“Told You So”

Now folks(read:haters) are gonna say, Oh but they won’t beat the Bulls, then they won’t beat the Mavs/Thunder, then they won’t win more than one championship blah blah blah

@hoodsnake- I know, I know. We all have contributed to the ass whuppins Lebron and Dwade (plus the rest of the Heat squad) have been giving out during this postseason. We got them angry and somebody’s going to pay with a championship

I’ll pass on the plate of “I told you so” because you forgot about the other reasons people HATED on the “decision.” Sure, people questioned the viability of James, Wade and Bosh cooperating on the court; and they proved those people wrong this season/post-season. However, much of the criticism came from the motives and manner in which LeBron made his “decision.” Giving his final choice on prime time television brought a whole new level or narcissism to the NBA never before seen. After 7 phenomenally frustrating seasons, he left Cleveland to join an All-Star cast, breaking his promise to the city. This was the move of an immature, less-competitive-than-we-thought player.

Miami won’t beat the Bulls.

I have Chicago in 7.

@ “TIPN” –

What u talking about he broke his promise to the city of winning them a championship? What in the hell was he supposed to say? What player is gonna say “We’re not gonna win a championship?” How about the front office broke their promise to Lebron to surround him with a REAL supporting cast? But instead, he’s supposed to re-sign with them after they’ve already failed to surround him with a star player for the first 7 seven years of his career and were in no position to do so right away last summer? You’re outta yo dam mind. That’s immature and “less competitive?” No, that’s being SMART!

To elaborate on Cub’s points, the Celtics have an average age of 29.
For Chicago, of those on the playoff roster only Bogans, Thomas and Boozer are 29 and over.
Even in the playoffs the Bulls’ rotation goes 10 deep easy. Even 11 if Thibs elects to play Thomas.
Rondo was playing with one arm at the end of the Celts/Heat series.
And this was a Celtics team that went 10-11 to end their season, not the boogeyman juggernaut that LeBron and Wade were licking their chops to take down.
Like I said, those who thought the Celtics would be the Heat’s biggest obstacle in the Eastern Conference playoffs were dead wrong.

Lmaoooo cub your tripping! Even rigo doesn’t really think the bulls will beat the heat!

Bulls in 7

Heat fans coming out of the woodwork. I only acknowledge Eboy and Cheryl as actual fans of that team. Everybody else has ulterior motives.

“LeBron and Wade signed with the team they thought had the best chance at winning multiple championships—” Wait, they didn’t sign with Chicago (which in reality, they could have)!

Datkid it’s hard being me I’m getting money
But anyway the bulls had a hard time with the pacers
They made Hansboro look like mchale in the post

Either I don’t understand English (I’m French) as well as I think I do, or you wrote that Boston beat the Lakers in 2008 and then that “The following season Pau Gasol was traded from floundering Memphis to the Lake Show”.
Are you serious?
Is 2007 SO LONG AGO that you mix it with 2008?
Do you really think that the pre-Gasol Lakers team was enough to make it to the Finals?
Do you really think that “Gasoft” won all the Finals he went to?
If that’s so, that’s worrying.
And finally, when will the phantasm of Pau Gasol being acquired for nothing stop? Isn’t Marc showing that he was quite better than an autographed Jerry West jersey? I have heard, I don’t know if that’s true, that the Grizzlies are in ECSF Game 7 against OKC Thunder. They didn’t win a playoff game with Pau on their roster. How can they still be blamed for having “helped the Lakers” or “downgrade their roster”?

As for the rest it’s the same sh*t that was handed to us after “the Decision”: some people, wanting to defend the indefendable or to cheer for the best, you know, just to be sure to be able to soon, compared Miami’s move to Boston’s earlier move and said James had no ring shot in Cleveland because his teammates were too weak.
So for the last time, and without effort, I’ll list why this reasonment is flawed:
- when they joined forces in Boston, the three new Greens were “old” and in their last seasons (KG 31, PP 30, Ray 32); James, Wade and Bosh are in their prime.
- James & Wade were both considered top 5 players in the League, for at least two or three seasons before the trade. I don’t recall any other such move in the (modern) NBA.
- James had plenty of all-stars along him and in 2010 he’s the one to blame for the Celtics loss (while it’s true that Wade’s teammates were very weak): he didn’t use Shaq nor Mo Williams nor bench players the way they should and he tried to do it all by himself. But you already know that.
- Miami was “Wade’s House” and he won a Finals MVP with the Heat; Cleveland was “James’ House” and he won two RS MVPs with the Cavs: when you have two superb houses where everyone is happy, it’s strange to move to another one’s home were you don’t have enough space for two.
- “the Decision” was just ridiculous and laughable and laughed a lot (great South Park, Stephen Colbert, or Jon Stewart pieces). Even you in the USA realized that. Imagine it from countries where basketball has no money therefore no minute on national TV: it’s weird and just not the right place.
- there are still so many empty seats in the AAA it’s like they are playing for TV only. What other franchise do “fan up!” operations?

As for you rhetorical question “Isn’t the whole point of sports to win?” yes but while respecting the rules (and Wade & James aren’t refereed the same way other players are) and a “good sport spirit”. Also, the NBA was supposed to give chances to small teams, through salary cap and maximum salaries, etc., but the Miami stars thought they didn’t deserve a “max salary” while Stoudemire & Johnson did!
That can be seen as a gentleman move, do not take all the money in order to ease the work of team building; but it’s plain cheating: the two stars know they get more through merchandising and advertising so they don’t lose money for real, and they can have way better teammates.

Now what if Kobe asked for 10M$/year to play with Howard (8M/y) and Paul (7M/y) along with Battier, Artest, Odom, and many other role players each for 1-3M/y? Would you still think it’s good because sport = trying to win it all?

Soooo Kobe deserves to be considered amongst the greats even though he was only the main reason his teams won rings ONE time? Last year’s finals MVP was as undeserved as this years All-Defensive and All-NBA selections. Let’s talk about Jordan too. He had arguably the game’s most well-rounded player, and possibly the greatest perimeter defender ever in Scottie Pippen. Not even MJ did it on his own. Your analogy doesn’t even make any sense. Barkley, Olajuwan>>Wade, Bosh. If you can’t even see how stupid the comparison was then you know absolutely NOTHING about basketball.

kobe got all def team again? wow, they really just keep gifting him shtt.

I’m not making the argument that Kobe doesn’t deserve to be amongst the greats. I’m making the argument that based on what Lars Gunther said, you could cancel Kobe out as well as Lebron. (Side note: Kobe only deserved ONE Finals MVP). Back to my point: he basically was trying to discredit Lebron because he’s playing with another great player and one really good player. I was telling him that Kobe and MJ also played with another great player to get their rings. Kobe’s chips w/o Shaq had incredibly balanced rosters. He didn’t honestly deserve finals MVP last year, but he was the biggest name eligible so he got it. The whole argument of Lebron not being considered one of the greats because of Wade and Bosh is bs. The fact of the matter is no one has done it alone.