How tainted would any future LeBron rings be with Luka as the main man?

[michaelm]

Curry only proved he was an alpha on the 2022 team though.

I’m not saying I disagree, just saying that’s essentially the same thing this OP is talking about. Lebron already proved to win titles by being the alpha in the past. How would this hypothetical title be any different than the Curry example?

Because the difference is Curry winning one AFTER Durant left. Lebron was great when he won his rings, but he's no longer at an alpha stage in his career. He'd have to win one of his own after winning one with Luka for this to be a 1 to 1 comparison.

Yeah, poor Curry had to do it with only TWO HOFers that year, Dray and Klay. #thestruggleisreal

There was the small matter of Klay having sustained an ACL rupture and an Achilles’ tendon rupture and not having played for 2 and a half years, and Green being undersized for a PF let alone a center and consequently being rather battered by the age of 32, but no matter. Curry’s teams imo even more than Jordan’s teams were greater than the sum of their parts, while not having the benefit of having Jordan as a starter of course.

And of course any team other than a LeBron team must be assumed to have all their players at their absolute peaks at any given time, and if formerly highly elite players have less elite performances standing around on a team playing heliocentric LeBron ball that is on them as well.

[Bloodbather]

This is dumb on so many levels. Judging a career by rings as if it's an individual sport, saying a ring is "tainted" if you're not the best player on the team, implying that if you're not the best player on a team you're basically a role player who was along for the ride.

Do y'all have to be this reductionistic and binary in thought? I get that one might not want to spend time properly analyzing stuff, but maybe at least be frugal in your speech if you're not going to give the bare minimum effort?

[michaelm]

This is dumb on so many levels. Judging a career by rings as if it's an individual sport, saying a ring is "tainted" if you're not the best player on the team, implying that if you're not the best player on a team you're basically a role player who was along for the ride.

Do y'all have to be this reductionistic and binary in thought? I get that one might not want to spend time properly analyzing stuff, but maybe at least be frugal in your speech if you're not going to give the bare minimum effort?

Of course circumstances prevent many elite players from ever even contending for a ring, but like winning a Super Bowl winning a ring particularly as the leading player is not exactly easy to do and still constitutes a significant achievement imo. it is certainly more meaningful than accumulating regular season individual statistics to no particular end, again imo, unless you want to cancel the play-offs and go on leading team at the end of the regular season as the EPL and other soccer leagues do.

If rings are meaningless it is rather perplexing that LeBron for one has gone to such lengths to chase them. And are you advocating that in NBA basketball, a team sport as you say, a player’s individual statistics should be the measure of a player ?.

[Bloodbather]

This is dumb on so many levels. Judging a career by rings as if it's an individual sport, saying a ring is "tainted" if you're not the best player on the team, implying that if you're not the best player on a team you're basically a role player who was along for the ride.

Do y'all have to be this reductionistic and binary in thought? I get that one might not want to spend time properly analyzing stuff, but maybe at least be frugal in your speech if you're not going to give the bare minimum effort?

Of course circumstances prevent many elite players from ever even contending for a ring, but like winning a Super Bowl winning a ring particularly as the leading player is not exactly easy to do and still constitutes a significant achievement imo. Again imo it is certainly more meaningful than accumulating regular season individual statistics, unless you want to cancel the play- offs and go on leading team at the end of the regular season as the EPL and other soccer leagues do.

If tings are meaningless it is rather perplexing that LeBron for one has gone to such lengths to chase them.

You’re doing the exact same thing from the opposite side and putting words into my mouth, though. The point isn't that rings are meaningless. It's that they have context to them. What matters is your contribution to winning.

For example, if you're on a terrible team but you did an insane carry job to get them to the first round, it's more valuable than being along for the ride on a loaded team.

[michaelm]

This is dumb on so many levels. Judging a career by rings as if it's an individual sport, saying a ring is "tainted" if you're not the best player on the team, implying that if you're not the best player on a team you're basically a role player who was along for the ride.

Do y'all have to be this reductionistic and binary in thought? I get that one might not want to spend time properly analyzing stuff, but maybe at least be frugal in your speech if you're not going to give the bare minimum effort?

Of course circumstances prevent many elite players from ever even contending for a ring, but like winning a Super Bowl winning a ring particularly as the leading player is not exactly easy to do and still constitutes a significant achievement imo. Again imo it is certainly more meaningful than accumulating regular season individual statistics, unless you want to cancel the play- offs and go on leading team at the end of the regular season as the EPL and other soccer leagues do.

If tings are meaningless it is rather perplexing that LeBron for one has gone to such lengths to chase them.

You’re doing the exact same thing from the opposite side and putting words into my mouth, though. The point isn't that rings are meaningless. It's that they have context to them. What matters is your contribution to winning.

For example, if you're on a terrible team but you did an insane carry job to get them to the first round, it's more valuable than being along for the ride on a loaded team.

Fair enough, that is pretty much my view actually, although even on terrible teams someone has to score the points etc, which is a different thing than actually getting a team which absolutely shouldn’t’r be there to the play-offs admittedly.

[carlquincy]

Tainted? It might contend as his best win if he pulled it off.

[nomansland]

You really think LeBron's legacy will be affected in any way by this trade other than positively?

Kids these days.

[Got Nuffin]

He’s 40 something years old. Why would it be tainted at all?

[Lalouie]

how much more tainted can his rings be

he lucked out when a young okc team beat sas,the best team in the league that year

miami lucked out 2013 to the point where pops went on a vendetta the following year and eviscerated the heat 4-1

dray got himself suspended and gave the cavs momentum

and the bubble ring when he face yet another young team after miami beat the bucks, the best team in the league. basically a repeat of what happened in 2012

all this btw, while harnessing the fallout of ring chasing players wanting to play @heat and @cavs

[sashaturiaf]

After that Luka trade fiasco. I'll regard Lebrons and the Lakers ring count with the same amount of credibility as the Undertakers WrestleMania streak.

Tainted? Any future come with fresh skid marks attached

[NoStatsGuy]

shaking and trembling of the thought, that lebron might win another one

i personally dont think he will win another one in his career but if he did MJ Fans would be devastated, thats for sure. and im here for it

[Dez]

The Lakers may win a title with Luka but it won't be while LeBron is still playing.

That big rotation is ass.

[MrPainfulTruth]

I don't think anyone judges LeBron as the GOAT due to amount of rings, at least I don't. Amount of rings says nothing about a player's greatness. LeBron is judged off what he did 03-20 not what he's doing right now.

LeBron is absolutely judged off of what he's doing now but that's a boon to his legacy, not a deficit. How can anyone criticize what LeBron is doing at 40 years old? It's beyond me.

No matter how often this is being repeated it never ends to be the dumbest contribution to the topic ever.

This is a sports league not a stage for expired divas who cant let go of the attention. He ruins his teams chances and the only excuse his shills keep bringing up is "but...but...but...hes 40!".

I mean...i could start for the lakers. I could probably play okay for a 50+ guy who is short and overweight. But we would still keep losing because 4 other guys would have to carry whatever i cant do. Who cares about the "he's so good...for a 40 year old!"? This is so dumb and perverted and noone seems to notice that an entire team, actually the entire league is being abused as a stage instead of a competitive contest.

[sashaturiaf]

I don't think anyone judges LeBron as the GOAT due to amount of rings, at least I don't. Amount of rings says nothing about a player's greatness. LeBron is judged off what he did 03-20 not what he's doing right now.

LeBron is absolutely judged off of what he's doing now but that's a boon to his legacy, not a deficit. How can anyone criticize what LeBron is doing at 40 years old? It's beyond me.

No matter how often this is being repeated it never ends to be the dumbest contribution to the topic ever.

This is a sports league not a stage for expired divas who cant let go of the attention. He ruins his teams chances and the only excuse his shills keep bringing up is "but...but...but...hes 40!".

I mean...i could start for the lakers. I could probably play okay for a 50+ guy who is short and overweight. But we would still keep losing because 4 other guys would have to carry whatever i cant do. Who cares about the "he's so good...for a 40 year old!"? This is so dumb and perverted and noone seems to notice that an entire team, actually the entire league is being abused as a stage instead of a competitive contest.

Just Lebron tooting his own horn and being blatantly unaware about it as always. It's cringe like all Lebron things.


Yeah I'm so great I'm doing this at 40, owning a player agency at the same time while playing and having the league gift my team a generational superstar while my scrub son gets a roster spot.

People root for older athletes because they're overcoming natures odds. That's not Lebron that has everything rigged in his favor whole pretending he's Jesus at the cross. What a "bum"

[LuDux1]

Very very tainted.

[MrPainfulTruth]

As for the question...i think each of LeBron's rings has some sort of asterisk to it, 2016 and 2020 being the worst. But this would simply not count in my opinion. He'd still be stuck at 4, less than Kobe, Tim and also of course not close to MJ.

The whole thing is funny. Like, when i claimed Jokic has already passed LBJ then the one argument against it is usually "but...but...ringzz!" At the same time, when holding rings against LBJ, they dont matter, nor does the way they were won. Guys cant make up their minds. There was a phase when they kept telling us rings are all that mattered, because it justified his ring chasing and super team collusion. Also 10-15 years ago i guess they thought its safe to bet on him to win 5 or more. Well too bad, that ship has sailed and they were forced to flip the script once again. Now, suddenly, its not rings, or MVP's or what ever that matters in the GOAT debate but only longevity, even if you dont play any defense for the last five years of your career...

[sashaturiaf]

As for the question...i think each of LeBron's rings has some sort of asterisk to it, 2016 and 2020 being the worst. But this would simply not count in my opinion. He'd still be stuck at 4, less than Kobe, Tim and also of course not close to MJ.

The whole thing is funny. Like, when i claimed Jokic has already passed LBJ then the one argument against it is usually "but...but...ringzz!" At the same time, when holding rings against LBJ, they dont matter, nor does the way they were won. Guys cant make up their minds. There was a phase when they kept telling us rings are all that mattered, because it justified his ring chasing and super team collusion. Also 10-15 years ago i guess they thought its safe to bet on him to win 5 or more. Well too bad, that ship has sailed and they were forced to flip the script once again. Now, suddenly, its not rings, or MVP's or what ever that matters in the GOAT debate but only longevity, even if you dont play any defense for the last five years of your career...

Straight truth

He's never won a ring where he didn't have the most overwhelmingly talented team, even in the middle of his prime.


Nobody played with more talent while possessing more talent than Lebron. OK maybe KD did on the Dubs but he straight up dominated the league and won titles not even breaking a sweat.

Lebrons circumstances means he should have Bill Russell amount of rings if we're being honest here

[MrPainfulTruth]

As for the question...i think each of LeBron's rings has some sort of asterisk to it, 2016 and 2020 being the worst. But this would simply not count in my opinion. He'd still be stuck at 4, less than Kobe, Tim and also of course not close to MJ.

The whole thing is funny. Like, when i claimed Jokic has already passed LBJ then the one argument against it is usually "but...but...ringzz!" At the same time, when holding rings against LBJ, they dont matter, nor does the way they were won. Guys cant make up their minds. There was a phase when they kept telling us rings are all that mattered, because it justified his ring chasing and super team collusion. Also 10-15 years ago i guess they thought its safe to bet on him to win 5 or more. Well too bad, that ship has sailed and they were forced to flip the script once again. Now, suddenly, its not rings, or MVP's or what ever that matters in the GOAT debate but only longevity, even if you dont play any defense for the last five years of your career...

Straight truth

He's never won a ring where he didn't have the most overwhelmingly talented team, even in the middle of his prime.


Nobody played with more talent while possessing more talent than Lebron. OK maybe KD did on the Dubs but he straight up dominated the league and won titles not even breaking a sweat.

Lebrons circumstances means he should have Bill Russell amount of rings if we're being honest here

Exactly. But look at the way KD's rings are viewed and how LBJ's influencers keep telling us its completely different lol.

I mean...either KD wsa the best player at the time, or he wasnt - because LeBron was. Either way its a huge concentration of talent in one team which, in one word, is just unfair. No rings that were earned that way should deserve any respect.

[turnmeup88]

From Wade/Bosh to Kyrie/Love to peak AD and now to soon to be peak Luka, no top 10 player in league history has benefitted more from ‘stacking the deck’ so to speak and playing with such a variety of superstars/stars in league history as LeBron James. Even despite that he was incapable of matching Michael Jordan’s far more impressive 6 titles, including two 3-peats, in vastly less amount of time and with less star power and help.

LeBron’s title count seemed sealed at 4 until the most nonsensical trade in NBA history went down last week, gifting him a top 2-3 player who has yet to enter his prime even.

So the question is - how little value / how much taint should one assign to any future title(s) a 40+ year old LeBron who is clearly 2nd fiddle racks up? To me these would essentially be emptier than Durant’s 2 Warriors rings, and that’s saying a lot. Everyone knows LeBron is incapable of winning 6 titles the real way, thereby disqualifying him from true GOAT status forever.

These posts are so laughable seriously...

Are Kobe's rings tainted because he wasn't the best player on his team for 3 of them? No he was still integral to winning the rings.

Are Jordan's rings tainted because he played in an era with 1 other potential top 10 player of all time? Hakeem. But no they're not tainted, you play against the league as it is in your era.

Are LeBron's rings tainted because he has good players around him? Only once was he the better team during an NBA final and lost, the 2011 Finals is the one stain on his resumé. The 2007 and 2014 Spurs were better than his teams, the Warriors when they won were better than the Cavs.

Rings shouldn't be the only judgement of greatness.

[Optms]

how much more tainted can his rings be

he lucked out when a young okc team beat sas,the best team in the league that year

miami lucked out 2013 to the point where pops went on a vendetta the following year and eviscerated the heat 4-1

dray got himself suspended and gave the cavs momentum

and the bubble ring when he face yet another young team after miami beat the bucks, the best team in the league. basically a repeat of what happened in 2012

And you're lucky KD decided to form the greatest super team ever assembled otherwise Lebron would be sitting on minumum 6 rings right now.