Do you see Curry-LeBron as this generation's Bird-Magic rivalry?

[Onus]

Lebron can probably do more than any player in the history of the game. His versatility is unmatched. However for whatever reason he hasn’t been able to create or be on a historically great/dominant team and it isn’t for a lack of trying. This will be the fourth iteration of lebron teams and no one has found the answer of how to make a historic team with lebron. He’s gone through many gms and even more coaches and while some have come close none have truly succeeded. And yet it’s constantly repeated that lebron would be the first person picked to start a franchise all time. Even though there is no blueprint to this point of how to build a truly historic team.

Take mj for instance, you can point to a blueprint of how to make him successful because it’s been done before. Hell for even Shaq/Kobe/magic/Kareem/Russell/bird we’ve seen them be on truly dominant teams for their era so there’s a blueprint for it. And yet people still claim that they would choose lebron first even though there’s been 7 coaches and 4 or 5 gms who have tried and failed.

Is it possible that lebron just had the worst luck of any all time great that those many people were unable to find out how to make a dominant team around lebron? Is it just lucky that the other all Time greats were able to land in situations that enabled their dominantion?

'13 Heat were clearly an all-time great team. 66-16, 27 game winning streak and won the title.

This is one of the years I was referring to when I said they were close. They just weren’t that dominant and almost lost in the finals. You could go as far as saying they got lucky to win that year and the spurs came back the following year to prove that.

The other one was 17 cavs when they should’ve swept through the west. But then they ran into a truly historic team.

I mean I guess it’s easiest to build a contender around lebron.

[Onus]

Lebron can probably do more than any player in the history of the game. His versatility is unmatched. However for whatever reason he hasn’t been able to create or be on a historically great/dominant team and it isn’t for a lack of trying. This will be the fourth iteration of lebron teams and no one has found the answer of how to make a historic team with lebron. He’s gone through many gms and even more coaches and while some have come close none have truly succeeded. And yet it’s constantly repeated that lebron would be the first person picked to start a franchise all time. Even though there is no blueprint to this point of how to build a truly historic team.

Take mj for instance, you can point to a blueprint of how to make him successful because it’s been done before. Hell for even Shaq/Kobe/magic/Kareem/Russell/bird we’ve seen them be on truly dominant teams for their era so there’s a blueprint for it. And yet people still claim that they would choose lebron first even though there’s been 7 coaches and 4 or 5 gms who have tried and failed.

Is it possible that lebron just had the worst luck of any all time great that those many people were unable to find out how to make a dominant team around lebron? Is it just lucky that the other all Time greats were able to land in situations that enabled their dominantion?

LeBron has been on multiple, all-time great playoff teams. He has also been on multiple, all-time great regular season teams.

LeBron is clearly difficult to build around

He’s clearly not difficult to build around. Perhaps he’s the easiest to build a contender around.

[LA Bird]

No. Curry and LeBron's careers don't overlap like Bird and Magic's so the window of rivalry was already pretty narrow. Durant joining the Warriors to make it a 2v1 ended any chance of Curry vs LeBron developing into a legendary rivalry.

Sidenote: I think people are too focused on the outcome of the 2016 Finals. Golden State were the superior team for most of the season and it took a herculean effort from LeBron/Kyrie plus a Warriors choke for Cleveland to come out with the win. Curry was underwhelming throughout the series and whether GSW won or not says little about his ceiling raising ability since Draymond was the better player anyway.

[Texas Chuck]

So if we view this as LeBron v Warriors, why don't we see Wilt v Celtics instead of Wilt v Russell? Bron and Wilt were both better players facing better teams, tbh.

Russell was better than Wilt tho.

[WarriorGM]

Steph as of now is competing against history not LeBron. Maybe if LeBron can win again and Steph remains a contender a rivalry can be revived.

[SlowPaced]

Lebron can probably do more than any player in the history of the game. His versatility is unmatched. However for whatever reason he hasn’t been able to create or be on a historically great/dominant team and it isn’t for a lack of trying. This will be the fourth iteration of lebron teams and no one has found the answer of how to make a historic team with lebron. He’s gone through many gms and even more coaches and while some have come close none have truly succeeded. And yet it’s constantly repeated that lebron would be the first person picked to start a franchise all time. Even though there is no blueprint to this point of how to build a truly historic team.

Take mj for instance, you can point to a blueprint of how to make him successful because it’s been done before. Hell for even Shaq/Kobe/magic/Kareem/Russell/bird we’ve seen them be on truly dominant teams for their era so there’s a blueprint for it. And yet people still claim that they would choose lebron first even though there’s been 7 coaches and 4 or 5 gms who have tried and failed.

Is it possible that lebron just had the worst luck of any all time great that those many people were unable to find out how to make a dominant team around lebron? Is it just lucky that the other all Time greats were able to land in situations that enabled their dominantion?

'13 Heat were clearly an all-time great team. 66-16, 27 game winning streak and won the title.

This is one of the years I was referring to when I said they were close. They just weren’t that dominant and almost lost in the finals. You could go as far as saying they got lucky to win that year and the spurs came back the following year to prove that.

The other one was 17 cavs when they should’ve swept through the west. But then they ran into a truly historic team.

I mean I guess it’s easiest to build a contender around lebron.

'14 Spurs was an all-time great team that torched the league. '13 Spurs wasn't too far off from that, if at all, so it's not really a strong argument against the '13 Heat's all-time status that they only barely beat the Spurs.

Going 7 with the Pacers is a better argument, but that series was truly an anomaly. Roy Hibbert turned into Tim Duncan out of nowhere and put up huge numbers. Defending big men was a weakness for the Heat, but Hibbert put up 12-10 and 10-7 against the Heat in 2012 and 2014, but put up 22-10 in 2013.

[toodles23]

Lebron can probably do more than any player in the history of the game. His versatility is unmatched. However for whatever reason he hasn’t been able to create or be on a historically great/dominant team and it isn’t for a lack of trying. This will be the fourth iteration of lebron teams and no one has found the answer of how to make a historic team with lebron. He’s gone through many gms and even more coaches and while some have come close none have truly succeeded. And yet it’s constantly repeated that lebron would be the first person picked to start a franchise all time. Even though there is no blueprint to this point of how to build a truly historic team.

Take mj for instance, you can point to a blueprint of how to make him successful because it’s been done before. Hell for even Shaq/Kobe/magic/Kareem/Russell/bird we’ve seen them be on truly dominant teams for their era so there’s a blueprint for it. And yet people still claim that they would choose lebron first even though there’s been 7 coaches and 4 or 5 gms who have tried and failed.

Is it possible that lebron just had the worst luck of any all time great that those many people were unable to find out how to make a dominant team around lebron? Is it just lucky that the other all Time greats were able to land in situations that enabled their dominantion?

'13 Heat were clearly an all-time great team. 66-16, 27 game winning streak and won the title.

This is one of the years I was referring to when I said they were close. They just weren’t that dominant and almost lost in the finals. You could go as far as saying they got lucky to win that year and the spurs came back the following year to prove that.

The other one was 17 cavs when they should’ve swept through the west. But then they ran into a truly historic team.

I mean I guess it’s easiest to build a contender around lebron.

That's because Wade injured his knee and was seriously limited in the playoffs. Went from 21 ppg on 57 TS% in the season to 16 ppg on sub 50 TS% in the playoffs, and the negative impact on the team was more than that. The fact that they managed to win the title with their 2nd best player being so limited says a lot about how good they were.

[Baski]

Wilt vs Russell

Lebron = Stat heavy superstar who has playoff lapses
Curry = Superstar who plays one side of the court, and on a stacked team.

Playoff lapses is definitely not a way to separate these two. They've both had their fair share. Only one of them has had teammates ready to cover them up all thebtime though.

Right before the start of the 2014-2015 season Sports Illustrated ranked Kevin Love ahead of Steph Curry in its NBA Top 100 list. During the 2016 finals there were people saying Kyrie Irving was a better player than Steph. These two LeBron teammates before joining him have both been considered on Steph's level, much more than Klay's and Draymond's. But now people are saying Steph had teammates who can cover for him while LeBron didn't? The excuses and selective memory for LeBron are absurd. Irving and Love became all-stars as the best players on their teams. Even now on different teams they are still widely considered the best players on their respective teams. Klay and Draymond have never led their own team and become all-stars.

Something to jog your memories because it seems some here have developed amnesia:
https://hoopshype.com/2016/09/16/nbas-top-100-sports-illustrateds-list-through-the-years/

There are few things sadder than making an argument based on things that were said by a small section of people you yourself do not agree with and consider to be ridiculous, and trying to sound smart doing it.

But seriously man I'm not interested. Your whole "Oh lemme use your own illogical argument against you because I'm so smart and Steph Curry is Jesus" schtick is pretty meh to me now. Cheers

[cpower]

No, because in today's NBA they would think Magic is just a good passer and Kareem/Worthy was the man.

[Missing Rings]

No, because in today's NBA they would think Magic is just a good passer and Kareem/Worthy was the man.

Yeah so many people think Klay is the man!

Sent from my SM-G960U using RealGM mobile app

[Texas Chuck]

No, because in today's NBA they would think Magic is just a good passer and Kareem/Worthy was the man.

don't know who "they" are here, but "they" would have to be morons to reach that conclusion. I think Lakers-era Kareem would be the player "they" saw little value in. Wasn't a great defender or rebounder as he aged and that low post offense is considered passe.

and heck Worthy would be seen as a wing with no 3 pt shot. Michael Cooper would be the player in vogue with "they" methinks.

[cpower]

No, because in today's NBA they would think Magic is just a good passer and Kareem/Worthy was the man.

don't know who "they" are here, but "they" would have to be morons to reach that conclusion. I think Lakers-era Kareem would be the player "they" saw little value in. Wasn't a great defender or rebounder as he aged and that low post offense is considered passe.

and heck Worthy would be seen as a wing with no 3 pt shot. Michael Cooper would be the player in vogue with "they" methinks.

the same "they" who thinks Klay is the only 2 way player in this team and at one point he was the top 5 player in the league. Guys like SAS really feed casual fans a lot of stupid ideas.