[Harpospoke]

Originally Posted by Bryan_Wilson

Right, Hou and GSW's had an easy time in the West so that means the East isn't nearly as bad as ppl think. If the NBA announced tomorrow that they were taking the first team who sent a representative to their office from the West and moving them to the East to replace the Orlando Tragic... all 15 teams from the West would have sent their entire office personnel to try to move East. There may even be a few hospitalizations or a fatality in the scrum.

I don't remember that happening. A "what if" isn't really a good argument.

Nothing left to debate. You think going against much harder competition but joining an established squad would have been easier than joining 2 guys he was friends with in a super cheese eastern conference.

Of course. It's self evident, isn't it? Why join an inferior team if you want to win championships? That would be extremely illogical. Obviously if you wanted the easy path, you go join the strongest team you can find. That would be a West team. Again....why would anyone want to go to the Finals every year and lose? That makes no sense. You've got to explain that one first.

And you think staying in Cleveland would have been futile and he can't be faulted for leaving and somehow wasn't making it easy by leaving. And I guess it was actually not a given that the Heat would instantly become successful in that shit eastern conference because they were forming something new().

We just saw it in action. OKC put together some "names" and it failed. You never know how it's going to work. Chemistry is everything in basketball. We actually saw it in action in the Finals in 2011 in case you forgot. The Heat weren't a real team and the Mavs were. The Mavs had the better coach, played better defense, and had the better bench. Getting together with his friends in Miami sounded like a lot of fun to them, but they had no idea if it would work. If Lebron had joined the Spurs it would have been a guaranteed great team. They had done all the chemistry work already and had a great coach.

And no, I don't see the problem with Lebron leaving the Cavs. He gave them 7 years and they did nothing. How is that not fair? By year 7, MJ already had Pippen, Grant, and Jackson for a couple of years.

I also think Dirk would have been justified in leaving the Mavs a year or two ago. He didn't, but I wouldn't have held it against him if he did. The Mavs were obviously going nowhere.

And that fans and KD are responsible for this shit era, the whole starting point of the topic. And Lebron is hated unjustly and I guess whatever else, maybe parting the red sea somewhere. So there's nothing left to debate. You blame fans and KD for this era, I blame Lebron.

I know where the "rings" stuff comes from. It's the fans. It makes zero sense. There is nothing remotely logical about counting rings to measure how great a player is. It's a team sport. But over the years, players have started buying into that nonsense.

Fans are STILL doing it. Bragging about "rings'...and still complaining about players "chasing rings". So it's still happening right in front of us.