So LeBron just has to beat the Pelicans huh? LMAO

This'll be a hoot!

I WANNA SEE THAT BITCH LEBON HUMBLED TOMORROW NIGHT

KNOCK HIS ****ING OVERRATED ASS IN THE DIRT

MISSING THE PLAYOFFS THREE TIMES IN SIX YEARS? LMAO! JORDAN WOULD NEVER!!!

FLY PELICAN, FLY!!!!

I feel like he doesn't realize they have play-in games these days for the 9/10 seeds.

That's not a good thing. Pathetic actually. Play in games ROFL

Cut it to 14 like the NFL does amd make the regular season matter.

LeBron made the WCF out of one of them last year so I’m glad they do.

lebron being carried, typical

9-5-12-3 midway through the 2nd quarter

Ends at 13-6-13-4 at half LMAO

OKC clinches the #1 seed.

And they end up going 6-2 with LeBron finishing with 28-11-17-5 to clinch the 8th spot.

Now to lose on purpose against the Pelicans this week to avoid Jokic.

Thunder clinch the 1 seed. What a turnaround for them. They will be dangerous moving forward.

Sam Presti has done a great job

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Year 21 btw.<br><br>Best basketball player of all-time. <a href="https://t.co/5uSVw93jI4">pic.twitter.com/5uSVw93jI4</a></p>&mdash; Barry (@BarryOnHere) <a href="https://twitter.com/BarryOnHere/status/1779667471428985128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Before the season began, I said that the Thunder would win the Chip. Now, I was being a bit silly and I'm still not convinced they'll win it all, but it wasn't difficult to see a MASSIVE improvement on the horizon.

(If only they'd kept the Sengun pick...)

LeBron's next bitch move.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Lakers should throw their play-in vs. the Pelicans to avoid the Nuggets <a href="https://t.co/F69uMCH1f1">https://t.co/F69uMCH1f1</a></p>&mdash; SB Nation (@SBNation) <a href="https://twitter.com/SBNation/status/1779684503562195326?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Any smart team would rest for Tuesday's game, yes.

That's pretty goddamned dangerous given the three point variance.

Go Warriors. I hope they have a shooting renaissance.

Oh, they could certainly lose to the Warriors in the following game as well but I just think it is worth the risk.

I suppose you could also make the argument that you're better off having a 40 year old LeBron face Jokic in the first round when LeBron's fresh than later on, but I'm of the opinion that the Lakers have no real chance at all if they face Jokic. Their best chance of advancing to another Finals is the Nuggets losing/getting injured before they even have to play them.

They're not wrong.

Win the play-in and all you're doing is setting yourself up for an ass-kicking by the Nuggets. They aren't going to beat Denver. They match up so poorly against them.

Even with the offense clicking (and it really has been; Ham stopped ****ing off and set the rotation that he should've had from day 1), I don't see them so much as taking 2 from Denver. Even when they play 45 good minutes against them, Denver seems to just smack them down in the last 3.

So you rest Davis, hope you win the 2nd play in, get the 8 seed and go from there. You do not want Denver in Rd1. And if you lose the 8 seed game, so be it. You weren't beating Denver anyway.

It's just the reality of it.

That said, I don't think they'll do it. NBA teams are full of guys with irrational confidence. That Lakers team is probably sitting there HOPING they get to play Denver because 'this time things will be different...'

It won't be.

What really pisses me off is that the Lakers have no business being lower than a 4 seed anyway. Ham absolutely ****ed this season up. They duffed 6+ games that were there for the taking and put themselves in this situation. They have nobody to blame but themselves.

Exactly. And that early February game is when I threw my hands up.

Lakers had a lead at about the 5 minute mark. They're at home and despite that, in the next 5 minutes they gave up 14 points. hell, the game was tied at about 2 minutes and they lost by EIGHT.

The Nuggets are a cat playing with a mouse here. LA isn't going to beat them. They simply don't play good enough defense and their outside shooting is not consistent enough. If they played better defense OR if they could run and hide then I might give them a shot.

But if they have a 12 point lead at the 8 minute mark, they're probably still going to lose that lead because they're going to get cold and they're damn sure not going to get the stops to keep that lead.

Now the argument would, I guess, be that 'Playoff Davis' is a different creature and can really transform them defensively. But not with Rui, LeBron, Russell and Reaves out there as the other starting 4. That's 4 abysmal defensive players.

James is just old. It happens. Reaves has heavy feet. But man, Rui and Russell should be able to play better defense than they do. If you could get those two to even average and let James play defense in spurts, you might be onto something.

But I don't see it happening. Davis is a generational defensive player but he's just not a guy that can carry 4 lousy defenders. Nobody is.

I hope they do it. Will be more fuel for OKC to curbstomp their ass.

Apart from josh “kiddey”, man it would be fun to see okc make a run. Like Shai a lot. With all the chuck-it-up shooters or dominating bigs, he’s kind of fresh new take for face of the league

If y'all wanna get worked up over being seen as an easier out than the defending champions who happen to employ a generational big man (who should be about to win his 4th consecutive MVP) then have at it.

But it seems pretty self-explanatory.

Shit, I don't want to go back to Lebron land, but it's interesting to look at his MVPs.

I wondered who most recently got 4 consecutive MVPs and went to see if LBJ did it. He got 4 in 5. And should've won 5 in a row, IMO. That stretch should've been 5 pretty easy votes.

And as I looked through his placements I thought "Damn, should he really have won like EIGHT of these things?"

Nope. That was it. I kinda thought there was going to be some real LeBron fatigue in there but I don't think there is. As I looked through the results I'm not going to say that they were all completely right, but there were more deserving MVPs every year he didn't win one except for the 10/11 season where Rose won.

James should've won. Hell, I'm not convinced Rose should've been top 3 that year. James and Howard were the clear two best players in the league. Dirk was still at/near his apex. Wade was still fantastic. Shit, Paul deserved a look.

It's obvious that James didn't win it because "The Decision" pissed people off so badly and it spoiled the results. But...why Rose? Wade got LeBron blowback. Howard was weird I guess? But the media loved Paul - though NOLA sucked. Even acknowledging all that, I'd STILL give it to Dirk.

Just a weird year.

Unfortunately historically we will always look at total mvps. But in reality mvp voters in the modern age often have personal reasons for not voting someone in. Biggest being wanting to give someone else a chance. It’s the reason Embiid won and probably a reason why Jokic isn’t a complete runaway this year.

yeah but that tends to work out in the wash.

Every last player in the GOAT debate (when those sort of conversations really matter) got shorted an MVP.

Jordan is the only one where you can really get those numbers up there. There's a damn good argument that he should've won it in the summer of '89, 90, 93 and 97.

Relative to his peers, nobody's ever been that dominant. Magic deserved the '87 MVP, IMO. But from 88 through 98 you could argue fairly easily that Jordan should've been the MVP in all 9 full seasons he played.

Magic over Jordan in 89 -- defensible but edge MJ
Magic and Chuck over Jordan in 90 -- Again, defensible for Magic but it was really team success that gave Magic those two MVPs. now as a fairly unique facilitator, perhaps that's worthwhile. But Jordan should've won at least one of those.

Barkely and Olajuwon over Jordan in '93 - PURE Jordan fatigue. This is just a wrong result. By truly any measure.

Malone over Jordan in '97 - Again, I'm inclined to agree with Michael here. The voters just got this one wrong.

Split the Magic awards if you're being diplomatic and I think Jordan should've still had 3 more than he did.

As for Kareem - eh, just such a different era. I mean Cowens is a laughably bad selection in 73. He probably should've won it over Walton in '78, Malone in 79 is close but defensible. So at most I'd say he got shorted out of 2 but really, I'd say it's really just the Cowens one in '73 that's something of an injustice and that pretty much checks out with everyone else.

They honestly just spread those things around way more than they should. Jokic should have won at least three of them so far (and the one he's gonna get this year should be his 4th). MJ should have won more than he did as well.

With respect to LeBron specifically, it doesn't help that the majority of the media throughout much of his career grew up watching MJ. They were not inclined to vote for him and allow him to tie or surpass MJ in MVPs (which he very clearly should have done about 11-12 years ago now).

Looks like Chamberlain got screwed quite a bit.

Russell didn't deserve it over him in 61, 62 or 63. Robertson in '64 is close but defensible. i really don't think Russell deserved it in 65 either but West did over Wilt.

But that's just the same argument that's been had a million times - stats vs. record. I think Russell's legend is wildly overstated but the dudes that actually watched him play oftentimes loudly disagree with me there. So I'll defer to them on that.

A guy who I think about who might be seen differently from a historical perspective if the MVP was decided a little better is Dirk. He only won one of them so we don't think of him in that generational tier, but he SHOULD'VE won 3 and could've won 4. At that point he's there with Kareem, Jordan, Russel, James and Wilt as the only 4 time winners.

Just paints him in a slightly different light. The problem with trying to put Dirk in that tier is that the Mavs only came out of the conference twice in his career. And as impressive as the 2011 championship is, he's not a multi-time winner and in that God Tier of guys, I think you need to be.

Except that Michael 'should have' won at least 8. And no, James has no claim to that.

If we're gonna award 'should have been' MVPs, James loses ground to MJ - he doesn't gain on him.

But seeing how few guys have ever won 4 (and none have ever won 4 straight) just makes me all the more annoyed at that damn Embiid award last year. It was just a really bad outcome.

I'd have to look at it more closely, but I think you could easily find 8 years where LeBron was statistically the best player in the league quite easily. Was he on the best teams in all of those years? Certainly not, but that's not my criteria for the award anyway.

And Embiid obviously shouldn't have won last year. Maybe the worst decision since Derrick Rose.

Jordan dominated his era far more (Scoring Titles, MVPs, Rings etc..), but Lebron played much better competition.

That's really what it boils down to...

And my favorite thing to do in any Jordan discussion is to mention Wayne Gretzky.

Gretz, interestingly, is the only guy I think got MORE MVPs than he should have. Just a quick stroll says of his 9 MVPs, he probably should've only won 7 of them. Lemieux got shafted out of one and the one he got as a rookie is pretty iffy but when a kid shows up at 19 and sets the league on its ear, that's gonna turn some heads.

Still seems like Marcel Dionne might've had a better claim to it that year though. And in the prime of his career without having ever won one, I'm surprised they didn't give it to him in such a tight race.

Over 700 career goals and never won an MVP. Most by anyone not to. Now I just feel bad for the guy.

I didn't watch either one of Gretzsky or Lemieux in their primes in the 80s, but I've been told that prime Lemieux easily had an argument as the best player in hockey in those days.

I'd say LeBron was also the best player in the NBA from about 2007 to 2020. Did he post the best seasons statistically in all of those years? No, he conserved energy in the regular seasons, especially in his 2nd Cavs stint/Lakers stint, and because of that his numbers took a hit.

Everyone knew it though and you could make a case he was the MVP in each and every one of those seasons (the same way you could make a case for Mahomes in each and every one of his seasons since he became a starter despite some like Lamar and Rodgers posting better stats than him at times).

Eh - like I said, I went into the exercise fully expecting to find exactly that. Didn't happen.

James was a metronome, don't get me wrong. Stellar every one of those years. But there were better seasons from players that came and went around him. In my 'perfect world' scenario you get:

'04 -- Garnett
05 -- Dirk, Duncan OR Garnett (but not James)
06 -- Dirk
07 -- Dirk
08 -- Honestly? Probably Chris Paul. He was amazing. Then KG and James
09 -- Easy James. One of the best seasons ever.
10 -- James
11 -- James
12 -- James
13 -- James (his best ever season, IMO)
14 -- Durant
15 -- Curry
16 -- Curry
17 -- Kawhi but he missed a lot of games so maybe Harden
18 -- Harden (gross)
19 -- Giannis
20 -- Giannis
21 through 24 - Jokic


I've italicized his 4 best 'arguable' seasons and bolded the screw job. Again, I wouldn't have given him the MVP in any of them but even if I take the diplomatic 'split em' approach I took to Jordan, he gets 2 of those 'close' decisions to go with the added bold one and gets to 7.

Jordan was more dominant for his era. Argue it we because of lesser competition if you want, but it's the reality of it.

I was just coming into the game so like you, i can't swear by any of it. It just didn't translate to TV well in those days and so it wasn't on very often.

But yeah, but many accounts there was about a 4-5 year period where Lemieux was just a better player than Gretzky.

LeBron had 9 years where he led the league in VORP (2005-2013 and 2017-2018) and 2 other years where he was 2nd (2004-2005 and 2013-2014) and 2 others where he was 3rd (2015-2016 and 2019-2020): https://www.basketball-reference.com...rp_top_10.html

You've got Dirk and CP3 (amazing players, no doubt) winning MVP in some of those LeBron Cavs years, but LeBron was the best player in basketball in that period. He just was playing with teams that were quite awful around him.

MJ also had 9 years where he led the league in VORP (1986-1993 and then 1995-1997) and 2 other years where he was 2nd (1984-1985 and 1997-1998).

I think you could easily make the case that both of them should have won at least double the amount of MVPs they won.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Year 21 LeBron compared to 4 MVP winning seasons. <a href="https://t.co/ftvPfnyZ8a">pic.twitter.com/ftvPfnyZ8a</a></p>&mdash; Barry (@BarryOnHere) <a href="https://twitter.com/BarryOnHere/status/1780050077379387786?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 16, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Somebody please bench LeBron in the 2nd half of this one, it’s our only chance

I have nothing against New Orleans but their players just bother me

Ingram and his iso ball
McCollum with his inconsistency
And for some reason Zion … maybe because he has so much talent and hype that he just seems a little meh

Doomed.

The hype is real but he is made of glass.

carried

first round exit for lefraud

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Lakers win and therefore, their season is officially over now they&#39;ll get destroyed by Denver in Round 1.<br><br>This is the reward they get for being the 7 seed instead of the 8 seed. Great job with the seeding NBA!</p>&mdash; Barry (@BarryOnHere) <a href="https://twitter.com/BarryOnHere/status/1780418702791389324?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 17, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">LeBron has now won 9 consecutive “Do or Die” games, over the last 15 years (Game 7s &amp; Play-Ins). <br><br>(It’s 12-0 if you include the In Season Tournament!)<br><br>His last loss in one of those games was 2008 at Boston, at age 23, when he had 45-5-6 in a 5 point loss.</p>&mdash; nick wright (@getnickwright) <a href="https://twitter.com/getnickwright/status/1780425022768656877?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 17, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Clutch GOAT

How was that game 'do or die'?

And elimination games he's lost along the way are not?

That's...dumb. They lose today, they still play another game. It was most assuredly not 'do or die'. In fact, losing the game was the only shot they had at actually doing anything meaningful this post-season. And in those elimination games they lost (Denver, for instance) it was as do or die as they get - lose and go home. He lost. He went home.

That's just a completely made up 'stat'. And then to try to include the stupid damn play-in tournament to goose it demonstrates just how silly it is.

That said - well shit. Season's over in 5 games.

Jokic is just too damn good.

Should be 4, I think. Jokic won’t let them have a game and they can’t stop him/Jamal.

Always a good day when the fraud Warriors have their season ended. The dynasty is officially over.

Draymond and Klay getting sonned in the 9‐10 game is exactly what they deserve.

Can't wait to see Klay toil away for the Hornets next year.

Not fraud. They have rings. Klay is finished and Chris Paul is a worthless sack of shit. What really did them in was wasting that pick on that no talent sack of shit James Wiseman. Wiseman never wanted to be a Warrior or an NBA player.

Eh, Jokic isn't a psycho that needs to sweep every series. This feels like a Gentlemen's sweep. Lakers win one of their home games and go down fairly easily otherwise.

I don't hate most of the Warriors but man do I ever despise Draymond Green. And Klay's been a bit of a churlish shitweasel for awhile now.

Yeah - I can live with that.

Playing the nuggets when the lakers are fresh is actually their only possible chance of beating them

The healthier lebron is the better chance they have even if it is miniscule

Next time try showing up for more than just Game 6s, Klaaaaaaaaaaay

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">&quot;Is this the end of the Warriors dynasty?&quot;<br><br>Bitch what dynasty? These mother****ers &quot;won&quot; 2 rings in 9 years together without KD, and both of those have massive injury asterisks.<br><br>They could&#39;ve been a dynasty had they won in 17 &amp; 18 without KD, but instead they were cowards &amp;…</p>&mdash; Barry (@BarryOnHere) <a href="https://twitter.com/BarryOnHere/status/1780449245679559111?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 17, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

But...they had KD. By that sort of silly logic, James has ONE championship. Gotta take away his "Heatles" titles and of course the absurd bubble title.

G'damn y'all are salty sometimes.

How can anyone dispute the warriors were a dynasty? I don’t even like them but it’s undeniable.

Five straight finals, three championships. At a time where every great team was in the west, and the only really good team in the east (the Cavs) they had to play in the finals.

"Only Lebron is allowed to have super teams!"

There are still some people who claim the Chiefs aren’t a dynasty because LIV was too distant from their back to back.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">do you consider the Big 3 Miami Heat a dynasty? No. The non-KD Warriors aren&#39;t a dynasty.</p>&mdash; Barry (@BarryOnHere) <a href="https://twitter.com/BarryOnHere/status/1780449836753440846?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 17, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">&quot;Do Durant without Curry!&quot;<br><br>KD a coward too! **** em both! Neither have ever beaten LeBron in the playoffs on an even playing field. They had to team up together like little bitches to get it done while ruining the sport in the process.</p>&mdash; Barry (@BarryOnHere) <a href="https://twitter.com/BarryOnHere/status/1780462061413163306?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 17, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Literal fraud dynasty. And it's finished.

The Non-KD warriors aren't a thing that exists.

The Warriors are. And they won things both before and after KD.

I swear he's trolling.

Barry is a troll account and KCC posts him like he's some kind of expert or authority on all things basketball LMAO

LMAO It's always a delight to watch LeBron stans take a hatchet job to his legacy while they cope and see the about the Warriors.

Yea, they don't realize that in being so blatantly hypocritical, it only hurts Lebron more.

What’s weird is Barry does a really great YouTube channel. I don’t know why his Twitter account is alt universe Skip Bayless

There's no way that's the same guy. All of his stuff is NFL content. Can't find any Lebron propaganda either.

Edit: NVM I dug in further and it's definitely him.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qq5mQTbTh48?si=_eoIhLKnjQzkCz8Z" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

This is one of his better videos here.

My favorite is going to the comments to see Barry get destroyed LMAO

It's just like Twitter LMAO

He used to have a video about MJ facing plumbers and ice cream truck drivers, but it appears to be gone. What a loss to the world.

"Plumbers and ice cream truck drivers"

https://i.imgur.com/JVR6hlr.jpeg

https://youtu.be/5B6570NVR8U?si=gXCyi5PbazbvAm5g

Cool do LeBron titles with Wade don't count since KD doesn't

Also at least Curry stayed loyal and didn't run off crying to start a "super team ". Not 1 not 2 not 3 not 4...

Even worse, Lebron singlehandedly lost a tittle with Wade playing at an MVP level LMAO

That should count as -1 titles.

I'm also not counting Kyrie and AD. So LeBron has 0 titles by your "logic"

Thanks Barry!

"But but but Scottie Pippen!"

Don't you get it? Lebron is the only player allowed to build super teams and play with multiple superstars.

The loss to the Mavericks is as bad as anything Curry has on his resume. But the 3-1 comeback against that team, weird suspension stuff or no, is pretty damn legit. One of the more impressive lines on a resume we've seen in a bit.

Kobe winning back to back titles with 2 completely different incarnations of the Lakers is up there but being exactly like Jordan but lesser can't really get you into this conversation. And just as James had his weird flake-out series (against the Magic, I believe? Maybe Boston), Kobe has that bizarre Phoenix game and then the blown finals against Boston. Something of a tangent, but there aren't many guys who have won B2B with 2 completely different clubs like Kobe has.