LeBron James joined elite company today, winning his fourth MVP award. James joins a list comprised of arguably the four greatest players in NBA history. Only Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Michael Jordan have equaled the feat that James accomplished today. Only Russell and James have won four in five years. While Chamberlain, Russell, Abdul-Jabbar, and Jordan are arguably the four greatest players of all time (I would listen to the argument for Oscar Robertson, but that's about it), it begs the question: Does James deserve to be talked about in the same class?
The NBA is a game that is all about championships. One player can so dominate a game that you have to win multiple championships to be considered among the all-time greats. Assuming that James seals the deal this year and wins his second championship, I think he absolutely belongs in the same class as the previously mentioned four, and here's why. James is one of the greatest all-around players that the NBA has ever seen. Let's look at scoring: James averages 27 points per game, which is more than Jordan, Abdul-Jabbar, and Russell. This number is also only 3 points per game behind Chamberlain. Not only that, but it's nearly double the points per game that Russell put up in his career.
Now, let's take a look at what makes James not only a scorer, but an all-around player. James averages more assists per game (6.9) than any other player on this list. Michael Jordan is generally considered the best player in NBA history, but consider this: James averages more than one assist per game more than Jordan did over the course of his career. His assists per game average is also better than Russell and Chamberlain by two assists per game and better than Abdul-Jabbar by three per game. When it comes to rebounding, which didn't become an official stat until the 1973-74 season, James is better than Jordan again by more than one rebound per game and trails Abdul-Jabbar by only 0.6 per game (though it should be noted that Russell and Chamberlain played before rebounds were official, otherwise they would be far and away better than James, but I have to go with what I'm given).
"But Chris," you say, "what about championships?!" James will, assuming his team gets it done this year, have two championships under his belt, which is four behind Jordan and seven behind Russell. Let's forget Russell for now. No one is ever going to equal eleven championships and it's unfair for us to base our argument solely upon that number. But it is a fair question. I would argue that James' other stats makes up for his lack of championships. Everyone considers Chamberlain in this discussion, but he only won two championships in his career as well. I am of the opinion that James having the edge on Jordan in rebounds and assists per game has to have the same weight in this discussion as at least two of Jordan's championships. Jordan was also surrounded by better talent in his career than James has been. While much is made of the "Big 3" that James plays with, they are nothing when compared to the big 3 that Jordan played with. Scottie Pippen is one of the 50 greatest players of all time and possibly the best "wing man" to ever play. Dennis Rodman was a better rebounder than anyone in the game today and miles ahead of Chris Bosh. I feel like this discrepancy in talent needs to nullify at one more of Jordan's rings.
By every statistical measure, LeBron James belongs in the discussion as one of the greatest players in the history of the game. If you're looking at the statistics without a bias, you can even come to the conclusion that, despite not having the amount of titles as some on the list, he belongs at the top. Do I think he's there yet? No, but the case can be made.
Showing posts with label NBA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NBA. Show all posts
Monday, May 6, 2013
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Return of Zen?
The Cleveland Cavaliers have reached out to Phil Jackson about their coaching vacancy. Jackson has been retired for the past couple seasons, but reportedly is feeling the itch to get back into the game. Jackson is a lifetime basketball guy and can never stay away from the game for long. He was a leading candidate for the Lakers position earlier this season after they fired Mike Brown. The organization chose, inexplicably, to go with Mike D'Antoni, effectively ending any possibility that Jackson would ever come back to the team. But would he think about taking his talents to Cleveland? What could they possibly have to offer?
Cleveland has been a veritable black hole since LeBron James left town for the South Beach lifestyle and the appeal of playing with Dwayne Wade and an ostrich (who I hear they have affectionately named Chris Bosh). Since the departure of James, Cleveland has managed to win less than 30 percent of their games. The roster doesn't have much talent. Cleveland is a small market in the middle of nowhere. The team does not have a history of winning, having their last playoff series victory come in 2008 with the aforementioned James. The last time Cleveland won a playoff series without LeBron was twenty years ago. All this would point to Cleveland not having a chance to land Jackson, one of the most successful and highly coveted coaches of all-time, right? Not so fast.
Cleveland, despite being nearly completely bereft of talent, does have one of the best young players in the game in point guard Kyrie Irving. Irving is developing into a player who could be a perennial All-Star. The rest of their roster, despite not being (in my opinion) very talented, is very young. They are the second youngest roster in the entire NBA. Young minds can be easily molded, and if there is anyone who can change the way people think and get the most out of a player, it's Jackson. Jackson is a master at using unconventional tactics to motivate his players and get more out of them than anyone else thought possible. Jackson has had the good fortune of coaching four of the 50 greatest players of all-time in Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Shaquille O'Neal, and Kobe Bryant, but make no mistake about it, every single one of those players is better for having Jackson as a coach. He's a master at his craft, not just someone who is a product of circumstance. It's frequently harder to coach superstars than it is average players.
Another piece of the puzzle that should not be overlooked is the previously mentioned Lebron James. James' contract with Miami expires at the end of the 2014 season, and conventional wisdom says that he will once again test the free agent market. I would not put it past James and his ego to want to return to Cleveland, a place where he is still seen as a villain for deserting them, in an attempt to smooth things over with his hometown crowd. Above all, James still wants to be loved. He's done a lot of work to try to become a hardened player, and he has, but the media does still have an effect on him. If Phil Jackson were to come out of retirement and take the job in Cleveland, I can only imagine that would all but seal it in James' mind that he should go back to Cleveland to work with the coach who has won more titles than anyone in the history of the NBA. James would be able to put himself in the same company as his idols Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, and I guarantee that thought would cross his mind.
Will Kyrie Irving and the possibility of LeBron James be enough to coax the great Phil Jackson out of retirement? We shall see. But no one should dismiss the possibility, and I for one, might take up the NBA again were it to happen.
Cleveland has been a veritable black hole since LeBron James left town for the South Beach lifestyle and the appeal of playing with Dwayne Wade and an ostrich (who I hear they have affectionately named Chris Bosh). Since the departure of James, Cleveland has managed to win less than 30 percent of their games. The roster doesn't have much talent. Cleveland is a small market in the middle of nowhere. The team does not have a history of winning, having their last playoff series victory come in 2008 with the aforementioned James. The last time Cleveland won a playoff series without LeBron was twenty years ago. All this would point to Cleveland not having a chance to land Jackson, one of the most successful and highly coveted coaches of all-time, right? Not so fast.
Cleveland, despite being nearly completely bereft of talent, does have one of the best young players in the game in point guard Kyrie Irving. Irving is developing into a player who could be a perennial All-Star. The rest of their roster, despite not being (in my opinion) very talented, is very young. They are the second youngest roster in the entire NBA. Young minds can be easily molded, and if there is anyone who can change the way people think and get the most out of a player, it's Jackson. Jackson is a master at using unconventional tactics to motivate his players and get more out of them than anyone else thought possible. Jackson has had the good fortune of coaching four of the 50 greatest players of all-time in Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Shaquille O'Neal, and Kobe Bryant, but make no mistake about it, every single one of those players is better for having Jackson as a coach. He's a master at his craft, not just someone who is a product of circumstance. It's frequently harder to coach superstars than it is average players.
Another piece of the puzzle that should not be overlooked is the previously mentioned Lebron James. James' contract with Miami expires at the end of the 2014 season, and conventional wisdom says that he will once again test the free agent market. I would not put it past James and his ego to want to return to Cleveland, a place where he is still seen as a villain for deserting them, in an attempt to smooth things over with his hometown crowd. Above all, James still wants to be loved. He's done a lot of work to try to become a hardened player, and he has, but the media does still have an effect on him. If Phil Jackson were to come out of retirement and take the job in Cleveland, I can only imagine that would all but seal it in James' mind that he should go back to Cleveland to work with the coach who has won more titles than anyone in the history of the NBA. James would be able to put himself in the same company as his idols Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, and I guarantee that thought would cross his mind.
Will Kyrie Irving and the possibility of LeBron James be enough to coax the great Phil Jackson out of retirement? We shall see. But no one should dismiss the possibility, and I for one, might take up the NBA again were it to happen.
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Blame Adrian
The Chicago Bulls go into their first round playoff match-up against the Brooklyn Nets short handed. Their star player and arguably one of the top players in the entire league, Derrick Rose, has been sidelined for the entire season as he recovers from tearing his ACL towards the end of last season. There were rumors that Rose would be back for the playoffs, but he has been ruled out for the first series, and will likely miss the entirety of the playoffs. Many people in Chicago and in the media have questioned Rose's recovery time and his toughness for not being able to get himself back on the court. Why? I blame Adrian Peterson.
To me there are two main reasons why Adrian Peterson was able to recover so quickly from his injury, and neither one of them are a case against Rose. The fact of the matter is that they are two different people. Every single person is different from every single other person. The fact that Peterson was able to recover in nine months from a significant knee injury does not mean that every other person who suffers a similar injury will be able to recover in a similar time frame. Maybe it's just in Peterson's genetics that he is going to be able to recover faster than Rose from this type of injury. This isn't a knock on Rose, it's just a medical fact. Everyone recovers at their own rate. I know for a fact that, were I to suffer the same injury, I would be completely bed-ridden for probably as long as it took Peterson to completely recover. Rose should feel no pressure to recover in the same amount of time as Peterson because they are different people, playing different sports. Their timetables should not be comparable, but that wouldn't give the sports writers anything to write about, so they insist on making unfair comparisons, then viciously criticize when a player fails to meet their unrealistic standards.
The second reason for Peterson's recovery is something that I just hinted at. They play VERY different sports. Peterson plays a sport where the average shelf-life for his position is three years. Peterson has already surpassed that, so his career could be over at any moment. He has added motivation to get back on the field because he knows that, even if he isn't quite 100%, he needs to be out there because if he's not, he may never see the field again. We've seen it happen time and again that a player in the NFL has a serious injury and never gets his spot back on the team (Trent Green is the one that stands out most in my mind). Rose doesn't have that issue. He plays a sport that is a lot less physical than Peterson's and one where you can have a long career. For Rose to come back before he's completely recovered from his injury would be putting his future in jeopardy. Rose is a player that can be a legitimate MVP candidate for the next decade if he is fully healthy. Where Peterson may lose his job if he doesn't get back as soon as he can, no one is taking Rose's job and he has the luxury of being able to rehab at his own pace and not play until he is fully, completely recovered.
To me there are two main reasons why Adrian Peterson was able to recover so quickly from his injury, and neither one of them are a case against Rose. The fact of the matter is that they are two different people. Every single person is different from every single other person. The fact that Peterson was able to recover in nine months from a significant knee injury does not mean that every other person who suffers a similar injury will be able to recover in a similar time frame. Maybe it's just in Peterson's genetics that he is going to be able to recover faster than Rose from this type of injury. This isn't a knock on Rose, it's just a medical fact. Everyone recovers at their own rate. I know for a fact that, were I to suffer the same injury, I would be completely bed-ridden for probably as long as it took Peterson to completely recover. Rose should feel no pressure to recover in the same amount of time as Peterson because they are different people, playing different sports. Their timetables should not be comparable, but that wouldn't give the sports writers anything to write about, so they insist on making unfair comparisons, then viciously criticize when a player fails to meet their unrealistic standards.
The second reason for Peterson's recovery is something that I just hinted at. They play VERY different sports. Peterson plays a sport where the average shelf-life for his position is three years. Peterson has already surpassed that, so his career could be over at any moment. He has added motivation to get back on the field because he knows that, even if he isn't quite 100%, he needs to be out there because if he's not, he may never see the field again. We've seen it happen time and again that a player in the NFL has a serious injury and never gets his spot back on the team (Trent Green is the one that stands out most in my mind). Rose doesn't have that issue. He plays a sport that is a lot less physical than Peterson's and one where you can have a long career. For Rose to come back before he's completely recovered from his injury would be putting his future in jeopardy. Rose is a player that can be a legitimate MVP candidate for the next decade if he is fully healthy. Where Peterson may lose his job if he doesn't get back as soon as he can, no one is taking Rose's job and he has the luxury of being able to rehab at his own pace and not play until he is fully, completely recovered.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
A Bumpy Ride
The NBA's regular season ended yesterday, and the playoffs (the ones that seemingly last longer than the regular season itself) are just around the corner. In the meantime, the coaching carousel is in full motion. For three previously successful coaches, their time on the carousel has come to an abrupt conclusion. Lawrence Frank, Byron Scott, and Doug Collins have all lost their jobs in the hours since the final whistle of the season; for all three of them the writing has been on the wall for quite some time.
Doug Collins is the only one of the three to not have been fired. Instead, Collins has chosen to step down and instead take a position in the 76ers front office for the remainder of his contract. Collins started the year with so much promise. His team had a talented roster and they were supposed to be a real contender to challenge the Miami Heat for supremacy in the East. All that promise and hope was dashed when their big free agent acquisition, Andrew Bynum, was lost for the year due to injury and, as far as I'm concerned, a bad attitude. I understand that Bynum has a rather extensive history of injury, but I really think that his biggest problem is his attitude. If he had been a determined player, I think he could have made a comeback this year and had an impact on this team. Instead, he decided that he wanted to shut it down for the year, and will most likely never put on a Philadelphia jersey again. What looked at the time like a great move for the franchise ended in the demise of Collins' coaching career in Philly, and perhaps anywhere else.
Byron Scott was brought in to Cleveland the year after LeBron made the decision to "take his talents to South Beach". While it is understandable that Scott has had some struggles after losing the greatest athlete to put on a basketball jersey, it's not as if Cleveland is devoid of talent. Kyrie Irving is fast becoming one of the NBA's biggest young stars. He's got a phenomenal all-around game and is a stud at the Point Guard position. They also have some pretty decent talent around him, so while no one has realistically expected Cleveland to be a consistent playoff contender since the departure of Lebron, Scott's record of 64-166 is unacceptable and, unlike Collins, is completely worthy of being fired.
Lawrence Frank, much like Doug Collins, seems to be a victim of circumstance. The Detroit Pistons roster has been, unlike Cleveland, essentially devoid of talent since the recent glory days of the franchise. Since the departures of Ben Wallace, Chauncey Billups, and Richard Hamilton from their repeat Eastern Conference Championship teams, the talent pool in Detroit has been shallow to say the least. Detroit's leading scorer this season was Greg Monroe at 16 points per game. That average was only good enough for 40th in the league, in a league with only 28 teams. While it's not Frank's fault and I don't think ANYONE could be successful with the current Pistons roster, a change had to be made. When a change has to be made, it almost always means that the coach is going to lose his job, no matter how justified or not it may be.
Doug Collins is the only one of the three to not have been fired. Instead, Collins has chosen to step down and instead take a position in the 76ers front office for the remainder of his contract. Collins started the year with so much promise. His team had a talented roster and they were supposed to be a real contender to challenge the Miami Heat for supremacy in the East. All that promise and hope was dashed when their big free agent acquisition, Andrew Bynum, was lost for the year due to injury and, as far as I'm concerned, a bad attitude. I understand that Bynum has a rather extensive history of injury, but I really think that his biggest problem is his attitude. If he had been a determined player, I think he could have made a comeback this year and had an impact on this team. Instead, he decided that he wanted to shut it down for the year, and will most likely never put on a Philadelphia jersey again. What looked at the time like a great move for the franchise ended in the demise of Collins' coaching career in Philly, and perhaps anywhere else.
Byron Scott was brought in to Cleveland the year after LeBron made the decision to "take his talents to South Beach". While it is understandable that Scott has had some struggles after losing the greatest athlete to put on a basketball jersey, it's not as if Cleveland is devoid of talent. Kyrie Irving is fast becoming one of the NBA's biggest young stars. He's got a phenomenal all-around game and is a stud at the Point Guard position. They also have some pretty decent talent around him, so while no one has realistically expected Cleveland to be a consistent playoff contender since the departure of Lebron, Scott's record of 64-166 is unacceptable and, unlike Collins, is completely worthy of being fired.
Lawrence Frank, much like Doug Collins, seems to be a victim of circumstance. The Detroit Pistons roster has been, unlike Cleveland, essentially devoid of talent since the recent glory days of the franchise. Since the departures of Ben Wallace, Chauncey Billups, and Richard Hamilton from their repeat Eastern Conference Championship teams, the talent pool in Detroit has been shallow to say the least. Detroit's leading scorer this season was Greg Monroe at 16 points per game. That average was only good enough for 40th in the league, in a league with only 28 teams. While it's not Frank's fault and I don't think ANYONE could be successful with the current Pistons roster, a change had to be made. When a change has to be made, it almost always means that the coach is going to lose his job, no matter how justified or not it may be.
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