KrAzY3 wrote:socal74 wrote:He's old. There's nothing more nothing less.
We both know the poor body language didn't start when he got old, it started when he faced adversity.
He's had some amazing highs in his career, but when things don't go his way, sometimes he does mentally check out. I saw this all the way back when he had a 66 win Cavs team, he won his first MVP, and he got beat soundly by a Magic team with only one star (Dwight Howard). He put up good stats, but he lacked composure, he whined a lot, and you could tell the series was over well before the Magic finished them off. He just has two ways he handles adversity, we saw the good way down against the Spurs and down 3-1 against the Warriors, but if you haven't noticed the other way he handles adversity and how he kind of checks out mentally you haven't been paying attention...
the reason LBJ gets so much unwarranted hate and criticism (apart from being great, which always puts a target on ur back) is that ppl have always expected him to be like Mike. but he's not Mike, and it's a different era in basketball and culturally in general
sitting in a post game presser after this game 3 loss saying: "at the end of the day, it's just basketball" is probably the least "Mike" thing he could have said but that's reality for him..he's a billionaire athlete, with huge business interests and influence and he's 39..it's easier to be all about basketball when ur 19 and hungry for everything
LBJ's priorities are different and have been different for a while (which is why he picked the Lakers in the first place, who weren't even close to being the best destination he could have picked if he prioritized winning) and that's fine
Lakers are a play-in team. Nuggets have the best starting 5 in basketball and they're led very well by an ATG player in his prime - you can't beat them with 4 players one of which is almost 40 years old..
one game Reaves is a no show, D-lo in two others, Rui basically all series..if they had better starters they wouldn't have been a play-in team to begin with and they wouldn't get swept by the Nuggets twice (they'd still lose tho) but they don't have those starters, so it is what is