1, 2007 at 12:32 PM. Reason : somebody embed http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucLGS8WNlZw for ^]

6/1/2007 12:31:14 PM

is toronto a high school team or something? no they're a fucking NBA team

dude scored 27 in the 3rd quarter and 28 in the 4th quarter...and at halftime his team was down like 15

here's a little statistic for all the MJ dickriders

Quote :

"NBA's top single-game scorers Player Date Opponent Points 1. Wilt Chamberlain, Phi. March 2, 1962 vs. New York 100 2. Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers Jan. 22, 2006 vs. Toronto 81 3. Wilt Chamberlain, Phi. Dec. 8, 1961 (3OT) vs. L.A. Lakers 78 4. Wilt Chamberlain, Phi. Jan. 13, 1962 vs. Chicago 73 Wilt Chamberlain, S.F. Nov. 16, 1962 vs. New York 73 David Thompson, Den. April 9, 1978 vs. Detroit 73 7. Wilt Chamberlain, S.F. Nov. 3, 1962 vs. L.A. Lakers 72 8. Elgin Baylor, L.A. Lakers Nov. 15, 1960 vs. New York 71 9. David Robinson, S.A. April 24, 1994 vs. L.A. Clippers 71 10. Wilt Chamberlain, S.F. March 10, 1963 vs. Syracuse 70 "

MJ isnt even in the top 10 single game performances...yet somehow Chamberlain isnt the best scorer of all time? wow

6/1/2007 12:37:50 PM

i know it was great and all but you guys are still riding off the high of it just happeneing last night. it was not the best performance ever.

6/1/2007 12:45:55 PM

LeBron is a great basketball player, but he seems like a good person as well

thats why i like LeBron, and I think he has to be one of the most unhateable players in the league

6/1/2007 1:07:55 PM

Noone was saying it was the best ever.All I am saying, to the casual fan who liked watching the NBA back in the early/mid nineties but who thinks the NBA sucks now, Lebron is a throwback to that time.

Actually, this playoffs is one of the first I have enjoyed in a while. Golden State owning #1 seed Dallas. Great series with Phoenix and the Spurs until that shitty suspension. Cavs/Nets. Hell, I even liked Utah's little run.

[Edited on June 1, 2007 at 1:30 PM. Reason : d]

6/1/2007 1:26:33 PM

definitely good playoffs overall...great performance last night...good that the league seems to be re-gaining some of the casual fanbase back

hey jocristian: can you give a good reason why you loved NBA in early mid 90s but it just hasnt had the appeal as of late? any answer other than "no defense / one-on-one" will suffice, i'm just curious, cause for me as a basketball fan, the only time I lost interest in the NBA was slightly between the times that the Hornets left Charlotte and the Bobcats arrived

6/1/2007 1:31:24 PM

Quote :

"YEAH YOU GUYS, THIS IS VERSUS DETROIT, THE #1 SEED IN THE EAST...NOT A SHITTY TORONTO TEAM (#3 SEED IN THE EAST THIS YEAR)"

yeah that powerhouse #3 lost to a #6 seed. Toronto is in no way comparable to Detroit. I am not saying that Kobe's 81 wasn't big b/c it was huge. But a player scoring the last 25 points for their team, strung out over the 4th quarter and 2 overtimes against Detroit on the road in playoffs isn't just another night of NBA basketball

6/1/2007 1:32:45 PM

Quote :

"I am not saying that Kobe's 81 wasn't big b/c it was huge"

well all i'm trying to say is that yes, it was huge, regardless of the defense

and also fwiw, detroit didnt play Detroit defense last night late in the game...they're better than that

i'm not trying to take away anything from Lebron's performance, it was just unbelievable...i just think the "yeah but it was the raptors" excuse is weak as shit in regards to the 2nd most points in a game in Nba history

me and a buddy had a bet before lebron's rookie season...i thought he was going to be the shit and my buddy thought carmelo was gonna be the shit...apparently we were both right

6/1/2007 1:36:22 PM

^yeah i was wondering last night why Detroit let up like they did. Maybe they were just tired but Lebron couldn't get to the basket at the end of games 1 and 2 but last night it seems he was able to get to the basket whenever he wanted. Esp on that last shot of the game.

6/1/2007 1:38:12 PM

i think McDyess' ejection ended up being a bigger deal than it might've initially seemed...he wouldnt have scored more than 10-12 points in the game, but his low post presence has been very solid

6/1/2007 1:39:06 PM

I don't know if I can put my finger on one specific thing. I think there were more "good-guy" stars. Jordan, Isaiah, Barkely. Of course this is just my own perception, but it seemed that for a while the NBA really embraced the hip hop thuggish culture that alot of casual fans like myself are turned off by. In addition to that there was a period of a few years where the draft was freakin filled with a bunch of high school idiots that didn't belong in the NBA and the owners were picking them on upside. I think that really degraded the talent quality for a while.

More and more, you have guys really coming out that are team players AND can take over a game. Lebron, Duncan, Nash seem to be cut from the same cloth as the guys of old.

6/1/2007 1:41:37 PM

i certainly agree the straight from high school players played a role...even though players like kobe and garnett are stars in the league today, you didnt know who they were as rookies...now oden and durant as rookies in the nba are going to already be well known from Texas and tOSU...and of course some of the kwame browns still havent found their niche, if they even have one

course i wouldnt exactly call Isaiah or Barkley "good guys"...Isaiah was leader of the Bad Boys and Barkley's image has gone from hated to loved since he retired and showed himself as a charismatic guy on Inside the NBA

6/1/2007 1:45:49 PM

Quote :

"Back then you could either watch basketball, Cheers or the Cosby Show"

Yeah, now it's basketball, that bingo show, American Idol, 12 varieties of reality shows, Cheers and Cosby reruns, etc.

[Edited on June 1, 2007 at 1:49 PM. Reason : -]

6/1/2007 1:46:27 PM

I meant by good guys that they were guys that people liked as a person. I think alot of people liked Barkely. Everyone liked the "bad boys". They had a tough blue collar thing going on. Of course MJ was somewhat of a jerk to his teammates and cheated on his wife, etc. but people liked him.

My point is that Kobe--who was the face of the NBA for a period of 4-5 years in the late nineties early 00's-- is not a likeable guy like those players were. He may be a nice guy, but he has a public perception if being a selfish jerk.

6/1/2007 1:54:00 PM

The problem is Kobe is about a million times more interesting to watch than LeBron or Wade.

And especially Carmelo.

6/1/2007 5:26:43 PM

^^that maybe true (and i still say non sixers or suns fans hated barkley while he played)...but its not kobe's fault that the driveby media wanted to stir up some shit between him and shaq so THEY said that kobe ran him out of town...in reality the lakers didnt want to pay 90 million dollars for 3 years of shaq, when apparently the 2nd and 3rd years aret worth a fuck due to age and injury (see chicago whooping the defending champs' asses in teh 1st round)

i just think whatever the reasons are, they're not great reasons...not just to put it on you...but whatever reasons so many former fans are turned off by the league...just dont seem like good reasons...but oh well

6/1/2007 5:30:43 PM

I HAVE BEEN A LEBRON SUPPORTER SINCE HE CAME OUT...I THOUGHT HE DESERVED THE MVP LAST YEAR....THE CAVS ARE A LOTTERY TEAM WITHOUT LEBRON.....HE IS THE MOST GIFTED BASKETBALL PLAYER I HAVE EVER SEEN....UNLESS HE HAS ANY SERIOUS INJURIES IN HIS CAREER HE WILL EASILY GO DOWN AS THE BEST BASKETBALL PLAYER EVER

THAT WHINEY BITCH KOBE COULD LEARN A LOT FROM WATCHING THIS PLAYOFF SERIES

6/1/2007 5:40:15 PM

that whiney bitch ihatespida could learn a few things from wilt chamberlain or kareem

6/1/2007 5:56:05 PM

I NEVER COMPARED LEBRON TO ANY OF THOSE GUYS YOU IDIOT.....WERE TWO OF THE MOST DOMINANT PLAYERS EVER HOWEVER LEBRON HAS AN OVERALL GAME THAT IS UNMATCHED BY ANYONE...HE IS FUCKING 22 YEARS OLD...NO PLAYER IN NBA HISTORY WAS THIS DOMINANT AT THIS STAGE IN THEIR CAREER

6/1/2007 6:01:52 PM

I POST THE SAME SHIT IN EVERYTHREAD AND TYPE IN ALL CAPS

6/1/2007 7:16:07 PM

Quote :

"After hearing what he did last night, I would watch the Finals just to see James stick it to Duncan and those Spurs."

haha lets not get ahead of ourselves here

beating the "best" team in the East and beating hte spurs are two different things


when was the last time a one man team won a championship?

the closet is when AI took philly to the finals

[Edited on June 1, 2007 at 7:31 PM. Reason : Vhaha no just dumb and tired]

6/1/2007 7:21:50 PM

he won a game too. 48 in game 1 mainly on kobe. much better than this bron crap

Quote :

"the closet is win"

obvious alias

6/1/2007 7:24:49 PM

I don't see this performance was any better than d.wade in the finals last yr

6/1/2007 7:27:51 PM

exactly. i told somebody else

wade
kobe
iverson

all had better playoff performances in this decade

6/1/2007 7:45:07 PM

6/4/2007 11:45:40 AM

^You should go back and edit the picture so that all the letters are in caps.

6/4/2007 12:29:18 PM

I DIDN'T MAKE THE PICTURE...OTHERWISE I WOULD HAVE

6/4/2007 12:37:18 PM

lebron is pretty selfish...i mean come on ball hog, 29 of the last 30 points? way to make your teammates better

6/4/2007 12:49:22 PM

I thought the whole point of having games was to win, not build up teammates

6/4/2007 12:55:19 PM

Difference is that Kobe scores 30 pts on 10-29 shooting with no assists and two turnovers.

Lebron scores 25 pts. on 10-14 shooting with 5 assists and no turnovers. Besides that, Lebron doesn't roast his teammates in the media when they mess up.

6/4/2007 1:14:11 PM

there is no hope for the nba

6/4/2007 1:39:34 PM

^^YOU'RE RIGHT...KOBE SHOOTS 33% AND LEBRON SHOOTS 71% WITH NO TURNOVERS ALL DAY

6/4/2007 1:54:48 PM

^^^dumbass

[Edited on June 4, 2007 at 2:00 PM. Reason : .]

6/4/2007 1:58:10 PM

LeBron doesnt rape white women.

6/4/2007 2:07:38 PM