OT - LeBron James scores 61
LeBron James scored 61 points against the Bobcats tonight. 22-33 FG, 8-10 3P, 9-12 FT, 7 REB, 5 AST, 2 TO. I've already seen quite a few people on Twitter say "Well it's against the Bobcats", to which the correct response is: Yes, the Bobcats have the 6th best defense in the league, per possession. Impressive performance, whether you like the guy or not.
On a local note, Andre Drummond pulled down 26 rebounds in a win :( over the Knicks. Most rebounds by a Pistons player since Ben Wallace had 28 in 2002.
Happy to see Drummond continue to play well. That frontcourt needs to have an overhaul, but he's definitely a stud.
Any time you score 61 points against NBA players (and the Bobcats are a fringe playoff team this year), that's impressive.
Don't worry, ESPN has it covered.
unless a game is on. Get all my sports news from good ol' Twitter. As someone who has taken Economics classes, following a basketball site for basketball news, a football site for football news, etc., is generally the best way to go. Yay specialization.
Agreed, that is the way to go at this point.
a lot of good reasons to hate ESPN. I suppose that's one.
Their complete disregard for "The Trey" against Kansas is another.
Can't forget their Johnny Manziel man-crush as well
What's that, now?
I don't get the LeBron hate. The Decision was stupid and misguided but it also raised a few million for charity so whatever. If that's the worst thing he's done in his NBA career, great. He seems like a great guy -- involved in charity, you never hear about him in the media for rape allegations, gun charges, beating the shit out of women, making it rain at strip clubs, etc. He's a standup guy and the the best basketball player on the planet at the moment.
I get hating ESPN for their relentless coverage of him and ya making he basks in it a little bit but meh, so what? He's human, blame ESPN more than anything. Like I said if the worst thing he's ever done is The Decision then he'll be just fine.
I guess I don't hate him, but I have always believed in the idea that pride comes before the fall, and he seems to be full of pride to an obnoxious degree. As you suggested, though, there are far worse athletes out there. I feel the hate for him comes from his general attitude just rubbing people the wrong way, combined with ESPN's obsessive coverage of him.
For me, saying he will be on the NBA's Mount Rushmore of all-time greats was the perfect example of excessive pride (or cockiness, if you will). Even Bill Russell took a shot at him for that. Now, I don't know it for a fact, but I cannot recall Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant saying anything like that. Combine that with The Decision and his general demeanor (which find off-putting at times) and he just seems filled with excessive pride. I could be wrong, it's just an opinion after all.
And Wilt said he'd slept with 20,000 women.
This stuff comes with the territory, I think. If you don't have more than your share of cocky you don't reach those heights.
That doesn't make Wilt a bad guy; it just makes him my hero
But that he was cocky there can be no doubt.
Haha, I'm sorry. I honestly did not know this, as I am 20 years old. He was retired before I even started following the game. Ignorance is bliss, I guess. I do know that Barry Sanders simply handed the ball to the ref when he scored. Those are the kinds of athletes I personally admire.
If LeBron bothers you, you probably shouldn't watch MJ's uncomfortable HoF induction speech.
Yes, he definitely is an exception. That's what I liked about him. It's the same reason I love Jabari Parker right now. Incredibly humble individual.
2 ohio kid playing for team in ohio
3 he's from akron. For some reason I have an unexplainable dislike of Akron (zips are included)
I am a lifelong Lakers fan. I don't care about the Cavs, but I liked MeBron, he was my favorite player because he said all the right things, did all the right things (remember when he invited all his teammates up to the stage when he received his MVP award), and he tried to make his team better.
I don't have a problem with MeBron's "Decision", he is a model citizen and a great basketball player. But I would not include him in my top ten because I don't think he has any heart. Magic, Larry Isiah,, MJ, Shaq, Duncan, Kobe (I am leaving out the older players before free agency), they never manipulated their situation to build a super team so that they could win championships to handicap their legacy. So that is why I hate MeBron, he has all that talent, but yet he still looks for the easy way out.
LMFAO. Kobe never manipulated anybody with demanding trades or running off Shaq? Just like he didn't demand a trade when was drafted by the Bobcats?? Nice revisionist history there.
Every great has had a side kick. LeBron putt Cleveland on his back for years and took a team of scrubs to the Finals. It was pretty clear he was never going to get the help he needed in Cleveland.
You really lose credibility by saying MeBron.
Kobe forced a trade from the Bobcats and ran Shaq out of town.
He was a free agent and did what was in his best interest.
Mo Williams and Anderson Verajo are not "talent". No one wanted to go or stay in Cleveland.
"You really lose credibility by saying MeBron."
Really? How so? You lose credibility for even bringing that up...
"Kobe forced a trade from the Bobcats and ran Shaq out of town."
First of all, Kobe was never a Bobcat, second of all, Kobe did not run Shaq out of town. Shaq and Kobe did not like each other, they could not coexist any longer, the Lakers had to make a choice. At the time, I hated the choice the Lakers made, but in retrospect, they made the right choice.
"He was a free agent and did what was in his best interest."
Are you just stating the obvious or were you trying to make a point?
"Mo Williams and Anderson Verajo are not "talent". No one wanted to go or stay in Cleveland. "
Mo Williams was an All-Star at one point I believe. I'm pretty sure you have to have talent to be one of those...
One final point, you seem to really hate Kobe. I'll admit I use to hate Kobe and love MeBron, but one I realized MeBron was fake, I realized that even though Kobe is a jerk, at least he is an honest jerk. And if it will make you feel better, we can remove Kobe from that list, does that make you feel better? Who else do you have a problem with?
Actually I don't really hate Kobe. Just found your assertion laughable given that you're using one of the most selfish players in NBA history who was notorious for throwing his teammates under the bus and orchestrated a trade from the Hornets. Sorry I confused their current name with their past name. Either way, what he did was worse than anything LeBron did.
How do you hate someone who you have never met in your life?
I remember reading an article out of Texas a couple of years ago during Craig James's ill-fated Senate run. It said, almost exactly, "James has a recognition problem, most voters don't know who he is. And the ones that do don't seem to like him."
Good for him.
The numbers mean that LeBron was responsible for not only about 40% of all the shots the Heat took, but about half of the ones that they made. It also means that he was 30% of their offensive rebounds and had a person eFG% of 78.79%. If you subtract LeBron's production, it seems like the Heat rather stink, but I could be wrong.
LeBron would be like what, 24.5 or so?
http://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/ws_season.html
http://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/ws_career.html
LeBron's best was 20; he projects to about 17 this year. Only one player has ever gone over 25 in a season, Abdul-Jabbar in 72.
I've been going through the list of 60-point games to see how that ranks among the most efficient. Assuming they didn't get an offensive rebound on any of his shots, it looks like LeBron used 41 possessions (33 shots, 6 trips to the foul line*, 2 turnovers).
I can only find one player getting to 60 with fewer--Malone in 1990. 26 shots, 11 or fewer trips to the foul line, 2 turnovers. His eFG was .808, slightly better than LeBron's tonight. As far as I can tell those are the two best eFGs in the over-60 games, and by a country mile. I can't find a full box score for David Thompson, though. That might have been up there somewhere.
*Assuming 2 shots per trip and no overlap with the made field goals. It could have been fewer.
Glen's 56 was probably the greatest shooting performance I have ever seen. 56pts on 20-27 fg's, 7-8 3pt, 8-9 ft. He was hitting long distnce shots over nick anderson, shaq, penny. Not to take anything from Lebron, but Glen's game that day was incredible, and it was against the East's best team that year.
eFG of 87%, maybe the best 50+ game ever?
http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/199504150MIA.html