Lebron James is about to go into game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals having lost game one by 20 points.
This is a problem. Why? Not become of egomercials or talents or any of that.
Lebron chose to take the easy way out. He chose to play with two of the top 5 performers in PER from last season. Let's go through the decision and the rebuttals we commonly see from Lebron's proponents.
"Magic had great players, what about Magic?"
Kareem was in his mid 30s when he joined Magic. James Worthy was never a top 5 performer in the league.
Additionally, Magic did not sign to play with Kareem and Worthy. He was drafted onto a team that then drafted Worthy.
Also, many teams in that era had as much hall of fame talent, if not more, than LA.
"What would you do, are you saying you wouldn't go to Miami?"
The Gary Radnich approach. "Come on, you're 25, it's South Beach."
That's fine. Play with who you want, where you want. But don't then tell me that with Dwyane Wade by your side and with Chris Bosh by your side, 20 point losses to the Bulls are "okay." They're not.
In that scenario, you should crush the Bulls. Tim Duncan crushed Lebron when Duncan had the two best supporting players by his side.
"Oh come on, the Bulls have more depth."
What?! Radnich actually said this to me on his sports radio show on KNBR. Lebron has Dwyane Wade. He is supposed to also have the best bench too?
Why stop there? Why not just give him Shaq in his prime too. Maybe John Stockton? Toni Kukoc, James Edwards and Vinnie Johnson can come off the bench? Or would Michael Cooper be better?
Summary
As we speak, Lebron enters game 2 of a series he should have swept, down 0-1. Will he win 4-1 as he should? Who knows.
