More Heat-Trashing
Evidently Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley think its poor form for LeBron James to team up with Dwayne Wade instead of remaining in Cleveland and trying to beat him.
Of course, that’s easy for Jordan to say, since by his seventh season in Chicago he had won a championship, and had a team with the potential to repeat around him (and repeat they did, several times, as we all know). By James’ seventh season in Cleveland, instead of Scottie Pippen in his prime he got a decrepit Shaq certain to decline further, and despite James’ efforts to recruit top free agents to join him in Cleveland, he had little hope of enjoying a championship-caliber team around him in the foreseeable future.
Barkley adds “But I don’t think in the history of sports you can find a two-time defending MVP leaving to go play with other people.”
Um, Charles, let’s discuss the concept of sample size. You’re looking for Two-time defending MVPs, by implication, in the free agent era, who win the second MVP in the last year of their contract, and who are on teams ill-equipped to compete for a championship. The point is trivially true but lacks any real meaning.
Jordan and Barkley sound like crotchety old farts. The article I read didn’t say whether they followed their comments by shaking their fists in the air and yelling for James and Wade to get off their lawn, but I can only assume…
July 27th, 2010 at 10:19 am
Um… after 8 seasons in Philly without a championship, didn’t Barkley go to Phoenix “try to win a ring”? Now yes, he didn’t go via FA - instead he facilitated a trade (ironic given his current displeasure with Chris Paul’s efforts to secure a trade from the woeful Hornets in order to “try to win a ring”). And then when his four years in Phoenix only produced a Finals appearance (in Year 1), he facilitated a trade to the two-time defending champion Rockets. His bad luck *that* was the season Jordan returned to the Bulls (with Pippen and Rodman, among others, IIRC), to go on another three-peat run of titles.
Btw, Barkley was league MVP in his first season in Phoenix (and deservedly so, as I recall) - but didn’t win one in Philly. Was he holding back in Philly? I don’t think in the history of sports you can find a universally-recognized top-50 All-Time Player in his sport who leaves a team after 8 years and *then* leads his new team to a Finals appearance in that first year - thus perhaps calling into question his efforst before the move. See… I can play the small sample size game too.
As for Jordan, it’s widely known that he hated Bulls GM Jerry Krause - which is ironic, given that Krause did such a terrific job of getting Jordan the pieces he needed to win his six titles. Hey Michael, if Charles was on the Bulls, and you were on the Sixers, then Suns, then Rockets… still think you’d have six titles and he’d have none? Really?
Tank hits the nail right on the head: Lebron tried to get people to come to the Mistake By the Lake… they wouldn’t come. So he went to them.
He’s going to “subjugate” his game for the betterment of the team in pursuit of a title (and very well may join Oscar Robertson as the only other player to average a triple-double for an entire season, btw… think about it). Isn’t that laudable? Shouldn’t we be praising this superstar for his willingness to do what’s needed for the team?
He gave Cleveland everything he had for seven seasons (well, up until the final minute of Game 6 vs. Boston, when he and his whole team inexplicably quit - but I digress). He should’ve given the franchise a heads-up rather than them having to learn it from a TV show.. yes - but that’s *all* he did wrong.
If he stays in Cleveland (and can never get any in-their-prime FAs to come) and never wins a title, then he’s Karl Malone and John Stockton and Charles Barkley… great player who couldn’t get it done. If he goes to Miami and wins it all, then he rode D-Wade’s coattails to one (or more) championships. Either way, the media will spin it that he loses. In the latter scenario, the actual scenario, he still wins championships. Does anyone truly believe he could single-handedly deliver a title to Cleveland? Wake up. He tried. It didn’t happen. He moved on. So should everyone else.