Game Five He Quit.

Don't think I've rooted for the Cavs like I did last night since they played in Richfield.  All the booing reminded me of the last time I was at the Q about 13 months ago and the 20,000 in attendance were yelling "BRUUUUUUUUUUUCE."

What transpired this summer will force me to root for the Lakers and Kobe (something once thought impossible) if they meet the Heat in the finals (not a given).  And I've rooted against the Lakers against any opponent since the 1970s.

I loved the "Akron hates you" chant.

That's the first time I've ever liked anything about Akron and it was a really weird feeling.

When it comes down to it, everyone makes the claim that "well MJ didn't have to join forces with two superstars to win." He won back-to-back-to-back titles twice:

First three - Scottie Pippen (HOF), B.J. Armstrong, Horace Grant, John Paxson 
Second three - Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Steve Kerr, Toni Kukoc, Ron Harper

In a heart beat I would trade Chris Bosh for a Dennis Rodman type on this Heat team. The Heat's problem is rebounding and banging down low. With Dennis Rodman (of the MJ era) this team would be unstoppable. Instead they have a weak 4/5 in Chris Bosh. Whether it was planned or not, to say the MJ won those titles by himself is ignorant. Yes he took games over, but he would not have been able to do that had he really been by himself.

While I will agree that MJ couldn't have won without Scottie and Dennis, et al; the facts are the team assembled around MJ needed him to invigorate practices and instill a season of passions. Scottie, while a HOF player, is living off a bit of revisionist history at times. He was a great player, but questions always linger about Scottie. 

The two years MJ played baseball were still successful for the Bulls, but the seasons were marked with in-fighting (most dramatically, the game 6 win over the Knicks in the Conf. Finals that saw Scottie pout on the bench because the last second play was designed for Toni Kukoc...which was a 35 footer at the buzzer), lack of leadership, and failure to find a consistent go-to player down the stretch. MJ returned and while his first half year back saw them lose to the Orlando Magic, the beginning of the second three peat was strictly an MJ show. 

However, Scottie found himself in a role of maturity because of the previous two seasons of having to be the guy (no matter how much he wanted it, but not being successful in the role...I know he was successful, but he always greeted this role with such disdain). Scottie was a Top 100 player of all time and a HOFer, and while I agree with the HOF recognition, I think a lot of fans questioned the top 100 player recognition because when it was HIS team; he pouted and failed.

The bottomline is that I would never argue MJ won 6 titles by himself. He needed 3 big men (Wennington, Cartwright, and Perdue) to foul the crap out of Ewing, O'Neal, etc to keep them in the ball games they needed to win. He needed Rodman to counter Malone. He needed Kerr and Paxon to be open on the wing. He needed Hodges to be a threat in the corner. He needed Stacey King to sit on the bench....

However, all those guys needed MJ to practice hard and give full effort for every game. Let's be honest. Dennis Rodman came to the Bulls after the whole incident in San Antonio and we heard how David Robinson disapproved of his behavior on and off the court and we were concerned with his distractions when he came to the Bulls. Rodman was given the perfectly clear choice of playing hard or getting out of the way. When push came to shove, Rodman understood that you don't mess with MJ and his pursuits of championships. No other player on that team could have controlled Rodman like MJ did.

NOTE: I don't know if I agree with the sentiment that Rodman>Bosh. Rodman didn't score a lick and was basically a scoreless 4 in the paint. What he gave the Bulls was an extra defender. If the Heat have 10 issues to contend with right now, number 1 is low post defense. This is what Rodman brought. However, he's not a substitute for Chris Bosh. In fact, I think Chris Bosh takes a lot of heat for this team right now when he could be used a heck of a lot more effectively for the Heat (Screen-Rolls, etc).

medler, LeBron has made it clear Cleveland is not his hometown.  A lot of Akronites get upset when someone tries to say Cleveland is their home, and it's become obvious he doesn't like C-town.  Maybe he never did.

And honestly, being less like Jordan is a good thing.  Sure, he won 6 rings, but that doesn't compensate for his near-sociopathic tendencies and that he's generally a terrible person.  LeBron might be vilified right now, but he's not a bad person by any stretch.

LeBron has never stated a desire to be the best basketball player.  He wants to be loved and a huge celebrity.  I wonder sometimes if maybe we're wrong for criticizing a person for not trying to be something he doesn't want to be.

I don't subscribe to that theory.  That's what gets rapists idolized.

This thread is pointless as Miami is, at best, the third best team in the east, and that's only if they turn it around.

Miami will make the playoff's sure...but there's no way they make it past Boston or Chicago.

GIlbert surrounded LBJ with the players LBJ wanted to be surrounded with. I don't think Mike Brown was the right coach, but the team was a good team...LBJ wasn't winning 60 something games a season all on his lonesome.

Oh, and Chris Bosh is horrible.  It makes me lol everytime I think about the fact that he has a max contract.

Big Ben?

This.

I remember at the beginning of the season last year when everyone on ESPN and other media outlets were saying that Lebron finally had the type of talent around him that he needed to win a championship.  I didnt buy the "finally" part because all they added was an aging Shaq. 

Then when the playoffs were going on and the Cavs were struggling, it was back to, "well, he doesnt have ANYONE on the team to help him."  I'm sorry, but he had 2 all-star caliber players in Williams and Jamison.  Now people can argue that Jamison was terrible on defense but that was not something new (coming from a Wizards fan).  He also had 2 7-footers who, while near the end of their career, were still able to help out on the boards and add some scoring to the nix.  He also had budding players in Hickson (not sure why he didnt see more action in the playoffs) and Gibson (ditto).  Add in Varejao, who plays good post defense and rebounds.