Dwyane Wade: ‘I Don’t Know If LeBron Has the Ability to Surpass Michael Jordan’

i was referring to grace and the beauty of the game. i was allways was kids might consider as a kobe “hater”. i lost focus in my last post on what was my initial point. defenders were able to take parts of james game away to let him appear as if he choked at times. it was much more difficult for any defense to do that to kobe, not only in his prime, but also in his younger years. besides that james game is better, true. if he continues to play like last season we also (most likely) wont see any defense being able to shut or slow him down. but what you said about jordans defense: sometimes he could guard also point guards or small forwards, but for most of the time he stuck to the two guards. same with bryant.

Generally good discussion.
In disagreement with a few points, but moving on.

He CAN play defense. Doesn’t mean he has been. Some of his all-defensive selections were justifiable. But they haven’t been for a couple years and he is still getting them. And again, I’m not saying kobe is a bad defender, but he’s not with Jordan in the best perimeter defenders ever conversation. James isn’t either, but he’s building quite a resume.

Wow. “You stick too much on facts.” Exactly what else should people stick to? I think far too many people aren’t stuck on facts which is the problem.
Also, Jordan became a great defensive player because people said he couldn’t. Think about that. People said a scoring champion couldn’t win championships. People said he couldn’t play defense because he was just a scorer. Look at what he did. Pretty remarkable.
As for the 27 year old Kobe vs. 27 year old LeBron on similar squads….put 25 year old LeBron vs. Kobe in his prime on a similar squad and I say LeBron’s team wins. Put today’s LeBron against 27 year old Kobe individually and I said LeBron stops Kobe before Kobe stops LeBron and team vs. team I say LeBron’s team wins. I keep saying this. LeBron’s game is better suited to fit on any team regardless of the talent around him because of his passing ability. Kobe has never had it. It’s just a fact. At his best, Kobe was an assassin, deadly scorer, great defender. But LeBron’s rebounding, passing, and defense are better. LeBron had Mo Williams in an All-Star game. What player can you remember that Kobe has put into the All-Star game because of how good he makes him look?

27 year old LeBron is a more effective versatile player than a 27 year old Kobe ( who’s pretty versatile himself ). If I was building a team and had a great low post C, I’d take Kobe over Bron 8 times outta 10 because Kobe’s outside scoring back in the day was sick as hell. Also, Kobe was a lot more streaky in a good way back then. Get him 2-3 easy looks and he’d heat up for the entire game. @ByAnyMeansNecessary…….he was brought in as a replacement for Bosh. I think the replacements are the coach’s decision and if so, MikeB was the EC All-Star game coach that year.

@ByAnyMeansNecessary: i aggree on almost everything you said. indeed facts or numbers are important to rank and analyze players. but if we dont know why and under what circumstances the numbers came together they are not really significant. i also said up there that lebron james makes a bad team better while bryant is smth like a luxury player who had his best value on great teams that gave him the freedom to do what he did and does best. whatever, you and nbk got me thinking twice and i checked back on clutch stats of both players as i wanted to bring up that kobe was more clutch than lebron used to be. but the opposite seems to be the case if we look at the numbers. lebron james put up better clutch stats in most categories since the year 2000. that was a suprise to me. my bad

LeBron/young Shaq would have been as close to Magic/Kareem as you can get.

@ByAnyMeansNecessary…….that selection was straight up BS considering Rondo was playing at a level above Mo. It was a decision by BOTH MikeB and LBJ. Mo was taken as a replacement for Bosh when David Lee was much more deserving of it for what he meant to the Knicks that season.

Oh. Agreed then.

Kobe > mj , lebron>Kobe , bird >lebron

Ok nice to believe in your teammate. Kobe will surpass Jordan. Thanks Wade for believing in the Miami Heat. They are not winning 4 championships. Wait to see if Bosh will be charged with purgery by the end of September. Good look Miami Bosh told lie after lie after lie I counted at least 4 lies under oath

shaq has more rings than west, wilt, erving, bird so he should be higher…apart from tht prtty good list

pposse, I want to know what you’re smoking? The Heat team are better than the 90′s Bulls teams by a mile? You really think this team has the capability to get more than 72 wins do you? The mistake you’re making is looking at individual players and saying “Well, since this person is better it makes the team better”. Not even close. Which is better between Wade and Pippen is debatable but it wouldn’t matter. They’re not covering each other. Wade is being guarded by Jordan and Lebron is being guarded by Pippen. Intriguing matchups to say the least but Pippen could give Lebron fits in the half court sets. Kukoc was actually the third best player on that team and he came off the bench. Nobody on Miami’s bench is guarding him. I’d say the Bulls win 7 out of every 10 games against the Heat. Hell, even Luc Longley would have a field day against the Heat bigs

I definately did not say that the Heat are better than the 90′s Bulls team! I said that the talent on their roster was better than the Bulls roster from the 90′s.

My point was that Lebron losing in the finals, with such a stacked team automatically should discredit him from legit Jordan comparisons. Jordan was the ultimate ball player, leader, the ultimate everything to the game. No one is touching him in my book.

As you can see by the Lakers current demise, talent is not everything. I do at time underrate Pippen and his prowess, I admit that…every once in a while i have to check videos on youtube and remember how much of a goon Pip was. Since this comment, i flip flopped again and would seriously take Pip over Wade.

The whole purpose of my post was to discredit Lebron a little and not have him be compared to the GOAT because of his failures as a leader; I went a little overboard on discrediting MJ’s teammates, i must grabbed some potent ish.. if your talking about which team wins between the 90s Bulls and Miami, its definately the Bulls 7/10 times..

Another pointless and worthless comparison. I too want to know what you are smoking. This Miami team is not even close to the Bulls Championship teams, nor the Lakers and Celtic teams of the 80′s . All of the previously mentioned teams would smoke this Heat team. Go talk about something you actually know. I could mention other team that would crush your mighty Heat but we will leave it at that. What most of you fools don’t seem to understand is the rules changes that have affected this sport. Hell as much as I hated the Piston teams of the early 90′s, they would of Kicked the crap out of this Miami team. Get Real! ….and Wade better than Pippen, are you kidding me. Public opinion doesn’t mean anything. Your a fool!!!!!