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One of my favorite social media friends to argue sports with is my boy Dave Ashley. In all honesty we agree more than we disagree when it comes to basketball. However when we do disagree he makes a pretty good argument. The day after the NBA finals he had a great post about Lebron’s place in Basketball history. As soon as I read it, I knew that I wanted to respond, but I didn't quite know what I wanted to say. My first thought was… well played Ashley, well played. I thought this particular post was even better because it's the only Social Media post that I have ever read that I both strongly agreed and disagreed with. I tried to respond on my Monday show, but I hadn’t really had enough time to digest and articulately respond and I didn’t want my argument to sound contradictory. After struggling with what I was trying to say I decided to just lay out the post and make my points. The highlighted portion contains his post.

"LeBron gets a bad wrap. In a series that saw him raise his "all time great" stock, he also put a self imposed ceiling on that stock, with the "CRAMP GATE" and all.

Right off the jump I knew this post would be a good one. I thought you hit it on the head with the first sentence. In the Finals you could clearly see how great of a basketball player Lebron James is, however because he did not win there is a limit to how great he can be considered when doing all time comparisons. The two all time greats IMO Bill Russell and Jordan are great mainly because they never lost when everyone was watching. Make no doubt about it they both lost. Russell lost in ‘the 59 Finals to St Louis where he suffered from a sprained ankle and admittedly played poorly. At the time people in the Boston media questioned the 2nd year stars “Mental toughness” and ability to play through pain. As for Jordan we conveniently forget that he was 0-3 in his first 3 Playoff appearances, but that was because as the media put it at the time “A scoring Champion couldn’t win the NBA title” The key for these guys is that when everyone was watching them, no one saw them lose. In Russell’s case basketball’s popularity exploded in the 60’s, His Celtics were so dominant that by the end of his era no one even remembers the 59 series or the sprained ankle. As For Jordan he was his very best on the biggest stage, although he did lose his first “Biggest Game Ever” (Game 7 of the 1990 Eastern Conference Finals.) I always wonder what people would say in today’s world if they could see that happen. As a kid growing up in the Chicago area, I remember what they said back then, how he didn't know how to win, and that a scoring champ just couldn't lead his team to the title.

He's SOOO good, that a lot of folk wanted to (and was scared that he would) add on that MJ-GOAT status, but I'll say it again, THAT CROWN is WAAY TOO HEAVY.The moniker "KING JAMES" is merely a play on words.

This was one of the statement’s I agreed strongly with. I couldn’t have said it any better myself, you essentially said word for word, what I was thinking. Nothing to Add.

LeBron was born in the right era for his celebrity, but the wrong era for his abilities. I'd HONESTLY love to see how he'd fare with DENNIS RODMAN all in his grill, CONSTANTLY and RELENTLESSLY.

This was one of the trickier ones for me, I agree with the first sentence, however I believe that he is only in the wrong era for his abilities, because in an earlier era he would dominate even more. If Lebron played in the 60’s or 70’s when the offenses shot more frequently and defensive coaching had not yet evolved, he would have put up ridiculous numbers. It always cracks me up when people bring up stats from that era. Wilt’s 100 point game Oscar’s triple double season, etc. The fact of the matter is everyone from that era put up stupid numbers because the game and the rules were different. You had things like 3 to make 2, the lane was smaller, the 24 second clock was less than 20 years old. Think about, the first basketball game was played in the U.S in 1892 the first NBA game was played in 1946 and the shot clock wasn’t used until the 54-55 season. Essentially overnight teams went from 12 minutes to shoot to 24 seconds. It changed the entire strategy of the game if you look at the numbers from that era that is a key reason why so many are inflated. What if today’s Lebron played in that era. A 6’8 250lb athlete with handles and 6th sense passing ability? His numbers would look so stupid that the NBA would quickly be putting in more rule changes to make the game more competitive. Oh they don’t do that you say? What about things like hand checking 5sec back to the basket, illegal defense, or any of the other thousand rules that have been put in to limit some players or enhance others. I remember listening to an interview one time with former Pistons great Bob Lainer and they asked him who he thought was the greatest player of all time. I don’t know the exact date, but I do know that it was taken after Jordan had retired the 2nd time. Lainer said that he didn’t know, the interviewer pressed him and brought up Jordan’s name. I’ll never forget what he said next, “It’s so hard to compare eras’s, you have to understand they changed the rules so that guys like Russell and Chamberlain couldn’t be more dominant. They changed the rules later so that guys like Jordan, and Magic could be more dominant. When I thought about it I realized he‘s right. It’s because of guys like Russell, Chamberlain and even Kareem that we have things like wider lanes, the half circle above the FT line. (When Wilt Chamberlain played the story goes that He was such a poor FT shooter that he would take a few steps behind the line run up and dunk the ball from the Free Throw line instead of shooting the Free Throw. That half circle started out as the furthest point that they thought Wilt could not Leap from to dunk the ball! Go to a basketball court and place both feet directly inside the circle with your heals touching the line… Wilt Chamberlain could dunk from there!) and Goaltending, It’s because of guys like Jordan that we have rules like hand Checking, Flagrant fouls, etc. The league wanted to protect there stars and limit physical play. When you say that you want to see what he would do against a defender like Dennis Rodman, my answer is that he is going to do the same thing that any great player does when being defended by a great defender, He going to kill him and force them to help. That’s all you can really do against any great scorer. People act as if guys like Dennis Rodman, or Bruce Bowen just shut everyone down… No they got torched many many times by a variety of great offensive players. What made them great defenders was that they stayed with it and competed every second they were on the floor. They constantly pressured and made you work, but make no mistake guys got buckets on them. Don’t believe me? Youtube every game of the 87 Eastern Conference Finals, Larry Bird goes HAM all over Dennis Rodman.

JORDAN didn't catch a cramp in the finals. He had the flu and played through it. Whether a cramp is not the same as the flu, is irrelevant, at this point. This was LeBron's FLU. The POINT is, it happened...lol And that, just like "the decision" or going to join another superstar's team, are just apart of a flawed, but GREAT legacy.

I can only speak from my basketball playing experiences in high school college, and attempts to play professionally. I have finished games with a torn ACL, a broken ankle, lower back cramps, and a stress fracture in my leg. It is virtually impossible to play with severe leg cramps. In LBJ’s case I look at that as bad timing, much like life sometimes can be. I disagree with you about the flu and cramp issue being irrelevant, and this being Lebron’s Flu game. His flu game will be when he has to play with the Flu which probably has already happened in his career we just haven’t heard about it. While I do get your point. IMO I don't think even Mike (who I consider the greatest competitor of all time) could have finished game 1 if he happened to suffer from severe cramps. I do however believe Mike would have found a way to win this series even after giving away game 1. The rule of thumb as Bill Laimbeer said in the Bad Boy documentary is that you go until you physically have to be carried off the court. In Lebron’s case he did that so I am satisfied. As for the decision, this is probably the one point I disagree with the most and the one that had me the most infuriated. I have never understood this, people blame Lebron all the time for deciding to take less money to play for a better team, but no one blames Kobe for wanting to play for the Lakers instead of Charlotte, the team that originally drafted him. In the 96 draft High Schooler Kobe Bryant made it clear that he did not want to play for Charlotte and he really wanted to play in L.A, Charlotte ended up picking him and trading him for Vlade Divac and that's how Kobe became a Laker. The other thing that I don’t understand is the same people who criticize him for choosing Miami then turn around and say “Basketball is a team Game” Well if it’s a team game and you have a chance to play with a better team, then why wouldn’t you join the better team. Not to mention the fact that people act as if when Lebron went to Miami he was joining a current dynasty. Lebron got to Miami in the 2010 -2011 season, at the time the Heat hadn’t won a play\off series since their Championship year of 2006! You know what Lebron should get credit for that he is never going to get? Getting D-wade onto that first Ballot Hall of Fame list. If you remember after the Heat lost again in the first round in the 09 - 10 season D-wade made the statement “I’m not going out in the first round again” D-wade was the first guy from that 03 class to be compared with Jordan and I don’t remember anyone questioning his “Killer instinct” while his teams were getting bounced in the 1st round in the post Shaq era. They said “He plays so hard that his body breaks down”

My over all point is that although LeBron will NEVER EVER capture that GOAT status, we can't fault him for not being MJ, because MJ has done exceedingly and abundantly more, with less, than anybody else. That’s what made him the GOAT.

I agreed with most of the post except for the more with less part. I still believe that Lebron James leading the 07 Cavs to the NBA Finals is one of the top 3 feats in the history of the NBA. By almost any NBA standard that team is the worse team to ever play in the Finals. and a 22 year old kid got them 4 wins away from an NBA title! Drew Gooden, Sasha Pavolivich and Larry Hughes Started on that team. Illgaskus was a good center but he was toward the back end of his career. When Lebron left the floor Ira Newble came in for him. And before people start talking about how bad the Eastern Conference was back then, just remember to get to the Finals that year he stepped over both the Nets and Pistons the two teams that dominated the East up until then. During Jordan’s championship years he never had to deal with lack of talent like that, the closest thing he had to that 07 Cavs team was probably his 87- 88 team with a young Pippen and Grant, but they lost in the 2nd round.

I think the thing that strikes me the most when I hear how people talk about Lebron is how some things never change. We have a tendency in our society to remember the past fondly, everything was better when we were growing up. The players played for “The right reasons” and the guys playing back then were “tougher” The reality is that great players always have had to deal with critics and people undervaluing their contributions to the game. We like to think that our heroes were perfect and that they never failed us. In reality we forget that Magic was Swept in the Finals twice, We forget that Kobe Bryant was the Alpha on a team that had a 3-1 series lead and blew it. We forget that despite all the fancy numbers they put up that Wilt and Oscar only combined for 3 Championships, or 1 more than Lebron Currently has.

As for the last two points you make I agree but I look at it a little different. You don’t have to stop the comparison, just be fair in your comparison. The issue that I have is that when people compare Lebron they set the bar at Jordan, and stop. If your going to set the bar at the greatest player, then every player that has ever played is going to fall short. I love what Mark Jackson kept saying during these playoffs. Whenever he talked about Lebron he called him “ The greatest Small Forward to ever play the game” Conveniently people quickly hushed that up, because that statement is a positive one, and most people spend their whole life focusing on the negative. Whenever I hear people make statements like “Lebron Lacks Killer instinct or that he doesn’t fight through obstacles“. I chuckle. There are less the 500 players playing in the NBA, to even survive in the League for 10 plus years you need to have extraordinary killer instinct and will have to fight through many obstacles. To assume that the greatest player of the generation lacks these two things is laughable. What does it say about every other player playing? I also chuckle because I realize that 15 years from now I will probably be writing this same article when talking about the guy who is the current Alpha. No matter who that guy is or what he does people will only talk about how he is not as good as Lebron. Will Lebron catch Jordan? Probably not but instead of looking at what he’s not, I prefer to look at what he is and what Lebron James is is a transcendent player, that comes along once a generation, a player so rare that scouts and gm’s have been looking for, another one like him for the past 10 years, and have failed.

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I recently had a conversation with a dealer friend of mine that works for stations casinos. The first thing that came up was Ultimate Poker and it’s lack of success. Initially he gave me the company line about Nevada being a small state and not having enough traffic. However after a little pressing we got down to the root of some of the problems and at the end of the day despite several different excuses, the fact is the site has made some major mistakes that have lead to it’s decline.

1. No all in Chat Disabled - Why do they not have this? IMO this is the most egregious mistake that they could have made simply because it opens them up to questions of cheating. Poker players will put up with a lot, but one thing that they do not want to put up with is issues of cheating. So many times at the final table of these tournaments I have had my money all - in while someone else was tanking. Meanwhile some Jerk off is busy chatting about what he just folded. This wouldn’t be allowed in a card room, so why should it be allowed online?

2. Tournament Structure - This is the part that I don’t understand, does it cost more money to make a good tournament? In my way of thinking if I had a online poker site I would like to run the best structured tournaments that I could. In fact I would have gone to 20 min levels instead of the standard 15 min that many online tournaments used. I mean why wouldn’t I it’s not like the players can play only one tournament at a time. Wouldn’t the site benefit more by having people playing longer in deeper structured tournaments?

3. More Tournaments - While we are on the subject of tournaments, why are there so few. Typically on Ultimate Poker the guarantee tournaments start at about 4:30 and then are spaced out throughout the night. Why don’t they just run consistent small guarantee tournaments throughout the day just to keep the action going, like they do on Sunday’s?

4. Heads Up Cash Games - You would think that a site that only has a little traffic could really benefit from having heads up cash tables, especially considering that it is a local site. Think of how many Who’s a Better Player arguments could be solved simply by logging onto the site and playing heads up for rolls.

5. Cage Sign ups - This one I still don’t understand, so your going to operate the first ever online site, and you need poker players to play on that site, but your not going to use the live poker rooms on you property? This makes absolutely no sense to me. What they should have done from the start is make the online sign ups available right in the poker room. Every player that wanted to make a deposit or cash out should have had to walk through that poker room. This would have been a perfect way to kill two birds. However they made it indistinguishable by lumping the online poker transaction in with every other transaction that the casino makes. I’m no expert, but I would think that more people visiting the poker room is a good thing.

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