Why do people keep referring to LeBron as the best player in the world after his defense in the finals?

[70sFan]

while LeBron literally played the worst defense I have ever seen in the finals.

.

You haven't watched much 80s basketball, have you?

Watch on YouTube

The first half of this game features maybe the worst defense I've ever seen in the NBA finals. The Celtics allowed the Lakers to run after every miss like it was an all-star game.

Yeah, I hate when people talk how one era has much better defense than the other. In 1980s we had series like 1987 Finals but also series like 1981 ECF. In 2010s we have series like 2017 Finals but also series like 2013 ECF. It's a matter of teams and players, not eras...

[Goudelock]

You haven't watched much 80s basketball, have you?

Watch on YouTube

The first half of this game features maybe the worst defense I've ever seen in the NBA finals. The Celtics allowed the Lakers to run after every miss like it was an all-star game.

Yeah, I hate when people talk how one era has much better defense than the other. In 1980s we had series like 1987 Finals but also series like 1981 ECF. In 2010s we have series like 2017 Finals but also series like 2013 ECF. It's a matter of teams and players, not eras...

I think that the early 00's have a case for the best defensive era, although I'm not sure how much of that is good defense, and how much of that comes down to very bad offensive schemes.

[dhsilv2]

Watch on YouTube

The first half of this game features maybe the worst defense I've ever seen in the NBA finals. The Celtics allowed the Lakers to run after every miss like it was an all-star game.

Yeah, I hate when people talk how one era has much better defense than the other. In 1980s we had series like 1987 Finals but also series like 1981 ECF. In 2010s we have series like 2017 Finals but also series like 2013 ECF. It's a matter of teams and players, not eras...

I think that the early 00's have a case for the best defensive era, although I'm not sure how much of that is good defense, and how much of that comes down to very bad offensive schemes.

Whats funny is that people even after say the 03 finals were claiming nobody plays defense in the nba.

But yeah, for a stretch we had hand checking and legal zone defense. Nothing like rules to prevent ball handling and post play. I dont know if it was better defense, but the rules were favoring the defender more than ever.

[loserX]

Who was Durant guarding in the finals?

If it was LeBron, then Durant gave up the first triple-double average in NBA finals history. Ouch.
If it wasn't LeBron, then Durant wasn't given his opponents' hardest cover the way LeBron was.

Durant is an unworldly player...and LeBron is still the best player in the world. Doesn't mean it'll stay that way forever.

[mademan]

Who was Durant guarding in the finals?

If it was LeBron, then Durant gave up the first triple-double average in NBA finals history. Ouch.
If it wasn't LeBron, then Durant wasn't given his opponents' hardest cover the way LeBron was.

Durant is an unworldly player...and LeBron is still the best player in the world. Doesn't mean it'll stay that way forever.

This. Lebron had arguably his greatest offensive finals series and lead the Cavs to a ridiculous ORTG against the best defensive team in the league. It's not like Durant could guard him either. And Durant was assisted on more of his shots, played less minutes and didnt initiate as much offense as Lebron...so he shoulda been fresher for defense.

[turk3d]

Because it wan't about Lebron's bad defense. It was his teammates.

[Dupp]

Durants finals is probably gonna be the most overrated series by a player ever. We didn't even guard him in transition and put old guys on him defensivley. He had it very very easy.

Our attention was firmly on curry and even klay at the arc sometimes. It was stupid yeah.

Curry was much more impressive to me overall.

[LivingLegend]

Simple: if my life depended on a basketball game and I needed to pick one player to lead my team to a win, I'm taking LeBron over anyone else.

Until LeBron is no longer the answer to that quesiton, he's the best in the world.

There's no way in the world am I taking LeBron over Durant, but to each their own.

And I probably don't take LeBron over Leonard at this point, either.

LeBron literally played the worst defense I have ever witnessed in an NBA finals.

kk bro. Maybe because he was responsible for doing this on the offensive end at 32 years old and 7 straight 100+ game seasons.

[homecourtloss]

The above gifs do not consider the context that LeBron was the primary facilitator and scorer of that team. When you take his rebounding responsibility and consider that he's probably the best man to man defender on the roster that's a lot of weight to bear against the most talented team in years.

So what you're saying is, the best player in the world has no responsibility defensively.

Welcome to the NBA in 2017, I suppose.

And I have never seen a more excused player in my lifetime.

What other player has had to be the primary playmaker, offensive engine, top 2 rebounder, and defensive anchor for a team? At 32 years of age and 50,000 minutes played or whatever?

Nobody. Durant didn't have to be a densive anchor because he has Draymond and Iggy and Klay. LeBron torched everyone anyway. Jordan had Pippen, Grant and later Rodman and Harper. Bird had DJ and McHale and Parrish. Magic and Cooper and Green and Kareem before he got too old. Shaq had defenders, Kobe had defenders, etc.

Who did James have?

[Soulcatcher33]

This is a troll account from ish. Best to just ignore everything he says.

[mischievous]

Durants finals is probably gonna be the most overrated series by a player ever.

Yeah i've seen some call it an all time great finals performance, which is extremely overrating it.

[Kiiiing]

I was banned for saying "you could replace LeBron with a number of players and his super teams would still make the finals every season."

So on that note, sorry if I didn't reply to some of you; i'd like to continue posting and I guess the rumors were true about not being able to criticize or laud certain players on this site.

But I will discontinue the LeBron talk with this; enforcing propaganda is not going to sway real basketabll aficionados.

[PaulieWal]

I was banned for saying "you could replace LeBron with a number of players and his super teams would still make the finals every season."

So on that note, sorry if I didn't reply to some of you; i'd like to continue posting and I guess the rumors were true about not being able to criticize or laud certain players on this site.

But I will discontinue the LeBron talk with this; enforcing propaganda is not going to sway real basketabll aficionados.

No, you were not warned for any one post in particular but for constant baiting and using a GIF derisively. With that being said this thread has run its course. Oh and consider this a verbal warning for another baiting post.