Unlike other greats, Earl Monroe sees no issue with LeBron's move

[Flash]

Interesting take from one of the greats:

"When you go the playground and the game is at its most basic level, don't you always try to choose the best guys that are there for your own team?" Monroe asked. "Or maybe you get together your own bunch of guys who you think are the best team and then you show up at the playground and take on everybody.

 

"Sure, I always liked to put on a show. I liked to do the things that nobody expected or maybe nobody had seen. But the reason I always played was to win and you do that by having more of the best players. What's not smart about that?"

 

So the Hall of Famer sees James heading south and figures that's one clever fella.

 

"Then again," Monroe said laughing through the phone, "the guy is 25 years old and I know at that age I would rather have been on the sandy beaches of Miami than up in the snow of Cleveland or anyplace else. So I guess it doesn't take a genius to figure that out."

 

But at the root of Monroe's puzzlement remains the criticism from the likes of Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and Magic Johnson that James gave up some part of his legacy by joining Wade and Bosh.

 

"I'm not so inclined to talk about a guy's legacy when he might not even be halfway through his career," Monroe said. "And nobody has more respect for anyone who has played the game than I do for Bill Russell. But when he won those 11 championships, didn't he have some pretty good players with him all those years, guys who were All-Stars, guys who are in the Hall of Fame?"

 

 

NBA.com

[Lkr]

Monroe is missing the point, I believe. Russel was the anchor of those teams. He was the man. The Celtics were his team. LeBron left for someone else's(DWade's team).

[Real Deal]

Jordan, Larry, Magic, Pippen, Charles, Malone and Rodman all disagree...so Earl is wrong.

[Flash]

Lol, how can someone be right or wrong with their opinion on this topic? Everyone is entitled to their own view on it and some agree and some don't. I don't think there's a right or wrong side to it.

[Jammin]

In all honesty... who cares what past NBA players say about moves made today? Only the diehard jock riders of them are going to be swayed by their words. They should have all waited a year to see how it pans out, than bash his move if it fails. Refreshing to see someone agree with it tho.

[Poe]

+1 to Earl Monroe.

[SRV]

More power to him, but retired players should stfu and live their lives. They aren't in the NBA today, so I could care less what they have to say. Good job, you made it to the Hall of Fame by being the best player on your team, now go home and take a bath in your money. Its like if you are at work and some retired guy comes up to you and saids you are doing it wrong, only for your to explain times have changed and there are different ways of doing it. You aren't gonna win jack [expletive] in the NBA today by being a one man show, Lebron in Cleveland, Wade in Miami, Bosh is Toronto were all one man shows, they had inconsistent help. Whereas Kobe has Artest, and Gasol, two damn good player who were at one point the go to guys on their teams. So really, the retired players complaining are just in fear that their way of doing things is going away, because it is, no team will win a championship with only one star player.

 

Pippen and Rodman have no say either because they were on a team with Jordan, basically the same exact thing Lebron is doing, is what they were part of.

Edited August 17, 2010 by SRV

[Real Deal]

Lol, how can someone be right or wrong with their opinion on this topic? Everyone is entitled to their own view on it and some agree and some don't. I don't think there's a right or wrong side to it.

Why didn't you say that in the negative topics about James? You were arguing your opinion instead.

 

It all revolves around how he acted. It was wrong. Going to Miami, that's probably the right move for him because it's Wade's team, and James is going to be his Pippen. Probably resulting in titles. But how he did it was wrong, and running from a challenge at such a young age wasn't exactly wrong, just cowardly.

[Lkr]

More power to him, but retired players should stfu and live their lives. They aren't in the NBA today, so I could care less what they have to say. Good job, you made it to the Hall of Fame by being the best player on your team, now go home and take a bath in your money. Its like if you are at work and some retired guy comes up to you and saids you are doing it wrong, only for your to explain times have changed and there are different ways of doing it. You aren't gonna win jack [expletive] in the NBA today by being a one man show, Lebron in Cleveland, Wade in Miami, Bosh is Toronto were all one man shows, they had inconsistent help. Whereas Kobe has Artest, and Gasol, two damn good player who were at one point the go to guys on their teams. So really, the retired players complaining are just in fear that their way of doing things is going away, because it is, no team will win a championship with only one star player.

 

Pippen and Rodman have no say either because they were on a team with Jordan, basically the same exact thing Lebron is doing, is what they were part of.

LeBron had a "great team" until he choked in the playoffs. Pippen was traded to the Bulls after being drafted, Rodman was not a center piece to build around. I don't see your point.

[SRV]

The Cavs were nowhere near a great team. A great team is what the Lakers had minus Kobe, what the Heat had in 06 without Wade. If you take Lebron off the Cavs with that team they would suck, take Kobe of the Lakers and they would still make the playoffs. Just because you are traded into a situation doesn't make a difference, Lebron was a FREE agent, he can make his own choices. So just because you can't get traded to a good team you have to spend your career on a bad team? A lot of you guys lack common sense, joining a good team=rings, staying with a bad team=failure.

 

I understand the reason you guys don't like it was because it was a coward move. Well it was a coward move, but it made the most sense.

[Lkr]

Oh, that team was horrible? why were us Lakers fans told they were superior all season long(until LeBrazzle choked again in the playoffs)?

[Flash]

Oh, that team was horrible? why were us Lakers fans told they were superior all season long(until LeBrazzle choked again in the playoffs)?

 

Because they had LeBron. There's no way anyone could think that Cleveland without LeBron is better than LA without Kobe.

[Real Deal]

The team itself was great. That includes LeBron. You surround a player like him (slashing passer) with shooters and defensive-minded players, you more than likely win 50+ games.

 

See Iverson's Sixers.

 

Cleveland had excellent role players. Championship-caliber teams aren't always the most stacked. I think we've all witnessed the downfall of stacked teams over and over again, which included the 2004 Lakers.

[Nitro]

I think we've all witnessed the downfall of stacked teams over and over again, which included the 2004 Lakers.

 

The same Lakers you believe would have beat the Pistons in 6 if it wasn't for the Karl Malone injury

 

Anyway, the problem with the Cavs was they didn't have a great 2nd option. Jamison is a very good player who can fill up the stat sheet, but he's not a championship caliber 2nd option. That was made LOUD AND CLEAR in the Boston series where an old Garnett (the Celtics' 3rd or 4th option) outplayed him on both offense and defense. It also didn't help that Mike Brown ran him very few plays and often times made him another spot-up shooter for LeBron. There's been a few teams that have made it far in the post-season when it was one superstar surrounded by very good defensive role players, but it's almost impossible to expect that kind of team to win a championship when you're playing teams like the Lakers and Celtics.

[Real Deal]

The same Lakers you believe would have beat the Pistons in 6 if it wasn't for the Karl Malone injury

Injuries are part of the downfall. Malone was a bit too old to play through it effectively. Utah's Malone would've been just fine.

 

The fab four in Los Angeles was a dream...until they all started falling apart. Payton was really the only player that didn't suffer an injury that season, out of the four, and actually played a few games without Shaq, Malone AND Kobe (7-8 games, actually...not very many people know that).

 

But, I shouldn't have brought it up. Lots of pain in my chest talking about it. Sad days.

 

Anyway, the problem with the Cavs was they didn't have a great 2nd option. Jamison is a very good player who can fill up the stat sheet, but he's not a championship caliber 2nd option. That was made LOUD AND CLEAR in the Boston series where an old Garnett (the Celtics' 3rd or 4th option) outplayed him on both offense and defense. It also didn't help that Mike Brown ran him very few plays and often times made him another spot-up shooter for LeBron. There's been a few teams that have made it far in the post-season when it was one superstar surrounded by very good defensive role players, but it's almost impossible to expect that kind of team to win a championship when you're playing teams like the Lakers and Celtics.

Brown's crutch was that he put it all on James from the start. LeBron secured his job as coach of the Cavaliers, and I have a feeling deep in my gut that Brown was more of a spectator and a James fan than he was a head coach. He basically allowed LeBron to run the point, play off the ball, get back the ball and make the play, either scoring the ball or throwing the assist, taking the long jumper, doing whatever...and it's similar to what the other Brown (Larry Brown) did with Iverson and the Sixers.

 

But, okay...while there was no other person capable of making plays, I feel like Jamison and Shaq didn't get enough touches to do that, and good, smart defensive teams took advantage of that by FORCING those players to do it themselves. Penetrating and kicking it out, or dunking, only takes you so far, no matter what your name is.

 

While I'm almost confident that the Heat will go to the Finals (now that they have a bench and decent role players), if Spoelstra decides to let James do the same things he did in Miami, a team like the Celtics or Magic will chop them down before they reach the Lakeshow.