I'm worried that our potential "dynasty" years are going to be during what may end up being The LeBron Era. Lots of good teams lost out during The Michael Jordan Era. I love LeBron and I feel that he is due to win many championships and possibly be looked back on as the greatest player ever. The problem with thinking is that the Blazers won't dominate over the next decade. Are you scared of LeBron? He will be the guy standing between us and the championship over the next 10 years. P.S. I have a huge LeBron cut out in my apartment. I need to replace it with an Oden one. Anyone know where/how to get one? The NBA Store in NYC didn't have it.
I dunno...I tend to think of it more as the "early MJ era", where MJ would consistently lose out to teams like the Celtics and Pistons. Teams generally beat stars.
LeBron will be a very good player for years. He has that "it" factor, and he'll probably take over as the wing player of this league when Kobe finally wanes. But it's not LeBron we should worry about. It's us. How many games did Portland win last year by a blowout? Maybe a few. We've had some amazing comeback victories, and that's impressive, but it also means that we're beatable. We need to learn how to consistantly demoralize our opponents. We need to learn how to take the will of another man. When we go into opposing arenas, their crowds are strengths. But we've got nothing to lose there except a simple game. We need to humiliate teams in front of their fans. We need to put the fear of God into other teams. Right now we're considered a darkhorse. We could be pesky come playoff time. Last year we had a thirteen game winning streak, and a lot of people couldn't figure out why. But we beat teams over and over, and the league just sat there in awe. When we become that unstoppable juggernaut again, we're not going to have to worry nearly as much about what LeBron will be. They're going to have to worry about Portland.
He was actually better in close to every statistical category than Kobe last year, better in head-to-heads, and better vs. Boston in the playoffs. So, the torch was passed last year as LeBron at age 23 is the best in the NBA. And yes i'm scared of LeBron. He will most likely go down as a top 5 player ever. Its all about if he gets a halfway competent GM to surround him with some talent. If he keeps the likes of what he had last year, i'm not too worried.
I don't know, it seems like the Pistons and the Spurs seemed to manage some pretty successful title runs with Kobe in the league at the same time. I don't "fear" Lebron, but I have a feeling he's going to end up getting a title or three in the next ten years ... Hopefully the Blazers are in that mix and get at least one or more. Besides, I want there to be honest to god battles out there for this team to get in to, and great players and teams to provide a foil, otherwise it wouldn't be all the special to be winning it all without having to overcome some big obstacles.
There will never be another ea that refers to only one player. Even Kobe and Shaq lost in the finals, the game has changed a lot. Lebron and Kobe are the two best in the league but Kobe has lost many playoff series, times are different. It's more of a team game and the best players in the league now don't have the defensive prowess that MJ had. So no, I'm not scared of Lebron.
I'm definitely not afraid of LeBron, unless he gets a Pippen-like running mate (and I mean a future HOFer, not like anyone they have now).
The only thing that scares me about LeBron is he's a free agent in 2 years. If he is somehow added to a good team then that would scare the hell out of me. Although IMO it doesn't mean we won't win just makes it tougher. Cleveland is in a tough position they are going to have to make a decision on whether they think they can resign LeBron, if they can't they need to get something for him. I wouldn't be surprised to see us put a package together to try and get him.
I'd take Oden, LMA, Roy, and Rudy over just LeBron. But if he gets traded too a good team we might have some problems. Have you tried fathead.com KingSpeed?
Lebron is a great player, there have been countless great players who haven't been able to win championships until they got a team around them. With the current cleveland team im not worried about Lebron challenging the blazers who have 3 all star players and possibly another 3 stars (Rudy, Bayless, Webster/Batum/Outlaw)
Jordan didn't prevent teams from winning the title, the Bulls did. Jordan may have been the best player, but he had another Hall of Famer in Pippen, a very good power forward in Horace Grant or Dennis Rodman, depending on the time, and a rotating cast of really good role-players. LeBron James doesn't have remotely as good a team around him. The chances of him ending up on such a good team is low (teams as great as those Jordan/Pippen Bulls are extremely rare), so he doesn't worry me much. The current Lakers worry me most. They have a fantastic team right now, and none of the main pieces are close to retirement.
I've always wondered if Jordan's legacy would have been a bit damaged had Arvydas Sabonis come over to join the Drexler-era Blazers. My bet is that the Blazers would have taken at least three of MJ's rings away from him. LeBron is a stud, but he can't do it alone. The Blazers will have plenty of talent to compete with the Cavs or whatever team that James may end up on.
