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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.

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.

I’ll answer this question with another question:

Does anybody here think Steph Curry’s rings are tainted with two of them from Durant being the main guy? Heck, even his first one he lost Finals MVP to a 6th man. Those are tainted right?

Dino353 wrote: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.

Pre-emptively coping with a hypothetical Lebron title.

I'm not even sure if this is more pathetic or impressive.

Even if he's second fiddle to Luka, being a major contributor to another championship at age 40 would only boost his legacy.

Dino353 wrote: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.

His fans and klutch' influencers tell us a different story...

By the way, nobody but his hardcore fans and who is on klutch' paybook consider him the goat.
He is in the conversation to be top 10-15 with guys like Kareem, MJ ( real GOAT ), Duncan, Magic, Bird, Kobe, Shaq, Dream, Wilt...

web123888 wrote: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.

They'll be saying Luka couldn't win a ring until he teamed up with the old man. Sadness for you.

*if* he wins a title with Luka, why on earth would that title be “tainted”?

guynumber45 wrote:Even if he's second fiddle to Luka, being a major contributor to another championship at age 40 would only boost his legacy.

When it happened to other players, Lebron's fans ( and klutch' influencers ), kept telling us that those rings don't count...
They ridiculed everybody did it...

Why would they be tainted, does Luka have AIDS or something? These threads are so weird.

he's 40 man, give it a rest

its a miracle he's still playing at the level that he's playing at and he's doing that now mostly with his mind and mindset, now that can't rely on his body as much. incredible career, one in a 100 years career tbh. another ring next to Luka will be the cherry on top, no doubt but no1 one cares one way or the other

plz list the list of guys who won rings at 40 as a number one option

you know what, plz list the list of guys who won rings at 40 as the sidekick

Tainted isn't the right word.

Luke wrote:

Dino353 wrote: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.

His fans and klutch' influencers tell us a different story...

By the way, nobody but his hardcore fans and who is on klutch' paybook consider him the goat.
He is in the conversation to be top 10-15 with guys like Kareem, MJ ( real GOAT ), Duncan, Magic, Bird, Kobe, Shaq, Dream, Wilt...

Look at this massive cope. Hope you get much needed help with your LeBron Derangement Syndrome, son.

Bruh, the dude's 40. Any positive contribution and he deserves to be lauded, not besmirched.

I've noticed an uptick in coping threads from people who hate LeBron lately. They're definitely upset that he's got a potential title team and will be further cementing his status as the GOAT.

Memories wrote:I’ll answer this question with another question:

Does anybody here think Steph Curry’s rings are tainted with two of them from Durant being the main guy? Heck, even his first one he lost Finals MVP to a 6th man. Those are tainted right?

That's because Curry won in 2022 without Durant and Durant has done squat since they parted. Curry proved he was the alpha by doing that.

Big J wrote:

Memories wrote:I’ll answer this question with another question:

Does anybody here think Steph Curry’s rings are tainted with two of them from Durant being the main guy? Heck, even his first one he lost Finals MVP to a 6th man. Those are tainted right?

That's because Curry won in 2022 without Durant and Durant has done squat since they parted. Curry proved he was the alpha by doing that.

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?

They’d be tainted in the sense that they wouldn’t mean much.

Yeah cause a 40yr Jordan would of been the first option in a title run. Give it a rest.