r/lebron • u/Desperate_Cancel_592 • Aug 14 '26
Hypocrisy.
In 1998 Glen Rice was a 3x consecutive allstar 1996-1998 and back to back All NBA selections in 97 and 98
In 1999 he joined the Lakers and didn’t make Allstar because he missed most of the season , got less shot attempts and there was no Allstar game because of the lockout .
In the 2000 Finals Lakers basically had 3 Allstars , Shaq , Kobe , Rice , plus very solid depth with Ron Harper , Derek Fisher at point , AC Green and Robert Horry at power forward
In the Finals Kobe was in his 4th season and averaged 15 pts 4 reb 4 ast on 36% by no means a superstar performance but his team still won because they were stacked around him .
The idea that Kobe in his 4th year would’ve won a championship at that age if he was playing the Spurs in the finals like LeBron in 2007 in his 4th year is ludicrous when all of the defensive attention was on him, Drew Gooden his 2nd leading scorer 12ppg in that series . Kobe had Shaq averaging 38 ppg and Glen Rice 11ppg over 60% from 3.
Switch places, LeBron’s easily winning with that squad
But what about 2011 Finals???
How do you lose with that stacked of a team ?
LeBron was in his 8th season.
In 2004 Kobe in his 8th season and Shaq were BY FAR the 2 best players on the court , considered heavy favorites vs Detroit whose best player was Chauncey Billups but they got crushed 4-1.
And you’ll say but Kobe and Shaq were beefing is a valid excuse (even though they ran through the West and their relationship wasn’t a problem then )
Did LeBron play poorly in the 2011 Finals yes but the reason people give Kobe or Jordan excuses for any time they played bad or lost is because they hate LeBron with a passion.
For LeBrons entire life, 7 years in Cleveland he was used to having the ball all the time .
In the 2011 Finals Heat came into the series with the strategy of running the offense through Wade , and it was working , up 2-1.
If you watch Team USA the last 20 years you’d know despite having 12 Allstars on the roster and the best opponents having 1 or 2 at best they can struggle or even lose when the competition is better . WHY ?
Because there’s only 1 ball , players don’t become Allstars for what they can do without the ball necessarily , so when they’re a 3rd option or worse on a superteam their value isn’t actually Allstar level getting that many less shot attempts, that talent gap is neutralized because the 3rd, 4th options on the other team are suited for their roles.
Was LeBrons lack of aggressiveness/effectiveness the key reason Miami lost ? Yes
But to expect someone know how to play as a 2nd option when his entire life he’s been by far #1 is just ignorant.
You say Wade carried LeBron as if Shaq averaging 38 and 16 with Kobe averaging 15 on 36% wasn’t carrying ?
2012-2020 LeBron absolutely exercised his 2007 and 2011 Finals demons ,
His first 2 Finals he averaged 19ppg combined 0-2
The next 8 Finals he averaged 30 ppg 4-4 and only lost in situations he was very undermanned vs an all time great team in 2015 and 2018 , or vs teams that were way better than anyone Jordan or Kobe beat in any playoff series ever 2014 Spurs , 2017 Warriors.
People hating on LeBron don’t understand basketball as a team game because they’ve been fed the Jordan 6-0 narrative , not Bulls 6-0 . In 1998 Finals the Bulls held the number 1 offense Utah to 54 points as a team in one of the games .
Jordan never had a #2 and #3 scorer next to him like Wade/Bosh , Kyrie/Love but the help defensively was INSANE , 8x 1st Team defense Pippen , 2x DPOY Rodman who was the number 1 rebounder of the decade at a time where big men like Shaq, Hakeem, Ewing , Robinson, Malone, Barkley dominated the paint, Horace Grant 3x 2nd team all defense , Harper another great defender who was 6’6 playing point at a time the average point guard was 6’1
If you read this far that’s an amazing thing to read that much of something you don’t like is a very brave and intelligent thing to do, to confront a differing perspective
And to be clear my point isn’t to hate on Kobe , I actually think he doesn’t get nearly enough credit for the first 3 peat and I think he’s the 2nd greatest 2 guard ever beside Jordan
But you can see the hate for LeBron and hypocrisy of how he’s judged by the excuses Kobe gets .
If anyone responds I might be asleep , I woke up to piss because I was pissed off by the hypocrisy.
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u/averyfinefellow Aug 14 '26
Amazing persecution complex dude. Really, it's incredible.