How tainted would any future LeBron rings be with Luka as the main man?

[sashaturiaf]

how much more tainted can his rings be

he lucked out when a young okc team beat sas,the best team in the league that year

miami lucked out 2013 to the point where pops went on a vendetta the following year and eviscerated the heat 4-1

dray got himself suspended and gave the cavs momentum

and the bubble ring when he face yet another young team after miami beat the bucks, the best team in the league. basically a repeat of what happened in 2012

And you're lucky KD decided to form the greatest super team ever assembled otherwise Lebron would be sitting on minumum 6 rings right now.

6 is cutting it way short. It should be 10, that ***** himself said 8 would be easy.

4 is a thorough disappointment. I mean the goat level guys like Jordan, Duncan, Kobe all got 5+ with zero team hopping.

[Lalouie]

how much more tainted can his rings be

he lucked out when a young okc team beat sas,the best team in the league that year

miami lucked out 2013 to the point where pops went on a vendetta the following year and eviscerated the heat 4-1

dray got himself suspended and gave the cavs momentum

and the bubble ring when he face yet another young team after miami beat the bucks, the best team in the league. basically a repeat of what happened in 2012

And you're lucky KD decided to form the greatest super team ever assembled otherwise Lebron would be sitting on minumum 6 rings right now.

you mean gsw+kd giving lebron a taste of his own medicine

[axeman23]

Because the difference is Curry winning one AFTER Durant left. Lebron was great when he won his rings, but he's no longer at an alpha stage in his career. He'd have to win one of his own after winning one with Luka for this to be a 1 to 1 comparison.

Yeah, poor Curry had to do it with only TWO HOFers that year, Dray and Klay. #thestruggleisreal

There was the small matter of Klay having sustained an ACL rupture and an Achilles’ tendon rupture and not having played for 2 and a half years, and Green being undersized for a PF let alone a center and consequently being rather battered by the age of 32, but no matter. Curry’s teams imo even more than Jordan’s teams were greater than the sum of their parts, while not having the benefit of having Jordan as a starter of course.

And of course any team other than a LeBron team must be assumed to have all their players at their absolute peaks at any given time, and if formerly highly elite players have less elite performances standing around on a team playing heliocentric LeBron ball that is on them as well.

#1 TBH, i forgot about the injury, BUT, Klay still put up 20PPG in the regular season, and 19ppg in the playoffs Also "Dray being undersized for a PF"? I thought thats why you were "lightyears ahead" of us other troglodytes? So, you're arguing Dray will NOT be in the HOF?

Also, tbf... This was in response to an (oddly) non-GS fan sayinging Lebron had to win a chip with NO help to equal Curry's 2022 chip. Like, JORDAN, MAGIC, LARRY, WILT, LEW, NEVER done it either, so why is this some NEW requirement? Closest thing I can remember is probably Dirk, and respect to him, 1000%...

[elchengue20]

Not more tainted than Curry with Durant or young Kobe with peak Shaq.

[DimesandKnicks]

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.

Mike never played a team like the Warriors. Without them Lebron likely has one or two more rings

[lambchop]

I don't think these rings will be tainted because of how great Luka is. It will be more interesting to see how the Lakers build around LBJ once Luka's career ends (assuming Luka stays with LA or is traded in 5 to 10 years).
Lebron will most likely be more of 6th man at that point. Therefore, potential rings will carry less weight then.

[michaelm]

Yeah, poor Curry had to do it with only TWO HOFers that year, Dray and Klay. #thestruggleisreal

There was the small matter of Klay having sustained an ACL rupture and an Achilles’ tendon rupture and not having played for 2 and a half years, and Green being undersized for a PF let alone a center and consequently being rather battered by the age of 32, but no matter. Curry’s teams imo even more than Jordan’s teams were greater than the sum of their parts, while not having the benefit of having Jordan as a starter of course.

And of course any team other than a LeBron team must be assumed to have all their players at their absolute peaks at any given time, and if formerly highly elite players have less elite performances standing around on a team playing heliocentric LeBron ball that is on them as well.

#1 TBH, i forgot about the injury, BUT, Klay still put up 20PPG in the regular season, and 19ppg in the playoffs Also "Dray being undersized for a PF"? I thought thats why you were "lightyears ahead" of us other troglodytes? So, you're arguing Dray will NOT be in the HOF?

Also, tbf... This was in response to an (oddly) non-GS fan sayinging Lebron had to win a chip with NO help to equal Curry's 2022 chip. Like, JORDAN, MAGIC, LARRY, WILT, LEW, NEVER done it either, so why is this some NEW requirement? Closest thing I can remember is probably Dirk, and respect to him, 1000%...

He is actually a GSW fan, and I don’t agree with him.

Sure, Dray is great, and was quite valuable in that series, but 2022 was a fair way down the track for him from when he started as a bench SF 10 years previously, and playing PF and his best role in the play-offs at center has worn him down. Iirc he missed a considerable number of games late in the regular season with a back injury which might actually have made him fresher for the play-offs. Klay actually played OK in the finals but that was pretty close to his last hurrah. Certainly Klay was no more prime Klay than Wade was a top 5 player in the NBA for what was LeBron’s biggest carry job, the 2013 Heatles title, and Wade’s deterioration from injury is always brought up by you guys in regard to that title, which was rather my point.

[Bergmaniac]

The copium by the LeBron has already started even though this is unlikely to ever happen, pathetic as usual from them.

[Tony15]

This thread premise & some of the responses prove once again that there's no pill/remedy in the world that can quell the LBJ hate boner.

[MrPainfulTruth]

Yeah, poor Curry had to do it with only TWO HOFers that year, Dray and Klay. #thestruggleisreal

There was the small matter of Klay having sustained an ACL rupture and an Achilles’ tendon rupture and not having played for 2 and a half years, and Green being undersized for a PF let alone a center and consequently being rather battered by the age of 32, but no matter. Curry’s teams imo even more than Jordan’s teams were greater than the sum of their parts, while not having the benefit of having Jordan as a starter of course.

And of course any team other than a LeBron team must be assumed to have all their players at their absolute peaks at any given time, and if formerly highly elite players have less elite performances standing around on a team playing heliocentric LeBron ball that is on them as well.

#1 TBH, i forgot about the injury, BUT, Klay still put up 20PPG in the regular season, and 19ppg in the playoffs Also "Dray being undersized for a PF"? I thought thats why you were "lightyears ahead" of us other troglodytes? So, you're arguing Dray will NOT be in the HOF?

Also, tbf... This was in response to an (oddly) non-GS fan sayinging Lebron had to win a chip with NO help to equal Curry's 2022 chip. Like, JORDAN, MAGIC, LARRY, WILT, LEW, NEVER done it either, so why is this some NEW requirement? Closest thing I can remember is probably Dirk, and respect to him, 1000%...

You are forgetting one key aspect in this. Not a single guy in your list ever claimed to be the GOAT. Not one. Not even Michael. LBJ put himself on mount rushmore. He declared one play "made him the greatest of all time". There is no comparison to other guys imho. Either he is the GOAT, then he HAS to win with less help than, lets say, Kobe, or he is just a regular guy and we can compare him. But you guys keep telling us how incredible he is, and at the same time bring a milliion excuses why he still failed, relatively speaking, to his own standards.

[Jadoogar]

why in the world would they be tainted? Lebron is 40 years old, no player in history has played at this level at that age. Anyone expecting a 40 year old to be the primary option on a title team is delusional.

[HMFFL]

I would be very, very surprised is the Lakers win it all this year.

Care to elaborate? With Luka I expect this team to make it to the NBA Finals.

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[QingJames]

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.

No matter how often this is being repeated it never ends to be the dumbest contribution to the topic ever.

This is a sports league not a stage for expired divas who cant let go of the attention. He ruins his teams chances and the only excuse his shills keep bringing up is "but...but...but...hes 40!".

I mean...i could start for the lakers. I could probably play okay for a 50+ guy who is short and overweight. But we would still keep losing because 4 other guys would have to carry whatever i cant do. Who cares about the "he's so good...for a 40 year old!"? This is so dumb and perverted and noone seems to notice that an entire team, actually the entire league is being abused as a stage instead of a competitive contest.

You think you could put up 25/8/9 in the NBA, bud? Clown talk. We're not giving LeBron kudos just for playing at 40 - nobody gives a **** that Carter played 21 seasons because he was utterly washed for the last several. LeBron at age 40 isn't just some charity case playing 5 minutes off the bench. He's at worst still a top 50 player in the league. At age 40. I defy you to name some other players who were a top 30-50 player in the league playing at age 40.

[Kingdibs19]

Sashaturiaf, LaLouie, Luke and OP having an emergency copium circle jerk meeting in this thread at the thought of Lebron getting another ring becoming a strong possibility. Jordansexuals in shambles.

[Ssj16]

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?

Imo, I definitely put an asterisk on the titles Curry won when he was with KD. It's not a forgone conclusion that GS wins with Harrison Barnes instead. And this is because Curry was in his prime.

As others mentioned, Lebron winning a title at 40 as the clear number 2 and sometimes being 1b does nothing but enhance his legacy.

[EmpireFalls]

I truly believe some of you need serious help.

[Message Boar]

Bro, he's 40.

[Sofia]

Lebron in the 10-15 range all time is the dumbest take on these boards in a long time.

Gotta be trolling, right?

[jerok]

As for the question...i think each of LeBron's rings has some sort of asterisk to it, 2016 and 2020 being the worst. But this would simply not count in my opinion. He'd still be stuck at 4, less than Kobe, Tim and also of course not close to MJ.

The whole thing is funny. Like, when i claimed Jokic has already passed LBJ then the one argument against it is usually "but...but...ringzz!" At the same time, when holding rings against LBJ, they dont matter, nor does the way they were won. Guys cant make up their minds. There was a phase when they kept telling us rings are all that mattered, because it justified his ring chasing and super team collusion. Also 10-15 years ago i guess they thought its safe to bet on him to win 5 or more. Well too bad, that ship has sailed and they were forced to flip the script once again. Now, suddenly, its not rings, or MVP's or what ever that matters in the GOAT debate but only longevity, even if you dont play any defense for the last five years of your career...

Straight truth

He's never won a ring where he didn't have the most overwhelmingly talented team, even in the middle of his prime.


Nobody played with more talent while possessing more talent than Lebron. OK maybe KD did on the Dubs but he straight up dominated the league and won titles not even breaking a sweat.

Lebrons circumstances means he should have Bill Russell amount of rings if we're being honest here

Hey guys, Name me a time when MJ won a title, when he didn't have the most stacked/talented team.
College, Olympics or NBA.

[Yoshun]

I would be very, very surprised is the Lakers win it all this year.

Care to elaborate? With Luka I expect this team to make it to the NBA Finals.

Sent from my SM-S928U1 using RealGM mobile app

They're not better than the OKC, Boston, and, arguably, Cleveland..

They're on par with with Denver, Memphis, and NYK.

They've been playing well and they're on a nice run. Luka and LeBron is definitely good enough for a playoff run, but they still have a huge hole in the middle. All of those teams are also deeper, which is obviously a problem in the playoffs. I'm not saying they can't, but I"d be surprised if they do it this year.