I've seen Bird, Magic, Jordan, & Kobe play, IMO LeBron is the G.O.A.T

As I recall during the Kobe years, it was pretty well documented whoever came out of the West was going to win against whoever came out of the East; Iverson’s Sixers, for instance.

West was typically Lakers, Kings, Blazers I feel...

Wasn’t a ton of parity in Jordan’s years, even when he left, the Bulls still won 50+ games. In fact, I don’t think Jordan had a consistent challenger in the East in the 90’s. The last I can think of would’ve been the Pistons. The 80s were brutal. 90s, when Jordan won, not so much.

 

West Allis?

 

How can you say Harden (who's gonna win it this year) doesn't deserve it over Lebron? I don't like Harden's game at all, but he's leading the NBA in scoring, his defense has gotten, better his assists are higher than Lebrons and he led his team to far and away the best record in the NBA, while Lebron chased away Kyrie and his team struggled all year in the mighty eastern conference?
Or that Curry didn't deserve it when he had a 50/40/90 seasons (something Lebron hasn't ever done), led his team to a crazy good record had the best PER in NBA history for a point guard, Curry makes people on his team a ton better too. They were winning before Durant showed up.

I also really question your claim Lebron gets the most out of every player on the court. No Lebron gets his, and other guys get decent shots because of how good he is, but Bosh and Kevin Love, saw their numbers and how they were perceived diminished because they had to change their entire games in order to satisfy Lebrons style of play. In fact whenever Lebron loses everyone jumps on the it's because of the talent around him bandwagon, even though he's played with just as many all-stars and other good players as anyone especially the second half of his career where he has clearly been playing coach and GM for his team.

Look no one is claiming Lebron isn't great, he is obviously up there in that list of Greatest Players of all time, I just don't believe he is the GOAT, I believe that goes to Michael, and 2nd is Kareem. Also Derrick Rose won that MVP but that was one that clearly belonged to Lebron.

 

Nope, La Porte, IN.

BNM

 

Prime LeBron and Wade is perhaps the scariest perimeter defensive duo ever. With just either of those two go up against, Rose would have had a much better chance.

 

And that was back when the EC had more than 1-2 decent teams!

 

Scrubs!

 

Of debatable significance: the first year jordan left to play baseball, the bulls won 55 games without him. pippen averaged 22/8.7/5.6 with almost 3 steals a game.

just guessing, but without Lebron, the cavs would have been lucky to win 25 this year.

 

Hey thanks for repeating what I said about the Kobe era.
You only forgot a few teams. Utah, Sonics, Spurs, Mavs.
But hey it's cool. I'm used to people on this site by now throwing shit on a wall and hoping it sticks.

If you really think Toronto, Indiana, Wiz, Celtics... Are stronger competition today.
Than the 90's teams(celtics, pistons, cavs, knicks, pacers, heat, magic)
Then I laugh at your post.
Consistent challenger doesn't matter. These few teams I listed were all better than the current teams in the East LBJ has to face.
The merefact that the STACKED Bulls still won 50 games without MJ only to be eliminated in the 2nd round shows this.
Laughter at your post.

 

And they're barely a 2nd round team in the East with him. The better question is, how many games would the Cavs have won the past 3 years without him, when they had loaded rosters?

 

When did Jordan EVER have a bad game when his team needed him most? Never.

 

No. He has been in the finals for 7 consecutive years. And he loses there more than he wins. Jordan would not have settled for that. 6 Finals. 6 Championships.

 

Yes. I think the 93 Suns, 92 Blazers, and 97/98 Jazz would've beaten GSW in playoffs.

 

To be fair, Jordan never had to face Hakeem or DRob in the Finals. I think that was lucky for him. The Bulls always lost their Texas road trip.

 

No they didn't. WTF are you talking about??? Jordan's last three seasons in CHI, the Bulls were 16-2 against the three Texas teams, including 7 - 2 on the road. During those three seasons, they never went worse than 2-1 on the road against the Texas teams. They were 3-0, 2-1, 2-1 on the road and 3-0, 3-0, 3-0 at home against the Texas teams during those three years.

I'm pretty sure they would have beaten all three of them in a 7 game series. They actually turned things up in the post season where Michael Jordan never lost a finals series. He beat the teams that beat the Texas teams.

BNM

 

I was thinking of those 90-93 seasons that he struggled in Texas. I remember when I was in college, I hated the Bulls and that is when they would actually lose. Why did you only check the last three did the first three not confirm your argument?

 

I was right:

90-91: lose at Houston and San Antonio
https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/CHI/1991_games.html

91-92: lose at Houston and San Antonio
https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/CHI/1992_games.html

92-93: lose at Houston and San Antonio
https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/CHI/1993_games.html

I knew I knew what I was talking about. Dallas was awful back then but the Bulls always lost in Houston and San Antonio from 90-93.

 

It gets better

89-90: lose at Houston and San Antonio
https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/CHI/1990_games.html

So we're talking Jordan was 0-8 over 4 years

 

1988-89: Jordan lost at Houston too! They won at San Antonio but there was no David Robinson back then.

 

Well Dallas was garbage so you're right there. But I think they would've struggled against Hakeem and David Robinson during that first threepeat era.