A Magical Dethroning of King James

"What?! You mean the man who has been averaging nearly a triple double throughout the season is not making his teammates better? I think TNT showed a statistic that displayed that his teammates are shooting 30 something percent from the field off of his passes. It's not his fault that Delonte West, Mo Williams, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas are wide open and missing badly on jumpers."

Call me a history buff or not, but history has proved that the greatest players made their teammates better. They made their teammates show an ability to win without them. As a superstar and reigning MVP, James doesn't do that. He is a phenomenal player, but he in not the King. Perhaps, the people champion but not a King. Kobe has Fischer, Gasol and Horry. Jordan had Kerr, Pippen and Kukoc. Tim Duncan had Parker and Horry. Perhaps it is the coaching. I have said that the Brown needs to sit LeBron (how crazy?). This needs to happen to challenge the players, but with the amount of time LeBron has the ball he needs to feed his teammates repeatedly.

• Follow Billups. He shoots later in the game, making sure his teammates are in the game before he is. If his teammates are down he pick them up.

LeBron James rarely lets his teammate fall down to see if they can rise on their own.

Stat: Lakers/Nuggets series 2-2. Cavaliers/Magic 3-1. Enough said.

"There is no way you can use 1 bad game out of 11 games to justify your point. In the first 2 games he was hitting nearly every jump shot imaginable. In game 1 I am confident he hit 6 of them in a row. He had a "sub-par" game in the form of a near 40-10-10 output."

James has improved his outside shot but it is still very spotty. I'm not using one game to highlight to simply highlight his weakness but to highlight the truth. James is a weaker outside shooter than the likes of Kobe. That's the very reason James only has 2 game winning shots. That is why Kobe is a CLOSER. The critics will all agree James outside shot needs to be improved. He improved it slightly this past off season.

"You seem to have some sort of weird vendetta towards LeBron James. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's your opinion after all. But when you bring up the stats to disprove a player's greatness, don't base it off 1 game while saying something a while back that Kobe is better than LeBron because he makes his teammates better when all statistics the past two or three years proves otherwise."

I do have this weird vendetta against James. I look at him and I'm amazed by what he can do, but at the same time I see what is holding this kid back: his inability to make others around him better. Last night, I felt sorry for him in the last few seconds of regulation. Then, he flopped. He was supposed to get that foul called. In my opinion, it was complete bullshit. Yes, the guy guarding him had his arm around him, but it wasn't (didn't) make him fall to the ground. Did he learn that from Acting 101 in college? Also, when he jumped into the Dwight Howard when Howard had already made his way back to the ground and he wanted another foul to be called. Bullshit. Missing free throws. The 8 or so turnovers he made when it was crucial to score, the play of a youth or a prince but surely not the play of a king.

In the end, Prince James made too many mistakes before Game 3, and in Game 4 he can't blame anyone but himself. He had the opportunity but he choked under the pressure. Before his acting and self-derailment, I felt sorry but now I don't feel sorry for the Prince (just contemptment.)

He's already been to an NBA Finals (before getting the inevitable sweeping by the Spurs). He's already taken his team on his shoulders (game 5 against the Pistons in 2007) when they needed him the most.

I don't see where you can possibly blame LeBron for them losing this series. I will say his missed free throws are costly and that's the one area where Kobe is superior. But come on, even in game 4 his teammates he's kicking out to are wide open and missing.

And do what? Kick it out to one of his (so far) useless teammates? He already did that in game 1 and they lost. He won game 2. Game 3 wasn't much of a game.

Game 4 he forced OT but his turnovers were the main reason they lost. This is the same criticism Kobe had when he had stiffs like Kwame Brown and Smush Parker around him.

After reading what you just read, Cheez, it looks like Van Gundy is doing a much better job at reading Cleveland's plays and using that to make smarter decisions and more efficient plays for Orlando. And that's why they're winning...

LeBron has a 2.68 assist-to-turnover ratio, Kobe has 1.88. He is far from selfish and he's only, I repeat only, 24.

I hope you remember that Kobe's first few playoff games were disastrous. In that game against the Jazz (I think in 1999) he fired up 2 airballs in succession, either one could've tied it. LeBron in just his 2nd try took a mediocre Cavs team to the finals.

I'll tell you what, if I'm on a team with two giant useless pieces o'crap as centers, and an inferior supporting cast and I'm making them look better than they really are........I'd tell you I'm LeBron James.

your olympics analogy is horrible - We've had superstar teams for years, and yet it was only when we started to make an actual TEAM and started to utilize Lebron that we started to win again (see the 08 games). In 04 we had a very young Lebron who had yet to properly develop.

Basketball is LeBron's craft. He's been playing it his entire life. He knows how to play basketball better than he knows how to walk.

For the record, Prince James is an amazing basketball player, but in order for him to win that oh so elusive ring he has to make his teammates better. That mean's passing to them constantly in the beginning of the game whether they're making or missing shots. He will win that ring if he learns to do just what i said. I'm in awe of him but i like to see certain players win rings and i'm harder on them because i know it is possible.

In this series alone we've seen the following (and I won't include benchwarmers like Joe Smith):

Mo Williams - 36/97 (37%)

Delonte West - 35/78 (44%)

Anderson Varejao - 23/41 (56%)

Zydrunas Ilgauskas - 25/56 (44%)

_____________________________________________

Total - 119/272 (44%)

LeBron James - 75/154 (49%)

I don't care really what Varejao does because he keeps fouling out. But he is not getting the full support from everyone on a consistent basis. If you're trying to turn a PF like James, Chris Paul, then that's suicidal basketball.

Kobe Bryant has gotten his teammates involved. However, he has Pau Gasol, Trevor Ariza, and Andrew Bynum.

LeBron has Delonte West, Anderson Varejao, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

Kobe has a superior supporting cast.

Did you even watch game 6? LeBron decided to pass and pass and pass and they fell behind. By then LeBron's hot start cooled off and they were screwed.

He has done so much for his team (not to mention averaging a near triple-double so out goes your selfish theory) for 5 solid games and he just ran out of gas in game 6. Championship teams have a supporting cast that can back that up.

Cleveland did not have it. They also didn't have their "Coach of the Year" make any adjustments to defend the 3. They also failed to hold onto a 20+ point lead on multiple occasions.

Since when? Only Boobie Gibson bothered to show up. You forgot about game 5 of the ECF against the Pistons where LeBron single-handedly beat them down the stretch?

His cast helped him get the best record in the NBA.

They also helped him with his fishing reservations. The post-season is a whole different animal so you not everyone can transfer 82 regular season games into the big stage that is the NBA Playoffs.

Kobe teammates had 79 points from his assists alone

LeBron James had 48 assists in the Magic series, so already he's outperformed Kobe in that regard. Besides, the Lakers are a better shooting team overall. Game 1, LeBron kicks it out to Delonte West open for three!!!!! NO GOOD?!

Repeat the process for 4 out of the next 5 games and you've got his teammates in a nutshell IN THIS SERIES. The matchup against Orlando favored the Magic.