and as much as I like Phil .... Phil had better teams than Pop has had, so that makes it that much more impressive.
Shaq by a mile. In his prime, he was unstoppable. So much so, that the NBA changed not one, but 2 rules. They started allowing zone defenses, so he could be double/tripled team without the ball and they added a 3 second rule on defense. I guess it could be argued that the defensive 3 sec rule was more of the NBA trying to prevent the lane from being clogged to increase scoring and not specifically directed at Shaq, but he was one of just a handful of big men at the time who would anchor down low and swipe any weak shots into the 3rd row. Even so, the removal of illegal defense rule was a direct result of no one being able to guard hime one on one.
Shaq was such a force that he made Kobe give up the ball. That was extremely difficult accomplishment. Phil might be the only reason why that happened. Any other coach would give up trying.
This is what drives me crazy about watching the thunder. They're so sporadic, and they rarely play team basketball. But they're only gonna be as good as the head coach's ability to teach them will allow.
My problem with Shaq is how he was a liability at the free throw line and had to be pulled off the court in closely contested games. Tim Duncan actually improved on his free throw shooting to the point where he was a pretty good free throw shooter.
True his FT shooting sucked, but I can only recall one or two times when Phil actually pulled him. Hack-a-Shaq rarely, if ever, worked and Shaq's FT % was actually higher in pressure situations than it was overall for his career.
so how does this almost swept out of the Finals for a second time diminish Lebron? Any? I don't think so, but I think it does make him look elsewhere, maybe back home to Cleveland with a ready made team of All-Stars waiting.
I don't think it diminishes LeBron much. He's always had haters and always will. He's always going to get compared to Jordan which is stupid because they have nothing in common other than being really good. I do think it solidifies Tim Duncan as the best power forward of all time though. The argument can be made.
I agree, I'm not sure who I would put higher than Tim Duncan. And I don't think it should diminish Lebron even though I dislike him ... I will say it shows the difference of him and say a Kobe or Jordan though. He tried to stay within the team game all the way to the end and his team failed him. He didn't say ... fuck all this I'm not losing and jack up 40 shots to get 70 points.
None really. People will hate Lebron just because of who he is, I know because I'm one of them. Jordan has that icon status and how dare anyone challenge that right? I will admit I've come a long way on LBJ and while I still don't care much for him he has grown up a lot. People also like to forget that he took a bunch of no names to the NBA finals in freaking Cleveland. That is quite the feat. He is without a doubt the best in the game right now and its not close, like it or not.
