Lebron James

In case you missed it last night. When Marv Albert says that "this goes down as one of the all-time performances in NBA history", you know you've witnessed something special. My girlfriend almost broke up with me because we were supposed to watch a movie, but when the King throws down his team's final 25, and 29 of their last 30, there is no way in hell we're trading it for "Super Troopers".

Chris Sheridan opened his Daily Dime by writing: "If you missed this one Thursday night, you did yourself an epic disservice. Go find someone who TiVo'd or videotaped it, fast-forward to midpoint of the fourth quarter, then sit back and prepare to be awestruck.This performance was one that'll be talked about for ages, a testament to greatness that'll rank right up there with Reggie Miller's 8 points in 8.9 seconds, Michael Jordan's 63-point coming-out party in the Boston..."

The dunk with 32 seconds left over a cowering Tayshaun was absolutely vicious, and every other play impresses more and more, with Marv continuously echoing with nothing short of complete exasperated disbelief "...AND THE GAME IS TIED!!!"

It was easily one of the most rivetting games I've ever seen. Everytime Lebron came down the floor and drilled another shot, I was like "what the fuck?!?" I can't remember ever seeing anything like it. And it made me realize two things: 1) Lebron is the best player in the league right now, and 2) he has the worst supporting cast in sports. Honestly. That may have been the greatest individual performance of all time simply because it came out of complete necessity. Nobody else on that team can score, so it is literally left entirely up to Lebron. MJ had Scottie and Horace, Bird had McHale and DJ, Magic had Kareem etc, etc... What are they gonna say about Lebron? That he had Zydrunas? They need to get this guy a team.

My buddy Rosco is the seanmccallum.com in-house NBA expert, and this is how he broke it all down:


Please tell me you watched that game last night. That was the first great game of the playoffs since the GS series. LeBron was just unbelievable, if you didn't see it I have the second half saved at home and you definitely need to see what he did. Yes I believe that I got Chucky's line of the night at the halftime show, when he starts checking his cell phone, and Reggie and Kenny both ask him what he's doing, and Charles just says "Its Kobe, he changed his mind again". The round mound of rebound is the greatest studio analyst of all time. By the way you just don't see clutch DUNKS like that ever. I have had my doubts about LeBron just because he looks like he doesn't care that much, but if he hits jump shots like that he is absolutely impossible to guard. It is games like that which make you just want to watch them over and over. LeBron could definitely be the greatest of all time after watching that. He won't be MJ, Bird or Magic he will be LeBron. ( I never saw the other greats actually play, so I am sticking with the best 3 I ever watched).

There is something that seems to take a back seat to all of the teams, maybe the two most important people in the organization don't fall under the salary cap and yet teams try to skimp on them. GM and Coach are critical to teams doing well. Yes luck plays a huge role, with players like LeBron, MJ, Duncan etc... But lets be honest Colangelo is getting paid 3MM per year, and yet Phoenix let him go, and that was a big raise for him. I don't get it at all, but teams will buy out shit players, pay them off. Did you know that Nate Huffman was still part of the Raps payroll last year. If there is a good GM out there he should be making 10MM a year to keep the team in the playoffs, RC Buford, Joe Dumars!!!!

For the record I thought Detroit would win at the opening of the series, and changed my mind after Cleveland went down 2-0. Its not often that a home team gets lucky twice at home to open a series and that is what happened. They got real lucky while everyone kept calling them great. Which brings me to my next point about how critical coaching is. Mike Brown is one of the worst coaches out there. Flip Saunders may be worse. There is a reason that Flip got out of the first round once with KG. He is just brutal, why the hell didn't you double / triple team LeBron when he was just going nuts. Pay attention nobody on Cleveland has hit anything clutch at all. Neither coach controls the game at all or seems to affect it. If you ever want to see coaches who really know how to control the game from the bench there are only a few in the league, D'Antoni, Popovich, Jackson, Riley, Sloan, Larry Brown, (although I hate Brown). I may have missed one but those are about the only coaches that really know what they are doing. If you watch them you will see what coach should be doing. Everyone else just doesn't have that it factor. Great players win championships I get that, but you can't win without a great coach. If you get one keep him at all costs because they are just like superstar players, and they should get paid, they don't count against your cap at all, and make all the difference. Stop giving coach of the year awards to Mitchell and Doc Rivers, and give it to one of those 5 guys above every year. Neither team deserves to win based on the coaching, its a tie they both fucking suck. But LeBron was unbelievable! Detroit got lucky for two and I think this ends in Cleveland. As for the finals, Popovich absolutely dummies Brown, with Brown throwing a tantrum at the end of virtually every game. Totally bewildered by how his team got blown out all the time. 5 games, because San An always gets bored in at least one game.

Can't wait for game 6


You said it, my man. Can't wait for Game 6.