At various points in what has been the best season of his career, people have said KG, Dwight, Kobe, Chris Paul are more valuable then him.
His run to the finals is considered a fluke. People talk openly about the East only being two teams deep, even though the Cavs have proven they can play with both Boston and Detroit.
His team was one of the hottest in basketball coming out of christmas, but no one said anything(certainly not nearly as much as they are saying about Kobe and the Laker's current hot streak).
He's averaging basically 30/8/8. Has a historical PER. Has hit game winner after game winner. Beat Kobe both times he played him. Has worked like a maniac on defense this year(and yet in today's Weekend Dime Chris Paul and Kobe are DPOY candidates with no mention of Lebron, who probably won't even make second team).
For all of the hype about Lebron. He's become underrated, underwatched, and largely ignored.
Why?
Can you imagine if Kobe Bryant was doing what Lebron is doing this year?
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“Rainbowarriors are on a crusade for the kind of drug-free America where the elected officials are tranny shaman and the religious leaders are winged evangelists who speak in tongues of Happy Core. Rainbowarriors horse gallop through miles of balmy grass roads all the way to the swingset swamps. They witch water and have witches for fathers; they hear disharmonies of sadness sung by drunken glowworms. They sleep in swollen barns; they sleep through silver nights. Rainbowarriors live by the hero myth; Rainbowarriors ain’t nothin’ to **** with.” -Cocorosie
Re: What does Lebron have to do for national respect?
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Originally Posted by Brandname
Wait, Chris Paul is getting mentions for DPOY? Wtf? Lebron is 10x the defender Paul is. ugh
According to Marc Stein, ESPN "expert", yes. Go read his garbage Weekend dime article. It must drive Windhorst crazy. His articles go largely ignored by all the other ESPN people.
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“Rainbowarriors are on a crusade for the kind of drug-free America where the elected officials are tranny shaman and the religious leaders are winged evangelists who speak in tongues of Happy Core. Rainbowarriors horse gallop through miles of balmy grass roads all the way to the swingset swamps. They witch water and have witches for fathers; they hear disharmonies of sadness sung by drunken glowworms. They sleep in swollen barns; they sleep through silver nights. Rainbowarriors live by the hero myth; Rainbowarriors ain’t nothin’ to **** with.” -Cocorosie
Re: What does Lebron have to do for national respect?
he's almost universally discussed as either the best or 2nd best (and at worst 3rd best with duncan) player in the league. his accomplishments are mentioned all the time. a few know-nothings haven't caught up yet on his defense. big whoop. not sure what you want, other than universal acceptance of him as the undisputed best in the game. accept that the cavs aren't as compelling a story right now as the lakers, so kobe will get a little more press, and likely a little more mvp consideration. sustained greatness doesn't get noticed as much as a string of triple doubles would. something that can easily be appreciated.
"This season has been one giant pile of suck. It's been just good enough to keep paying attention. But horrible enough that you were better off if you didn't."
Re: What does Lebron have to do for national respect?
Quote:
Originally Posted by kflo
he's almost universally discussed as either the best or 2nd best (and at worst 3rd best with duncan) player in the league. his accomplishments are mentioned all the time. a few know-nothings haven't caught up yet on his defense. big whoop. not sure what you want, other than universal acceptance of him as the undisputed best in the game. accept that the cavs aren't as compelling a story right now as the lakers, so kobe will get a little more press, and likely a little more mvp consideration. sustained greatness doesn't get noticed as much as a string of triple doubles would. something that can easily be appreciated.
Yeah, I do think Lebron gets a lot of respect. It's been improving this year even (and deservedly so).
There's always going to be people that speak out of ignorance. Hell, go over to RealGM any day of the week, and you'll find people saying things that boggle the mind. I read someone write the other day that Lebron is a liability late in games because he's such a defensive liability. I think he was just a Kobe-jocker since they're pretty out of control over there, but still.
It's clear when reading what people say whether they actually watch his games or not. I always feel the need to try to explain to those people that the things they are saying are outdated (3 or more years old) or just ignorant, but it's obviously a much better idea to ignore them. Anyone who writes about sports is generally going to spread a lot of ignorance. Hell it's almost ESPN's job to spread ignorance at this point. Nothing Lebron will do can change that.
Too many people like Ric Bucher, Skip Bayless, BJ Armstrong, Charley Rosen, and many, many others have already made up their mind about what they think of Lebron and how they are going to find ways to criticize him no matter what. It's pathetic, in my opinion, but there's absolutely nothing Bron can do about that. Just keep playing his game and people who watch basketball will begin to realize that they're full of crap.
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Originally Posted by Shaq_Diesel
A true sign of greatness is when people start hating you. If he wasn't great, you wouldn't hate.
Re: What does Lebron have to do for national respect?
I think LeBron gets plenty of national respect. He's always being talked about on sports channels, and there's always articles about him online or in the newspapers. The only reason that lately he may not be getting as much attention is because of how ridiculous everything is in the West.
Whether you like it or not, not very many people care about the Eastern Conference and who is in the 3-8 seeds. The Western Conference is a much more compelling story this season, for various reasons, and most of them having to do with the Lakers.
But I have no idea how anyone can honestly believe LeBron doesn't get national respect.
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“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotion, spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never tasted victory or defeat.”
Re: What does Lebron have to do for national respect?
I think the TYPE of coverage Lebron gets when he gets coverage is not as good as other players, and it leads to a lot of what he does going under-appreciated. Most of the national news articles about Lebron are about how he's going to leave to go to New York, or who he's meeting with on any given day. They are usually about Lebron the celeb not Lebron the basketball player.
How many articles besides Windhorst really break down his impact this season on a consistent basis? How many of his come from behind wins are taken for granted and only covered on the AP?
There's an overarching trend going on in Lebron's career starting at the playoffs last year and going through this year, that the greater populace who doesn't have league pass is largely ignorant of. And I think that's the sports media's fault. They just don't watch enough games. Or any games.
Our perceptions are being controlled by ESPN highlight package editors whose bottom line is crafting a narrative that may or may not be based within reality.
__________________
“Rainbowarriors are on a crusade for the kind of drug-free America where the elected officials are tranny shaman and the religious leaders are winged evangelists who speak in tongues of Happy Core. Rainbowarriors horse gallop through miles of balmy grass roads all the way to the swingset swamps. They witch water and have witches for fathers; they hear disharmonies of sadness sung by drunken glowworms. They sleep in swollen barns; they sleep through silver nights. Rainbowarriors live by the hero myth; Rainbowarriors ain’t nothin’ to **** with.” -Cocorosie
Re: What does Lebron have to do for national respect?
Quote:
Originally Posted by futuristxen
I think the TYPE of coverage Lebron gets when he gets coverage is not as good as other players, and it leads to a lot of what he does going under-appreciated. Most of the national news articles about Lebron are about how he's going to leave to go to New York, or who he's meeting with on any given day. They are usually about Lebron the celeb not Lebron the basketball player.
How many articles besides Windhorst really break down his impact this season on a consistent basis? How many of his come from behind wins are taken for granted and only covered on the AP?
There's an overarching trend going on in Lebron's career starting at the playoffs last year and going through this year, that the greater populace who doesn't have league pass is largely ignorant of. And I think that's the sports media's fault. They just don't watch enough games. Or any games.
Our perceptions are being controlled by ESPN highlight package editors whose bottom line is crafting a narrative that may or may not be based within reality.
i think you're only seeing what you want to see (or not see). and your expectations are a little out of wack.
Re: What does Lebron have to do for national respect?
I think what pisses off Lebron fans about Kobe is that he can do no wrong in the national media because he frankly has jockers like Bucher who will say anything to prop up Kobe while Lebron really doesn't have any equivalent media types on his side (i.e. John Hollinger is on ESPN.com not ESPN). Meanwhile we get plenty of Skip Bayless.
Also facts tend to be ignored. Lebron scoring 100 more points in the 4th quarter then any other player in the NBA plus by 82games.com he has more assists and less TO's then Kobe and still you have no one say they'll take Lebron at the end of game. This despite Lebron outplaying Kobe when they've played the Lakers
What does Lebron have to do for national respect?
