1995 Hakeem Olajuwon vs 2012 LeBron James.

[Odinn21]

You’re just telling a story. Pippen played better in 1991 playoffs than Wade did in 2012 playoffs. You talk about Wade ‘locking down’ Harden without giving credit to Scottie for his insane defense on Magic (who clearly was in his prime and torturing MJ on the low block before Worthy going down and Pippen switching onto him).
Get real.

[No-more-rings]

MJ definitely had less help in '91 than any of Lebron's winning seasons.

I have to constantly remind people this and i don't know why, but Lebron had to go most of the Pacers and Celtics series without Bosh in 2012. Pretty significant piece to miss, especially when they didn't really have big men to deal with West/Hibert then KG.

Pippen's production was clearly better than any teammate of Lebron's in 2012, or 2013 for that matter. So stop spewing myths.

Doesn't mean that i have Lebron as the better player, just that his playoff cast wasn't better.

People that call the 2012 and 2013 Heat a superteam are just looking at the names, and clearly weren't paying attention to what was actually going on.

As for Shaq, he did all the carrying in '00. Kobe wasnt even close to his peak form at that point.

Kobe was still good enough as a 2nd option, and their role players were good enough where Shaq wasn't playing with garbage as you put it.

[No-more-rings]

You talk about Wade ‘locking down’ Harden (who clearly wasn’t in his prime)

From memory i actually recall Wade guarding Westbrook more than Harden in that series too, which if I'm right would make his claim look even more ridiculous.

[Colbinii]

How is Pippen better than Wade? He didnt make the all nba team that season, even missed the all star game. Wade was clearly a better scorer than Pippen and the difference is larger than the playmaking deficit. Defensively Wade locked down Harden who was fire against San Antonio in the WCF, which significantly contributed to their win especially considering that Lebron couldnt lockdown KD. I just dont see how Pippen 'blows Wade away' defensively.
As for Bosh and Grant, Grant only played 3 more games than Bosh in the playoffs. Id favor Bosh in this one, he stretched the floor well for Bron and Wade while rebounding at a decent level. Grant was a better defender, but he lacked Bosh's range.

You seem to make a lot of claims without anything substantial to back it up. It could be a benefit to you to do more research before you post on here.

RE Bosh: For starters, in the regular season Bosh and Wade combined to miss 26 games while Pippen and Grant missed a total of 4. This in and of itself is going to result in LeBron James carrying a much larger regular season burden than that of Michael Jordan. In other words, Michael Jordan had more regular season help.

As for the post-season, let's just clear up some things here.
First, Bosh missed 9 games, came off the bench in another 4 games and averaged 31.4 Minutes per game while Wade, Grant and Pippen all averaged between 39 and 42 minutes per game. For Bosh to be "better" than Grant he would have had to been at least 33% better while on the court [Grant played about 30% more minutes]; this not even accounting for the missed games of Bosh, which also play a factor.

Second, you claim that Bosh "stretched the floor well"...in what sense? Only 8.8% of his shots came from the 3 point line, Less than your guy Peak Charles Barkley This is less than one 3 point attempt per game. Sure, he made them at an unsustainable 54%, but let's not act like Bosh was warping defenses with his shot.
In fact, 7 of his 13 attempts from behind the arc were the corner 3, the easiest 3 to shoot and likely resulted in ball rotation or a drive and kick from LeBron; not stretching the floor to some "impactful way".

Horace grant averaged more points, rebounds, assists, less turnovers and a wopping 58.3% from the field [62 TS%] with an individual Ortg of 130. His DBPM was 2.4 [Which is 2.9 points higher than Bosh at -0.4]. If you really, honestly believe Chris Bosh's 1 3-point attempt per game off-sets Grant's superior offense and defense than I would love to see you make an argument as to WHY Chris Bosh's 1 3-point attempt per game was so value. On top of that, I would need to see an argument on how a player who missed nearly half of the post-season, played 33% less minutes is somehow a better supporting cast than a clearly superior player who played more, way more. If you can't make that argument, quit with the narratives.

RE Wade: Pippen was simply a better performer at this stage in his career. Superior or equal in the box-composite [22 to 22 PER, .197 to .165 WS/48, 7.8 to 4.1 BPM, +14 individual Ortg/Drtg to +5, suprior TS% 56.4 to 52.6]. Really, the only argument for Wade was that he made some regular season teams.. Wade was, in the regular season, vastly superior to Pippen. Wade looked not far off from his 2011 self in the regular season, but father time caught up to Wade quickly in a shortened season.

As for "Wade shut down Harden"...no. Did you watch the series? Wade was primarily guarding Russell Westbrook who averaged 27/6.4/6.0 on poor efficiency.

[G35]

You're proving my point here. I know that that Celtics team was old. I know that they weren't good offensively. But again, none of that has anything to do with the fact that they were the number 1 defense. Those geezers you named were all great defenders even at their old age (or is Jordan the only one capable of being a good defender at old age?), save for Allen, who was still good. They had a great scheme with Doc, and let's not forget that Thibodeau developed his defensive concepts in Boston way back in 08. They were a great (GOAT) defensive team then, a great defensive team in 2010 (despite injury), and a great defensive team in 2012. Not to mention they were coasting throughout the season too. So to say they weren't competition because of age is a silly argument. It's not like they were in wheelchairs and needed timeouts every 5 minutes for crying out loud, that was a good team.

Proof that team was done, the following year they won 41 games and lost in the 1st round. That team was done.....

This is hardly proof of anything. How they performed the next year has nothing to do with their number 1 defense the year prior. It was obvious they took coasting way too hard in 2013, and so regressed too much defensively. Rondo also missed a lot of games, KG missed 14, Allen left for the Heat, etc.

You know who else was the #1 defense that Lebron destroyed?

The 2012-13 Pacers. #1 defense. Roy Hibbert and "verticality"....how much did the #1 defense help them?

Not at all. Let me tell you something, in the playoffs, the hardest thing to do is score points.

This is why you need a talent that can score in a variety of ways against locked in defenses.

Lebron is an all time talent that can score against the toughest defenses. So playing against the Pacers defense was hard, going against the Celtics defense is hard. But great offense can beat great defense.

OTOH, the Pacers were HORRIBLE on offense...just like those Celtics were HORRIBLE on offense. So teams that have great defense and bad offense do not go far in the playoffs without an all time talent like a Lebron. Basically, the Heat wore down the Pacers because every offensive possession for the Pacers was a struggle. They had two games where they scored less than 80 points. You are not going to win scoring less than 80 pts in the playoffs.

The same thing with the 2012 Celtics who had trouble scoring, they scored less than 80 pts twice in that series.

Basically it boiled down to this:

MIA OFF vs BOS DEF > BOS OFF vs MIA DEF

You have to be able to score in the playoffs, its the #1 mandate......

[freethedevil]

MJ definitely had less help in '91 than any of Lebron's winning seasons.

I have to constantly remind people this and i don't know why, but Lebron had to go most of the Pacers and Celtics series without Bosh in 2012. Pretty significant piece to miss, especially when they didn't really have big men to deal with West/Hibert then KG.

Pippen's production was clearly better than any teammate of Lebron's in 2012, or 2013 for that matter. So stop spewing myths.

Doesn't mean that i have Lebron as the better player, just that his playoff cast wasn't better.

People that call the 2012 and 2013 Heat a superteam are just looking at the names, and clearly weren't paying attention to what was actually going on.

As for Shaq, he did all the carrying in '00. Kobe wasnt even close to his peak form at that point.

Kobe was still good enough as a 2nd option, and their role players were good enough where Shaq wasn't playing with garbage as you put it.

Yeah it's pretty laughable to suggest mj had more help than 12 lebron

[freethedevil]

Sure, James has inconsistent midrange game throughout his career, but he's as clutch as anyone. Since 2011 he basically never underperformed in playoffs, even in realtively weak 2013 finals he completely dominated last 2 games.

No player is perfect, but there aren't many players that are more proven at the highest level than James.

James is one of the most clutch players, period, so long as he can drive to the rim.

Or if he can
-> create easy looks
-> take the final shot
-> anchor a top ten defense which shuts down the only offensive force in the league that can challenge him

[syrus3]

The Dream! That playoff run was magical!