Why does Lebron get blamed for the 2004 team USA failure?

[draftnightsuit]

He was 19 years old, the youngest player on the team. The captains were Iverson and Duncan. Lebron was a rookie. That wasn’t his team, his era, or his failure.

2004 was the culmination of the Iverson, Vince, Marbury, Steve Francis era: the rise of selfish iso ball, decline of basic fundamentals, apathy towards coaches and teamwork.

That was a thing in the NBA way before Lebron got to the league, and eventually improved with the new generation. BTW, the Redeem Team is arguably better than the Dream Team.

[Bornstellar]

What? I've never seen anyone blame him for that

[UcanUwill]

He doesnt, he was 11th. man, its just few trolls who said this recently I noticed, its just pure trolling.

[Strepbacter]

LeBron doesn't get blamed for anything. It's always his teammates and coaches.

[jfs1000d]

He was the best player.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[GSWFan1994]

I remember Iverson, Marbury, Larry Brown and even Duncan being blamed at the time, but never LeBron.

[Zombiesonics]

If anything larry brown didn't trust the young guys enough. The blame lands on three factors : Duncan not adjusting to fiba play, poor guard play, and coaching.

[D.Brasco]

Because some people have an unhealthy infatuation/obsession with hating on LeBron for any and all things?

[AbeVigodaLive]

This is such a great point.

In related news, I'm so sick of LeBron being blamed for the stuff in Afghanistan, rising inflation, WWI, the failure of peace in the Middle East, the poor box office returns of The Green Lantern, Napoleon's rise to power and the cancellation of beloved tv sitcom Blossom.

Enough is enough people! Stop hating on LeBron!!!

[Optms]

Lack of talent killed team USA that year.

3 of the top 5 of the biggest stars at the time weren't present - Kobe, T-Mac and Garnett. Duncan and Iverson were not enough. Both were also trash that year and playing way below their standards. I simply think they didn't care.

Funny thing is though if they played Lebron, Carmelo and Wade more they would have won I think.

[UcanUwill]

Lack of talent killed team USA that year.

3 of the top 5 of the biggest stars at the time weren't present - Kobe, T-Mac and Garnett. Duncan and Iverson were not enough. Both were also trash that year and playing way below their standards. I simply think they didn't care.

Funny thing is though if they played Lebron and Wade more they would have won

I remember the report saying that only 2 players from original invite, accepted invite (Duncan and Iverson). Everyone else was literally a plan B.

[NO-KG-AI]

Duncan gets a huge free pass, but his play and his body language during the whole thing was pretty wack. Hard to blame him considering what they put around, but the narrative about his leadership and poise and dominance being able to just carry any scrubs to titles should have gone out the window at that point. They weren’t the normal dream team stacked rosters, but they were still the most talented team there.

[HeartBreakKid]

LeBron doesn't get blamed for anything. It's always his teammates and coaches.

Jeez...even in a thread about 2004 you still can't let up. Guy was 18 years old lmao.

[Wigginstime]

Lebron James played 3minutes in the loss to Argentina
Carmelo Anthony did not play at all in the loss to Argentina

You can't blame Melo and James for not playing at all.

Larry Brown ran the team through Marbury, Iverson, and Duncan. Duncan really struggled with foul trouble in the Olympics. In the Argentina game Duncan fouled out in only 20 minutes of play. Duncan even made the comment that in international basketball he felt like everyone was allowed to play more physical except him.

2004 Blame
1. Brown
2. Marbury & Iverson
3. Duncan/foul trouble

[UcanUwill]

If anything larry brown didn't trust the young guys enough. The blame lands on three factors : Duncan not adjusting to fiba play, poor guard play, and coaching.

That team also had no spacing and defense. As a Lithuanian, I rewatched those 2 epic Jasikevicius minutes many times on youtube, I wont post it, cause that would be a nationalistic bragging move haha, but now watching it, it is crazy what a 2-3 zone Lithuanians played on these guys, they packed the paint hard.
That said, I remember looking back USA's scoring numbers, and was surprised they actually werent terrible, but man they couldn't stop nobody in that tournament, 92 points allowed to Puerto Rico, 94 and 96 to Lithuania, 94 to Spain, 89 to Argentina. This was 40 minute game in 04, you were not suppose to give up over 90 points, especially when you are USA.

[Zombiesonics]

If anything larry brown didn't trust the young guys enough. The blame lands on three factors : Duncan not adjusting to fiba play, poor guard play, and coaching.

That team also had no spacing and defense. As a Lithuanian, I rewatched those 2 epic Jasikevicius minutes many times on youtube, I wont post it, cause that would be a nationalistic bragging move haha, but now watching it, it is crazy what a 2-3 zone Lithuanians played on these guys, they packed the paint hard.
That said, I remember looking back USA's scoring numbers, and was surprised they actually werent terrible, but man they couldn't stop nobody in that tournament, 92 points allowed to Puerto Rico, 94 and 96 to Lithuania, 94 to Spain, 89 to Argentina. This was 40 minute game in 04, you were not suppose to give up over 90 points, especially when you are USA.

Carlos arroyo kicked our butt too. ginobili obviously. Yeah I think things would have been different if say jason kidd were playing and other better two way guards (ray allen, Kobe). I remember wanting the young guys to get most the minutes , lebron wade and melo, but brown was stubborn.

[The Rebel]

Melo was the best player on the team in the preliminary games, James was arguably the best player in the Olympics, neither one of them got minutes as Brown ran everything through his ball dominate PGs that had iffy outside shooting and we're not exactly good at creating open shots for teammates in the games. While I have never been a fan of Lebron, anybody blaming the young guys for those Olympics has no idea what they are talking about. The fault is firmly in Brown and the guards.

[rand]

What? I've never seen anyone blame him for that

The billion times someone has called him LeBronze, that's what they're doing

[UcanUwill]

If anything larry brown didn't trust the young guys enough. The blame lands on three factors : Duncan not adjusting to fiba play, poor guard play, and coaching.

That team also had no spacing and defense. As a Lithuanian, I rewatched those 2 epic Jasikevicius minutes many times on youtube, I wont post it, cause that would be a nationalistic bragging move haha, but now watching it, it is crazy what a 2-3 zone Lithuanians played on these guys, they packed the paint hard.
That said, I remember looking back USA's scoring numbers, and was surprised they actually werent terrible, but man they couldn't stop nobody in that tournament, 92 points allowed to Puerto Rico, 94 and 96 to Lithuania, 94 to Spain, 89 to Argentina. This was 40 minute game in 04, you were not suppose to give up over 90 points, especially when you are USA.

Carlos arroyo kicked our butt too. ginobili obviously. Yeah I think things would have been different if say jason kidd were playing and other better two way guards (ray allen, Kobe). I remember wanting the young guys to get most the minutes , lebron wade and melo, but brown was stubborn.

Carlos Arroyo always been a FIBA beast (kinda like Patty Mills), he is probably the best Puerto Rico performer ever, even tho they had decent players like Barea and Larry Ayuso. I was surprised he had such non factor overall career in the NBA.

[DaGawd]

LeBron didn’t even get enough minutes to get blamed for that failure.. and I don’t really see any one blaming him for that