Mikal Bridges says LeBron would get 90 a game against 86' Celtics (Burning Bridges ?)

[TheGOATRises007]

LeBron of today would be the best athlete in that series, but LeBron playing in the 80s would have developed into a completely different player. I never understood the need to rank player cross-generationally and why it's predominantly basketball related discussion.

2020 Lebron is not a better athlete than '86 MJ.

[macNcheese3]

Quite a bold statement from Bridges

[Triple M]

LeBron of today would be the best athlete in that series, but LeBron playing in the 80s would have developed into a completely different player. I never understood the need to rank player cross-generationally and why it's predominantly basketball related discussion.

2020 Lebron is not a better athlete than '86 MJ.

At min they are comparable but my main point is you can't just teleport guys into the past. If AI played in the 50s he would not have a cross over dribble as well

[Village Idiot]

I see his Bridges command of the English language is as poor as his basketball skill-set. Anyone care to translate? What does he mean by "no cap"?

[Flash Falcon X]

The dumb part about this is he's also implying if LeBron could get 90 a game, then other top players of today can score 50-80ppg against those same Celtics (depending on where you rank LeBron.) And the last player on each bench today can get 20-30ppg lol.

[Flash Falcon X]

Kids 40 years from now: "The best player in our era could easily average 90ppg against the 2020 Lakers and Bucks!"

[Klayforspicy]

I see his Bridges command of the English language is as poor as his basketball skill-set. Anyone care to translate? What does he mean by "no cap"?

no bull....

[MemphisX]

I see his Bridges command of the English language is as poor as his basketball skill-set. Anyone care to translate? What does he mean by "no cap"?

Don't confuse your ignorance with him having poor language skills.

[DavidSterned]

Watch on YouTube

I want you to watch this game, or at least part of it, and tell me with a straight face this is good defense. Hands down, nobody moving, poor rotations, poor contests, not getting back on defense..etc. I mean, they should, theoretically, have the advantage of no 3 in the key defense and poor spacing, but the paint is still wide open.

This is good defense to you guys? Seriously? This is freakin awful

Watched about 10 minutes of it. Saw plenty of good hustle and defensive plays (Ainge just broke up a 2 on 1 halfway through the 4th, and he doesn't even have a 67" vertical like everyone does now!). Might want to pick on something else. I hear the Nuggets scored an awful lot back then.

[SD2042]

Quite an irrational statement from Bridges

Fixed.

[Zenzibar]

Based on what? Fk outta here. Mikal was probably wasn't even born yet.

[The Rodzilla]

why do people act like LeBron is not a freight train and wont get through McHale just like people walk through turnstile gates?

btw Jordan scored 19pts against them in the next game and I guarantee that wouldn't ever happen to LeBron, he would be an automatic 30 and 10 assists

[MrCheerios]

lmao. I see the myth of the ultra physical 80's where the paint was a boxing ring is gonna continue to persist.

Eh, regular season defense was generally soft then just like it is now, but when teams upped their intensity levels in the playoffs the game got much more brutal than today, IMO. There were unquestionably more fights, hard fouls, and missed cheapshots and the tougher playoff rivalries from back then like Chicago/Detroit, Chicago/New York, Boston/LA, Boston/Philly, and Boston/Detroit have their reputations for a reason. What matchup from today even begins to compare to this?

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

Hard fouls and cheap shots are not basketball. I don't want to see Rambis-type clotheslines in the game. Even with cheap shots the 80s weren't some bastion of physicality. The average team today gets 23 free throws per game. The average team in 86 got 30 free throws a game. If people are going to complain about today's game being a free throw contest they need to stop putting 80s basketball on a pedestal. That era had 30% more free throws!

[fanofthegreats]

Obviously hyperbole by Bridges. But there’s people on this thread equally as guilty with the LeBron can’t handle “the physicality of the 80s”. Please.

[Klayforspicy]

why do people act like LeBron is not a freight train and wont get through McHale just like people walk through turnstile gates?

btw Jordan scored 19pts against them in the next game and I guarantee that wouldn't ever happen to LeBron, he would be an automatic 30 and 10 assists

[Lamak]

Definitely losing it with this quote

[fanofthegreats]

why do people act like LeBron is not a freight train and wont get through McHale just like people walk through turnstile gates?

btw Jordan scored 19pts against them in the next game and I guarantee that wouldn't ever happen to LeBron, he would be an automatic 30 and 10 assists

It’s hilarious really. I get it’s cool to hate on LeBron these days. But he’s one of the two or three most accomplished players in NBA history. Lol@Mchale guarding him.

[og15]

Saying anyone would get 90 a game is simply dumb, that's the real problem. It has to be hyperbole, but still odd to say.

Pretty sure Bird and McHale would be all over Lebron all game. Boston could even stick Dennis Johnson on him like they did against Magic.

So uh, yeah. 90 a game? please. Maybe 30-35 but nothing more. Plus Lebron definitely wouldn't get anything easy as long as Robert Parish is in the paint. There was no 3 in the key rule back then so he'd be there every time Lebron goes for the rim. Only way Lebron wins in the 80s is if he joins those Celtics, the Pistons, or the Lakers.

Well that wouldn't be the only way he could win because of you add him to a team that was not quite there, but still good, he can make them competitive with those teams that were winning. You could add him to the Bucks for example and you've got quite the team.

[Tracymcgoaty]

Going by the ''i'd rather take the word of an NBA player than a realgm'er'' logic...Ouf this is where it gets hard...

[Greyhound]

I don’t agree with the point, nor do I care what (exactly) this player thinks on the matter. What I find interesting is the sentiment.

Everyone on here is heaping praise and talking about how this documentary is going to convert all of the youth. For those who have grown up with Kobe, LeBron and Curry, it may do the opposite.

Many young folks look at LeBron as their guy (even if he is not their favorite player, they realize that he defines their era), if this is viewed as an offensive on him, it becomes a referendum on all of them. LeBron has been so prominent in this era that to knock him down is to lower all of them.

Instead of a conversion this could actually lead to a digging in. The young and impressionable may see the light (as hoped), or maybe they take it as their dads trying to force their god on them with a ten part meat beat.

Time will tell.

You are not the first generation to go out of their way to enlighten their kids on the virtues of “their” time (90’s man). It has been done time and time again. The response is always the same. They watch, they grin, then do what kids have always done... intentionally zig where their fathers zagged.

...

I grew up in the 90’s, but I must say, there is one thing about 80’s-90’s basketball enthusiasts that I find utterly obnoxious.

They discredit all the greats that came before them as antiquated and not up to par, while simultaneously discrediting all those who followed as lacking and not up to par.

It’s like the sky opened up and God placed all the true greats in the 80’s and 90’s.

Wilt and Russell... overrated (played against too many 5 foot white guys).

LeBron, Durant, Curry... can’t stack up (play in the era of milk box big men and bubble wrap defense)

Greatness began with them and it ended with them. This is what they would have you believe.