Maybe I've been listening to Ric Bucher on the B.S. Report too much (who knows? Maybe that's the only source of basketball knowledge I have), or Maybe Lebron James is the Peyton Manning of Basketball. Yeah, he's great, and stuff, but ultimately he's a pure finesse player with none of the intangibles necessary to climb the mountain. I was discussing this with one of the other contributors to this site, who seemed to think Manning had won three or four rings. An outside observer of basketball might think something similar about Lebron, what with all the puppets and commercials that splice him with the likes of Bird, Magic and KG.
Remember that speech? It was informative - it informed us that Michael Jordan was an asshole. Not just any asshole, the biggest asshole of all time - such a huge asshole he couldn't enjoy himself for a minute - unless he was gambling or whoring. Does that sound like Lebron James to you? Not at all. Lebron James might stay in Cleveland because he is "beloved"(more beloved than this guy?). You know who was beloved? Shaq in Orlando. You know who wasn't surrounded by good players in Orlando (except the immortal Horace Grant)? Shaq in Orlando. Now he's got four rings. Unfortunately, I don't see a fifth in the near future.
And don't give me this "he's still young" song and dance. Lebron has been in the Association for 7 years - that should have been long enough to wax Dwight Howard and Hedo Terkoglu (or whatever) last year. The problem is, unlike many superstars across the major sports, Lebron doesn't make anybody around him better. In this way, he isn't even Manning. In 2006, Dwayne Wade took a ragtag bunch with an aging O'Neal to the promised land. You tell me who the better 2010 free agent is.
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