Unless there are two all-time great teams in the league at one time, I'd expect that all-time great team to usually end up with a ring or two. Their superiority comes out over the seven game stretch.
To be an all-time great team, I think a title or two is a requirement to entry for the most part. Elite talent usually gets a ring.
Those Seattle Supersonics teams we beat were deep, and won over 60 games. I wouldn't call them one of the greatest. Teams the Bulls beat to get to the Finals were better.
Fascinating writeup about fatigue and injury. And speaking of Adam Silver... http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2015/story/_/id/13071387/lebron-james-unfathomable-workload
No shit. That's one of the reasons why he's one of the greatest players ever. Its the playoffs. Great players play heavy minutes. What clown wrote this story? Iggy wears a Jawbone to bed. (many, many people do this) That's "steeped in sports science?" LOL. Seems like the owners are not going to reduce the length of the regular season. The players don't really want that either, since it would reduce basketball related revenue quite a bit I imagine. The regular season is becoming even more a chore to get through before getting to the "games that matter." Silver doesn't seem like he's going to do anything meaningful. We've had one season of Jen Swanson here on the Bulls. Noah still looked gimpy in the playoffs and Rose was average. Butler, who played heavier minutes, looked great in the playoffs. Gasol, who Jen Swanson didn't limit the minutes of, had a great regular season and made the all-star team / all-NBA team but broke down in the most important series. That, plus the front office undermining the season to try and win a PR battle (that they didn't really look good in) cost the Bulls from perhaps at least getting to the NBA finals. Sad.
Wow, I clicked on the first link in GB's post. It doesn't at all say what his post says. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15273193 Abstract OBJECTIVES: To investigate the correlation between exposure of footballers in European clubs to match play in the months before the World Cup 2002 and their injuries and performances during that World Cup. METHODS: The team doctors at 11 of the best football clubs in Europe prospectively recorded players' exposure and injuries during the 2001-2002 season (July 2001-May 2002). Sixty five players participated in the World Cup in Korea/Japan (June 2002). During the World Cup, the clubs reported injuries sustained by these players, and their performance was evaluated by three international experts. RESULTS: The number of team matches during the season varied between 40 and 76 for the different countries involved. The individual player had a mean of 36 matches during the season. Top players played more matches, especially during the final period of the season. Players who participated in the World Cup played more matches during the season than those who did not (46 v 33 matches). World Cup players did not show any increased risk of injury during the season. About 29% incurred injuries during the World Cup, and 32% performed below their normal standard. The players who underperformed had played more matches during the 10 weeks before the World Cup than those who performed better than expected (12.5 v 9, p<0.05). Twenty three (60%) of the 38 players who had played more than one match a week before the World Cup incurred injuries or underperformed during the World Cup. CONCLUSIONS: There is considerable variation in the number of matches played per season in European professional football leagues. Top level players are obliged to play many matches especially during the final period of the season.
I could hear Thibs yelling at Blatt to put LeBron back in for those last 75 seconds all the way here where I am. Seriously though, look at the boxscore - LeBrons ability to perform through all that fatigue is impressive. I just hope he's not doing himself any longterm damage. Cleveland is good through three, but always gassed by the fourth.
Fatigue. That's why they run during practice. We used to shoot free throws at the end of practice after doing all our sprints and drills. It's harder to make them when you're "fatigued." These guys are world class athletes.
My 2 cents: LJ would have been way better than Magic and Bird. I think there's an outside chance he would have been better than Jordan.
Its a testament to Lebron James that he even got that Cleveland team to the Finals. The Warriors are a deep, talented group and clearly have the 2nd, 3rd and 4th best players on the court and one of those guys is the reigning MVP. Playoff runs take a physical toll. Once again, no shit. 5 straight trips to the Finals. Awfully impressive. Legacy built. He'll be leaving it all out there. Of course, he could have played it safe, only clocked in 15-20 minutes a game and reduced the load on his body. He would not be considered one of the greatest players of all time or made all the money he had though. Same thing with Gasol this season. He could have chosen to be a role player and play 15 minutes a game. Take 'er easy. He decided he wanted to have one of the better years of his career and started the all-star game and made the all-NBA 2nd team. I'm sure he's comfortable with that. Given that he's going to be playing in an off-season tournament, it seems like he's ready for more. Swanson and GarPax could have slapped down some minutes restrictions. For whatever reason they didn't. Most of the writing on "sports science" that I'm seeing by ESPN is mostly crap. Still waiting for some actual research....... And, once that is released, and if its clear that playing basketball is bad for you (it probably is to some degree, no shit) then adults will have to make tradeoffs on making millions to win NBA basketball game at the expense of the long term health of their bodies. The owners could make this easier on them by having a reduced regular season, which is becoming more and more a chore for teams to navigate through to get to the playoffs. Its to the point where throwing these contests is considered a wise move, which of course sucks for the poor folks who plunk down $100s for those games expecting to see a contest pitting the best basketball players in the world trying hard to win a basketball game. Lebron is supposedly doing "carnage" to his body supposedly this playoff run by playing 42 minutes a game. In his playoffs career, he has averaged 42.5 minutes a game. Its quite a state of affairs when a millionaire NBA basketball player is giving it his all to win a title and its equated to "carnage." Terrible article. Garbage.
As for the futbol study Denny listed, this conclusion was interesting. Have fewer games and space them out more. (for soccer) NBA is not going to have fewer games. They don't care enough about player safety to reduce revenue. (it might now be OK to throw contests though, every now and then, not too much though I bet and of course no refund for the consumer if you bought a ticket for a thrown contest) There has been talk about spacing them out more (we'll see) and making the travel schedule easier (reduce playing while fatigued). Another interesting tidbit. Playing professional sports often leads to injury. (no shit) That's one of the reasons people are highly compensated to do it. Would love to see some research done re: NBA along the lines of the above study.
