Putting Lebron into Context

Guy 1: "Lebron will never be as good as Jordan."

Guy 2: "Well, he has the potential to be better."

Guy 3: "He does a lot of stuff better than Jordan though."

The debate is relentless. Is Lebron James better than Michael Jordan? Can he be become better? Will he become better? Obviously, only time will tell, but I think there is a way to put Lebron James into context. They say history repeats itself, but sometimes, in repeats itself in different ways.

There's a fierce debate north of the border (i.e. Canada) concerning who the best hockey players in in all the land is. Like the basketball's counterpart debate, the face-off has been narrowed down to two. Gordie Howe played in the forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, and even season in the nineties with an IHL (International Hockey League), a now defunct minor league. Howe was tough and skilled. Few players on the ice could shoot, skate, nor score as well as he could. He is probably the best Detroit Red Wings ever, given that players such as Steve Yzerman and Nicklas Lidstrom are also Red Wings Alumnus, that is saying a lot.

The name everyone is more familiar with is Wayne Gretzky. Gretzky was a lot like Howe. Except, he was small and not very physical. Gordie Howe was known to not let anyone push him around. However, Wayne Gretzky only got into one fight in his over twenty season career. He didn't do that great. However, there were few players as skilled as Gretzky. He was a fluent skater, a dazzling stick handler, and most of all, a dominating scorer.

Gretzky scored more NHL goals than Howe. However, if you add the goals that Gretzky and Howe scored when not playing in the NHL, Howe has the upper hand. Numbers don't provide a very concise comparison. For example, some argue that that the NHL in the 1950's was much more competitive than it was in the seventies. However, Gordie Howe scored a large number of goals in the seventies, when he played in the WHA. A minor league, and not nearly as competitive as it was in the seventies. There's so many different variables that these arguments are normally settled the same way. Each player had his own special attributes.

So how does this apply to basketball. The simple truth is that Jordan and Lebron played in different eras and with different styles. There is no better of the two; it's a child's argument. Lebron has many years left in his prime and will develop into a legendary caliber. At the end of the day, the predicament in hockey, can be adequately applied to basketball.

Source(s):
- Gordie Howe - Stats - NHL.com - Players
- Wayne Gretzky - Stats - NHL.com - Players

Spurs Scandal?

A breaking story so far this week is the controversial San Antonio Spurs' decision to rest their starters in Thursday's game against the Miami Heat. Head Coach of the Spurs, Gregg Popovich, sat Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Danny Green, and Manu Ginobili; in fact, those players didn't even make the trip out to Florida. This has angered basketball fans, and Commissioner David Stern. Here's why neither have a right to complain.

As a Head Coach of a professional team, regardless of the sport, you have to make the hard call. Of couse, you want to be as competitive as possible, 24/7. But in order to stay highly competitive, you have to keep your players healthy. Thus, you have to be proactive, and lay back. You have to lose some, to win some. This is what Coach Pop tried to do. He wanted to avoid letting his players become fatigued. This back fired, and it obviously shouldn't have.

I can understand why fans could be mad. They paid all this money to watch all-stars, and it turns out they've been benched. I've been there, done that, personally. But, David Stern needs to stay out of it. If he turns out to follow through on his statement, and sanction the Spurs, he would be abusing his powers. So, he needs to back off.

Gregg Popovich made the right call. Everyone else needs to respect his decision has a coach. There is emotion here, where emotion does not belong.

Switching Around

The NBA offseason is heating up, and almost every team is running around, trying to pick up some new talent. There's been a lot of talk, but so far, few things have happened. The primary big name transfer was Steve Nash going to the Lakers. However, many other possible traders are in the works. Ray Allen wants to move to Miami, Jeremy Lin is contemplating going to the Rockets, and Dwight Howard, well, he could go just about anywhere now.

I am going to start off my commentary, with Nash and the Lakers. I think, Nash will offer a lot of leadership and teamwork to the Lakers. Steve Nash works very hard, and has a great attitude that will have a positive effect on the team. I think that, while the Miami Heat has a great group of forwards, the LA Lakers have the NBA's most elite, point guard-shooting guard match up with Nash and Kobe Bryant. I don't see why the Lakers can't go a long way in the 2013 playoffs.

Now, we have Dwight Howard in the middle of talks with the Orlando Magic. I find the Saga to be really long, and bland. Basically, the Magic can't make Howard happy enough to be able to resign him. So, there are a million other places he could end up. I have seen articles on the internet stating that there a rumors he could go to Houston or the Lakers, but really, it is impossible to tell. The fatal flaw of sports writing, is predicting what's going to happen, whether it's who wins a game, or which free agent ends up where. Honestly, I couldn't see him playing for anyone else, but the Magic. Eventually, Howard and the Orlando Magic will be able to strike a deal.

Jeremy Lin signed an offer sheet with the Houston Rockets, so the deal is almost half done. But, what does an offer sheet do? An offer sheet basically states, that an offer has been made to a player, and the team who the player belongs to, has 72 hours to make a counter offer to keep their player. I think Lin will fit right in with the Rockets, and even if the Knicks decide to counter, Lin would like the center stage of Houston a lot more.

Finally, we have Ray Allen and him wanting to go to the Heat. Why? Don't ask me that: you already know. Obviously, he wants to win a championship, which obviously isn't possible via the Celtics and hard work. That's probably his view, which I don't really understand. And honestly, how much more stacked can the Miami Heat get. Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade, LeBron James, and even Shane Battier would be a star if he wasn't over shadowed by these goons. So much for the CBA. However, if the Heat have the room to sign him, there is no question that they will. But, I doubt he will ever get down to South Beach, probably at the end of it all, he will find himself in Boston, which isn't a bad thing. In my opinion, winning a title with the Celtics isn't all that hard.

Well, it looks like the NBA will have itself a hectic offseason. Perhaps, this post-lockout after shock will be just makes this offseason more busy to make up for all the inactivity last summer due to the lockout. The one thing I always remember is, every offseason is a soap opera.