2012-13 NBA Season Thread

[Kevin W.]

I don't care what anyone says, I'm nominating that for POTD.

[TJKiddsHead]

Watching Knicks-Heat, literally less than a week after I say that I sort of don't mind LeBron anymore, he goes out and pulls a complete douchewagon move after hitting a three with literally 10 minutes left in the game. Parading in front of the garden crowd.

Umm, so what? Do you also hate it every time Carmelo hits his head with his fingers when he hits or three, or Tyson Chandler's NON-STOP flexing and posing after a dunk? It's entertainment, not Congress (though one could argue that's a different type of entertainment).

[cshookemHORNS]

<redirected from the NHL boards>

Further, the Blackhawks were a team that was built legitimately. The Miami Heat were a collusion disaster that embodies everything that is wrong with the NBA. God that league sucks.

Nonsense. Collusion? How were the Heat not built "legitimately?"

It all began with the Olympics in Beijing, where LeBron, Wade, Bosh and CP3 made a pact to play together, one day (3 of 4 isn't that bad).

I had no gripe over Bosh leaving, and actually no gripe over LeBron's exit too. But the way he left (humiliated Cleveland fans on national TV, interview with his butler Jim Gray and coordinated by Stuart Scott, became a cash cow for ESPN on that night), followed by the rave/techno party the next night where LeBron said his team was God-like despite the Big 3 not even being together for 24 hours ("not 3, not 4, not 5, not 6, not 7") is what sickened America.

Then the NBA introduced adjusted rules in the paint, making it ridiculously easier to drive to the paint and score for an and-1. Then LeBron's dirty tactics passed on Wade (intentionally shattered Kobe's nose and Rondo's shoulder, kicked into Sessions' balls), Chalmers, Bibby and Eddie House, along with his flopping skills on Bosh, Battier and Ray Allen.

The Heat showed no sportsmanship over the last two seasons on their postseason opponents (Bulls, Celtics, Pacers, Thunder). They mocked Dirk when he had the flu, and karma came back to bite Miami, as the Mavs got the 2011 title in Florida. Rather than console Durant and his mother (she died after the Finals, by the way), this clown LeBron partied like in nightclubs (some of the Heat team actually did party in nightclubs).

Even if the Heat players converted to scientists and found the cure to world hunger, I would despise them. Everything about this generation's athletes (me first, pretend to care, forming super team pacts with your friends, acting and dressing like you're in a techno-pop video) is the Miami Heat. I hate LeBron and the Heat so much, they are the only factors who have made me root for the Boston Celtics.

I agree with all of this, the Heat are to good for their own cause. And by the way, Durants mother isn't dead, she very well alive.

[Still MIGHTY]

I don't care what anyone says, I'm nominating that for POTD.

No.

[Rockstar Matt]

For Laker fans, I still don't understand the hatred for LeBron and the Heat. They aren't a Laker rival. We've never met in the playoffs. After LeBron leaves or retires from the Heat, they'll go back to being irrelevant. Personally, I like LeBron. I think he's an amazing basketball player to watch.

The only team I hate is the Celtics, but I still respect them. The only other teams I think Laker fans can actually hate with logical reason is the Pistons and Spurs. But, not the Heat.

[dfwabel]

For Laker fans, I still don't understand the hatred for LeBron and the Heat. They aren't a Laker rival. We've never met in the playoffs. After LeBron leaves or retires from the Heat, they'll go back to being irrelevant. Personally, I like LeBron. I think he's an amazing basketball player to watch.

The only team I hate is the Celtics, but I still respect them. The only other teams I think Laker fans can actually hate with logical reason is the Pistons and Spurs. But, not the Heat.

Stop being coy on other teams as you are on the Dallas Cowboys.

You do not dislike the Heat because the Lakers WERE the Heat.

As the Minneapolis franchise, they were given Elgin Baylor as a result of PHL Warriors using their territorial pick, and later given Jerry West through the same system (CIN took Oscar Robertson that year).

The Lakers and Jack Kent Cooke built the Forum and traded for Wilt and Jabbar. In '79 LAL got Magic as a result of a trade with the Jazz with coin flip and were also able to get Worthy through a trade with CLE in the older days without protected pics and also got Bob McAdoo, an All-NBA player and 3x scoring champ late in his career. Then got Shaq in free agency in 1996 before Kobe and the rest of recent hoops history.

Since 1980, LAL has been in the NBA Finals 16 times. Hard to hate them for success with all that before them.

LAL also happens to free up all their cash when LeBron's MIA contract has the 2014 opt-out.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Yeah, Lakers fans shouldn't hate any other team. The Lakers compete against their own legacy; it's a different game they're playing.

[OnWis97]

If Laker fans hate the Heat, it's probably based on a sense of entitlement. "We're the team that all the free agents go to." That's all I can think of. A Laker fan complaining about how the Heat was formed is like a Red Sox fan complaining about the Yankees spending so much. Actually, it's more like a Yankee fan complaining about how much the Red Sox spend.

[Still MIGHTY]

Guys, please stop using dbadefense1990 as a representation of the enitre Lakers fanbase.

Is there some small sense of competitive "rivalry" because we view the Lakers as a top team, legacy champion, and aspiring champion, and the Heat are a top team and currrent hot champion, and LeBron vs Kobe? Sure. But to say that we, Laker fans, "hate" the Heat? That's a pretty far stretch. I hate the way that these individual players colluded to meet up in Miami once their contracts were over and I'd like to see them lose, sure. But to actually hate the Heat? no.

DG's got it right. Each Laker team has the only goal of winning an NBA title. Anything less is a failed season. Plain and simple. Each Laker team competes against the great Laker teams that have come before them... and the Celtics.

[Rockstar Matt]

For Laker fans, I still don't understand the hatred for LeBron and the Heat. They aren't a Laker rival. We've never met in the playoffs. After LeBron leaves or retires from the Heat, they'll go back to being irrelevant. Personally, I like LeBron. I think he's an amazing basketball player to watch.

The only team I hate is the Celtics, but I still respect them. The only other teams I think Laker fans can actually hate with logical reason is the Pistons and Spurs. But, not the Heat.

Stop being coy on other teams as you are on the Dallas Cowboys.

You do not dislike the Heat because the Lakers WERE the Heat.

As the Minneapolis franchise, they were given Elgin Baylor as a result of PHL Warriors using their territorial pick, and later given Jerry West through the same system (CIN took Oscar Robertson that year).

The Lakers and Jack Kent Cooke built the Forum and traded for Wilt and Jabbar. In '79 LAL got Magic as a result of a trade with the Jazz with coin flip and were also able to get Worthy through a trade with CLE in the older days without protected pics and also got Bob McAdoo, an All-NBA player and 3x scoring champ late in his career. Then got Shaq in free agency in 1996 before Kobe and the rest of recent hoops history.

Since 1980, LAL has been in the NBA Finals 16 times. Hard to hate them for success with all that before them.

LAL also happens to free up all their cash when LeBron's MIA contract has the 2014 opt-out.

I still don't understand the point you're trying to make. I don't hate the Heat because they're the Lakers...? (using your logic, if I dislike the Heat, in turn, I dislike the Lakers?) It seems like you're trying to piece together your thoughts, *cough* (google searches) *cough*, into a coherent post, but all that comes out is non-sense. Almost as if you had a sensible thought and decided to put it in a word search scrambler.

Anyways, Mighty and DG are right. The Lakers are really only competing against their history and the Celtics.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Speaking of, imagine how good the Lakers would be this year if Dwight Howard gave a damn.

[The Six]

I hate the way that these individual players colluded to meet up in Miami once their contracts were over

This is what I don't get. Why is it a bad thing once the players decide where to want to play? That's what free agency is.

[Still MIGHTY]

I hate the way that these individual players colluded to meet up in Miami once their contracts were over

This is what I don't get. Why is it a bad thing once the players decide where to want to play? That's what free agency is.

It's bad if they plan it years in advance. Free agency, players choosing where to go, that's fine. But the players basically acting as their own GM, creating their own team, and going somewhere, that's what I have a problem with.

It's the players making themselves bigger than the teams themselves, which is basically the NBA's problem.

[dbadefense1990]

This is basically it for me: I was born too late to experience the downright Lakers-Celtics hatred of the 1980s. If it weren't for the creation of YouTube, I would never have had a taste of all the physical, psychological, emotional and exiting wars Boston and Los Angeles had. There were a few blips in my lifetime, of teams who challenged the Lakers for pure hatred supremacy (most notably the Kings and Blazers of the early 2000s).

During the Lakers-Celtics meetings of the late 2000s and early 2010s, based on discussions with older Laker fans and the proliferation of the Internet, I considered this chapter of the rivalry to be rather tame. No clotheslines, or excessive heat, or torturing-lucky Celtic bounces (maybe in one instance), or Auerbach/Chick Hearn/John Most providing their inside opinions. The only kinds of drama I dealt with in this installment were Game 4 in 2008 (in retrospect, Boston was unstoppable at home and scrappy at Staples) and Game 7 in 2010. But even those were not to the level of Henderson's steal, or "Tragic" Johnson, or the Memorial Day Massacre, or the Heat Game, or the "removal of the odious sentence," or the "junior sky-hook." When we lost in 2008, it wasn't one of those deafening losses where I couldn't sleep for weeks; it was more like, "OK, back to the drawing board." And when we got our revenge, I was in joy for revenge, but in a way, I felt sorry for Boston.

Here's where I begin to tie in the Heat. In the 1st year of the Celtics' big three, of course I hated them (then again, it was a fad nationwide to hate Boston sports in 2007-2008). Then we got to the Finals first, while Boston needed 7 games vs. Atlanta, 7 vs. the Cavs and 6 vs. the Pistons. But after the series, we got exposed for failing to defend the pick and roll and 3-point line, and being soft against KG, Perkins and the Celtic bench. It stung losing, but as the years went by, I saw how passionate and revered the Celtics really were. As early as LeBron's final game as a Cav (Game 6, 2010 East Semifinals), I understood the honest passion for Celtic basketball, and not necessarily for exclusively hating the Lakers. We went back-to-back and got revenge, yet felt sorry for Pierce, Allen, KG, Rondo and the rest of the passionate Boston bunch (even Rasheed Wallace for being part of some of the NBA's most infamous losses), for their hard work going for naught.

Then the Miami super-pact formed out of nowhere, and suddenly, the guard-changing was about to be underway. LeBron was tortured by the Celtics in the years before the "Decision," but rather than do what Jordan did (being tortured by the Pistons in three years before finally besting them in his first title run), he follows his stupid "Beijing Pact" and joins Wade and Bosh, and soon, other stars and former stars (Bibby, Juwan Howard, Ray Allen) suddenly wanna play in Miami, for being with LeBron when he wins, so that they get their rings.

The two Heat playoff victories over Boston after LeBron came had a sense of crushing spirit, personally. Knowing how the old-aged Celtics worked their @$$es off against the favored Heat, only to be adrift at the end made me feel more sorry, especially in last year's East Finals. Once the final minute approached in Game 7, I knew the Celtics' big three era had ended, and I just wanted to give a hug to my Boston bretherens (despite an obligation to hate them). And apparently, Allen sold-out his services to the Celtics and joined the NBA's evil empire, because of budding heads with Doc and KG.

It began with pure dislike (because of the rivalry tie-in), then turned to mutual animosity for the Celtics. But not even the current incarnation of Celtics-Lakers has made me hate a team as much as the Heat, for what they did, how they did it, and being the epitome of Gen Y athletes.

[The Six]

I hate the way that these individual players colluded to meet up in Miami once their contracts were over

This is what I don't get. Why is it a bad thing once the players decide where to want to play? That's what free agency is.

It's bad if they plan it years in advance. Free agency, players choosing where to go, that's fine. But the players basically acting as their own GM, creating their own team, and going somewhere, that's what I have a problem with.

What's the distinction? It's naive to think that players have never done something like this before. The only difference is the WAY Lebron did it, with the Decision and all. But him deciding to go to the Heat is no more "colluding" than what GMs do.

I don't know why people all of a sudden have a problem when players take control of their careers. Fans have been conditioned to think that only management gets to have a say in where players are. And free agency is accepted when a player goes where the money is...and when a player wants to sign with a winning team...but when two free agents decide they want to play together, it's suddenly a bad thing? Come one, guys.

It's bad if they plan it years in advance.

I'm sure Mitch Kupchak is planning years in advance to free cap space so he can sign Lebron. But that will be ok, right? Because it's a GM doing it?

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Amazing end to the Lakers game. Down 93-75 at the end of the third, they score the last 20 and win 108-102.

People are going to miss Kobe when he's gone.

[dbadefense1990]

Amazing what happens when the Lakers play with urgency. Then again, where the hell was this earlier in the season?

[CS85]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_URH9xgxXKk

[NJTank]

Wow that was better than a contest dunk

[Lights Out]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_URH9xgxXKk

Dunk of the year easily, and he also got a triple-double tonight as well.