Scottie Pippen had a front-row seat to watch Miami's LeBron James help oust the Chicago Bulls from the playoffs, and the Hall of Famer believes James might supplant Pippen's former running mate Michael Jordan as the greatest player ever. "Michael Jordan is probably the greatest scorer to play the game," Pippen said Friday on "Mike & Mike In The Morning" on ESPN Radio. "But I may go as far as to say LeBron James may be the greatest player to ever play the game because he is so potent offensively that not only can he score at will but he keeps everybody involved. Read more: http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/nba/news/story?id=6599168
Pippen later tweeted" Don't get me wrong, MJ was and is the greatest. But LeBron could by all means get to his level someday.
Pippen has also said, http://lakernation.com/2009/06/pippen-discusses-kobe-vs-jordan/ And he wonders why he has never gotten a GM job?
Didn't know Pip was such a good dancer. That's a helluva moonwalk. As for me, MJ's the greatest until further notice. Never seen such a combination of God-given gifts and indomitable will in any team sport..
I didn't watch much of the finals because I was so disappointed by the Conference Finals. Now I wish I would have invested more time. Lebron James played gloriously against the Bulls. You have to wonder what happened between the two series.
It's pretty clear to me that Lebron is a front runner. With the pressure off and/or he gets on a shooting tear, he is unbelievable. When it gets tight, he doesn't have one go-to move that is a lock.
I thought Steve Kerr really brought up some interesting points yesterday. http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/nba/news/story?id=6656859&campaign=rss&source=NBAHeadlines
It's also time for the myth of Lebron being able to guard every position on the court to die. Sure, he can guard a 4 or 5 if they are players like Gibson, Boozer or Noah for a brief period of time. But there are a lot of SFs that can do this. But he didn't play a minute on Dirk. It is impressive he is willing to guard guys like Rose and Terry but Terry was lighting him up by the end of the Dallas series. As I expect Rose to do once he gains some more confidence in his jumper and plays with some better threats.
I think Lebron has the talent to be the GOAT, but not the head. At the most important moments he's a mental pygmy. I'm not sure I buy what Steve Kerr is saying. It's an interesting thought, but I think Lebron lacks mental toughness more than a go-to move. On offense Lebron has shown an ability to be singularly brilliant in ways that Scottie never did. (ECF vs. Detroit, anyone?) He's not at Jordan's level, but it's not holding him back. He just has no guts. He has enough talent to mask that most of the time, but the moments that matter most have exposed him. I see Lebron being on a tier with Magic, Bird, and Oscar, but not on a tier with Jordan and the generational big guys. He might even occupy his own niche between the two, but we'll have to see.
[video=youtube;7WR86xLSITc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WR86xLSITc&feature=player_embedded[/video]
I think Lebron also suffers from the fact that he really doesn't have a position. He's a distributing small forward, which is fine, but he's built like a power forward. Scottie Pippen had the benefit of being built more like a guard. It would be interesting to see how things worked if you just moved Lebron to point on offense full time, but that would seem to marginalize his scoring abilities. You can fit him in any offense, but I'm not sure what his ideal situation would look like.
Magic and Kareem are clearly GOAT candidates. Jordan wasn't that much better. If LeBron could play PG and actually make his teammates better, he'd be a lot like Magic. As it is, he basically enabled his teammates to perform at the same level they always have, for the most part. On the other hand, the Heat wouldn't have made the finals without him.
I group the all-time greats roughly like this: Jordan and the best big men. (Shaq, Wilt, Russell, Kareem, etc) The other ridiculously good small guys (Magic, Bird, Oscar, etc) The other really good players (David Robinson, Jerry West, etc) I think this year's Cavs prove that Lebron makes his teammates a lot better. How many more all-star games do you think Mo Williams is going to make? Asking someone to "play like Magic" is a pretty tall order. Even for a guy like Lebron.
Williams' stats declined every season in Cleveland. And his stats, other than scoring (up .6 PPG) were better before he was traded to the Cavs. LeBron and Magic are both PGs in a PF's body. James came into the league as a PG. I don't see why if he's supposed to be the GOAT, he shouldn't be asked to play like Magic.
Magic was a better PG and a better PF than Lebron. Remember his hook shot. Lebron is a better SF and scorer than Magic. Not sure why he would want to abort his shot at one of the best forwards of all times to be a worse PG than Magic.
