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One would average 40 per game and the other would be Kevin Durant.
And Mo Williams was heralded as Lebron's "Pippen."Durant's supporting casts have been much, much better than Lebron's Heat supporting casts, tbh..anybody that looks at the actual facts can see that..
The reason he won't get criticized is because it doesn't fit the media narrative, and most NBA fans are blind sheep that bite on the media narratives..
The Thunder storyline is that Westbrook is the cancer that takes bad shots and doesn't pass Durant the ball..so we'll ignore Westbrook outplaying Durant throughout the playoffs, and only focus on Westbrook's shot selection at certain points of the game, and over-analyze Durant's reactions to Westbrook's shots..
So, at the end of game 6, rather than discussing Durant not coming up big and even slipping in clutch time, everybody talked about Durant being relegated to a spot-up shooter, along with discussing Westbrook's shot selection(ignoring that he was the only aggressive Thunder player in OT)..
However, unlike Lebron, Durant's coach actually receives blame from the national media, and rightfully so..most people recognize Brooks as a terrible coach and use him as a scapegoat, which is find..
In contrast, look back at SpursTalk or any forum back in 2010, along with any media outlet at the time of Lebron's Free Agency..Mike Brown was being defended by most people and he was even being heralded as a good coach, look it up..it wasn't until he went to the Lakers that people realized how ty of a coach he is..
Furthermore, look at how Ibaka was perceived by the media prior to the Spurs series..he rarely got any recognition for being OKC's version of Bosh until everybody saw how terrible they looked without him in the first 2 games of the Spurs series..then all of a sudden, the media wouldn't shut up about him, once Durant was about to fail again, they had to create an excuse..
It's funny how people still think Lebron choked in '09, where Lebron put up one of the greatest individual playoff campaigns in NBA history. But he didn't ring, so it doesn't "count."
One would average 40 per game and the other would be Kevin Durant.
LeBron sucked in the east on Cleveland while Durant has basically been in the tougher western conference his whole career, so I don't think you can really compare their first seven years, despite their similarities in some ways. A lot of people here insult Durant which is completely asinine as he is an unbelievable player all around, calling Durant anything other than a superstar player in the league is completely clueless and basically going on arrogant mode.
LeBron gets way more criticism because he was being hyped as the next Jordan a year before he stepped into the league, and thus the magnifying glass on him is much bigger. Not to mention "The Decision" TV special which made him look like an arrogant guy, Durant has never even received half of the notoriety that LeBron did going into the league and even within the league, so he gets much less attention focused on him and his faults.
It has nothing to do with his supporting casts determining their perspectives on their careers, LeBron was being manufactured as the new Michael Jordan by the NBA before he even graduated high school. I don't think I've ever seen anybody receive that sort of attention on anybody who has ever walked into the league.
Nobody is going to call out Durant (aside from local OKC media...) from not ringing quite yet. The Western Conference has 5 or so teams that could be a legitimate le holder while the east really only has one or two, so naturally LeBron has to live up to more expectations because there is zero room for error.
In fact, LeBron avoided additional media criticism by not winning by heading over to the Superfriends when things were getting bad for him in Cleveland. I think Durant could possibly do the same thing when he's up for free agency, but it depends on how the Thunder shape their team in the years to come.
lebron sucked on cleveland? that's news to me
Not stat wise, but in terms of winning a championship. Not to mention LeBron was still developing his game at that point and easily became a better player when he went to the Heat.
The East from 2008 to 2010 was better than the West, it's amazing to me that people don't remember that..again, look it up
It was consensus that the Cavs, Celtics and Magic were contenders that were battling each other, while the Lakers had no challengers in the West..the Lakers' biggest challenge in those years was a Rockets team that had Aaron Brooks as it's best player
The 2008 Spurs couldn't even beat a Lakers team without Ariza and Bynum, with Vujacic and Radmanovic playing significant roles for the Lakers
The 2008 Spurs couldn't even beat a Lakers team without Ariza and Bynum, with Vujacic and Radmanovic playing significant roles for the Lakers
What the is he supposed to do with Mo Williams as his second best player?
Eastern Conference or not, Lebron dragging that '07 Cavs team to the Finals (second best player on that roster, Boobie Gibson) really is a feather in his cap, despite his poor Finals performance.
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How the did one man ever win 66 games in 2009? Prime Jordan would never be able to do that on such a team. That is by far the most impressive thing LeBron James has ever done.
Indeed. And his playoff performance was extraordinary. 37 PER.
38.5pgg, 8, and 8 on 49% in the ECF. Mo Williams shot 37% for the series.
I think the West was still better than the East compe ion-wise, because the East was top-heavy and the bottom was ugly. Two proofs of this were the 38-44 Hawks taking the 2008 champs Celtics to 7 games and the West churning out multiple 50-win teams during that era. The 48-34 Warriors even missed the playoffs in 2008. The Lakers may have been 11 games over the next team (Nuggets) in 2009, but the intra-conference games in the West were more quality than the East. The West was just more predictable during this period, but compe ion-wise it was still better than the East.The East from 2008 to 2010 was better than the West, it's amazing to me that people don't remember that..again, look it up
It was consensus that the Cavs, Celtics and Magic were contenders that were battling each other, while the Lakers had no challengers in the West..the Lakers' biggest challenge in those years was a Rockets team that had Aaron Brooks as it's best player
this comparison is like the melo vs lebron how melo failed in t he west cause he got beat by teams that went onto rep in the finals...
It's because of the all around game tbh. Lebron is touted as one of the most complete players of the game while Durant is just a scoring machine, but he will never get to Lebron's level in terms of importance to a team.
Lebron deserved some criticism for the way they bowed out in 2010 IMO. Also, he absolutely choked in the 2011 playoffs.
But he was definitely handicapped in retrospect. He had teams with mediocre talent but good enough chemistry to dominate the regular season... but the talent became exposed in the playoffs.
It's amazing they took a historically great Celtics team to 7 in 2008.
I think it's hard to criticize Durant when he's only 25 years old...he has like a 10 year window to win a championship.
i feel you, but i'm comparing Durant after year 7 to LeBron after year 7... he was also 25. LeBron was criticized for not winning before the 2011 finals too
And Durant shouldn't have even made the Finals that once. Terrible, lopsided officiating in games 4, 5, and 6 against SA in 2012 assisted him to the Finals.
OKC is going to be a huge bust in general. When they signed Westbrook to that huge deal, I knew they were done. There's no way they were going to keep the superior Harden after that. Westbrook drags them down. He's a great player but doesn't work well with Durant or anyone else tbh. Way too in selfish.
7 turnovers
To be fair, LeBron was touted as the next Jordan coming out of high school. No one received more hype, and held to a higher standard. That's why he was labeled a choker in Cleveland, not only because he didn't win, but because he didn't have that same killer instinct at the time.
And Durbeta recieved hype this year that he was "coming for LeBron's throne," but failed to even make the Finals....
I can see the media totally running out of excuses for him next year.
He did it in the EC. That wouldn't happen in the WC.
Replace LeBron with KD. Do the cHeat rang?
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