NBA Thread

[The TeeJ of Philly]

You realize the social media has only been like this for like, two, maybe three years. Kobe had it easy, during his prime, when he was at his ultimate anti-teammate peak, he would have been torn a part.

I can't defend the Decision, even Lebron can't, he admits it was a mistake.

I don't think you truly understand the meaning of Poise if you said Kobe is poise

And CP is a primadonna.

EDIT: Dunno where the rest of that went, but Duncan and KD aren't, so I'll give you that.

[Jon]

Lebron James wears Kobe Bryant pajamas to bed.

[GM Franchise]

You realize the social media has only been like this for like, two, maybe three years. Kobe had it easy, during his prime, when he was at his ultimate anti-teammate peak, he would have been torn a part.

I can't defend the Decision, even Lebron can't, he admits it was a mistake.

I don't think you truly understand the meaning of Poise if you said Kobe is poise

And CP is a primadonna.

EDIT: Dunno where the rest of that went, but Duncan and KD aren't, so I'll give you that.

Two or three years? Going to have to disagree. Myspace has been around since 2003 and the year after that podcasting began. Twitter and Youtube began all around that same time as well.

Kobe IS poise. The guy isn't called the Black Mamba for nothing.

Lebron James wears Kobe Bryant pajamas to bed.

LOL +1

[T-Bonizzle]

He's gonna restructure his deal to clear more cap space for the Heat. Maybe he'll also get more money overall? Sure, he's a superstar. He still wants to win Championships, and he'll do what he thinks he needs to do to make that happen.

[The TeeJ of Philly]

Two or three years? Going to have to disagree. Myspace has been around since 2003 and the year after that podcasting began. Twitter and Youtube began all around that same time as well.

Kobe IS poise. The guy isn't called the Black Mamba for nothing.

LOL +1

Created =/= being big. Facebook was created in 2004, yet, wasn't the thing it was for about 3 or 4 years, the reason why I know this was because I was in high school, beginning of sophomore year when I got one. Twitter didn't become what it is now until 2010 at the earliest. I mean by the time Facebook got popular, is the same time MySpace started to die out. Just because you were on it at the time because you were on the internet at the time doesn't mean it hit the mainstream public like it has now.

And Poise means

poise1   [poiz]  Show IPA
noun
1.
a state of balance or equilibrium, as from equality or equal distribution of weight; equipoise.
2.
a dignified, self-confident manner or bearing; composure; self-possession: to show poise in company.
3.
steadiness; stability: intellectual poise.
4.
suspense or wavering, as between rest and motion or two phases of motion: the poise of the tides.
5.
the way of being poised, held, or carried.

He's not stable, he's not in a state of balance or equilbrium. He's called the black mamba because he's a lethal basketball player, he's a killer sort of like the snake he's named after.

[GM Franchise]

Created =/= being big. Facebook was created in 2004, yet, wasn't the thing it was for about 3 or 4 years, the reason why I know this was because I was in high school, beginning of sophomore year when I got one. Twitter didn't become what it is now until 2010 at the earliest. I mean by the time Facebook got popular, is the same time MySpace started to die out. Just because you were on it at the time because you were on the internet at the time doesn't mean it hit the mainstream public like it has now.

And Poise means

poise1   [poiz]  Show IPA
noun
1.
a state of balance or equilibrium, as from equality or equal distribution of weight; equipoise.
2.
a dignified, self-confident manner or bearing; composure; self-possession: to show poise in company.
3.
steadiness; stability: intellectual poise.
4.
suspense or wavering, as between rest and motion or two phases of motion: the poise of the tides.
5.
the way of being poised, held, or carried.

He's not stable, he's not in a state of balance or equilbrium. He's called the black mamba because he's a lethal basketball player, he's a killer sort of like the snake he's named after.

What does me being on any of those sites have to do with this? That has nothing to do with anything in this discussion. There was social media back then and it was becoming increasingly popular. Also let me point out that the Lakers won the 2009 and 2010 championships so by your definition of the timeline Kobe would be under the media microscope as much as Lebron is since he was the biggest player at the time it became really big.

I know what it means, TJ. Posting the definition doesn't mean you're right. How do you think he became the Black Mamba? Because he's poised when the game is on the line. That's the DEFINITION of poise. I don't know where you're getting this "he's not stable" stuff from as it relates to Kobe. If he wasn't poised then he wouldn't be able to go for the kill like he does during games.

[The TeeJ of Philly]

You brought up Myspace first and youtube and twitter, which was made 3 years after Myspace. I'm saying that Kobe, at his worst when social media would rip him apart, was not what it is today, society was not was it was, I'm talking society, not the sports world. Yes the sports world ripped him a part when he was cursing out a young Bynum and demanding trades, but the social landscape has changed far more than what you seem to believe in the last 3 or 4 years.

Increasingly popular from nothing is not being used in all forms of media, news papers, sportscenter, blogs, websites. Lebron can not take a shit in peace without his twitter blowing up saying he's not efforting enough, how MJ's shit would have been nice and even and how Kobe's would have came out brown instead of black that day.

The argument I made at the beginning is that if Kobe's prime aka post Shaq/Jackson and about 2009 were in the middle of the now, with social media what it is now, Kobe would be considered far worse than a ball hog who has a joke controller where the only button is the shoot button. I mean, look at what happens any time Lebron yells at Mario Chalmers, and imagine what would happen when Kobe would yell at Smush or Kwame.

I'm saying perception of Lebron, and a lot of people now a days, is so misconstrued because of social media and how every idiot (myself included) has a voice and people who agree with them, simply press a button and boom 5 minutes later, the idiot who said that Lebron is teh softest player in the league has 4K retweets. I'm not saying Kobe, MJ, Pippin, Thomas, Bird, Magic would have caved under that sort of shit day in and day out, but they wouldn't have been the same perceived players. Hell when Magic came out with AIDS, you realize the homophobic shit storm that would have happened on Twitter that day? When MJ retired the first time, amid the gambling rumors that lead to his father's death, you imagine the amount of MJ gambling shit that would have happened on Facebook? Lebron says I'm taking my talents to south beach, the organization holds a party to welcome where he says something stupid and he never lives it down. That's the worst Lebron has done. Compare that to Magic's massive affairs that lead to his AIDS and MJ's rumored gambling debts that lead to his father being murdered and the 24/7 media and social media would have ran those guys down so much that the NBA have had to take action to simply save face on a business side of things.

TL;DR The media today, both social and otherwise, would affected the way we look at guys like Magic and Jordan

[Mike Powers]

Ladies, ladies, you BOTH look pretty.

[¿PapaPancho?]

Kobes rape trial would have been much more mainstream. That we can agree on.

[GM Franchise]

You brought up Myspace first and youtube and twitter, which was made 3 years after Myspace. I'm saying that Kobe, at his worst when social media would rip him apart, was not what it is today, society was not was it was, I'm talking society, not the sports world. Yes the sports world ripped him a part when he was cursing out a young Bynum and demanding trades, but the social landscape has changed far more than what you seem to believe in the last 3 or 4 years.

You must be completely forgetting the 2004 NBA Finals when the Pistons beat the Lakers and there was a huge rift between Kobe and Shaq that was all over the media at the time. He got ripped apart and blamed for most of that debacle. Why are you acting like I'm out of touch with reality as it relates to social media when I'm clearly not? I brought up Myspace, Youtube, and Twitter because you, not me, brought up social media initially.

In fact here's a complete history of social media complete with dates and all in chronological order too.

http://www2.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/NewMedia/SocialMedia/SocialMediaHistory.html

Increasingly popular from nothing is not being used in all forms of media, news papers, sportscenter, blogs, websites. Lebron can not take a shit in peace without his twitter blowing up saying he's not efforting enough, how MJ's shit would have been nice and even and how Kobe's would have came out brown instead of black that day.

Does Tim Duncan, who's won FIVE titles, have this problem? No. Does Durant? No. Why? Because they learned to keep their shit in order in the public spectrum. Lebron's wife is posting Akron shirts thus creating a Lebron to the Cavs rumor and The Decision on ESPN are two examples as to why this is going on. That creates this kind of attention on a player. Like I said he brought it on himself from the start the moment the Decision took place.

The argument I made at the beginning is that if Kobe's prime aka post Shaq/Jackson and about 2009 were in the middle of the now, with social media what it is now, Kobe would be considered far worse than a ball hog who has a joke controller where the only button is the shoot button. I mean, look at what happens any time Lebron yells at Mario Chalmers, and imagine what would happen when Kobe would yell at Smush or Kwame.

LOL there's a difference. NOBODY cares about Smush and Kwame. Kwame is one of the worst players that I've ever seen and Smush was decent at best. Chalmers at least has some big game performances to his credit but he's way better than those two you mentionned and that's saying a lot considering that he's decent at best during the regular season. Kobe also had his sex scandal and that was all over the place so it's not like he hasn't been destroyed in social media because back then they ripped him apart for that.

I'm saying perception of Lebron, and a lot of people now a days, is so misconstrued because of social media and how every idiot (myself included) has a voice and people who agree with them, simply press a button and boom 5 minutes later, the idiot who said that Lebron is teh softest player in the league has 4K retweets. I'm not saying Kobe, MJ, Pippin, Thomas, Bird, Magic would have caved under that sort of shit day in and day out, but they wouldn't have been the same perceived players. Hell when Magic came out with AIDS, you realize the homophobic shit storm that would have happened on Twitter that day? When MJ retired the first time, amid the gambling rumors that lead to his father's death, you imagine the amount of MJ gambling shit that would have happened on Facebook? Lebron says I'm taking my talents to south beach, the organization holds a party to welcome where he says something stupid and he never lives it down. That's the worst Lebron has done. Compare that to Magic's massive affairs that lead to his AIDS and MJ's rumored gambling debts that lead to his father being murdered and the 24/7 media and social media would have ran those guys down so much that the NBA have had to take action to simply save face on a business side of things.

Lebron said they would win six championships in Miami or something along those lines. Lebron isn't innocent in all of this which is my point. His ego got out of control and he's been scrutinized heavily ever since. So you're acting like there wasn't a shit storm when Magic said he had AIDS? Other players didn't want to play with him back then. It was a huge scandal. Everybody was talking about it and it was a media firestorm over the AIDS issue. No, you're wrong. Lebron's ego has kept it going. The Decision and the boasting of all the championships they would win in Miami had a lot to do with what's going on now. Don't forget about the other scandals of the NBA back in the day such as Charles Barkley spitting at a child, Patrick Ewing and others getting free blowjobs in strip clubs, Dennis Rodman's off court antics, etc. It's not like it wasn't going on and wasn't as big as it is now. It's the same as back in the day as it is now other than more places to talk about things on.

But let me set one thing straight. Jordan's father killed because of his gambling? I think not. I don't know what you think happened but it was a robbery gone wrong as he was parked on the side of the highway after driving home from a funeral.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1996-01-04/news/9601040169_1_daniel-andre-green-larry-martin-demery-defense-attorney-angus-thompson

TL;DR The media today, both social and otherwise, would affected the way we look at guys like Magic and Jordan

I disagree. Both of their faults were widely known because of various events (Magic saying he had AIDS, Jordan's father's death and the media saying it was mobsters when it wasn't, etc.).

Kobes rape trial would have been much more mainstream. That we can agree on.

I think it would be somewhat on par with the Tiger Woods scandal.

[Mike Powers]

You got the inside dish on MJ's gambling and his father's murder? Dude, do JFK next. I've always wondered about that one....

[GM Franchise]

You got the inside dish on MJ's gambling and his father's murder? Dude, do JFK next. I've always wondered about that one....

I guess you didn't read the link...

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1996-01-04/news/9601040169_1_daniel-andre-green-larry-martin-demery-defense-attorney-angus-thompson

[GM Franchise]

However as it relates to gambling I think that was a major issue that was swept under the rug. This is a real interesting read I'd recommend taking a look at as it relates to MJ and his gambling.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/131997-mjs-1st-retirement-was-it-a-secret-suspension

[T-Bonizzle]

Well geez LeBron is a saint compared to MJ and Kobe. Case closed, he's the best ever.

[Jon]

Every star player has to face tribulations. That comes with being an NBA star. Arguing over which tribulations are harder then the other is pretty pointless to me.

If just because you cry on the bench, because you know you fell short of your own personal expectations, that doesn't mean you don't have poise. To me that shows passion for the game they love.

I mean, hell I cry sometimes when I play my heart out in a losing effort. In High School when we were ranked #1 in state and we lost to Beaverton in the flipping second round... you bet your ass I was tearing up. You put so much effort into being the best and for it all to be gone, it sucks. Doesn't mean our team didn't have poise. We just didn't want the season to be over and for some of the guys, it was the last time they played competitive baseball.

When you want something so bad... like in this case, the NBA Championship. Sometimes emotions get the better of you and I think that's what makes sports beautiful. It's the passion of the game.

Now I don't like Lebron as much as the next guy, for reasons I don't really know. Probably just because I'm a Laker fan and he stole the limelight and a few MVPs from Kobe. But I can't argue his talent, I can't argue his heart, and I can't argue his passion. Has he made silly deicisons, sure. I can't imagine what it feels like to have everything you do looked at under a microscope, but I imagine it sucks, always trying to do the right thing or say the right words because if you don't, you get lashed out against. Part of being human is making mistakes and learning from them. And I think Lebron has come a long way from the kid that joined the NBA out of high school.