Now some people say he has the potential to be Dwight Howard and others point to how the Lakers took a “project” like Andrew Bynum, patiently developed him, and are reaping the rewards now. 

My question is, how did Howard and Bynum compare to Drummond at Drummond’s age. Were both just as raw? Is Drummond significantly worse? Maybe a compare/contrast article would be nice (if time allows)

I think your personal attack on LBJ is just silly. It’s fine not to be a fan of his. But unless he chokes his coach, rapes a girl, fires a gun at a club, or partakes in some such unacceptable behavior, attacking his character is really uncalled for.

I didn’t really personally attack you. I asked why you said what you did and gave my best guess for a reason. But I never meant to imply that it was in fact the reason. It was merely an explanation of why your comments seemed so pathetic to me. In other words, your comments caused me to have an unflattering impression of you. In the hope that I could replace that with a more flattering one, I asked why you choose to focus only on the negatives and not the positives of James’ character-reflecting actions. You replied basically by saying you think James is evil for some reason–to the point that those who choose to be his teammates deserve less appreciation and respect. And you refer to those who share your opinions (Stevenson) as more honest than those who don’t. Did you ever consider that others could be perfectly honest but not agree with you?

Derrick Rose appears to be a phenomenal person. I do not say the same of James. I merely point out that the evidence does not indicate that he is a terrible guy or that he can be defined by one quote. Personally, I doubt I would get along with the man very well. But max has, on multiple occasions referred to James and the Heat as basically being evil (most recently in his 5:20 pm comment from earlier today. You certainly don’t have to like them. I really dislike the Celtics. But I don’t call them evil. He also has repeatedly tried to diagnose LeBron with a psychological disorder. Finally, someone who uses terms like LeBum or KoBrick is pretty much the definition of when the term “hater” is appropriate.

I would certainly concede that based on the evidence we have, Rose is a better person than James. As are Durant and many others. And James appears to be a better guy than Sprewell, Kobe, and many others. He basically seems to be an average guy. He does lots of mildly dickish things. And he does lots of good stuff too.

As for collusion, we really don’t have much evidence as to whether he did or not. But plenty of GMs and staffpersons who pitched LBJ to join their teams did not get the impression that he had already made up his mind. And since they were with him in person, I’ll take their intuition on the matter over yours. Furthermore, cheating isn’t a subjective thing. It is breaking the rules. To the best of my knowledge, ti is totally legal for players to “collude” just like it is ok for prospective employees to “collude” to work together while it is not ok for their employers to do the same. That is how the system is. I guess you could argue that the system should be different. But as long as it is this way, it is unfair to call someone a cheater for using it. That would be like calling Harden a cheater for holding the ball way in front of him to draw a foul, Pierce a cheater for trying to get off a shot the moment he realizes he is being fouled, or Durant a cheater for swinging his arms in a big arc in his shooting motion to try to catch the defender’s arm. They are all just using the system in regrettable ways, but fair ones.

But as far as the judging of Lebron based only on his stupidest moments, you have a point.  What can we honestly expect from a kid that grew up in such an environment?  How would any of us fare if we had no real father-figure, and instead we had thousands of voices trying to tell us how great we are, what we should do, or simply angling to geat a peice of our potential earnings?  What kind of man could we possibly hope to become?

Correct answer:  Derrick Rose.

That is why I refuse to celebrate Lebron.  The unfortunate thing is I readily admit that I have never seen anyone who understands the game as well as Lebron is able to.  He is the rarest of sports figures because he not only has the talent, but knows when and how to use it.  He intuitively seems to understand that basketball is, at its essence,  a team game.  And for that I wish I could root for him.

But I believe he colluded with Bosh, Wade and Riley.  And that ammounts to cheating, in my book.  Someone who cheats and wins, understands nothing about the nature of life.  That is perfectly consistant with everything that I see from Lebron, not just his stupidest moments.

Imagine you are surrounded by fawning fans and a whole production team just to pump you up and make you feel great about, I don’t know, a scholarship or something. You feel on top of the world. You feel like you can accomplish anything. You have crazy high expectations for yourself and delusions of grandeur. And then you make a mistake. You open your mouth and let people know the over the top feelings coursing through you. Let’s say you declare that one day you will be president of the the United States. Then, for the rest of your career, everyone gives you no respect because even though you become a mayor and a CEO, you never make it to president. I mean, sure, it’s ok for your buddies to rib you about it. But after a year or so, is it really reasonable for everyone else to hold a stupid comment against you? They can if they want, but at that point, they’re the ones being idiots. Your moment of idiocy has passed. They just have an irrational hatred for you so they continue to live in the past so they can poke at that moment.